Tag Archives: heirloom tomatoes

So, How Did I Do at the Fair

Posted on August 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

The Howard County Fair is winding down, with two days left. Tonight is the 4H livestock auction, and if it isn’t thundering, we will be there. We have been out there four days already, and have definitely had our share of fresh lemonade, plus bought Baugher’s peaches at Rizzmull’s.

Rizzmull’s stand at the fair

We always go Sunday morning to see if I got any ribbons for my garden entries. This year my tomatoes were a total bust, as they weren’t ready, or they were way past ready, at the entry date. My Amish paste didn’t get any prizes.

Amish paste heirloom tomato

But, happily I am bringing home my first blue ribbon, to add to my red and yellow ones from previous years. For my herbs, from the garden.

Rosemary, African blue basil and cotton lavender

I also went back Wednesday and entered my last gladiolus from my front yard. Surprise! It won second place, so another red ribbon for flowers that have been blooming for years in our yard. This year they started blooming early, but still had a few left for me to enter the last large one.

My second place winning gladiolus

Sunday morning I get to pick up my ribbons, and my checks, and bring home my containers. In the meantime, here are a few more pictures from wandering the fair on Thursday. I love our county fair. It is small enough to feel cozy, but still has lots to do.

As for my heirloom tomatoes, there’s always next year.

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Patience is a Virtue

Posted on August 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

Have patience and be rewarded with great old wines, like this one.

100% Hardscrabble blend of Cab Franc, CS, Petit Verdot and Merlot

A blend of 44% Cabernet Franc, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Petit Verdot and 11% Merlot. Cellared for at least ten years. Opened for our anniversary last night. We like opening old wines for anniversary dinners. Being patient enough to leave them alone until they have reached that stage of softness, yet lush enough to make you understand why you buy good wine to cellar.

Perfect with lamb chops.

Anniversary dinner

I pan fried the loin and rib chops with garlic, onion, salt pepper and rosemary. Parboiled some CSA potatoes. Made a Jamie Oliver mothership tomato salad with my tomatoes and basil from the garden.

Mixed heirloom salad with African blue basil

I picked up a six pack of Smith Island Cake Pops to savor with the last of the wine. Red wine and dark chocolate is a perfect match.

I enjoy making a fairly simple dinner for anniversaries and opening an old wine from the cellar. This wine did not disappoint. It was hardly showing its age. No brown edges. No off scents on the nose. Deep, rich, complementing the lamb. What is so interesting about these wines, even with the predominance of franc in them, is the absence of bell pepper usually found in VA francs. This wine has cherry and smoky scents, and a long lingering finish.

I am not sure what went best with it. The lamb or the chocolate. Very interesting experience. Glad I still have two bottles in the cellar, to see how they change. If you have never considered cellaring wine, you might.

It is a hobby that gives so much pleasure with less expense than dining out and paying large markups for wine with dinner. Our strategy was to invest in a case from winery visits over the years. Most of the case would be inexpensive whites to drink in the near term, and a few bottles of good wine to cellar. We would put away the good ones and keep them for anniversaries and birthdays. You have to have patience to do this. We didn’t build a fancy cellar with wooden racks. We made them with kits from Conran.

Now, we are rewarded with exceptional wines for special occasions.

Like being married for 32 years.

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The Tomato Tsunami – CSA Week Fourteen

Posted on August 9, 2012 by AnnieRie

Six pounds of tomatoes. That’s what we got today, not counting the cherry tomatoes. The CSA pickup had some new things and just what we need to make salsas. Peppers and tomatoes.

Sandy Spring CSA Week 14 – Full Share

The list, with approximate cost to buy at MOM’s or Roots.

1 Bag Red Roma Tomatoes, three pounds $9
1 Bunch Curly Parsley (I swapped for three more ears of corn)
1 Pint Red Cherry Tomatoes, $3
1 French Cherantais Melon (French Cantaloupe), $5
6 Ears Sweet Corn (due to swap box), $3
1 Bunch Red Beets, $4
1 Bag Mixed Sweet Peppers, $3
1 Bag Red Tomatoes, three pounds, $9
1 Pint Baby Mixed Sweet Peppers, $4
1 Bag Poblano Peppers, $4
1 Bag Red Potatoes, 2 pounds, $4

Total cost to buy, approximately $48. Cost of CSA, $29.75 per week. Again, way ahead on price, but that’s because organic tomatoes aren’t cheap.

