Leaves Turning

Black birch leaves are turning yellow and falling in the woods. Our tomato plants are yellowing from early blight and perhaps sheer exhaustion from the bumper crops offered up this summer. It is only mid-August, but a hint of fall is in the air. Fall crops should be planted now.

We are eating everything tomato: grilled cheese with huge slices of fresh tomatoes, salads with a medley of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and arugula or yogurt, pasta sauces, Indian relish, chili, eggplant parmesan. Mostly we pop small Sun Golds, red cherry and grape tomatoes, and yellow pears straight into our mouth while walking around the yard.

Enough rain fell during the first two weeks of August, after a dreadfully hot, dry July, to boost the garden into high gear. Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, and eggplant keep on coming. Deer zipped the top of one row of beans, but it barely affected the crop. One or two tomato hornworms emerge every few days; though at this stage of the summer they barely make a dent as they chew the tomato plants before I find them. Their soft, plump, green caterpillar bodies are actually quite beautiful, but go they must.

We live-trapped two chipmunks from the row of San Marzano tomatoes. They were picking off more than one nearly ripe tomato a day. I placed the half eaten tomato in the trap and they could not resist. They are now living far from any gardens, probably relying on acorns and birch seeds, and dreaming of luscious, juicy tomatoes.