Golden Gate Garden

Summer is drawing to a close in San Francisco, even though the calendar clearly shows that it is autumn. We’ve been having our late warm weather, an echo of the heat of Southern California, though, thankfully, so far without the hot winds or fires. In our food gardens, at this time of year, we are harvesting the last of summer’s crops still, and beginning to get the crops of fall.

  Imagine my surprise, when I was photographing in my community garden, when I found that someone in the garden has several large eggplant plants that are setting fruit. The plants are nearly two feet tall. This one is setting round white fruits, tinged with lavender.

And here is another with long fruits, green now, but probably they will turn purple. I have tried eggplants, and seen others do so, in SF, but rarely have I seen any fruit setting. These must have been blooming on particularly warm nights. The last one I saw with fruit had only a tiny fruit in mid-November!

Nevertheless, fall is indeed on its way. The cole crops I planted at the college garden in mid August are continuing to develop. This is ‘Ruby Ball’ cabbage. The head will be an ordinary red cabbage, but the hues of the leaves, which are blue green with lavender veins, are so lovely.

Another beautiful leaf is that of this speckled oakleaf lettuce. I don’t know the name of the variety. It was part of a mix, I think. But it is tender and mild, despite the warm weather we’ve been having, and adds that certain something to our salads.

And, finally, one more shot of that giant, edible-podded Brazilian pea. I thought I should shoot it with my hand in it, so you could see how big the pod is. And also, I put in a flower, which really isn’t red (roxa? someone help me with the Portuguese) but is lavender and purple.