The French melon is adorable, and not found anywhere I have looked. I know specialty melons are costly, so estimated it.

Cherantais Melon

I will be roasting peppers and making salsa, as well as freezing some of them. We got a lovely mix this week. The poblanos are always one of my favorites.

Poblano peppers

Add to the CSA the glut of tomatoes on the windowsill and I will be canning tomatoes this weekend.

Amish Paste, Chocolate Stripes and Legend Heirlooms

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Making the Most of a Full Share CSA …

Posted on August 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

… along with my large garden of tomatoes. How am I doing at using up a full CSA share and using my tomatoes? I have been in the kitchen quite a bit this summer.

Processed veggies and fruit

From left to right, there are refrigerator dill pickles, made from CSA and garden cucumbers. Rhubar-b-q sauce, made with CSA rhubarb a few weeks back. Blackberry puree, made with Larriland berries picked last week, which becomes blackberry vinaigrette every couple of nights. The first jar is gone already. The last of the parsley and pine nut pesto, made a few weeks ago also.

On the lower shelf is a container of oven roasted garden peach tomatoes. They were roasted for an hour at 300 degrees, with salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil, and were used in a risotto last night. These are the second half of the batch, which will become part of dinner this weekend.

Today I also made salsa to use my glut of pineapple tomatoes. Here are two of them. They ripened Sunday through Tuesday, too late for the fair.

Heirloom Pineapple Tomatoes

The large one weighed a pound and a half. I sliced them up. Let them drain and took out the seeds. Mixed them with sweet onion, cilantro, garlic paste, salt, pepper, key lime juice, jalapeno and chipotle Tabasco sauce.

Salsa before blending

The finished product is in the refrigerator waiting for dinner tonight. The rest of the tomatoes and the onion are being roasted in the oven and will become another freezer container of ingredients to be used in sauces this winter.

Pineapple tomato salsa

The best investment we made this year was the freezer. It is slowly filling up with fruits, veggies and pestos made with garlic scapes.

We have been pretty diligent about eating those items in the CSA that don’t freeze well, or in the case of getting a huge amount of potatoes, I took some of them to my mom’s last week.

Mixed organic potatoes from the CSA

Haven’t seen this week’s CSA list yet, but from the other sites it looks like there will be corn and tomatoes again this week. Now I need to get the canning equipment out. Come winter, I will be glad I did. I need to process the newest haul of little tomatoes before they get overripe. This is three days worth of my miniature tomatoes.

They will be oven dried and made into small bags for use in sauces and vinaigrettes. Can’t let these beauties go to waste.

hocofood@@@

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Recipes, and Why I am Bad at Them

Posted on August 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

Many times for my SSFC posts I have posted pictures of dinners made to use local foods for the food challenge. Since our current challenge to use local foods for one meal is heading into the season of tons of squashes, I have been trying to find ways to use them creatively.

Last week I made two dinners using almost completely local items, with a few additions. One was my eggplant parm, and another a baked chicken dinner.

Eggplant Parm

Baked chicken thighs with Amish egg noodles and roasted veggies

If I needed to document what exactly went into these two dinners, I would be in deep trouble, because when I cook, I don’t measure. When I bake, yes, when I cook, it is just whatever seems to look and taste good, and whatever I have around the kitchen.

These dinners were from Monday and Wednesday last week, mainly using up CSA items before I got my Thursday pick up. The eggplant Parmesan recipe started out from a web search that went into a half dozen places, including Martha Stewart. I think I used parts of hers but improvised because I had no mozzarella in the house.

The eggplants were a mix of Italian and Japanese. Sliced, salted and allowed to drain out moisture. The sauce was made by mixing all my overripe tomatoes with half a jar of Wegmans organic sauce and a squeeze of tomato paste from the tube in my fridge. See what I mean about measuring? I have no idea how much went into that base.

