You Grow Girl™

The tomatoes are coming en masse. Last Thursday at the Farmer's Market several sellers featured heirloom tomatoes. Of course I couldn't resist and bought a ton. I thought it was a good chance for me to try varieties I'm yet to grow to determine whether it would be worth it or not. So much for the element of surprise.

On the way home from the Farmer's Market I decided to stop at my community plot to see how my crop of tomatoes were coming. Well, I was shocked to discover that several tomatoes were ripe. At home, when I spread out my haul, I found that I had two serving plates full of delicious heirloom tomatoes!! Where to begin?

This evening I went back to the garden for another peek and brought back another plate's worth of ripe fruit. I brought back lemon boy, orange banana, yellow perfection, yellow pear cherry, black krim, cherokee purple and a few black plum.

Sadly I can't recall all the names of the Farmer's Market purchases. One that was very large, yellow with streaks of dark orange, and called "German something or other" was very good. It was sweet and nice and dense, making it an excellent sandwich tomato. Once I figure out the name, I'll have to track down some seeds for next year. I could have saved some from the tomato I had, but we ate it all before I thought of it!

We bought a little container of some very delicious orange cherry tomatoes from the market. They are like candy!

Black Krim, harvested from my own garden is my current favourite. SO GOOD! It has a beautiful ruby, dark colour with a bit of darkness on the shoulders and is exceptionally shiny. Even when they are unripe they gleam from the vine. They are also nice and dense and slice beautifully. I sound like Martha in the way I'm fetishising them...

Last week I made a delicious roasted tomato sauce from the plethora of black plums harvested from my deck plants. Interestingly enough, the black plums that are still ripening in the community plot are about double the size of the deck plants. I suppose that is the result of root space and the different growing conditions. The deck plants recieve a great deal of sun and are subject to the occassional drought whereas the plot plants are in shadier conditions with mulch that keeps the moisture in and the soil cooler.

My Roasted Tomato Sauce
The way I make my sauce is to roast the tomatoes on a pan in the oven rather than via the traditional blanching method. I then throw them into one of those cone-shaped thingys with the wooden masher thingy. This removes the seeds and skin and pushes the sauce through. Next I reduce the sauce on the stove at a medium low heat with some fresh basil and a dash of salt thrown in. Tasty. You can also add some fresh cloves of garlic to the cooking sauce or as a twist roast the garlic cloves with the tomatoes and throw all that through the mill together!

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