Posts Tagged ‘tomatoes’

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What you see…

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

…is what you get.

Well, it wouldn’t be a normal garden season if I hadn’t brought home a plant thinking it was one thing and then finding out it was another.

This year the award goes to Home Depot for selling me a “Beefsteak Tomato” that was really:  {ta-da} a small yellow pear-shaped tomato, barely bigger than a grape-style tomato.

I don’t mind surprises in the garden.  The plant itself started sprawling like crazy, but hadn’t really produced anything before Heaven Fest.  I thought the vines were rather delicate to be a beefsteak variety.  Today, I peeked into the middle of this very populated part of the plant and pulled out a couple of pints of these little beauties.  Popped one into my mouth and o-my-gosh!  Tangy, sweet, tongue-tingling-deliciousness!

Harvest time.   Ah, yes.  I remember you and why I am so stinking in love with you!

Now to determine the best possible use for my sweet love apples {another name for tomato}.  On piping hot pasta with cream and fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano?  Perhaps a cold combination with kalamata olives and extra-virgin olive oil with home crafted mozzarella balls, freshly grated black pepper and a sprinkling of sea salt or splash of balsamic?

I must go now, to think about this most urgent need.

Tomatoes, a.k.a “Love Apples”

 

 

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Lucky One

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

A little first-day-of-summer gardening with the Kelley kids yesterday yielded a great surprise:

Gavin has his first tomato!

He was pretty excited to have beat me.  I only have 4 tomato plants this year and he has 3, but he got the first tomato out of the deal, a tiny, green sphere getting ready to turn into a gorgeous red tomato.  Yum.  We were so happy.

Then, to Gavin’s great excitement, we noticed he also had a pepper on his little sweet pepper plant.  Glory be! 

“I’m the luckiest boy in the world!” he told us.

Be still, my melting, proud, love-filled, gooey-sweet, this-kid-is-amazing heart.  He gets the gardener in me because the same heart beats in him, too.  Gavin and I were born to be sustainable-living-backyard-farmers.  I am the luckiest Nonna in the world!

If you could see his eyes (I stink at photography), you’d know they were happy!

My latest movie project

Hunter is at the most hilarious stage.  He likes to make me laugh and will pose for pictures for me.  I caught a few before he jumped in the pool recently.  He loves pulling out his Kung Foo Panda moves.  I laugh every. single. time.

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Tomato-growing is no joke

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Tomatoes are nothing to joke about.

Stormie works in the billboard-graphic ads biz.  A big chunk of anything you see on billboards or plastered on the sides of buses might have crossed her desk for art-checking.  She sent me this very cool photo yesterday, an add for Bloom, “a different kind of grocery store.” www.shopbloom.com

On first glance?  Very cool, clean, fresh.  Look at those gorgeous, juicy tomatoes.  Beautifully, neatly draped over the little garden sign.  Quite modern and makes you want to eat healthy.  But yikes, people.  Tomatoes don’t grow like that.  I actually enlarged the photo to make sure those were even tomato leaves, because they look so strange, just sort of plunked in like that via photo-editing.  Hydroponics, I wondered?  Some weird genetically engineered-type tomato plant?  And what tomato 5-pack is that exposed?  If that many leaves are missing, the dreaded leaf-devouring horn worm can be heard licking his lips nearby.  Trust me on that one.  Plus, um, tomatoes have to be planted deep.  Deeeeeeeep.  You can’t just throw one on the window sill.

A couple of these boogers can defoliate an entire large tomato plant is jjst a few days.  Gross.  They actually consume and fatten up to pretty big leaf-green larvae while destroying your tomatoes.  They are the devil.

So yeah.  On first glance this ad is pretty and neat and appealing and very suburban.  But I am going to have to say no.  I mean-think about the mis-information you are giving our children, Bloom!  Tomato-growing is space and time-consuming and messy and deep holes and gazillions of leaves and hard-but-o-so-rewarding work.

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.” -Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own(one of my favorite baseball movies of all times…heck, one of my fav movies!).

Some google images, tantalizing my tastebuds.  Real tomatoes in real gardens.

I apparently take tomato production quite seriously.

Look at this t-shirt I spotted while browsing google images:

Who would wear that?  Even if it IS true?

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Two Tricks for One Great Treat

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Green Tomatoes.

I quit watering the veggies after the Montana trip (over a month ago).  That always sends them into overdrive: producing madly, attempting to leave seed so they can go on endlessly.  Cold nights and warm days do weird things to tomatoes, so at this point I am picking them green and bringing them in.  Now what do I do with these piles of tomatoes?