I didn’t have mozzarella so I mixed grated domestic parmesan from Roots with all the Firefly Farm chevre I had left in the fridge and the last of the Bowling Green Feta, grated. Added a little milk to make it creamier.

Dredged the eggplant in beaten egg, Panko bread crumbs and Parm, added a little salt and lots of pepper.

Coated the bottom of the baking dish (a small deep dish) with olive oil, added sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce and topped with the last of the Parm. Baked it for over two hours on a slow cook setting on my oven until it was dinner time.

As for the chicken thighs, same sort of thing. Put olive oil, tomatoes, onions, peppers and chicken in a casserole, Covered the chicken in herbs, salt and pepper. Put it all in the oven on slow cook setting for three hours while doing chores around the house.

Served it with Amish egg noodles. The noodles were homemade by a vendor that sells at the Briggs Chaney farmers market. The chicken came from them also. The egg noodles were quickly boiled at the last minute.

Accompanied this SSFC meal with a local wine. We belong to a cellar club at Breaux. This wine is wonderful with chicken and with seafood. I love the blend.

Breaux Wine served with Chicken

Getting back to recipes. We got a huge eggplant this week. Along with lots of lovely tomatoes, garlic, white peppers. This week’s eggplant dish may actually be a stacked version using the tomatoes and mozzarella I bought at Roots.

Veggies inspiring a variation on Eggplant Parm

Who knows what I will cook next? And, if I will remember what I did put in it? That’s the fun of being in a CSA, getting creative with What’s in the Box.

hocofood@@@

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CSA Week 13, The Second Half of the Season

Posted on August 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

We have crossed over the hump. Week 13 of the CSA. Twelve left until the fall season. It must be a great summer in PA, as we are getting slammed with pounds of vegetables. The haul:

Week 13 Sandy Spring CSA Full Share

1 Bag Green Beans
1 Bag Garden Peach Heirloom Tomatoes
1 Italian Eggplant
1 Bunch Red Beets
1 Pint Blackberries
4 White Bell Peppers
2 White Garlic
1 Bag Mixed Specialty Squash
1 Bag Mixed Tomatoes
1 Young Fennel Bulb
1 Bag Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes
1 Bunch Rhubarb

Twelve items again. And, yes, we got blackberries and we got rhubarb. Some baking and some fruit salads are in the planning stages with these goodies.

As for the financial aspect, this is getting difficult as depending on where you look, the prices are all over the place. How do you reconcile heirloom tomatoes. I have seen them for $5 a pound at MOM’s, and $4 a pound at Roots, and $2.50 each for large ones at the farmer’s markets. I could get them cheapest at the market, and by running all over town find the other items. I know I was $100 ahead two weeks ago.

What it would cost me in gasoline to chase down organic veggies would negate savings by buying at one place. But, try finding rhubarb at the markets right now. Difficult.

I know the cheapest that I could buy organically grown (but maybe not always certified) veggies would be at Love Dove on Fridays and Breezy Willow on Saturdays. Add Zahradka to the mix, or go to Olney for Our House Farms and I could get most of what is in the CSA. Again, lots of driving. I do go to the markets, but it is convenient to get the bulk of my veggies all together with the advance email of what seasonal goodies are coming home with me.

As for some of these heirlooms, they are incredible. The peach tomatoes have a taste that is fantastic, and so different. I couldn’t stop eating them when I got home.

Garden Peach Heirloom Tomatoes

The red flesh potatoes were this amazing pink color inside, so now between the purple, white and pink potatoes I can make an extremely colorful potato salad, and use some of the green beans in it as well.

Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes

There were three pounds of potatoes and four pounds of heirloom tomatoes this week. Using a rough cost estimate for the tomatoes gives me $20 and the potatoes $6. The eggplant at Roots would have cost me $4. So, not worrying about finding out the rest, like rhubarb, I already came out ahead again this week, way ahead considering what you can pay for organic blackberries, if you can find them. The eggplant weighed over a pound and a half. It looks like another eggplant parmesan will be made next week. I made one last week with the eggplants and some of my tomatoes.

