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Summer 2012 Tomato Evaluation
Every year I plant a large variety of tomatoes, and I’m losing track of how long I’ve planted each different variety. The obsession began when I purchased a packet of Burpee’s Rainbow Heirloom Mix. That packet included Omar’s Lebanese, Dutchman, Djena Lee’s Golden Girl, Golden Sunburst, Aunt Ruby’s Germany Green, and Black Russian. Since I didn’t know for sure which tomato was which, I saved from the tastiest and labeled the seed bags “Large, red beefsteak, sweet, Omar’s?” and “pink…
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Pottery sale this Thursday evening!
This Thursday night, I’ll be selling my wares at the Silent Auction and Music Event to Launch New NC artisan Boutique: Kindred. I’m super excited to support my friend Michelle Smith, and 15% of my sales will go towards Kindred Boutique. I just purchased new glazes to sample, which come in little pint containers, so I had to brush on glaze rather than dip them. Dipping gives more even coverage than brushing, but the variation can also be visually interesting.…
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Sun dried tomato sourdough bread
There’s a new favorite bread in our house, and it was born out of a desire to use up the cherry tomatoes. I’m going to skip the narrative and get straight to the recipe. Ingredients 3 cups bread flour 2 – 3 tbs sugar, depends on if you want the bread slightly sweet or not 1 tsp salt 2 tbs olive oil 1 cup sourdough starter 1 cup caramelized cherry tomatoes in olive oil or your choice of sun dried…
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Pesto! A simple recipe for the weekend.
I read on a friend’s post that her basil wasn’t quite big enough to make pesto yet. The secret to big basil plants is frequently prune the top leaves, just above the joints where new branches are forming. This opens up those baby leaves to more sunlight, and the plant will bush out before you know it. I used to prune the bottom leaves, which only leads to the plants growing tall and skinny and flowering before a good harvest…
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Bumbles on Mint
Maybe because it is overcast and actually looks like we might see rain, the bees have kicked it into high gear this morning buzzing around the mint and oregano blossoms. They are so busy that I can get my camera within inches of their fuzzy little bodies without them minding. Watching them has become one of my favorite activities. They climb around and up the mint blossoms, attacking it like my husband attacks an ear of corn at dinner. They…
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Caramelized Cherry Tomatoes in Olive Oil
There is no doubt in my mind that fresh tomato and basil is the official taste of the summer. I can understand the argument for watermelon, especially as I have friends who live for Cookout’s seasonal watermelon milkshake, but there is nothing that compares with some homemade bread topped with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Our garden is currently overrun with two things: climbing squash vines on which no squash are currently growing and cherry tomato plants – Matt’s Wild Cherry…
