Third Time's the Charm

Tomatillos have made a return to my garden this year.  I've had a steep learning curve with growing tomatillos, but not because they are hard to grow (quite the opposite, actually); I guess I just needed to little "hands on" experience to get the basics down pat.

First, there was that all important lesson about needing at least two plants for pollination purposes (but yay! for the unbridled garden enthusiasm to impulsively add a tomatillo plant to the garden at the last minute, right?)

Then there was the year I didn't provide the plants with adequate support and a storm toppled them over and snapped the stalk of one plant, which meant I had to pull the other one as well (see lesson #1).  Close, but still no tomatillos.

But this year, I seem to have mastered the pollination and support formula, and for the first time ever I have tomatillos growing on my tomatillo plants!

I just love these cheerful little green lanterns in the corner of my community garden plot.  They're kind of chameleon like, ever so subtly changing shades of green, depending on what the natural light is like on any given day.

Both plants have successfully set fruit, though as you can see, they have a little ways to go until the husks are filled in.  That should give me some time to line up some recipes for the harvest.  I have to admit that my tomatillo repertoire is pretty limited, so if you have any must-make tomatillo favorites, please comment away!