Eggplant Parmesan

Off to do menu planning and get ready to take the veggies to the fair for registration tonight. Hope the weather stays clear.

hocofood@@@

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Prepping for the Howard County Fair

Posted on August 2, 2012 by AnnieRie

The Howard County Fair starts Saturday. I am in the final stages of choosing my entries in the tomato and potential other categories. It is a frustrating exercise when Mother Nature hasn’t cooperated. Last week there were many ripe tomatoes.

Assorted heirloom and hybrid tomatoes

This week I have dozens of green tomatoes on the vines, and just a handful that are at their peak. The stink bugs, as usual, have ruined quite a few, putting holes where bacteria will grown and blacken spots. You can cut these spots out and eat the tomatoes, like we used to when we didn’t demand perfect tomatoes (devoid of taste but pretty), but these aren’t show tomatoes.


Amana Orange with a stink bug created spot

I also have dozens of what would be lovely great whites, legend and chocolate stripes, all with large dark circles that the stink bugs have created, all just destined to become salsa, and not ready for prime time. This year the stink bugs were late in arriving, for whatever reason, and seem to be peaking just when I want to harvest for the fair. Earlier harvesting tomatoes seemed to be fine, and were lovely to eat and process.

Legend, chocolate stripe and great white, all perfect for eating in July

Right now, I have one lovely great white, but I need two to enter. All the chocolate stripes show stink bug damage. I have a handful of Amish paste that look to be close to perfect, and a handful of very small legend tomatoes, perfect in shape, but not the size that they normally achieve. My early July Amish paste were all processed and reside deep in my freezer as a base for winter tomato sauce. I had a dozen lovely early produced tomatoes, that were way too early for the fair.

Amish Paste

Here are some of those, just picked and ready to join the rest to be blanched, peeled, processed and frozen. They have been one of the stars of this year’s garden, and there are dozens more on the four plants out there. I should be able to process and freeze at least three or four more batches this year. I don’t like to attempt canning the heirlooms, as their low acidity makes them a more difficult vegetable. You would need to adjust the acidity upwards by adding it, and pressure canning is recommended by many people. I don’t have a pressure canner (yet), and I am just getting into canning using small simple batches.

I find that for my winter soups and stews, freezing vegetables that can be loaded into a crock pot and cooked all day is the way to go. Now that I got a dedicated freezer for my fruits and vegetables, I am using that method.

Now that I have checked out my heirlooms for the fair, I am also deciding which cherry tomatoes to enter. I need fifteen good samples of cherry tomatoes. I am also considering whether I should enter my plum tomatoes.

As for herbs, many of mine are doing well this year.

Grey Santolina (Cotton Lavender) and Chives

The herb entry calls for three varieties. Some do better than others in water, and some just get so bug eaten that they look awful, but still taste great. I really enjoy the luxury of picking herbs just before dinner. Snipping chives for eggs or potatoes. Tarragon and marjoram for chicken. Rosemary for potatoes, or for lamb. Mint for salads and tzatziki. The four or five varieties of basil I grow are all doing great this year, with some of them turning into bushes.

African Blue Basil

Same thing for all the thyme varieties. Decisions. Decisions. I need to make my choices soon. Entries are accepted Friday night or Saturday morning. All this anxiety just for a little strip of ribbon, right? I don’t know. It must be that Olympic influence that makes us compete. Here’s hoping my tomatoes and herbs do OK for me this year.

See you at the Fair!

hocofood@@@

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Eating Locally Recap

Posted on July 30, 2012 by AnnieRie

A week and two days. Dedicated to eating at least one item a day from MD farms. We did it. It is easy with the goodness from Howard County Farmers Markets, and from a few local farms like England Acres, and from the case at Atwater’s Bakery in Catonsville.

Some of the items I used:

Corn, from England Acres and from TLV Farm, bought at the market

Chevre, from Firefly Farms

Eggs, from TLV and England Acres

Add to that watermelon, cantaloupe, spring mix, feta, smoked cheddar, ground lamb, ground beef patties, onions, and such a variety available here in MD.

