Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Things to Do While the Tomatoes Ripen
I really hoped we would have a ripe tomato or two last weekend, but.......not yet. In fact, we arrived to find all the tomato ladders more horizontal than vertical. There must have been a powerful storm while we were gone, because a small (dead) tree nearby was snapped off. (I was thinking of turning that tree into a bottle tree, or training vines over it, but never mind.) Last weekend we swathed the tomato plants in plastic netting, hoping to keep the tomatoes in and the critters out. The netting doesn't do a darned thing to keep out hornworms, but I still think we'll have plenty of tomatoes.
So then, while we're waiting for that day when we can get out the satin pillow, the rosewood platter, or the stylish tasting notes, what to do?
Cook with herbs. For the last couple of weekends, we switched from breakfast burritos (our usual weekend lunch) to herb omelette and toast.
Or make fried green tomatoes. I've been doing this for the last two weekends as well.
9 Comments:
Procrastination saved you, Entangled - just think how heartbreaking it would have been to pick up broken glass if the storm had destroyed a bottle tree instead of just a dead tree.
Maybe I should pick some of our tomatoes and fry them green before the slugs and bugs get them - half of them end up trashed. I do have herbs, but instead of omelettes we're having peppers and eggs.
Your readers will want to know what ritual you've devised for the special tomato - hope you enjoy it soon!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie: You're right about the bottle tree - it would have been a horrible mess to clean up, and I hadn't thought of it that way. The tree, although dead, was pretty sturdy with not much rot, so I was really surprised to find it on the ground.
Peppers and eggs is something I haven't thought about in a long time, and I don't know why. What kind of peppers do you use? I guess I always thought it required Melrose peppers, which I didn't have.
I'm searching the house for a good plate for the first tomato, but mine all pale in comparison to your rosewood platter.
Are those costuluto? I had a great harvest of those earlier this year, until these darned feral chickens ate them.
Ah, green tomatoes ... I have one cherry one that is on the verge of turning red. I watch it carefully ... even with these endlessly hot days, nothing is happening.
I like the idea of the herbs and omelettes. It's bedtime and now I'm hungry.
Laurie Colwin wrote such good articles for Gourmet ... are they all published in the two Home Cooking books? I know exactly the recipe you are talking about for gingerbread.
Her writing style is just the same in her novels. I have always loved her characters ...
Just lately, I came across a website put together by her daughter, Rosa Jurjevics. She is an artist, filmmaker and writer too (she was only eight when her mum died). A few of her articles talked about her mum ... just google her name and you should be able to find them.
Please write your blog entry ....
Nicole: I think those particular tomatoes are Kellogg's Breakfast. (My spouse thinks that sounds like cornflakes.) Feral chickens? Really? Now I think I'm glad I only have deer, rabbits and squirrels.
Kate: Done!
I don't know if the books contain all the columns from Gourmet - maybe just the greatest hits. I'm just now finishing up the last of the gingerbread for breakfast :-)
Thanks for your recipe for fried green tomatoes. For a long time I wondered how to make those but not anymore. :-D Loved that movie (Fried Green Tomatoes), did you see it too?
I have a lot of ripe tomatoes at the moment thanks to my greenhouse. I see that we both grow the Cherokee purple. For me it was a first and today I ate the first one and it was excellent. Next year I'll grow Cherokee again. BTW are your Cherokees big too? Some of mine weigh around a pound, not bad eh?
Yolanda Elizabet: I just now checked on the Cherokee Purple tomatoes and one of them has a very faint blush of pink on it. So.....I'm still waiting. This is my first year growing those, but they always get rave reviews from other gardeners. If they taste as good ripe as they did green, I'll be happy. They are quite large, but maybe a little smaller than the Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes. Those are just HUGE. I didn't see Fried Green Tomatoes, the movie. Another one of those things that everybody else has seen, and I haven't. I need to put it on my movie rental list.
We always used Melrose Peppers in IL, Entangled, usually from our garden, but down here they're more likely to be poblanos bought from Fiesta Market in East Austin, then roasted. My tolerance for heat in peppers has increased over the last 8 years!
Annie
And see the movie!
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