Barefoot Gardening

Thanks to Smitten Kitchen, who inspired Wild Suburbia, who inspired me, there are amazing smelling tomatoes in my oven right now.  If you recall, these are the Principe Borghese grape/plum tomatoes, which are intended for drying. Chopped in half with my trust Santoku knife, I’ve been slow roasting them at 225 degrees for 2.5 hours with some olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and a smidge of salt and pepper. They should keep nicely in the fridge in a small container with a bit of olive oil for snacking and use in dishes.

Before, sliced on parchment paper:

Sneaking a peak as they’re almost done. The result is a very sweet little tomato:

Be with us next time for ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ or ‘What do I do with all this Panko?’

I cannot get over how pretty the green zebras are.  I’m hoping to harvest enough of the principe borghese this week to roast with some olive oil like this. I only have one plant of each variety, in containers, so I’m not hoping for too much, despite how each plant has overgrown the container. Admittedly, I ate one of the green zebras before taking the pic, or there’d be more to see.

You might call me the one-foot gardener today instead of the barefoot gardener. After an injury, i’ve been having to elevate and rest my left foot, but I needed a little fresh air, so I limped outside briefly to see what was ripe.

My mole peppers are about ready to be harvested as well. They’re a type of pasilla pepper, bred for mole sauce. I was planning to follow the standard recipe that comes with the ‘Holy Mole’ seeds (and use Mexican chocolate instead of any old unsweetened chocolate), but am soliciting any favorite recipes of readers. Please, comment away!

Lastly, a quick self-serving plug. My blog has its own page on Facebook where the feed is syndicated. I occasionally post extra pictures and links over there to avoid the annoying formatting issues I have in WordPress. Hop on over and press the Like button: https://www.facebook.com/BarefootGardening

The Principe Borghese  were intended to be for sun-drying, but my parents tried some right off the vine and enjoyed them. I was just excited to have *something* ripe in the garden. That’s my dad holding the tomatoes, by the way, my hands are not so manly

I am mildly allergic to tomatoes, so I don’t bother growing them. However, my dad is a huge fan of eating fresh tomatoes, so I sent him a bunch of heirloom seedlings for his birthday. (Yes more garden gifts… I can’t help it)

I sent 12 seedlings of two types: Black Krim, because they’re pretty and salty perfection for salads, and Mortgage Lifter, which are huge and low-acid. I highly recommend Gurney’s for seedlings if you’re not interesting in starting from seed, though it’s also good to support your local nursery. I’m on the opposite coast of my parents, so shipping through an online store was perfect. The great things about heirloom plants is that they are the gift that keeps on giving when you collect the seeds.

Here is the plant progress so far… still small, but they should produce plenty of fruit before the summer’s over.

Black Krim tomato

Mortgage Lifter tomato