Tag Archives: tomatoes

A Window Full of Sunshine

Posted on July 18, 2012 by AnnieRie

Varieties of tomatoes ripening on the sill

This is my favorite view in the kitchen. Dozens of almost perfectly ripe cherry, grape and pear tomatoes all reaching their peak of ripeness in the morning sun.

And, yes there are larger ripe ones these days.

Orange Blossom Tomatoes

Caspian Pink

The Caspian Pink is a new one for me. It looks wonderful, but I did have to pick it a bit early because it was cracking and I didn’t want a storm to water it down.

Detail of small cracks forming on top

I don’t have any chocolate stripes ripe yet, but they are getting close. They have the most tomatoes on each plant so far. I have three plants of them. Crossing my fingers that they ripen before that forecasted four or five days of rain late next week. The rains last year really watered down the flavors of the heirlooms.

Two weeks from this coming Saturday, the Howard County Fair starts. I will be picking which heirloom has the best taste. That is what I will enter. Taste, not looks, does better in the heirloom category.

The sweet olive is my most productive small tomato so far. They are predominant on the windowsill picture above. They also have a wonderful flavor, but cherry and grape tomatoes are judged on looks alone.

Have you ever entered anything in the fair? This year, besides tomatoes, I will again enter herbs. Definitely the basil, but haven’t chosen the other two yet.

African Blue Basil

This year I am also considering entering some of my photographs, particularly my little feathered friends, like these.

Bluebirds Rule the Bath

Put the Fair on your calendar for something great to do. It runs August 4th through 11th. We get a $20 pass for the entire fair and go almost every day. If you want to see a real hoot, go watch the zero turn mower competition. If you want to see something amazing, go watch the 4Hers show their animals.

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Eating Locally: The Fruits of the Vines

Posted on July 16, 2012 by AnnieRie

This week is a fruit themed week in the challenge ten of us are taking to cook seasonally and locally all summer and fall. For me, fruit has to include grapes. At least, the liquid, fermented version of grapes.

Hardscrabble Chardonnay grapes

My Challenge Page with all the SSFC links. We have been blogging since the beginning of June about our experiences with cooking locally. This past week, it was warm and muggy and the summer fruits have been coming into many markets.

Last night after going to Linden to visit, we decided to make a simple fruit related dinner. Fruit salad with watermelon, cantaloupe and tart cherries was the main component. On the side, olive bread with herb butter. The herb butter would also be used on the fresh corn on the cob. A light wine from Glen Manor.

My tomatoes. After all, tomatoes are also a fruit. This plate included orange blossom, red fig, yellow plum, sweet olive and green grape tomatoes, all from my garden. Served with homemade tzatziki using cucumbers and mint from the garden. The yogurt was organic Greek, my free container from the last visit to Wegmans. With South Mountain not at Glenwood Market, I have lost my local source for dairy.

Heirloom tomatoes

Sometimes the simplest freshest meals are the best. Summer fruit and vegetables need little more than salt, pepper, fresh herbs and maybe a drizzle of oil.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, heirloom tomatoes, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, tomatoes, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

CSA Value Assessment

Posted on July 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

I didn’t post my savings until I got some updated numbers from local markets and vendors. Week Ten CSA was delivered Thursday. It looked like this

Sandy Spring CSA Delivery Week Ten

and I wrote about it here.

With this week’s savings, of $9.65 over weekly cost of $29.75, I am now $89.80 ahead in total for being 40% through the 25 week season. If anyone doubts the value of joining an organic CSA, they just need to look at what organic foods cost in stores, markets and at farm stands.