Two tricks.

Fried Green Tomatoes.

Like the movie.  Only better and delicious for breakfast, too, oh, yes!

  1. Slice 4 good sized green tomatoes into 1/2″ thick slices (if it is slightly red, make sure it is still firm).
  2. Whisk 2 eggs and a half cup of milk together in one bowl.
  3. Mix 1/2 cup of cornmeal and 1/2 cup bread crumbs (or one or the other or any combination of the two – I LOVE corn meal) with 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt (don’t skimp on the salt) and pepper to taste into another bowl.
  4. Have a plate of flour to dip the slices into.
  5. Take slice, dip in the flour to coat.  Then dip it into the egg and milk mixture.  Then dip it into the crumbs and completely coat – completely!
  6. Fry in a skillet with the oil 1/2″ deep, don’t let them touch each other.  When it is brown, flip it and finish and drain on paper towels.
  7. Heaven.

An Apple Trick.

If you just want to ripen them for having the luscious red tomatoes around, put them in a cardbaord box or a paper bag with an apple.  The ethylene gas given off by the apples in a closed space will cause the tomatoes to ripen.  More red tomatoes!

I have had fresh garden ( MY garden) tomatoes as late as Thanksigivng and this year I could have had that, too.  Boo hoo.  But I shall surely and thoroughly enjoy the ones I have now! ;p

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Homegrown

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Only Two Things that Money Can’t Buy

 

I couldn’t find a live version of John Denver (which I like a lot), so enjoy this original version, silly-but-o-so-true song by the extremely tomato-insightful Guy Clark:

There ain’t nothin’ a homegrown tomato won’t cure!

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She is Here!

Friday, July 16th, 2010

The day arrives.

Today.  is.  Tomato Day.  2010.

And you pick red tomatoes and pop cherries into your mouth.  You gather baby zucchini from the garden while crunching on crispy green beans.  You bring in fresh broccoli and snap peas and lettuce.  You pinch thyme and sage and basil.  You grill just to the point of carmelization and the sweetness of the garden lunch makes all the work heretofore quite worth it.

The reward of my labors?  Today I picked ripe tomatoes.  Can you comprehend the profundity of that?  Dare you?

Good, and I mean really good, times.

NOTE TO MY LONGSUFFERIG READERS:  Last year at just about the exact same time?  Read here!

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A true tomato

Monday, August 31st, 2009

I spent the entire week in Puerto Rico poo-pooing their very sad looking tomatoes.  They were barely-pinkish, transparent, rubbery-looking things that resembled something that some one may have tried to grow at some point or the other, but which had been aborted too soon and now were in a state of perpetual laboratory-like strangeness.

dsc06954 this may have been one of the better ones at the resort, truly…

So, seriously: we eat at these great restaurants.  Everything is beautiful, but every time – terrible, terrible tomatoes.  What on earth?

So, a long day on Palomino Island was my final day.  I dragged the beach lounger knee-deep into the ocean and let the waves splash over me all day while a hot breeze cooled my skin.  I got burned.  A deep burn, but it was OK because I had been careful not to burn before, so the base tan protected me (I hope Ali, who has agreed to help me un-do previous sun damage on my skin, is not reading this – because we just talked about it the night before I went!). 

Tredessa looked at me and said, “Mom, you are burned.  You are as red as a tomato.”

And then, the reason I am so proud of her, the reason I admire her intelligence so, she made the distinction, “But not like a Puerto Rican tomato.  Like one of your tomatoes.”  And I beamed.  Tomato red.

Now this is a tomato.

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From my garden.  A small tomato and some basil.  If it is slightly blurry, forgive the photographer (me).  I think it is because I may have been shaking a little bit in anticipation of sprinkling some salt on these slices and eating them.  Because, omygoodness, they are sweet and tangy, and the juice, which tries unsuccessfully to escape my tongue and run down my face, is madly divine, the fountain of life, more potent than wine.

I have written about tomatoes before – oh, yes, I have!

I would like to dedicate this blog to Bryan.  Read here and here and here – for old times’ sake, Bry.  And oh, what the heck?  Here is my roasted tomato recipe for Cody, but Bryan, you can enjoy it again, too – right before you re-read this blog about YOU, where I seriously question whether God wants us to be friends if you hate tomatoes!   ;)

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Glorious Morning

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

“Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy…”

From William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 33

Update on Life.

