You Might Think I'd Get Tired of Tomatoes

It's peak harvest time for our garden right now.

My weeks involve hours of harvesting and trimming back the plants to keep them healthy.

And, since 80% of our garden is tomato plants right now, that means lots of tomato-based meals, as well as canning and roasting and gifting.

This tomato (an heirloom varietal called Coustralee) probably weighed over 3 pounds.

Even with the efforts at tomato management, sometimes we just get to enjoy ridiculousness.

This is that Coustralee tomato, sliced.

One of my favorite meals in the world is sliced high-acid garden tomatoes with fleur de sel and a robust extra virgin olive oil. 

Wok-fried padrones, eggplant (with cheese & chili flakes) & garden tomato salad -- Californian Summer Dinner at its finest.

 I probably have it about 2 out of every 3 days when we're at home during peak tomato season.  And it never gets old.

Gazpacho (Californian-style instead of Adalusian-style) & Padrones 

-- another perfect Californian garden dinner

Essentially, I'm barely keeping my EVERYONE-IS-TRAVELING-IN-AUGUST travel envy at bay with the garden and delicious meals I can make from it (hence all the photos).  

In running news, I'm taking a couple of easier running weeks due to social obligations.  Last week was 19+ miles, most of it running, all of the running in the 11 min/mile or faster range, which was nice to see.  The goal for this summer has been to drop my paces, and Parkrun 5k PR failure notwithstanding, it appears to be working, generally, in my training log.  Here's to hoping the 3ish easier down weeks will just be good recovery/maintenance and if I can fit in a couple of solid workouts each day ideally it will set me up nicely for my September 5K and 10K.

Enjoy your August!