A Birthday Gift From "Nature"

As I was wandering through my gardens yesterday evening I noticed that some of the tomatoes I had been keeping my eye on (and hoping that they would be ready for my birthday!) had indeed ripened--a couple of my Indigo Rose and some of the little volunteer hybrids (though they have remained true to the storebought parent) that Daughter #3 grew herself.  Then, to my surprise, there were some of the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes ready too.  Yippee!!!  What a delightful birthday present!!  We have never harvested tomatoes of any type this early--EVER.  So I'm super excited!  And there are gazillions more on the vines biding their time too.  I'm looking forward to a bumper crop this year!

The red tomatoes are my daughter's hybrid offspring.

The purple tomatoes to the left are the Indigo Rose (7 and 8 oclock positions).

The smaller ones are the Chocolate Cherry tomaotes.

They were totally delicious!!!  :-)

I have my 5 quart crockpot full of cucumbers culturing in brine that I will have to move to quart jars (and into the refigerator) tomorrow.  Another batch will take it's place.  I hope to be able to do at least this same amount weekly for the duration of summer and fall.  I haven't tried one of the pickle slices yet but the brine is extremely tasty!!!  I will try to post pictures in the next day or two.