fresh tomato pizza

it looks like the tomato bottom end rot crisis has been averted.  as you can see the tomato harvest bounty has begun.  i went out of town for 4 days and came back to a garden full of delicious veggies ready to be eaten.  besides just making a quick tomato salad with olive oil, vinegar, salt and basil, one of my favorite quick ways to eat them is on pizza.  i have in the past tried to make my own pizza dough, but i don't think it tastes any better than the dough you can get at trader joes, plus it's a lot easier and quicker to use the ready made stuff.

i first made a quick sauce for the pizza by chopping up some of my roma tomatoes.  since i didn't want to spend a long time cooking the sauce, i've found that a quick easy way to add more flavor is to simply add a few tablespoons of tomato paste.  the concentrated flavor in the tomato paste really adds to the sauce.  i also added some garlic and olive oil.  

once the sauce was ready, i cut up some of my yellow golden girl tomatoes, some fresh mozzarella, and some fresh basil.  i decided to use the purple basil because i thought it contrasted nicely with the yellow tomatoes.  i baked the pizza at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes.

ready for the oven

ready to eat

fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella.  it's no wonder the colors of the italian flag are green, white, and red.

here's a little tip regarding tomato paste.  since it's nearly impossible to use all of a can of tomato paste in one recipe, i scoop out portions about 1 tablespoon each.  i wrap each portion in plastic wrap, then put into a freezer bag and freeze them.  whenever i need a little tomato paste, i just pull out one of the packets and throw it into whatever i'm cooking.  it defrosts pretty quickly.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

 

the cherry tomatoes have been ripening consistently each day now.  i've been eagerly awaiting the chance to harvest some of the bigger tomatoes.  a few days ago, the anticipation rose as i spotted a red roma tomato that looked like it was nearing ripeness.  how disappointed i was though when i bent down to take a closer look at it.  looks like at least some of my plants are afflicted with blossom end rot.  it's a condition i had heard of but never experienced.  it is primarily caused by not having enough calcium in the soil.  i usually throw in a handful of lime to for each tomato plant, but alas this year i didn't.  also each year i tell myself i need to send some soil samples to a soils lab to get an analysis done to see what kind of amendments it may need.  of course though no matter how many times i think of it, i never manage to get to it before it's time to put the plants in the ground.  guess i learned my lesson.  so far it looks like it is just a couple plants that have the problem.  maybe the romas are more susceptible to it.  this is the first year i've grown them and the first time i've had this problem.  hopefully the other tomatoes will provide.  meanwhile though, my basil is going strong.  i harvested a big bunch of it today to keep it from going to seed.  looks like i'll be making lots of pesto!

ripe tomato

 

the tomatoes have officially started.  friday evening (June 10) i was checking over my garden when this orange beauty caught my eye in the sea of green.  i couldn't believe it.   never in my limited years of gardening have i gotten ripe tomatoes this early.  granted there was just one to pick, and the orange cherry tomatoes have always been the first to ripen.  but usually they start around the last week of june.  i quickly gobbled this one up, giving me what i consider to be one of the first real tastes of summer.  the first tomatoes are always some of the best because you've been waiting nearly a year to have the taste of them again.  my tomato plants are already heavily laden with fruits.  in a way it's a bit intimidating; when i look out at them i feel like there is a mack truck of tomatoes making it's way into my kitchen.  it's still on the horizon, but i know it's imminent.  

Over the past few years i've grown a tremendous respect for farmers.  sure there are techniques to try to manipulate things to get a good crop, but in many ways you're at the mercy of whatever weather patterns develop for that season.  it's challenging and interesting to see how those weather patterns affect the garden.  this year we had a good wet spring with warm temps, but not too hot.  that is until memorial day weekend.  since then summer has come on strong, and we haven't had a measurable rainfall for 3 weeks and have even hit temps as high as 102 degrees.  

the tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplants, okra and beans are relishing in the higher temperatures and longer stretches of daylight as we approach the summer solstice.  meanwhile, the lettuce, spinach, and cilantro is on it's last legs.  i've been eating huge bowls of salad the last week trying to indulge in the last bits of lettuce before it putters out.  it is only a matter of time before i'll be exasperated in trying to figure out what to do with all my zucchini...

roma tomatoes

a very young praying mantis finding a home in my lettuce

 hungarian hot black pepper

 kohlrabi ready to be harvested.

