french babies...

I get so excited about tomatoes, I tend to forget about the other crops I grow. I planted French Baby Carrots and Detroit Red Beets in one of the new raised beds I built this year. That area of the yard doesn't get full sun, so the Beets didn't get very big, and some full sized carrots I grew haven't matured at all. But the French Babies are wonderful! Beautiful little carrots averaging around one inch long, but many of them are little marble sized balls. They are sweet and delicious! Next year I am going to cut down on the number of beets and double the amount of baby carrots!

Saturday morning tomatoes....

Even with the terrible growing conditions and battling the Late Blight menace, the small crop of tomatoes that have made it to the harvest basket this season have been gorgeous! These are all local heirlooms from Amish Land Seeds and I have posted about my belief in the importance of growing local stock many times. Everything I grew this year has a long history of proven growth in Southeastern Pennsylvania gardens.These gorgeous results just confirm this philosophy for me, and I can't wait to see what these varieties will do in a summer of ideal growing conditions.

Everything I have been picking so far has not only looked beautiful, but has tasted wonderful. I think my favorite so far for taste has been the Harfeuer. The Schimmieg Creg is the hands down winner for appearance. I haven't tasted a Howard German yet, the one shown below was just picked this morning and it is the first harvest of the season. The surprise of the season have been the yellow tomatoes shown below. I didn't order any yellow tomatoes from Amish Land Seed, so there must have been an errant yellow seed or two among my seed packets. (not at all unusual for a small home based seed saving company) I checked the Amish Land Seed website and I think these are Hahnstown Yellow. The closest resemblance I could find to the photos on the website. They are really nice little fruits and I would definitely grow them again!



Harfeuer


Howard German



Schimmieg Creg



Hahnstown Yellow

Cari Chay

It's easy to fall in love with a gorgeous eggplant at the farmer's market... the only problem is what to do with it when you bring it home. You can always make a wonderful eggplant parmesan, or add it to a pasta sauce that includes the tomatoes you are trying to find inventive uses for. But this beautiful grapefruit sized Asian Eggplant had Curry written all over it. I was going to use this eggplant in a tomato based curry until I remembered a simple Vietnamese Cari Chay (Vegetable and Tofu Curry) that I had seen in one of my curry books.


This is a simple curry that is just a Coconut Milk broth spiced with Indian Curry Powder and sweetened with Palm Sugar. There are no hot spices or curry pastes in this dish...







Start by frying some onions, garlic, and sweet peppers in oil...




When the onions are golden brown, add the Curry Powder and Palm Sugar. Allow this to fry for another five minutes while the palm sugar melts and slightly caramelizes...





Now add the Coconut Milk, and a few splashes of Fish Sauce. Bring to a slow boil...





Now add diced Tofu...




Add diced Eggplant and some fresh Thai Basil. Cover the pot and simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, or until the Eggplant is tender...





Serve over Jasmine Rice and enjoy!

world's greatest sandwich...

simply the best

It need not be said that the world is full of fantastic sandwiches... the Hoagie, the Hamburger, the Banh Mi, the Philly Cheesesteak... but the hands down winner for world's greatest has to be the simple Tomato Sandwich.

Maybe it's because this delicacy can only really be made during the short but sweet weeks of summertime tomato harvesting. The incredible taste but a lingering memory for the remainder of the year. Who in their right mind would make one of these with a wintertime hothouse tomato? (ewww)

The freshest bread of choice... (classic old school white bread is actually preferred), thinly sliced tomatoes directly from the garden, a layer of just snipped basil leaves, and the defining ingredients... a thick slathering of Mayo and a good sprinkle of Jane's Mixed-Up Salt. It's how I've made this culinary masterpiece since I can remember.

summer bounty