A few of our cherry tomatoes have been ripening up here so I figured it was high time we went to visit our "town" tomatoes. 
We consider ourselves blessed to have been offered some tomato growing space in town this year by some generous gardeners - read: people who know me took pity on me thinking that I might have to go a year without gardening and thought it would be better to give me some space than to watch me mope around. ;-) Seriously though, I do think gardeners are extraordinarily generous people who deeply understand abundance and I sometimes wonder if the world wouldn't be a very different place if politicians were (or at least thought like) gardeners.
I ended up planting 16 tomato plants up here and 25 in town. We did a bit of weeding yesterday and picked our first two Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes of the year. These were from the seedlings E and I grew from our saved seeds from last year's heirloom plants. 
Since we had fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella we figured we might as well have pizza for dinner. We used our favourite dough recipe and then topped it with pesto, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, artichokes, garlic scapes, fresh mozzarella and a bit of asiago. Then we sprinkled some fresh oregano flowers on top. So good!
Since we had to go to town to tend our tomatoes we did the rest of our errands too. Since this is our first year without our own peach tree we had to find some local peaches. These ones we are just enjoying as is because they are our first of the season and so perfectly ripe. Once we've had our fill we'll start making them into all sorts of good stuff.
The generous gardeners who took pity on me also gave us some of their delicious corn. (they are very generous with their corn and have helped to fill our freezer in the past years)
And we picked up a few other local fruits too. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such an abundance of fresh, good produce. We also squeezed in a quick stop at our favourite thrift store in town to look for clothes for a growing teen. He didn't find anything but I sure did.
A fun floral vintage sheet destined for our patio table, I thought it would make a cheerful tablecloth. 
Last week I went to the farm market to buy - yes, I had to buy (much hand wringing and wishing for my old garden) - some very ripe, delicious tomatoes. After spending the day with a friend and having the tomatoes sit in the car they were edging over to the over-ripe side by the time I got home. I used the ripest ones in the 
The cheese topping is about 2/3 cup of mayo mixed with fresh crushed garlic, 1/2 cup or so of grated cheese (I used cheddar this time), some fresh torn basil leaves, salt, pepper and some grated Romano (Parmesan would do nicely as well). I spread this over the tomato pie, topped with some basil leaves and then baked it for about 30 minutes at 350. We ended up taking it to the beach to share cold with friends (boy, the boys had a hard time seeing it in the fridge and not getting to at least test it)
Awhile ago I asked our library to buy this book. I can't remember where I came across it but I was taken with the title and pretty sure I would like it - anything with handmade or homemade in the title catches my interest. I really enjoyed the author's writing style and her sense of humour. Reading her recipes made my mouth water and had me reaching for scraps of paper to bookmark all the ones I wanted to try. I love the stories Molly Wizenberg tells to go along with each recipe in her book, food has always been a important part of my family and our traditions and many of our recipes have their own "story" too. I think it such fun to be able to tell my boys that these are " great-gramma's Scottish scones", grampa's bread (my dad's) and so on, I hope one day my boys will teach their kids to make these recipes too.
For years I have been pestering my husband to get rid of it because we never use it. Imagine how thrilled I was to find that I already had the very thing I needed to make my own zucchini noodles. ;-) Now...I'm quite happy to eat crow when I should, by rights, be eating it and so when my husband came home I started to tell him how great it was that he hadn't let me talk him into parting with his Miracle Chef. I started to tell him how fantastic this handy little thing was and how yummy the "noodles" were. I was all set to do a demonstration for him. His response? 
So...there you are. But, allow me to extol its virtues to you. Just look at those lovely threads of zucchini. Aren't they gorgeous? Love finding another way to 
One large zucchini reduced to ribbons of noodles in minutes.
Love it!
I sauteed it with some fresh garlic. Just before it was done I added some pesto and some fresh, very ripe tomatoes, a bit of broth (I don't make my own, I just use broth cubes from the health food store and dissolve a bit of one in about 1/4 cup water) and then topped it with some pepper, salt and olive oil. I poured all that over just cooked spaghetti and then topped it with Romano cheese.
But...
And why did you wait to do this until they are just beginning to ripen?
Are you intentionally tormenting me so that I spend sleepless nights worrying about my tomatoes? Do you even like tomatoes? Do you know that they are my most favourite garden crop and that I usually have way more so I am feeling very protective of these few that I have? Do you know that I purposefully bring my dog inside whenever you are near so that he doesn't chase and pester you? Whaddya say...I scratch your back (keep my dog from chasing you), you scratch mine (hooves off my tomatoes, you!).
E adores blueberries and the rest of us are fans too - plain, with yogurt and honey, in pancakes or muffins, and served over french toast. One happy coincidence of our trip to the coast was that we were heading home right past the many blueberry fields. We saw a sign on the side of the road advertising blueberries $1.50 per pound and the brakes went on. Luckily my husband is very accustomed to having to have quick reaction time to my frequent 
I'm already wishing we had bought more (so greedy!) because they are absolutely delicious - just the right balance of sweet with a hint of tart that I like. When we run out of blueberries we will have to make do with some Saskatoon berries since we have them growing right here on the property in abundance and they freeze well too. I don't like them plain but they'll do in a pinch thrown into muffin batter or pancakes.
One of my favourite summertime treats (besides tomatoes) is corn. My mom likes to tell a story of me as a two year old on a camping trip hiding behind the trailer and eating all the cold leftover corn on the cob out of the cooler. (something I would still do, by the way, except it is pretty unlikely that there would be leftovers to begin with these days) It is still one of my favourite things to eat and so we stopped to get some Chilliwack corn on the way home as well. I cooked some up that very night and had a bedtime snack of corn on the cob with butter, salt and freshly ground pepper. Delicious! 
For a number of years now we have mostly camped in a travel trailer (although sometimes the boys and I go on tenting trips) because when the boys were little we found it much easier to be ready to go when we kept the trailer packed and ready. This time I really wanted to do the Gulf Islands and I thought it would be much easier to do so with just tents and a camp stove. It turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing trip and I am so glad we did it.
S and I both love to explore and see all sorts of different places. We left thinking that we would camp on two islands and see two other islands on bike - by biking onto the ferry and over to each island as a day trip. Instead, as soon as we got to Pender we seemed to fall into "island time" - that sort of syrupy kind of time where it just flows along and you Slow Right Down. We soon decided to just fully enjoy and explore Pender and Saltspring and see some of the other islands the next time. We did a lot of beach walking and lots of hiking. This hike up 
After a few days on Pender we headed to Saltspring where I was determined to get a camp spot at Ruckle park. Somewhere I had read it was considered to be one of the most beautiful provincial parks in B.C. I thought that would be quite something to live up to because I've been to many of our provincial parks and so many of them are extremely beautiful. These shots are taken right from our campspot at Ruckle. 
Here is a snap of our spot - I can't recommend it highly enough. It was just an incredibly beautiful place to be and I feel lucky to have been able to stay there. 
S and I enjoyed the amazingly delicious local food and...
erm, the view from our camp spot!
Their farmstand was delightful too. The boys and I have big plans for our own future farm stand. We got all kinds of new ideas during this trip. 
Another mountain top view - this one from Saltspring and we didn't even have to hike to get to it, you can just drive right up. 
The thing I loved most about Saltspring (besides our campspot at Ruckle) was the farm stands. There were farm stands everywhere with all kinds of good stuff for sale. I also really enjoyed the Saturday Farm market in Ganges. We bought some beautiful tomatoes from the 
Sun coming up on our last morning - gorgeous. We'll will definitely be going back!