It seems like it has taken forever, but we finally have ripe tomatoes to pick from the garden. We’ve had peppers for a while now, but despite the fact that we have many tomatoes, they simply wouldn’t rippen. Here we have some of the fruits of our labors. Front left is a Cherokee Purple variety that we love for it’s flavor. Front right is an heirloom Hungarian Heart tomato which is new for us this year. We haven’t tasted it yet (tonight for dinner!), so I can’t tell you about it yet. The gorgeous orange/red stripped tomatoes behind and to the left of the Cherokee Purple are an heirloom Italian plum variety called Speckled Roman, a cross between something called an antique Roman and another variety called Banana Legs. We’re gonna eat those tonight too. You can also see some red serano chiles (my serano plant is doing fabulously this year) along with some yellow hot peppers and some sweet bell peppers. What you see in the back of the photo is the evidence of yet another trip to the roadside stand with the Michigan peaches. What can I say?

Oh, and we did buy some really good, freshly dug, russet baking potatoes that had just come from the farm. You can always tell a really fresh potato because they are hard as rocks and very heavy. Wrapped in foil, two of them are tucked in for a long bake in the oven even as I type this. I adore baked potatoes for dinner and tonight will be a treat for both of us.