 

root vegetables with quinoa and rice

spring is in full force now and the spring greens are growing seemingly without bounds. but i know it will still be another 5 weeks or so until the main summer event even begins (tomatoes, peppers, squash, cukes, eggplants, etc.).  in the meantime, i still have cravings for some of the winter offerings, especially root vegetables.  the other night i roasted some beets, sweet potatoes, and parsnips and mixed them with some quinoa and bhutanese red rice, a wonderfully nutty rice with a gorgeous reddish brown color. it proved to be a delicious dinner, and quite colorful too.     

cut up a few parsnips, one large sweet potato, and 3 medium beets into small pieces so they will cook relatively fast and evenly.

toss the veggies in olive oil before roasting them at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.

half a cup of bhutanese red rice and half a cup of quinoa.

the rice and quinoa cook the same amount of time, 20 minutes in the same proportions with water (1 part rice/ quinoa to 2 parts water).

while the veggies roast and the grains cook, thinly slice an onion and saute it until golden brown.  then push the onions to one side of the skillet. heat some additional oil in the empty side.  to the oil add cumin, paprika, ground ginger, turmeric, coriander, and cinnamon, stirring the spices in the oil for about a minute to develop their flavors before stirring them into the onions.

mix all the ingredients together to combine, add a dollop of hot sauce (my favorite is sriracha, commonly found in vietnamese restaurants), and then top with fresh cilantro.

Salad Days

 

i couldn't resist cutting a few of my irises and chives for a bouquet.

 

with the past few rainy days and mildly warm temps, my lettuce has been going crazy.  in my limited gardening experience i feel like lettuce gives you the biggest bang for the buck.  the seeds are ridiculously cheap, easy to sprout, and once they get going, well you better like eating a lot of salad.  fortunately i do.  there's something wonderful about just going into the yard, picking some leaves, washing them, and tossing them with some oil and vinegar.  now i know home grown lettuce isn't as dramatically different from store bought lettuce as say homegrown tomatoes are.  but there is a sweetness and tenderness to lettuce that has just been picked that i think is missing from store bought lettuce.  

 

 

freshly harvested cilantro

  

chives i started from seed last year.

 

lettuce ready for the salad bowl.

i rarely use store bought dressing unless i'm feeling exceptionally lazy.  lately my favorite dressing has been to mix some good extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  the pomegranate molasses gives the dressing a tangy sweetness.

Worms!!

everytime i go digging in the dirt i'm amazed at the life that is teaming just below the surface: worms, millepedes, roly polys, spiders, grubs, ants, ants, and even more ants.  the soil is alive! - and that's just the stuff that i can see with the naked eye.  granted most of these i'm not keen on finding in my house (still wondering how so many roly polys end up in my basement), most of them help make the soil a richer place for plants. 

last week i ordered a box of 500 worms online (www.unclejimswormfarm.com) to start composting with worms. it's kind of amazing sometimes what you can have delivered to your front door.  i have a regular compost pile in the corner of my yard, but i have to confess, i'm not that skilled at it.  in fact i find it a tiresome chore to deal with.  it seems i never have the right mix of 'green waste' to 'brown waste' and turning the compost over is a task i never quite seem to find the time to do.  so why not let the worms do all the work?  i tried my hand at vermiculture while in grad school and found it to be a pretty easy way to deal with most of my kitchen scraps.  back then though i didn't really have a garden, so i didn't take much advantage of the nutrient rich castings the worms left behind.  so now here i am with a wonderful garden, and i hate having to buy soil amendments when i know how easy it can be to get my own.  i recently got a plastic bin, drilled some holes for drainage, added a few shovelfuls of soil along with some dampened newspaper and some kitchen waste to make a cozy little home for my little squiggly invertebrates (eggshells and coffee grounds are especially loved by the worms, citrus peel not so much).  now they are happily eating my garbage.

    The worms arrived packed in a cloth bag.   

 

The worms are becoming acquainted with their new home.

Into the ground

last weekend (april 23), i transferred my tomato seedlings into the garden.  i had been putting them out during the day and bringing them inside in the evening for a couple weeks to harden them off.  the truth is though that they had run out of space under the lamps, so i didn't have much choice but to start putting them outside.  i gave a number of the plants to friends and neighbors and kept 10 for myself.  when i plant my tomatoes, i plant them deep enough to cover the first couple branches of leaves.  the tomatoes will put out roots anywhere along the stem that is touching dirt, and this helps to make them sturdier.  i also put a shovel full of compost/ manure into the hole to give some them some good organic matter to feed off. 

about half an hour after getting the tomatoes planted, a fierce thunderstorm rolled through.  i watched the plants from my kitchen anxiously as the rain beat upon their leaves.  they all seemed to have survived the thrashing, and i thought to myself, "oh well, welcome to the real world now."

i'm still waiting a bit more on getting the peppers and eggplants into the ground.  they could go out now, but they really like the temperatures to stay consistently warm.  i'll be getting them into the ground sometime this week, now that we're into may (unbelievably).    

It's amazing how tall the tomato seedlings have gotten.

These are the tomatoes I selected for myself

A tiny pepper is starting to form.

Ok, so not all the plants are perfect. This one is bound for the compost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spinach is emerging

Tiny Kohlrabi

It's time to harvest some lettuce.