The breakout from week ten is this:

Corn, 5 ears, 50 cents an ear, $2.50
Carrots, $3.50 a bunch for heirloom varieties
Fennel $1.69 each for 2 of them, rounded to $3.40
Pickling cukes, white variety, a bargain at 2/$1, there were 8 of them, so $4
Slicing cukes, 3 large ones, $4.50 total
Garlic, two heads, $2 each at market, so $4 total
Heirloom red radishes, $2.50 a bunch
Blue Viking potatoes, 3 lbs at $1.50 a pound, $4.50
Zucchini, one very large, over a pound, so $2
Green beans and Rattlesnake beans, $3 each basket, so $6 total
Jalapenos, 5 medium to large size, $.50 each, so $2.50

What is missing in all this number crunching is that intrinsic value. That freshness of taste. That discovery of a new and interesting variety of vegetable not encountered before. For me this week, rattlesnake beans are a new addition. I read up on them and found that young and tender, treat them like green beans, older with heavily developed beans, take them out of their pods and cook them.

Young rattlesnake beans

As for the garlic, I love getting organic garlic, and later this year, I will put aside a few heads in order to plant them this fall. Victoria over at The Soffrito planted hers in pots and heavily mulched them over the winter and got lovely garlic, including scapes prior to digging up the garlic to cure. Supermarket garlic won’t sprout; it is treated with an anti-sprouting agent.

Organic garlic, perfect for planting in October

This week with my other CSA goodies, I will be making potato salad, pickling some cukes, and also making tzatziki using some of Wegmans Greek yogurt and their organic lemons and mint from my garden. And, yes, I will be grilling some corn. I love it when corn season arrives.

Oh, and if I get a few more large tomatoes in the next two or three days, there will be gazpacho on the menu. Maybe on one of those hundred degree days that might come next week.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, tomatoes, value of CSA, weather, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Friday Morning Garden Report

Posted on July 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

The tomatoes have finally arrived for real. That is, the big ones, and not just the cherry, grape and plum tomatoes. I harvested the first orange blossom and Amish paste tomatoes the past two days.

Now, I just need those chocolate stripes, or the legend, or great white to ripen, to see what will be submitted to the Fair in three weeks. These tomatoes need to move into high gear. I know they shut down and go into survival mode during excessive heat, which is what they did for those 90-100 degree days we had. After a quick start, they are moving along at a snail’s pace. I did get the first of the red fig tomatoes, a very interesting heirloom I bought from the Howard County Master Gardeners on Earth Day this spring.

The rest of the little tomatoes continue to put out new growth and are giving me a few a day. I got the first green grape tomato today, in the middle of the sweet olive, yellow plum, yellow pear and red figs in the bowl, there is a lone green grape, just about ripe. I pick these just a bit early to minimize pest damage, like stink bugs do.

They will ripen on the windowsill. As for other garden goodies, the stealth cucumbers are still out there. This one was hidden down in a crevice behind all the tomato plants. The vine had climbed over the bunny fence and dropped down into the fence post corner, where it hid until it reached mega size for a pickling cucumber.

We are actually attempting to make this monster into a dill pickle, which should be interesting.

On the flower front, the gladiolus plants are winding down, but hanging in there. The first marigolds have bloomed, and this one was saved after the bunnies chomped it off its stem.

Herbs are doing well in spite of the heat. Hope we get a little more rain to get the gardens around here in better shape again. I know there are water restrictions due to the water main break repairs. That doesn’t bode well for gardens in intense heat. Being on a well with a high water table right now, I am thankful to be able to water the herbs in the pots and keep them going.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Howard County, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, spring flowers, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Stealth Cucumbers …

Posted on July 5, 2012 by AnnieRie

… again, and other things found out in the garden. I posted a while back about cucumbers having a mind of their own and trying to escape. My garden in west Howard County is a source of many home grown meals in summer. Cucumbers and tomatoes will make great gazpacho, if the tomatoes will start coming in before the cucumbers stop.

The cucumbers are still going crazy, and still trying to escape the garden confines, only now in the back of the garden. This one was outside the fence hiding under a sticker bush.

I get weeds between the bunny fence and deer fence, which I leave alone as a deterrent to little critters trying to squeeze in. This cucumber plant decided to plow through two fences and climb the sticker bush. I didn’t find it until it was this large.

I have others coming through near the gate, and also winding their way into the tomato garden, so this year they are taking over. That does give us enough cucumbers, though, in order to make lots of salads, pickles and to can some. Not a bad year for them.

