I know you are saying, “It is the end of the summer, why are you writing about tomatoes?”
Last fall we moved new part of the country, and the planting season starts later here. By the time, spring came around my son and I were craving to get our hands into the soil and plant a garden. We were not sure how much shade the trees surrounding the yard were going to give us. We settled on planting in buckets in case we had to rearrange for sunlight.
Every Saturday morning, I get up way to early and visit the local farmers market. One of the venders sells plants and during the spring has tomatoes. My son and I went a little wild and bought eight different varieties.
The tomatoes did ok, but with too much rain this year, a good percentage of the fruit rotted on the vine. We had one powerhouse producer called Jellybean. These little tomatoes look like red jellybeans and have a wonderful taste. Most of them did not make into the house; we would pop them in our mouth between swimming in the pool.
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Daily harvest of Jellybean tomatoes
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Here we are now at the end of September, and my tomato plants have decided to go bonkers pumping out fruit. One plant produced three tomatoes the entire summer, now it has close to thirty good size green tomatoes.
So what should I do with them? I could fry them, but my family is not big on fried tomatoes. I cannot process them; I do not have a pressure cooker. I have made salsa; but I do not have a way to process it. I could be freeze them, but the freezer is bursting now with freezer jam and other tasty foodstuffs.
My only option is hope the tomatoes will a get a chance to ripen. Then, I can make the lovely Tomato Pie recipe I found over on Christy Jordan’s Southern Plate this summer. I have made this and it is good as written, but my family would not touch it.
If you would like the recipe here is the link http://www.southernplate.com/2012/06/tomato-pie.html
I personally did not care for the mayonnaise on top. Christy states you could not taste it, I did. For my family to eat this I would follow the step of salting the tomatoes and letting them sit, delete the mayo, double the fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. Increase the layering while using Italian cheeses, like Mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and a Smokey Provolone. This way would be making it more of a sauce less tomato pizza.
This is what makes cooking is so much fun, you get to tinker and adjust recipes to your preferences.
As always, pass this along to your friends!
