Cooking Floyd: Tomato Cobbler

We are in the throes of all things tomato around here.  A description of this savory cobbler caught my eye and taste buds so I had to try it.  We love savory pies as well as sweet ones so why not a savory cobbler?

Cooking Floyd: Herb Stuffed Tomatoes

All things tomato are happening now.  I've made tomato lime salsa which yielded a bonus of some tasty tomato juice.  I did one batch of tomato paste and have another reducing as we speak.  I did 7 pints of diced Italian herbed tomatoes and along those lines we had Herb Stuffed Tomatoes on a bed of pasta for dinner last night.  I've been yearning for this since early last December because there's just no other way to make it than with fresh herbs, alliums, and warm tomatoes straight from the garden!

Even having had a good day at the market I brought herbs home.  These went into supper and the diced tomatoes I canned.

Cooking Floyd: Summer Eating Has Commenced!

We have been seriously craving that first summer tomato.  Ours are only now beginning to ripen but tomatoes started showing up at the farmers market last weekend.  I resisted buying them there but ended up buying 2 reds and 2 golds when I stopped at Wades Orchard to pick up peaches.  I couldn't wait for ours.

And in that same vein, greedy as Michael and I were for that first taste, I forgot to take pictures of the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad we had with supper.  But it was awesome!  Chunks of red and gold tomato, cubes of mozzarella, sprinkled with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, garnished with ribbons of lemon basil and drizzled with first press oil from last fall's harvest of Sevillano olives.  So, so good.

I did remember to take a picture of dessert.  Sliced farm fresh peaches surrounding a scoop of strained yogurt, garnished this time with lime basil and drizzled with honey.

The entire dinner conversation consisted of "mmmmmm...." and "I love summer!"  This is the big reminder of why we eat seasonally and preserve.  Out of season store bought fresh produce just can't compare.  Even in season store bought produce that's been shipped in from god-knows-where has nothing on our local crops.  It doesn't even compare with our own preserved produce in winter.  Summer eating is our reminder, reinforcement, and reward for our efforts of growing, preserving, and eating local.

Gardening Floyd: Dreamin'....

The first seed catalog for 2011 arrived in the mail over the weekend along with the first snow.  Last night Michael and I couldn't stand it any longer and we pulled out our box of seeds for inventory.  The catalog that came was from Totally Tomatoes and I just had to be the one to inventory our tomato seeds.

Last year we grew Amish Pastes, Principe Borghese, Red Currants, and an unnamed seed that had been handed down for at least 3 generations in the family of a coworker of Michael's that we dubbed "Smokey" after the coworker's grandfather.  All are open pollinators and indeterminate growers except for the Principe Borghese which are semi-determinates.

Here's photos of the tomato terraces from June 2010.  By the end of that month the harvest started coming in so fast I didn't get any more pictures taken!

Smokey tomatoes and Red Currant tomatoes on the trellis