We're having a lackluster tomato season it seems. We are getting tomatoes. Almost every day now I'm picking a few off the vines. But the vines themselves seem a little sickly, and for every red, ripe tomato I'm picking, there are tons more green ones left behind. Green tomatoes that don't seem to be going anywhere. Many have even shrunken and dropped. So much potential, wasted.
This picture here is the perfect example of what I mean. There's the beautiful red ripe tomato. Then there are its two companions: underripe, undernourished and underwhelming. Oh well.
We even ripped some plants out. The ones that obviously weren't going to make it. And in their place we planted lettuce. By the looks of things here, we're going into the lettuce business.
I'll be thinning things out this weekend. A job I loathe.
This week we were able to create a favorite meal using only local ingredients. With pasture-fed beef from our local meat source and fingerling potatoes from our CSA we were on our way to a bistro classic. The steak was simply grilled then seasoned with salt and pepper. Nothing else was required, and it was divine. I sliced the potatoes, tossed them in some olive oil along with salt, pepper and some of our own rosemary then roasted them in the oven until they crisped up nicely. As good as fries, if not better. Our CSA also supplied some swiss chard which I steamed and some grape tomatoes which I tossed with some olive oil and herbs from our garden. 
Though our meal was inspired by France, it didn't seem right to open a bottle of vin rouge. And we didn't have to. Instead we enjoyed a beautiful bottle of Finger Lakes' Merlot which complimented our meal perfectly without adding significantly to its overall mileage.
