Garden bounty - come snack with me!

It's an amazing time of year here for the garden. Everything is ripening all at once, before the heat sets in for good. Although I didn't get a huge amount planted this spring, our fruit trees and grape vine are going crazy. It's a ton of fun to go out in the garden when I get home from work, pick something for dinner and dessert, then go make something tasty with it.

Well, ok, except for the blackberries. There aren't many of them on our single blackberry bush, so they don't even make it in the house *nomnomnomnom*

 This year we didn't actually plant any tomato vines... all of our tomatoes are volunteers from the compost we mixed in with the garden soil (yeah, I'm cheap). Over a dozen vines survived, and we have Romas, some grape tomatoes, and some sort of medium-sized eating tomato. Yum!

 These grapes are tiny but super-tasty, and there are loads of them! I think we might have to get another grape vine or two... maybe we could make wine?

Sometimes is really haaaard waiting for things to ripen!

Today's haul. The tomatoes went into a nice insalata caprese, and the plum got eaten for dessert. 

One of the benefits I have noticed of having the outdoor cats, Maddy and Artemis, is that they like to sleep hang out in the garden during the day. This means that produce-thieving birds do NOT hang out in the garden, really at all. Which means there's more produce for me.

Totally win-win. I gave the kitties an extra treat for their hard work. :)