I’ve attached charts showing the content, recipient and
amount of our produce donations through
the end of the August. However, last week’s donation already
materially changed the chart since the heat caused half of our tomatoes to
suddenly ripen. Then, on Thursday, the
Garden received over two inches of rain and caused many of our tomatoes to
burst. The food pantry was not
terribly excited about this. I almost
offered to take them all back because the cracks are mostly cosmetic. While they can’t be stored indefinitely when
they are cracked or split, cracking doesn’t affect tomatoes' suitability for eating or
cooking if you do so promptly. Last
weekend, I canned some, roasted some, made sauce with some, made salsas with
others and put a few on a salad. As I've previously explained, the
only way to avoid cracking like this is to maintain even moisture of the
tomatoes or plant non-cracking varieties (like romas and san marzanos, etc.). Sadly, the tasty beefstake and brandywines are
prone to cracking when they receive a downpour of rain after they start to
ripen. Some tomatoes will heal
themselves if left on the vine, or they will be invaded by mold or bugs. Happily, not all of our produce burst. The butternut squashes were not affected at
all (to my disappointment), but the beans and zucchinis swelled a few sizes.
I started my Fall crops a few weeks ago and am happy to see
spinach, lettuce, napa cabbage, winter kale and peas sprouting in my plot. (Some of these I will eventually transplant
elsewhere when I find time and need to thin them). Straders Garden Centers also made a late
season donation of plants. I scored some
Spanish onion sets and lots of peppers, which I put in our new neighbor plot
and a few in bare spots in our other food pantry plots. I also was able to supplement our
sorry-looking strawberry patch and to use the mysteriously donated strawberry
jar by planting pineberry plants.
Ezra has abandoned us, so I was all alone at the Garden on
Saturday. Frank and Barb agreed to mow
our shaggy lawn since he did not report for duty. I made a little progress on
our curb improvement project, but not much because many of the stones are too
heavy for me to lift, let alone move. The front gate lock was not being cooperative
and this made everything hard to do since I was restricted to the back
gate. I planted the Straders donation
and then spent the rest of the morning harvesting before heading to Lutheran
Social Services food pantry (on time for change). I had filled three collapsible crates. They kept two of them and gave me back one as
a replacement.
This upcoming weekend we are hoping to host a group of
Capital student volunteers. It would
be great to complete (or make substantial progress) on the curb project, pull
some weeds, harvest some neglected plots and pick up some neighborhood litter. I’m also hoping that it will not be too wet to
plant or harvest flower seeds. Unlike
last weekend, it will not be unbearably hot. Again, we will have lots of ripe tomatoes to
harvest and donate.
Because heat spells are predicted to be in our past, we will
also be pinching the flowers off our tomato plants so that they focus their
energy on ripening the existing fruit instead of spending energy on creating
new fruit that will not ripen in time for the first frost. I’m also starting to harvest and dry my
basil for use over the winter. When the
first frost is upon us, I will harvest the remainder to make pesto.
Because I’m sure that many gardeners are suffering the
cracked tomato phenomenon, I will share my favorite recipes for roasted
tomatoes:
·
1 head garlic
·
4 pounds vine-ripened red tomatoes (about 10
medium)
·
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
·
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1. Prepare
the garlic. Separate the garlic head
into cloves. Discard the loose papery
outer skin but keep the skin intact on the cloves and wrap them in foil. Put the garlic package in the corner of one
of the baking pans/cookie sheets.
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Prepare
the tomatoes. Wash and chop the tomatoes into 2 inch chunks (i.e., quarters
or eighths depending on the size of the tomatoes) and arrange in one layer in
baking pans or cookie sheets that have been greased with olive oil. Sprinkle 2
teaspoons each of rosemary and thyme evenly over tomatoes and season with salt
and pepper.
3. Roasting. Roast the garlic and tomatoes in upper
and lower thirds of oven, switching position of pans after 17 minutes. Then roast another 17 minutes or so until
they tomatoes start to blacken. You only
want the tomatoes to be slightly charred.
4. Unwrap the garlic and let it cool slightly.
5. Pour the hot tomatoes into a sauce pan. Peel skins from each garlic clove and force the pulp into
the tomatoes. Using a masher or hand
blender, mix the herbs, tomatoes and garlic together. If it's not too hot, you could also use a regular blender.
6. Add the remaining
herbs to the sauce. Season the sauce
with salt and pepper and reheat if necessary.
This sauce is great by itself over pasta or with some cottage
cheese. I made some this weekend and
froze most of it to eat this winter.
I also quick roasted and froze some tomatoes (i.e., six
minutes under the broiler on each side) for use in some Rick Bayless Mexican
recipes I’ll make later this winter. (Most of his recipes seem to involve roasted tomatoes). After they cook, I remove the skins before
freezing them.
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