Tomatoes

I am just loving the variety of tomatoes I have this year, so many different heirloom types. This is a Franchi red pear tomato, I grew it from seeds that I bought at Sunshine Farms. I thought it would be more paste-type looking. It is very thick and not seedy so it seems like a paste-type, just not quite how I thought it would look.This is Andrea's long pointed tomato - no, I don't think you would find that name if you googled it. I was given the seeds by Andrea and Mary-Sue and now I understand why Andrea said that they grow so big you only need 2 or 3 to fill a quart jar. These are huge for a paste tomato. Delicious, too.Of course, I had to measure it...to satisfy my own disbelief and (a little bit) because I like to tease Samantha about measurements of...well, anything really. So, here it is...all 6 plus inches of it. ;-)Of course I wanted to save the seeds of such a tomato but when I cut it open and looked for seeds this is all that I found.

What a fantastic tomato for canning and sauce making. I'd love to know the actual name if you ever remember, Andrea.

Favourite green bean recipe

Yesterday I picked a huge basket full of green beans. I'm so bad at keeping up with beans, I always end up letting some get too mature. Last night I made my favourite quick and easy recipe for green beans. Just steam or boil beans 'til tender crisp. While they are cooking I put a bit of butter and olive oil into a pan and toast some chopped almonds or walnuts for a few minutes. Add the drained beans and toss for a few minutes, then add a splash of lemon juice and some Parmesan or Romano cheese. Remove from heat and serve. So good!

Yum!!

Yesterday when we got home from the beach I starting grating up zucchini to freeze and to make Krista's recipe for zucchini brownies that I posted about. Oh my, are they ever good.
The only thing I did differently (besides using whole wheat flour) was the icing, mine is made from melting Rancho Vignola dark chocolate and mixing a little milk in to make an icing consistency.

Zucchini, zucchini and more zucchini

Last week at a BBQ a friend was telling me about her recipe for a zucchini polenta lasagna type dish; it sounded delicious and set my mouth to watering. The other day (after two days of this zucchini casserole) I decided to make something similar to her polenta recipe. I made polenta and let it set on a cookie sheet in the fridge. In the evening I covered it with some of last year's frozen pesto then, on top of that, I put some sliced zucchini that had been sauteed with onion and garlic.I added a few sun dried tomato strips, topped with mozzarella and baked it. It went down quite well around here, W proclaimed it "good stuff" and helped himself to a second slab. We have been eating zucchini in everything and now it is time to start putting some away for the winter.

This morning I came across a recipe for zucchini brownies on this blog. You know that I have to try it. We were just talking about zucchini recipes at our homelearner beach day yesterday and had talked about cookies and chocolate cake but I'd never thought of brownies with zucchini. Can't wait to taste them.

We also had our first taste of corn from a friend's garden. This is the stuff that we filled our freezer with last year and I think I can say it is the most delicious corn I have ever had. I am a serious corn on the cob lover. This cob is my "test cob", I am a firm believer that it is very important for the cook - that's me - to test the corn before serving it to others. I do this at each meal just to make sure that it is tasty enough for others. It is quite a sacrifice on my part but I am willing to do it for my family.

Of course I still have a cob with my meal as well. :-

Onion braids

Yesterday I harvested our onions and let them dry in the sun for a bit while I went to a movie. I braided them in the evening, all the while singing tunes from Mamma Mia and, I'm sure, driving W crazy as he passed me onions. My boys don't share exactly the same taste as I do in music. My ABBA and Bee Gees CDs seem to disappear every once in a while and my favourite Queen CD has been missing from my car for months. I'm a little suspicious. Once, when we were in the car and I was listening to the BeeGees W asked me what BG stood for and I told him it was the brothers Gibb. Without missing a beat W said it sounded more like it should be sisters Gibb. I guess he doesn't appreciate how talented one must be to have such a range in voice. Hummph.

Back to the onions - my neighbour showed how to braid them years ago and I quite like having them hanging on the wall ready to be used. I take almost as much pleasure from it as I do from seeing the shelves full of preserves in my coldroom. My garlic stems were too dry to properly braid by the time I harvested them so I will have to satisfy myself with just onion braids this year.

Pruning tomatoes

This morning I asked the boys to help me get some work done in the garden. E's job was to collect all the bits of tomato plants that I pruned and load them in the wheelbarrow. He was quite distraught that I was pruning the tomatoes and even though I explained several times why I was doing it he was clearly not happy about it. At one point he found a stem I had cut off that had two teensy, tiny little tomatoes on it, he questioned me on it so I explained again that I was mostly pruning off excess stems and some flowers so that the fruit that was already set would grow more. I told him that I wanted the plant's energy to go towards growing and ripening the tomatoes that were already there instead of towards producing more stems and flowers. I could tell he was still not happy about it (to say the least) when he asked why I was "killing" the tomatoes. I explained one more time and then asked him to just pick up the pruning bits and trust me. A little later he took a bucket of plums to a neighbour and then came back to help me with some other chores. My neighbour came over later to bring me one of her Walla Walla onions and she also wanted to tell me about her visit with E. She had remarked to him that he didn't look very happy when he delivered the plums (they are good friends and she knows him well), he said that he had been helping me do chores and so she thought perhaps he was grumpy about that. He then said to her, "And do you know what mommy is doing?" She didn't. So he went on to tell her that I was cutting up all the tomato plants...and that I had even cut off two little tomatoes. She listened to his story, complete with hand gestures and lots of emotion. Then she asked him if he knew what she had done yesterday, he asked what and she told him that she, too, had pruned her tomato plants. And that seemed to satisfy him. I'm not sure why. Either he trusts her gardening judgement more than mine or he just doesn't care about her tomatoes as much. Anyway, I find it all very funny and love that he feels such concern for our tomato plants.And, at the end of the day, we all enjoyed a nice tomato, cuke and Walla Walla salad.

A week away

The only downside that I can see to gardening is that so much of it goes on in the summer. I know, I know....duh! But this can be a problem for a person who likes to go away a lot in the summertime. The boys and I got home yesterday from just a week away and E called me to come look. His hands were full of his Brown Berry cherry tomatoes. (he loves them and already plans to save the seeds)I joined him in the garden and he showed me all the things that were ready for harvest. We started picking the zucchini, looked at the cucumber plants and then realized we would need a big basket to hold them all. While I was picking poles beans E was talking about what we would make with all this produce. What I love is that he said, "When the baskets are filled with all our treats..."I love that he thinks that beans, zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers are "treats". I think just that alone makes for a very good reason for children to have a garden...because home-grown veggies really are a treat.
I could seriously use some new zucchini recipes though.