Posts Tagged ‘tomato’

The most liberating words a gardener can hear when he or she moves into a new place are: “You can do whatever you want back there.” When first-time gardeners Jen and Geoff moved to North Providence, Rhode Island, they got that OK — and ran with it.

[Last spring, Geoffrey dug up a large square of dirt along the back fence and we bought some garden soil to mix in with the dirt. He found some stakes and fencing in someone’s recycling bin and before we knew it, the outline for our garden was set. In two mounds plus two rows, I fit cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, parsley, potatoes and green beans. We also had a couple of large pots on our front porch for a rosemary plant and another tomato seedling.]

[ The birds took a liking to our green bean sprouts, but Geoffrey made a scarecrow out of clothes we were giving to Goodwill and that seemed to solve the problem. Even the potatoes came through for us, which was a little surprising. Sure they were small, but it’s always fun to eat food that you grow yourself anyway. When the growing season was over we picked all of our parsley, dried it out, chopped it up, and put it into seasoning shakers. I’m still using it! Our rosemary plant is also still thriving.]

[This year we decided to expand our garden by a couple of feet in each direction. Now we have three rows and three mounds. The tomatoes and cucumbers are growing faster than we can pick them, and we’ve gotten some small green peppers and a few handfuls of green beans.

Growing our food has been an exciting adventure for us. I am always looking for new, healthy recipes to try that use the veggies from our garden and we are always talking about what we can improve/expand in the coming years. Next summer we will be relocating farther south and that means a longer growing season! I can’t wait to see what our future gardens hold for us.]

Do you keep a garden you want me to feature? Send photos and a short description of what you’re doing to sftrent at gmail.

The heirloom tomato bruschetta Katrina brought to my Twice Removed Potluck was among the best things on the table that day – the cherry basalmic vinegar combined with sweet, fresh, farmers market tomatoes was incredible! (I’m drooling at my laptop just thinking about it…) The fact that the onions came from her mom’s backyard made it all that much better.

I would have included this recipe with the other three others in the party blog post, but Katrina got such great photos of her tomatoes that I had to share it separately!

Katrina’s Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta

• 4 tomatoes, chopped (best if you use a variety of heirloom tomatoes)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/4 Onion (or a couple small homegrown onions)
• 3/4 cup Big Paw cherry balsamic vinegar (or other balsamic vinegar)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 baguette
• 1 package blue cheese, crumbled

Mix tomatoes, basil, onion, basalmic vinegar, and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside – the topping is best if its made several hours in advance, so the basalmic flavor can soak into the fruit.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut baguette into slices and brush both sides with olive oil. Arrange slices on a baking sheet and put in oven for 3 minutes.

Flip bread and spoon on crumbled blue cheese. Place back in oven for another 3-5 minutes. Pull out, spread cheese with the back side of a spoon for an even coating, and place on them on a serving tray.

Top each with tomato mix and make sure to get the vinegar too, as it helps flavor and soften the bread.