Tomato party

Finally, at long last, the garden's tomatoes are ripening!

It took more of the summer than usual to get to this point, and that might be because this corner of Minnesota hasn't had those long strings of hot days that tomato plants love. (I think it has been 90 degrees or higher only once in the Twin Cities this summer, which is hard to believe!) The possible trade-off is that my purple bean plants have been producing for longer than I remember last year: never overwhelming but just a nice ongoing supply of purple beans.

Today: a pleasant overlap in harvests.

So far the cherry tomatoes (pictured above) are the stars. But I've picked a handful of grape tomatoes, and one of the first big tomatoes is only a day or two away. I love this part of the summer.