An Abundance of Tomatoes

The summertime growing season here in Kentucky is coming to an end. The tomatoes are smaller now and not coming on as quickly. Fewer to harvest and smaller in size, their flavor seems concentrated and better than ever, at least for a few more days - I hope. Then we will start in on that old southern dish of fried green ones.

How many ways do we enjoy fresh tomatoes, let me see:
*stuffed with tuna salad or chicken salad
*sliced for bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches
*sliced for bologna, tomato and sweet onion sandwiches
*stuffed and topped with cottage cheese
*sliced in soft butter/margarine sandwiches
*sliced to put inside a hot buttered American biscuit
*cut into chunks then added to mixed lettuce salads and
*cut into chunks or sliced and served as a side dish.

But the one way that astonishes people is a longtime favorite in my birth family. It is peanut butter and tomato sandwiches.

Back home it was typically prepared thus:
Spread one slice of bread with Miracle Whip Salad Dressing or you could use mayonnaise.
Spread the other slice of bread with your favorite brand of peanut butter.
Place a thick slice of tomato on the peanut butter.
Sprinkle liberally with ground black pepper.
Top with the other slice of bread spread with dressing. Yummm, I never get tired of that one.

Try it, you might like it.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Gazpacho

Now that we have all these wonderful fresh homegrown tomatoes, we are trying to think of all our favorite ways to use them - and there are many favorites. My Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer has made a delicious gazpacho - a cooling cold soup of uncooked fresh vegetables that is so thick it is almost like a juicy salad. If it isn't all eaten the first serving, sometimes we add more chopped vegetables into the juicy mix to marinate and try to keep it going. But this year it's going too fast for that.

He used to make it by the recipe he found in James A. Michener's book Iberia. This year he has gone by a recipe he found on the Internet. I would like to give credit where credit is due, but I don't know where he found it.

I have a friend who is a wonderful and talented cook. She is the only person I know who takes cookbooks to bed with her for bedtime reading. Where I'm immersed in garden and horticulture books and magazines, she reads recipes and has an extensive collection of cookbooks. I think there are people who can read music notes printed on paper and "hear" the music in their head. They just somehow know how it sounds. Jewel is that way about recipes she reads; she just knows how it will taste.

In case you are like my friend, I will copy the recipe here for your pleasure and enjoyment.

Gazpacho

(Ingredients)
1 pound (lb)/450 g fresh tomatoes
1/2 lb/225 g green bell peppers
1 cucumber
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 oz/50 g good white bread baguette, 2 to 3 days old
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 oz/90 ml olive oil
sea salt and black pepper to taste
Ice cubes

(To Garnish)
2 tomatoes, skinned, diced small
1/2 green pepper, diced small
1/4 peeled cucumber, diced small
toasted baguette (bread) cubes

The soup also classically has hard boiled egg as an accompaniment and these garnishes are served separate in little bowls to be added as desired.

(Instructions)
Skin the tomatoes and cut into quarters.
Remove seeds and stalks from peppers.
Peel the cucumber and cut into chunks and prepare the other garnishes.
Tear up the bread and soak it in water for 30 minutes and then squeeze it dry.
Blend all the ingredients.
Chill for at least an hour.
Pour into large bowl with some ice, add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve garnishes in separate little bowls on the table, so that guests can sprinkle on their own toppings.
Serve chilled.

This makes a wonderful cold dish for hot-summertime meals.

Japanese Tomato Ring

(HOW TO BUILD INSTRUCTIONS are farther down the page... scroll down.)

Note:
This post is from my web site, The Garden At Crocker Croft.
Dated July, 2006.

This year I have another Japanese tomato ring. Had one several years ago at a different house. Didn't have a good place for one here. Tried growing tomatoes down in the dell, but they didn't do well.

Then, somewhere around 2001, "The Most Important Tree", a huge hackberry tree near the house gave in to gravity, split and fell every which way all over everywhere. What a day that was, but that's another story. Now its spot was available… and now, there was plenty sunlight.