As for tomatoes, they are getting bigger, and the small ones continue to ripen. They were all lined up on the windowsill waiting to become part of last night’s dinner.

The gladiola have exploded. Never have they given me this much bounty. Maybe two or three per plant, but not there are dozens. In the heat, they will wilt quickly so I have been cutting them and keeping a large arrangement on the table.

Tomato update shows all but three plants with tomatoes, two pineapple tomato plants and one of the great white tomato plants. A few are suffering in the heat. The yellow pear, last year’s big producer, both plants look a little ragged. At least this year, the green grape, sweet olive, red fig and yellow plum plants will keep me in tiny salad tomatoes.

Sweet Olive tomatoes, lots of them

The chocolate stripes are getting bigger. And, on the three plants there are dozens of them.

While out there, I spied a visitor. A spicebush swallowtail. We have one Carolina spicebush, and two butterfly bushes in the yard, so butterflies are frequent visitors.

Plus, one little pest, who is probably mamma to the babies who are eating my herb garden.

At least she can’t get through the bunny fence. Her little ones still do, though, so I have to be vigilant for a few more weeks. It’s not like there isn’t enough other things out there for them to eat. The garden seems to be doing well, so far this year, and I hope to start seeing big fresh Maryland grown tomatoes soon. I will be out there with a bucket of water and a salt shaker soon. Nothing like fresh tomato, rinsed clean and lightly salted, eaten minutes after picking. Best lunch I get in west county!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Locavore, Nature, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, hoco loco, Howard County, nature, photography, spring flowers, tomatoes, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Finally! The Hillbillies Are Doing Something!

Posted on June 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Well, that got your attention. I am talking tomatoes, though. My heirloom hillbilly tomatoes. Part of the slackers in the garden. They finally started to produce.

Two of the four plants now have tomatoes on them. The only hold outs now are the pineapple and two of the three great whites. That makes six plants out of thirty two that have blossoms but no tomatoes. Every year a few of them blossom but don’t produce.

The hillbillies are a new heirloom for me. I saw them for the first time last year at the County Fair. They won, in the heirloom category. According to one of the judges, they are citrusy and full of flavor. We shall see. Not pretty, but supposedly very good.

I put in many varieties this year to see what does best in my garden. So far, the orange blossom and the chocolate stripes are putting out the highest amount of tomatoes. I may enter the chocolate stripes depending on their taste. I am also very encouraged by the amount of Amish paste tomatoes that are growing on those four plants.

I hope this is a good year for tomatoes. It certainly is a good year for my gladiolus. There are at least a dozen stems out there in my cluster of plants. I get new cuttings daily.

Are you growing anything for the Howard County Fair? I am entering tomatoes, herbs, and photographs. I don’t think the cukes will last long enough, and don’t know if the celosia will hang in there long enough either. They are pretty though.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Global Warming

Posted on June 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

It has to be. Why else would I have ripe tomatoes in June? Earlier than I ever have harvested tomatoes? Last year I had yellow pear tomatoes on 1 July. This year, yellow plum harvested this morning. Here is the picture from yesterday morning.

Besides these, I have sweet olive tomatoes about ready. Maybe Thursday or Friday for the first of these.

This morning I went out to look for cucumbers. I had used many of them for salads, pickles and tzatziki for Field Day. I knew there were a few more lurking under the leaves. I was checking on the tomatoes and one of them fell off the vine, so I decided to take them to make breakfast.

I also pulled the last of the spring garlic in hopes of making some pesto. And pulled a few pole beans off. The take.

Breakfast came together easily. Some of those luscious eggs from my friend’s hens. Scapes from my spring garlic and my little tomatoes.

Added what I thought was the last of the foraged wild asparagus, but I found two more today. Trickling Springs butter. Some CSA yellow chard and Boarman’s bacon went in the pan also.

Let everything mix together and add some heels of bread to sop up all that good butter.

Yes, I broke one yolk. Remember ugly food tastes better. I just adjusted what I did.

