This spring we’ve enjoyed a bounty of fresh tomatoes, Swiss chard and bell peppers plus some beautifully-scented basil. It’s amazing what the right weather will do for veggies.

Kevin and I have definitely been trying to grow a successful crop of tomatoes for a couple of years now. This year marks our first real success because I actually started to get tired of trying to figure out what to cook with them. I’ve had several caprese salads (thanks for that tip last year, Denise!). I’ve also added chopped fresh tomatoes to numerous salads and burritos. I’ve made fried green tomatoes using tempura batter—which is absolutely the best batter for frying up these tasty treats—and I’ve been surprised by the addition of fresh chopped tomatoes to a bowl of black-eyed peas with crawfish. Delightful! But my favorite tomato dish this year was the marinara sauce Kevin made out of “La Cucina.” You would be amazed at how many tomatoes it takes to get just a little sauce, but this was by far the best tomato sauce I’ve ever tasted.

We owe our success to (1) planting earlier in the season, (2) a mild spring, (3) lots of rain, (4) fish emulsion fertilizer (thanks for the tip, Mr. Watanabe) and (4) Redenta’s bed prep. It took a few years, but I think we have the magic formula.

Still haven’t quite figured out what to do with our giant Swiss chard.

Probably because I’m too busy keeping Kevin out of the chicken coop…