Good meals like this one, from Saturday night. Breezy Willow spring mix and Firefly Farms chevre with my tomatoes and basil. Yes, the sockeye came from Alaska, not a local fish, but a great dinner.

Buy Local Week may be over, but the markets are still here. If you want to see great foods available for you in the future, it always helps to buy from our local farmers.

This weekend is the start of the Howard County Fair. There will be local produce and local cheese at the Fair. Support your local farmers and buy from them, if not at the fair, at the county markets.

See you at the Fair. We will be there at least four of the days. A season pass is a bargain if you want to enjoy all the entertainment and just absorb the atmosphere.

hocoblogs@@@

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Three More Days into Buying Locally

Posted on July 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

The nine days will be finished tomorrow. The other two posts for how I started have shown it is simple to find good food from around the Howard County area, by shopping at farm stands and the markets.

Here is the update for Wednesday through Friday. Does farming include crabs?

We did get a few to have as an appetizer Friday night. This is with local lamb from England Acres, served with chocolate stripes tomatoes from my garden coated with a gooey smoked cheddar from Eve’s Cheese.

And yes, I did char the lamb while searing it, but the inside remained a lovely pink. That was dinner Friday night, after the crab appetizer.

Thursday we grazed on homemade salads. Cucumber salad from the garden, with onions from Butler’s Orchard. Ratatouille also included one of their candy onions. The watermelon is from Catonsville market, and feta from Bowling Green Farms.

The colorful potato salad included CSA potatoes and green beans, and was finished with hard boiled eggs from TLV Farms.

In my CSA post prior to this one I talked of making gazpacho on Wednesday which showed up for dinner that night, along with the other two burgers from England Acres farm, and corn from their farm.

Three days. Three dinners. Lots of local foods. Here it is Saturday night and there will be local salad and maybe a dessert if I get the peaches done. The peaches were bought this morning from Lewis Orchards at the Glenwood market, along with some just picked spring mix from Breezy Willow. Both will serve in some way in dinner tonight.

It is one of the pleasures of living here. Hitting the market to see what looks good, and bringing it home to have for dinner the same day.

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CSA Week 12, Tomato and Corn Season

Posted on July 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

My favorite time of year. The CSA starts sending us multiple varieties of tomatoes and we get sweet corn.

Sandy Spring CSA Week 12 Full Share

I had to take the picture on the island as the counter by the window is full of my heirloom tomatoes. Between them and the CSA I am officially in canning and freezing mode. What did we get today? Eleven items this week, all certified organic

6 Ears Bicolor Sweet Corn
1 Bag Purple Majesty Potatoes, 3 pounds
1 Bag Red Tomatoes, 2 pounds
1 Italian Eggplant
3 Green Zucchini
1 Bunch Fresh Red Onions
1 Pint Jumbo Cherry Tomatoes
1 Bunch Red Beets
1 Bunch Italian Parsley
1 Bag Heirloom Mixed Tomatoes, 1 pound
2 heads Garlic

The heirloom tomatoes were particularly beautiful this week.

Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes

They are destined for a salad with some chevre, just like the one I made the other night. As for tomatoes, the 2 pounds of red tomatoes went into the pot to be blanched and are already peeled and sliced in half and in the freezer.

I also blanched and froze the last of the green beans left from an earlier delivery, and oven roasted some of my yellow plum, yellow pear and green grape tomatoes to make an oven dried sauce that is bagged and frozen for use this winter.

Mixed tomatoes in oil, salt, pepper and sugar, prior to roasting

Tomatoes after roasting, at a low temperature for two hours

And, it wouldn’t be summer without gazpacho. I made gazpacho yesterday with my orange blossom tomatoes, augmented by a few from the Catonsville farmers market, a white bell pepper, scallions, shallot, lemon cucumbers and eight pieces of Wegmans Italian bread soaked in water. It all goes into the blender with white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. A cup for dinner last night.

Doesn’t get any fresher than that.

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