2025, Baboon Achievers, Food, gardening, home, Nature

Tomato Land

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My bales look sorry this summer.  Saggy and disintegrating looking.  Ben explained to me how this can happen – kinda made sense.

But saggy and disintegrating doesn’t seem to be a problem for my veggies.  We’re having a bumper crop of everything.  Basil, chives, rosemary, cilantro, poblano peppers, hot macho peppers, mint and 4 kinds of tomatoes.  Romas, some heirloom, sweet 100 cherry and in a summer surprise, I’ve actually gotten a couple of Santa tomatoes from the plant that I grew from a seed.  I’m sure there’s more out there but I haven’t harvested for a couple of days.

Santa Tomatoes

I used up all the cilantro already.  Four jars of pesto so far, an ice cube tray of chopped mint with lime juice, another ice cube tray of chopped basil with olive oil.  Eight containers of tomato sauce.  Gifts of tomatoes to neighbors and friends.

And lots and lots of tomato recipes.  (This was all going on while I had a MASSIVE zucchini to deal with as well.)   I’ve made my favorite pasta with cherry tomatoes a couple of times.  Made tomato butter that was terrific on the zucchini corn bread.  This weekend I’m making panzanella, tomato basil soup and some tomato rice.  Probably time to consign some of the tomatoes to the freezer as well.  Whole tomatoes right into freezer bags for use this winter. 

Gosh – I feel like Renee and Chris with all this produce and cooking!

Any ideas for too many tomatoes?  Or peppers?

43 thoughts on “Tomato Land”

  1. Our tomatoes have gone wild with all the rain we had. We only have 8 plants, 4 San Marzano and 4 Brandywine. The Brandywine fruits are enormous. One of them weighed 1.5 pounds. Because we are moving we are not canning. We have been trying to eat what we we are able, and have been giving bags of tomatoes to the neighbors. I made tomato lentil soup, tomato tart, tomato and green bean casserole, tomatoes in pasta, mac and cheese with tomatoes on the top, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, all good, but I am sick of eating tomatoes

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        1. Tomato Lentil soup

          1 lb 12 Oz of roughly chopped tomatoes
          1 1/2 c lentils
          4 smashed and chopped garlic cloves
          1/4 c tomato paste
          1 T kosher salt
          1.5 t sugar
          1 t. Dried oregano
          1 large fresh basil sprig, plus 1 cup chopped basil
          Juice of 1 lemon
          3/4 cup heavy cream

          Put 5 cups of water and one pound of the tomatoes in the slow cooker, along with the lentils, garlic, tomato paste, basil, salt, sugar, oregano, and pepper. Cook on high for 4 hours.

          Take out the basil sprig and whisk the soup vigorously. Stir in the remaining chopped basil, tomatoes, lemon juice and cream. Enjoy. We used pardina lentils, by the way

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  2. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    That all looks like salsa to me, VS. I have been making a lot of that or just a vegetable mix. I throw in whatever I have.

    Salsa:

    Sweet corn
    Tomatoes
    Peppers
    Cilantro or parsley
    Avocado
    Onion
    Olive oil.
    Rice viniegar

    Veggie salad:

    Cucumbers
    Tomatoes
    Onion
    Peppers

    My Fresno peppers are nearly ripe. Then I roast them on the grill, skin them, and freeze them for winter. I have only done a container or raised bed garden for veggies on the deck this year. We have had a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, a few peppers, lots of basil. Carrots are coming along, too. My former veggie garden is now planted with bee lawn and covered with an erosion blanket. There are a few sprouts under that blanket.

    I am going to buy a box of tomatoes and can tomato soup. That is a wonderful thing in the winter time.

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    2. Yes, I forgot about the salsa. I made one batch last week and then YA “doctored” it. Pretty good. She has mentioned trying a new recipe for salsa as well.

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  7. I envy those who can talk about gardening. I miss it badly, along with painting. Today is a North Shore day. I miss that even more, even though living right on the lake is not a good place to garden.
    To clarify two things I mentioned recently: I subscribed to a protection service. It has been worth the money to have that worry removed. Only my SSN was on the dark web, which they removed, and they have given me several other steps to do to protect myself and given me other protections.
    About my recent very bad vision. Doctor gave me a stronger med for infection. But nothing to do about floaters, which get worse and some days pile up on themselves. When she does die, I will consider giving up driving, although my distant vision is not as badly impacted. Sandra keeps me on the roller coaster. Gives up eating, gets weaker, gets agitated. But then bounces back. That was my Labor Day weekend: fraud protection and Sandra seeming to approach the end. This morning she laughed with me as I fed her breakfast.

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  9. Just remembered I used to can a Spiced Tomato Jam that I still have the recipe for, but no longer have the book. I thought it was by Jamaica Kincaid, but I don’t see it with a search. Some southern author though, who wrote a cookbook about her roots… Back later if I find it.

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  10. OT-the wind here is blowing at a steady 33 mph, with gusts up to 53 mph. It is city trash collection day, and there are garbage cans blowing around all over the place.

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  11. Give all the tomatoes to 45/47 supporters with the promise of their consumption will give the supporter lycopenodermia. No tanning or cosmetics required.

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      1. I know a couple of folks who also don’t do tomatoes. I haven’t delved deeply about things like catsup/ketchup or tomato sauce on pasta….

        Another friend has developed a sensitivity to tomatoes in the last couple of years. I do know that this includes catsup/ketchup!

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      2. No I don’t mean that, I like ketchup and tomato sauce. I even occasionally have a tomato on a sandwich, but not if I can help it. I just don’t like eating fresh tomatoes. I think it’s the skin that grosses me out.

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        1. So no BLTs for you? I guess I find that hard to fathom because tomatoes are among my favorite foods. But I get it, we’re not all the same. Husband’s paternal grandmother wouldn’t eat tomatoes either. She believed they caused cancer. She died at the age on 98, and not from cancer, so maybe she was on to something.

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  17. Pingback: Tomato Land – landbyrachel.com

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