Tomato Salads & Pizza

Richard. Again with the Tomatoes?

Yeah. Sorry. But it is currently the shining thing that has my attention. To say that I am really into them right now is a gross understatement. A few months ago, I talked with a Fredericksburg farmer for about two hours all about tomato growing. Ridiculous, I know, but I find them to be excellent.

So here are a few things I have done lately with the tomatoes:

So that is an heirloom salad with avocados, pistachios, a little olive oil and some salt & pepper.

This is a Tomato Caprese Salad with mozzarella, basil, a balsamic reduction and some salt & pepper.

That is a salad out of the NYT that I found out about through Ann Althouse. It has peaches, red onion, cilantro, a little lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and salt & pepper. It is astonishing, though I didn't drain the liquid from the tomatoes as well as I should have.

My sweet friend, Carolyn Angiolillo, sent me some wonderful buffalo mozzarella.

Which I had to immediately try with a Mortgage Lifter and a Cherokee Purple.

I made a salad for the Aides that had an assortment of Heirlooms smothered in the buffalo mozzarella & walnuts, with a little red wine vinaigrette and some salt & pepper.

And finally, today I made a few Pizza Margheritas with the Heirlooms. I loved the color, but I was extremely impressed & surprised with the taste. Just that 15 minutes of heat really brought out the sweetness of the tomatoes, but still keep them nice and juicy. Astonishing.

The Tomatoes So Far.

So, overall I am pretty pleased with how things are going this first year with the tomato garden. I have learned a lot about growing them, and have many things I want to do differently.

This is a recent picture of the garden. If you notice, the left bed is not caged and is laying along the ground. I had planned to cage them all, but summer happened and I ran out of time. 70 of the plants are caged, 10 are not.

This summer I realized just how little time I have for anything other than the kitchen. Next year, I have got to make the garden as low maintenance as possible.

Bugs have been a small problem. Nothing too bad, but I have had fireants, small bugs, grasshoppers and cutworms. I plan on looking for organic methods next year for dealing with them all, though I am not all that opposed to using chemicals.

The cages I bought were a little too flimsy. As the tomato plants grew bigger and taller, the cages bent and fell. I plan on making my own cages next year out of heavy duty wire and staking each for support. I also plan to cage them much much earlier.

The biggest thing that I didn't get to was the irrigation system. It takes me a good hour to water all of the plants at night. Which is time I just don't have. So, I need to get the irrigation system in place and with soaker hoses that go off on a timer. That way the ground will stay consistently moist.

I have two very visible problems with my tomatoes. The first has been blossom end rot (BER) which has caused little brown bottoms on my tomatoes. It was very apparent at the beginning and now has pretty much dissipated.

The second problem is cracking. You can see the cracking in the 2nd picture above. For the most part, the cracking is just ugly. But the cracking can cause fungus, disease and rotting. Which is pretty irritating.

Both of those problems are caused by the irregular watering. The ground is either dry or wet. not just a steady moist. So, the soaker hoses will help with all that.

The last thing I want to do differently is to put down mulch. Specifically straw. The straw will help the soil keep it's moisture and will also prevent weeds from seeing the light of day. It will help with fungus & disease.

So, I am pretty happy with the taste and colors that I am getting, but I am extremely eager about next year and all the improvements.

Blogging Hiatus

I apologize for my lack of posts.

I actually expected to be able to get a lot of good photo blogging in this summer. Why, I don't know. Since it is, after all, camp season.

I am taking pictures as much as I can, and have a few things I want to blog about. I just need the time. I'll hopefully be able to once everyone is fully trained.

The above picture is the first two tomatoes to come out of my garden. A Black Krim on the left and a Merced on the right.