Tag: Tomatoes

Field to Feast: The Busy Girl’s Guide to Canning Tomato Sauce

Field to Feast: The Busy Girl’s Guide to Canning Tomato Sauce

Thomas went with us to market this weekend, as he does nearly every Saturday beginning in May and ending at Halloween. I was standing at my scale helping customers when a little hand, attached to a still-little-but-getting-bigger-quickly arm, reaches around me and starts fingering quarters in my coin tray. "Mom, can I have a dollar?" "Why do you need a dollar?  <returning focus to customer> That's $8.25, please." "I want a pickle on a stick." <picking up small hand and squeezing gently until fingers release coins> "Well, if you want a dollar, go ask Grandma what you can do to...Read More
Field to Feast: Cherry Tomato and Brie Galette

Field to Feast: Cherry Tomato and Brie Galette

Easy make, easy eat. That's how I like it. Cherry Tomato and Brie Galette I don't have time for much else these days and I found myself  buying Velveeta mac 'n' cheese cups and PopTarts (formerly known as Flood Food) to keep The Boy's belly full. After three microwaveable macaroni meals in as many days, Thomas has declared he won't be eating them again for a looooong time.  He's so used to my homemade soups, meals, and snacks that it really ISN'T a treat to get store-bought, but sometimes my 9-year-old needs to experience what a lot of other kids...Read More
I’m Seeing RED!

I’m Seeing RED!

And yellow and pink and green zebra-striped and black-ish and purple and golden-pink and.... that brings me to tomatoes and pasta Caprese. It's about damn time. General consensus is lots of green tomatoes around in people's gardens, but none are turning red. Well, this week, they started turning. I picked up a block of fresh mozzarella at the market the other day and, like a good FarmGirl, I have basil growing in a planter on my deck. This bounty, along with the colorful and perfectly ripe tomatoes I picked, made the most amazing dinner. Pasta Caprese is the easiest thing...Read More
Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

Should I apologize first or just get to the recipe? Ok, apology: I am so sorry for not posting anything in the last several weeks.  I haven't cooked all that much, actually, and although I have TONS of ideas floating around in my head, farmwork, heatwave and motherhood have basically wiped me out and left me the shell of a woman who nods off on the couch each night while her kid rides his bike with his cousins and  the dinner dishes sit in the sink until morning. I'm not going to lie.  I've eaten more than my share of Trader Joe's Thai Shrimp...Read More

The FarmGirl Cooks… and So Does Her Dad!

[caption id="attachment_620" align="alignright" width="223" caption="Sonny preps corn to blanch and freeze for winter."][/caption] Don't get me wrong... Mom does too - just not as much as (or with the enjoyment of) Dad. And most of his creations start the same way:  "Cut up some bacon and put it in a pan, then put in the ________". Do you remember the cilantro-chile sauce I made a few weeks ago?  I shared some with Dad (because SURPRISE!  he popped in when I was making it), and then gave him a bit to take home.  A few hours later, I get a call.  "I took...Read More

Don That Bonnet and Pinafore, Half-Pint — It’s Time to ‘Put Up’ for the Long Winter

I'm hoping that at least SOME of you will get the Little House on the Prairie reference in there.  I'm also hoping that none of my relatives have either photographs of me in a bonnet and apron or the wherewithall to scan and post said photos (face it - my childhood was waaayyyy over before digital cameras were even born).   [caption id="attachment_550" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="How many forklifts does it take to change a lightbulb?"][/caption] This is a busy time of year at the farm, especially when we hit mid-September and haven't had a frost.  Frost wipes out most summer crops - tomatoes, beans,...Read More
Zsa Zsa on Celery Avenue?

Zsa Zsa on Celery Avenue?

A Sandwich to Remember, A Friend to Share With My dear friend Jenny came to visit me on the farm 2 weeks ago.  We've talked about it for a long time, and finally it happened. She's an excellent vegetarian cook and we can talk for hours about new combinations and food ideas.  Jenny enjoys cuisines from all around the world. Living in an urban setting offers her the opportunity to explore a bit more than here in Orange County. Together we chose ingredients grown here on the farm and created a beautiful sandwich. Jenny and I met several years ago on the Weight Watchers online message boards, so...Read More
Just Your Average Summer Night’s Supper on the Farm

Just Your Average Summer Night’s Supper on the Farm

Not every dish I make has a cute story or a long, convoluted explanation or especially intensive preparations. But the Fairy Tale Eggplant do lend themselves to that. Sometimes they're just ideas that spring to mind when I'm picking or washing the veggies, or sorting the cooler (BIG refrigerator - like, we drive a forklift in there big) all by my lonesome.  I get a lot of thinking done in my 38-degree solitude! Sometimes I just have to get dinner on the table and this hungry farmer needs some good home cookin'!  Plus Dad will stop by most nights for at...Read More
Afternoon Delight… Or Love Apples, the Stinking Rose, and… Crest?

Afternoon Delight… Or Love Apples, the Stinking Rose, and… Crest?

[caption id="attachment_242" align="alignright" width="225"] SunGold Low-acid Cherry Tomatoes[/caption] Afternoon Delight, Tomatoes, Homegrown and Full of Summer The calendar turns to June and people's tongues start hanging for a real, vine-ripened, homegrown tomatoes.  Anyone who has lived in the Northeast for more than a few growing seasons KNOWS that you will NOT find a local tomato in June, but we can hope... and crave... and dream a little. We farmers aren't immune to the siren song of the Love Apple either.   Why 'love apple', you ask?  It is, according to Food Lover's Companion, "a tomato moniker that originated in the 16th...Read More