At first, I planted a small butterfly bed in its place so we could see the butterflies from the window. The plants thrived on the soft, spongy, balsa-like decaying wood from the tree. I added homemade compost. Everything grew too tall - the purple coneflowers (Echinacea) fell over and had to be staked and tied. After a few years, I grew tired of that, so this year they were moved down into the new wildflower meadow in the dell where they are doing very well. All the while, I had my eye on that spot for growing some good homegrown ripe-on-the-vine tomatoes.

I explained to one of my helpers what I wanted, showed him a newspaper photo, and he "built" it. The plants have reached the top of the fence and are full of young green tomatoes.

The system calls for only four plants. I chose four different kinds rather as an experiment to see which kind, or kinds, we'd like best, and which do well in that location. There is one of each variety and the varieties are: Brandy Wine, Beef Steak, Big Boy, and Better Boy.

We have high hopes of many tomato and cottage cheese lunches and wonderful bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. Tomato season is the only time of the year we buy bacon, and bologna, and one of the few times we use the mayonnaise-type salad dressing we like. We know it isn't good for our health, but tomatoes call for it. Hopefully, those few meals won't do us in.

HOW TO BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
You might like to try the system, yourself; it's quite a tomato "factory". In the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald-Leader, newspaper, April 26, 2003, writer Beverly Fortune gave the following instructions. I couldn't explain it any better, if as well, so will quote from her article:

"The tomato ring works this way: In the center of a wire ring are compost, topsoil and fertilizer, with four tomato plants around the outside. The compost keeps the soil moist and helps prevent blossom end rot. The nutrients leach into the soil during the summer, guaranteeing the plants a constant rich diet. They respond with a bumper crop of tomatoes.

Supplies:
Take a 15-foot length of wire fencing and form it into a circle about 5 feet in diameter. It helps stabilize the ring if you first drive four 5-foot iron stakes into the ground and stretch the wire around them.

In the center of the ring, spread about 6 inches of compost. Shovel in a wheelbarrow of good soil.
Add half of a 10-pound box of balanced fertilizer (10-10-10).

Make the pile slightly funnel-shaped in the center to hold water.

Repeat these three layers.

Plant just four tomato plants around the outside of the ring. Water outside the ring when the plants are small, inside the ring as they become large. As the vines grow, tie them to the wire with strips of soft rags." (End Quote)

I use metal fence posts for a more permanent installation, then set the plants at the posts and tie them to the posts for more stability, and then to the fence wire as they grow and spread. Any watering I do goes into the center of the ring. The plants will run their roots into that area for moisture and nutrients. They grew so fast I got way behind with my tying up - as you can see in the photo.

Do remember: tomatoes are warm weather plants. They like warm soil and air. If planted too early into cool earth, they will sit and sulk and not grow, may even get diseased. Also, if the air temperature gets too hot, say in the nineties or more, they will drop some blossoms. Guess there's nothing we can do about that. It all sounds tricky, but it isn't really, actually quite easy and certainly worth the effort, in my opinion.



August 31, 2006

For several weeks, now, we have enjoyed an abundance of huge luscious ripened-on-the-vine tomatoes. The stems were so large and strong; we couldn't break them and had to use pruners to gather those fragrant orbs.

What a good feeling to have so many we could share with neighbors and local family - all from only four plants! Almost unbelievable.

As the season begins to wind down, I'm considering snipping the growing tips from the vines so instead of more top growth; hopefully, they will spend their energy ripening the fruit already set.

At season's end, we will enjoy fried green tomatoes, and wrap the rest individually in newspaper and let them "ripen" in a box to extend the season. They will turn red, but the quality won't be as good as when they ripened on the vine. But, that's ok, they'll be as good or better than any we could buy in the grocery stores, probably by then we'll be glad to have any kind we can get. I've read of people doing that and eating the last of their crop in November as they placed homegrown tomatoes on their Thanksgiving dinner table.

Oh! And which was our favorite? I think it was the Brandywine of pink skin and solid flesh - but the others are delicious, too.
Wish I could hand you a few.