Here’s to many more local meals from my garden, my friends, and the local farmers of Howard County. Any other tomatoes out there being harvested?

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, Howard County, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The State of the Garden

Posted on June 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

Other than slightly wilted. I have been good about watering it. The heat index today will make it difficult to keep the container plants hydrated, but I will get out there and keep them from scorching. I love the celosia that is blooming on the steps and I wouldn’t want to lose them.

I hope the heat doesn’t mess up the cucumbers. There are lots of little ones on the vines and one monster that was hiding under the fence. I usually like the pickling cucumbers smaller than this, but I think a few large dill pickles can be handled.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely. One large Amish paste, and lots of little ones on all four plants. I was worried about them at first because they seem to wilt more, but they are hanging in there.

Both orange blossom tomato plants have tomatoes now. The biggest ones are hidden deep down in the midst of the shady leaves.

The pole beans are over the top of the fence and climbing the extensions and even attaching themselves to fence posts.

With three or four slicing cucumbers ready to pick today and two coming in the CSA box, I think I will be making cucumber salad for the weekend. Hard to believe a few weeks ago the garden was just starting out, and now it is full of large healthy tomatoes, cucumbers, and pole beans.

Time to go mist the plants with a water bottle containing a little dish soap since I found a few aphids on one of the tomato plants. Can’t have them spreading. Have a good Thursday, and stay cool.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Nature, Real Food, Weather and tagged CSA, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, hoco loco, Locavore, nature, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The Friday Morning Harvest

Posted on June 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

Ah, the beginning of the garden harvest. Today gave me six pole beans with the promise of a half dozen more tomorrow.

I had to harvest these close to the ground ones. Baby bunny squeezes through my deer fence, and these looked too tempting to leave until tomorrow. With the ones farther up the fence, and bunny proof, that I will harvest tomorrow, I will be steaming green beans to have with grilled petit filets tomorrow night.

I have another cucumber getting closer, and hopefully it won’t get bite marks like the last one. I will leave this one on a few more days to get bigger.

I did check out the asparagus to see what was there. One to cut, and one went to seed.

The herbs are flowering, particularly the varieties of thyme.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely. These are orange blossom.

About five of my tomato plants have tomatoes. All the rest are still in blossom stage. Can’t wait for the first cherry tomatoes to ripen next month. July 4th is usually when I get the first ones.

All in all, a nice Friday morning with a promise of a lovely weekend.

hocofood@@@

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Meet Me At the Fair

Posted on June 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

I know it’s summer when the fair brochure arrives in the mail. I go browsing through the home arts section to decide what to enter this year, and check on my tomatoes to see which ones will be the heirlooms to choose to enter.

I picked my first pickling cucumber this morning.

Not to brag or anything, but I put it up against the CSA pickles that came last Thursday. Mine is the big one on the left. 🙂

My husband wants me to make dill pickles like his mom made, and keep them in a crock. I hope my six plants give me enough to put up a crock of them. I also want to do bread and butter pickles for the fair.

In the past I entered tomatoes and herbs. This year I may branch out and do photography. I have lots of cool pics taken for the blog that would work in many categories, like historic Howard County, and animals, and still life (my flowers). Entering the fair is fun. Most of the time I get nothing but I have two ribbons, one for herbs and one for heirlooms.

Purple calabash, in 2010. This year I planted chocolate stripes, amana orange, legend, pink caspian, great white, pineapple and orange blossom. We will see what does best in my soil. I also planted lots of cherry and grape tomatoes. I never seem to do well in that area.

I did get a ribbon last year for my herbs. This year, the new herbs include tarragon and marjoram. I didn’t do stevia again. I did put in a number of lavender plants, and more varieties of basil. Can never have too much basil. Particularly when the tomatoes come in like this.

If you have never entered the fair, it is really easy to do. Herbs are the easiest. Flowers too. Growing enough veggies to meet the minimum in some categories is difficult but for grape or cherry tomatoes, it is easy to get 15 of them. It is not too late to plant a few tomato plants or an herb border in your yard, and you can put together the three herb arrangement you need to enter.