I am now registered for the two ADF festivals I will be attending this year:  Festival of the Midnight Flame and Harvest Nights Gathering.  Missed Wellspring this year, and have been in a bit of a slump spiritually as a result - I usually get recharged there.

It is just so wet in Central NJ right now.  The mosquitoes are happy, I am not.

I think that the only thing that's saving our Ramapo tomatoes from the dreaded "Cracks of Doom" is the layer of 6 mil black plastic we laid down in spring (moments before the neighbor's maple tree dumped polynoses all over our yard - no kidding!).  My belief is that it's preventing too much water to the tomatoes.  Cracks are generally caused by uneven watering: too much water too fast = split skins.

I just gave away about 5 lbs. of ripe tomatoes today at work (suck up to the boss, yeah!).  There's at least that quantity still sitting in bowls on the on the counter, and more than that waiting to ripen in brown paper bags.

Something to do in the off-season

I am now the proud owner of two sewing machines and a serger, inherited from my Aunt who unfortunately can no longer see well enough to use the machines.  I think I may make my own dish towels and maybe some muslin sacks for storage of tender gladiolus and calla lily bulbs over the winter.

I'll be 39 in a week.  I have no idea what I want for my birthday or what I want to do for my birthday.   Blah.

I just got an idea for a way to rearrange some of my outdoor potted succulents from this picture.

If you want to buy the kit that gave me the idea, visit this Etsy link

Broccoli Boy saw this at Ikea last week:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00195757/

If that's him, I guess this'd be me

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40195760/

What would you do with a shopping bag full of small white eggplants that your friend gave you? 
I'm thinking of making pickles out of them (and perhaps foisting a jar or two off on her).  My Google-Fu found four recipes that sound pretty good.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/pickled-grilled-eggplant-recipe/index.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/11/how-to-pickle-eggplant-with-mint-and-garlic.html

http://www.cookbookarchaeology.com/?p=1657

http://italianfood.about.com/od/veggieantipasti/r/blr0730.htm

I've also got 5 green Thai eggplants in the fridge, harvested out of our own garden (many more to come if this produces like my Ichiban Japanese eggplant did last year).  I'm thinking of giving them a somewhat Thai treatment.  We're growing peppers and Thai basil that would go well with them, and fish sauce is a pantry staple.  A bit of lemongrass and lime juice (I admit, I cheat.  I have a tube of lemongrass paste and one of those green plastic limes in the fridge), maybe chop up the leftover white button mushrooms... mmmm, this is sounding good already.