It is a Monday, a glorious, beautiful Monday morning.  Heaven Fest is 5 days away.  Robbin and Jake’s wedding on Saturday was a delightful and joyful event, going off without a hitch.  There will surely be facebook pics posted soon, somewhere?…

My friend Pearl’s dad died Friday.  He had been ill for some time, but it is still never easy.  I only met him once or twice, but I know him through the big, loving family he raised, through his daughter, who is a woman to be praised.  He is whole now, and with the Lord, he has gained life.

The Great Outdoors.

Last week’s late afternoon or nighttime thunder showers have saturated our yard to a new level of green, it being August in the arid-Rocky-Mountain-region, and all.  Dave mowed and trimmed yesterday and I have spent the morning enjoying the bird-song, the gentle breeze and my time with the Lover of my soul, pulling a weed or two, harvesting a few tomatoes (leftover quesadilla with thick, juicy slices of red goodness for breakfast) and an armful of beets (to be roasted for dinner…I will try to enjoy them).  The upside-down tomato, now in its’ place for about 5 1/2 weeks is boasting 5 little spheres of future deliciousness.

Dwight Schrute on The Office: “First rule in roadside beet sales, put the most attractive beets on top. The ones that make you pull the car over and go “Wow, I need this beet right now.” Those are the money beets.”

I’m reading a provocative and poetic book.

From Eternity to Here – Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God by Frank Viola.  I started before family reunion and am just entering part two (about halfway through).  It is so good.  I have so little time, but I am enjoying it thoroughly everytime I open it.  Fresh revelation.  Resonating reminders.  Goooooooood stuff.  Join me?

O Happy Day!

Tim Hughes sings it this way:

“O what a glorious day

What a glorious way

That You have saved me!”

Turn it up, sing along.  Dance a little. 

It IS a glorious morning!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Praise Him all day long!

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Tomato-Topsy

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Yes, that’s right.  It is June 25 and I am just now getting my fake-tomato-topsy-turvey-thing-a-ma-jig done.  I would recommend you do it earlier than this. 

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I bought a new 5-gallon paint bucket, some potting soil, and a Mountain Pride Tomato.  I don’t even know if it is determinate or indeterminate.  Guess I should read the little marker.

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We drilled a hole in the bottom of the bucket (about 2″).  We drilled a series of holes in the lid (I will water and feed through these holes).

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I removed almost all of the branches so the tomato plant could be “planted deeply” (is it still “deep” if it is upside down?).  Dave held the bucket and the suspended tomato root ball while I filled in with soil and vermiculite.  I sprinkled some granular fertilizer on top, which will work its’ way down through as I water.

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If I’d started with a smaller plant or not worried about going “deep,” I could have used less soil.  It is pretty heavy, so a strong hanger is in order. 

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Popped the lid on (it will even recieve rain!), and hung it about 6 1/2 feet up on the southeast corner of the house where it will get lots of hot sun.  It is almost directly above the tomatillo in the straw bale.  I surrounded it with some leftover bamboo shade I had hanging around for aesthetics.

I am truly afraid to face my neighbors. ;]

I would not expect to be eating fruit from this plant until mid-September at this late date.  But that is OK.  All the tomatoes in the straw bales are producing already and may need a break by then!

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Cost: bucket, $3.50; bracket for hanging, $6.99; tomato, $3.50 (could have gotten that cheaper at a local center); 3 gallons of potting soil (practically free from a Lowe’s clearance), $1.00…so since you can buy an “authentic” topsy-turvey for about $10, no $$ savings, BUT mine will withstand micro-bursts and looks better.  And that makes me happy enough.

I’ll try to give you updates.  We’ll see…

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Frankengardener

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

I have determined my gardening style to be “experimental.” 

I don’t like doing the same thing twice.  I like to grow things in unexpected places.  I like French intensive gardeing, square foot gardening and am really in to this  straw bale gardening right now.   I’d even like to try hydroponic gardening sometime, despite the fact that I have grave doubts about the quality and flavor of things grown in water (I believe in soil).

I have to admit, I rolled my eyes a lot when I first started seeing these upside-down gardens on TV.  I checked out their website and good grief: people are really doing this thing!

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Therefore, I am going to have make my very own topsy-turvy-upside-down tomato grower.  Why?   Because that is the experiment part.  I don’t want to buy “their” cheap-looking plastic aparatus.  I want to make my own ghetto version…from a big, plastic paint can. Yes, I do.

I’ll post pictures.  I think it is going to be pretty cool!  It’ll be like tomatoes raining down on me from heaven above!

Mmmmmmm….Jeanie

pictured: people’s purchased topsy-turvey planters

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