Week 15

Chemeketa volleyball players helping out their community by helping us pick today. Many of our summer helpers are teachers who have gone back to school/work and aren't available to pick today. These girls (and one guy friend) were a wonderful help.

Here they are just before they left for the day. They picked all the cherry tomatoes, the large tomatoes and the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. Thank you very much!

Angie snacking on some of the cherry tomatoes the Chemeketa volunteers picked. They picked a LOT of cherry tomatoes.

Today's bucket of tomatillos. Some purple, some green and a few yellow.

Doesn't Anna's lunch today make your mouth water? Homemade pizza. Yum.

Quite a few eggplant are ripe today. They have been loving the hot weather.

Anna brought out a second pizza using a plethora of cherry tomatoes topped off with fresh basil. The smell is wonderful, too.

Angie and Bryan bringing in all the tomatoes the Chemeketa students picked.

Kids, don't do this stunt! Bryan is thinking of building a rack for the cart after this maneuver. Angie thinks he's pretty funny!

Oh my, these are so gooey and delicious.

Pasta salad with fresh veggies. Are we spoiled? YES!

Another view in case there was any doubt.

Levi let me hold him. Sweet boy.

Rocking the Oregon Garden hat. 

Isn't he adorable?

What blue eyes you have my dear. :)

A few yellow beans today.

The tomato sorting begins. Some of each color for every box.

Extra were picked today for the tomato tasting at 4:00. 

Today's cherry tomato blend. So many colors.

The harvesting of the sage is happening here.

Florencio washes off the carrots.

Out in the pepper patch. These are Hungarian Wax hot peppers. 

Jalapeno peppers. They start out green and mature to red. More cracks usually means hotter.

Large red cayenne peppers.

Jalapenos, some plants are taller than others.

Lunch box peppers. That is actually their name. They also start out green and mature to orange.

Anna brought out her beautiful plates for today's tomato taste testing. Each tomato has a name tag.

Tomatoes are labeled, bite sized chunks reside next to the whole tomatoes to show what the complete tomato looks like.  Even salt if someone likes salt.

Alex showing off the bouquet bag Lisa purchased when we went to the Seattle Mariners' game and visited Pike Place. Lisa and I always go check out all the flowers when we go on our annual family Mariners trip.

There were so many flowers today Alex (my daughter) is able to take some with her to her place in Portland and her new school in Gresham. She is a culinary arts teacher.

Cheese under the bug screen for nibbling on between bites of tomatoes. We are ready. Let the tomato tasting begin!

Today's list of goodies.

Cherub bouquets adorn the stroller.

Another one.

One of the large dahlias is rather lonely in the bucket. Sometimes these large ones have short stems that don't work in a bouquet.

Bright colors show off in this bouquet. Lisa diligently working in the background.

See next time on the blog.

Lorrie