It's that time of year again... TOMATO SEASON! Tomatoes are ripening on the vines faster than you can eat them and your countertop is loaded with bowls of them. So, what can you do with all of those tomatoes?

Here are a few delicious ideas:

1. Caprese Salad: like this one from Rachael Ray

4. Salsa or Pico de Gallo: like this salsa from Yummy Mummy Kitchen, and this pico from Show Me the Yummy

5. Pasta Sauce: like this easy recipe from NYT Cooking

6. Can them

7. Slice or chop into sandwiches & salads

8. Top Avocado Toast

9. Chop up in omelets or on top of egg salad or breakfast sandwiches.

10. Chop them up for tacos, enchiladas, rice bowls

11. Make fresh pasta without heavy sauce and chop fresh tomatoes on top. 

12. Use them as pizza toppings for margherita, veggie, or supreme pizzas, or come up with your own combo!

13. If they're large enough, make stuffed tomatoes! Like these from Pinch of Yum

Here's a little update on the perennial flower bed I planted. 

I've added a few more plants over the past few weeks including a smaller variety of yarrow, and another variety of Shasta Daisy with fringe-style petals. 

To see a list of the original plants I planted, click here. 

This little flower bed is one of the local bees' favorite! Every time I come outside, they are buzzing all around the flowers and are very busy collecting pollen. The only place I see more bees in my garden than in this flower bed is over in the veggie garden on the radish I let go to flower. They go NUTS for that thing. Who knew bees loved radish flowers so much? 

The other flower bed I've been building this year is one with roses. I've put 3 large rose bushes, and several mini roses together. I've also interplanted fall mums with them. Currently the roses are in bloom and I love seeing their bright colors. The coral one (a bud pictured below) is insane when in full bloom. They are almost the size of a dessert plate, and the color is so vibrant you can see it from down the street! 

The bright reddish/pink blooms below are from the rose I moved from the deep shade in the backyard. It looked pitiful like it had never had enough sun to bloom, and had very little branches or root structure. In fact, most of the roots broke off in the moving process, and I was sure it had died, but I left it just to see what happened, and one day I couldn't easily pull it out of the ground. It seemed dormant for most of the season, until a couple weeks ago when it sent out a cluster of buds, and this gorgeous color came out. I'm so glad I kept it. The blooms smell somewhat like cloves. 

Despite the setbacks of the super random damaging hail storm in June, everything is doing great. We've started to get some of our summer harvests finally, as well, and it appears the BIG harvests aren't more than a week or two away. Everything is late, but it all looks healthier than it ever did on the patio! So... I'm learning. 

The tomatoes are loading up, and a few Romas have started to turn red. I'm still waiting on any signs of color on the Black Cherry and Cherokee Purples. I'm getting so antsy! 

The peppers have been kind of the stars at the moment, especially the Banana Peppers. There are at least a handful ready every few days! The sweet peppers have been awesome as well, although waiting for them to turn red is a little maddening so we've been eating them green. I made stuffed peppers the other night, and it turned out great! I've also picked a few jalapeños. 

The golden beets have finally gotten large enough to start picking, and we've had a few zucchini and cucumbers as well. Still no melons, but they're starting to take off. Still only a few beans, but the bean pyramid is going gangbusters with growth. It's massive, and is turning into a gigantic pile of vines. I may have over planted, and I'm not sure it's doing them any good. I've only eaten a few beans off the vine. It's mostly just loaded with flowers everywhere, but not really any beans.

I've started picking/thinning the carrots, and some are decent sized. Mostly shorter and fatter. Not sure if I'm picking too early, or they're not working. Guess we'll see what happens with the ones still in the ground. 

I've picked most of the onions, and have been drying them for storage. They're not as big as the yellow onions in the store, but there are several decent-sized bulbs in the bunch. Most are a little small, but I'm sure they'll work anyway!

The kale is out of control. Note to self: Only plant one kale plant, we can't eat more than that. The plants are monsters!  

The corn tasseled way too early, and the bees went nuts for the pollen. They collected it all over a period of two to three weeks, and then right as the pollen was gone, the ears started to form. So, the corn is a total failure. But, not bad for a first try right? 

Also, in surprising news, the honey nut squash and acorn squash have started taking off. They're getting bigger every day, and I'm not going to count on them, but who knows? We may end up with some after all. Maybe? We'll see... we still have approximately two months to first frost. Hopefully. 

You never know in Utah...

Also, for fun, here's a really awkward photo of me with my harvest the other night. What can I say, I get really excited about this stuff.