Lewisburg.
Tomatoes!
So, they're actually long gone at this point. I noticed the
late blight a little over two weeks ago, and this year's massive tomato plants - the Sun Gold vines were probably ten feet long - were done for. Torn out of the ground, stuffed into trash bags, left to rot. There's even been some evidence of it on the potatoes, but not too much, and I'm culling them as I find them.
Even so, this was a bumper year for both crops. My off the cuff guess is that I brought in around fifty pounds of potatoes, and far more tomatoes than that. Not counting those eaten fresh, we have twenty-seven quarts and seven pints canned, and three half-gallon and four quart jars (plus a few) dried. If that's not enough to enjoy until next season, then my problems aren't with tomato production.
But, you know, not all fungi are bad. Puffballs, for example, are a pleasant surprise:
I'm fairly certain that this is an example of either
Calvatia craniformis, the
skull-shaped puffball, or
Calvatia cyathiformis. (Hard to say without a mature specimen.) Either way it's edible, though low on the flavor index. Granted, frying almost anything in butter helps. It's kind of like eating a savory marshmallow.
Actually, it's a lot like that. On its own, not so exciting.
But it grew in the backyard, and the whole thing weighed 280 grams - just under ten ounces. Not bad.
