Here come the tomatoes

[dcarch]

It is so nice to have a nice cool summer salad from your own garden.

Green Giant

Janpanese Heart

Squash blossom

dcarch

The Beauty And The Beast

[LindaK]

Heidi, your tomato-shrimp-yogurt dinner sounds delicious, must give it a try.

cdarch, beautiful tomatoes and photos. cute couple.

Until recently, only my cherry tomatoes were producing heavily--sungolds and sweet 100s. Great for salads and pastas. Now I'm getting some of the larger heirlooms. I've been keeping it simple and enjoying them sliced with olive oil and a bit of salt, sometimes with fresh mozzarella, more often topped with my favorite combo of warm green beans, crumbled feta, and basil.

Last night it was cool enough to turn on my oven, so I threw together a quick freeform tomato tart. Puff pastry I keep in the frezer for such emergencies, topped by a light smear of tapenade, scattered bits of smoked mozzarella, thinly sliced tomatoes, olive oil. Sprinkled with chives and basil out of the oven. Nothing fancy but very tasty.

[SobaAddict70]

Sheep's milk ricotta cheese, heirloom tomato confit, Umbrian olive oil

[nikkib]

Heidi, your tomato-shrimp-yogurt dinner sounds delicious, must give it a try.

cdarch, beautiful tomatoes and photos. cute couple.

Until recently, only my cherry tomatoes were producing heavily--sungolds and sweet 100s. Great for salads and pastas. Now I'm getting some of the larger heirlooms. I've been keeping it simple and enjoying them sliced with olive oil and a bit of salt, sometimes with fresh mozzarella, more often topped with my favorite combo of warm green beans, crumbled feta, and basil.

Last night it was cool enough to turn on my oven, so I threw together a quick freeform tomato tart. Puff pastry I keep in the frezer for such emergencies, topped by a light smear of tapenade, scattered bits of smoked mozzarella, thinly sliced tomatoes, olive oil. Sprinkled with chives and basil out of the oven. Nothing fancy but very tasty.

I do literally exactly the same thing but instead of tapenade i blitz up a jar of sunblush tomatoes in olive oil and brush the pastry with that then drizzle a basil and olive oil mixture over the top, so simple and quick but absolutely delicious.

[qrn]

really late season here in front range of Colo.just got the first ripe one,,,still no romas even changing color,,,

Bud

[SobaAddict70]

time for bumpage

this is going to be part of tonight's dinner

more later.

[heidih]

My recent harvest from dad's garden. They are very dense and flavorful. Eating them as a hot weather meal with some popcorn and cheese.... Oh the big green thing is a very very early apple

[qrn]

My recent harvest from dad's garden. They are very dense and flavorful. Eating them as a hot weather meal with some popcorn and cheese.... Oh the big green thing is a very very early apple

Must have been cold there,we are at 5280feet and got the first tomatoesa fewdays ago,,,when i lived in LA,I wasnot growing anything it seemed lots warmer than that...

Bud , in the mile high city....

[LynnFoodies]

Such adorable tomatoes photos in this thread!

I usually make my own simple tomato sauce by boiling them for 3 minutes or until the skin is peeled, remove the seeds and peel skin and blended. Cook the tomato flesh crunch for 30 minutes over low heat until it becomes pure by the total solid 12-20 percent, and adding pepper, clove and cinnamon, sugar, salt. Love it!

[heidih]

My recent harvest from dad's garden. They are very dense and flavorful. Eating them as a hot weather meal with some popcorn and cheese.... Oh the big green thing is a very very early apple

Must have been cold there,we are at 5280feet and got the first tomatoesa fewdays ago,,,when i lived in LA,I wasnot growing anything it seemed lots warmer than that...

Bud , in the mile high city....

Yes there was a marine layer thing going on for a while - we end up with thick skins but super flavorful fruit. Works for me

[qrn]

My recent harvest from dad's garden. They are very dense and flavorful. Eating them as a hot weather meal with some popcorn and cheese.... Oh the big green thing is a very very early apple

Must have been cold there,we are at 5280feet and got the first tomatoesa fewdays ago,,,when i lived in LA,I wasnot growing anything it seemed lots warmer than that...

Bud , in the mile high city....

Yes there was a marine layer thing going on for a while - we end up with thick skins but super flavorful fruit. Works for me

Thats great...,nothing like stuff from the garden,not like that stuff from the market(whereverthey grow the stuff,

Bud

[phatj]

I got some orange cherry tomatoes at the local farmer's market that were almost impossibly sweet, like tomato candy. They were great for just popping into your mouth, but almost too sweet to do anything else with. Maybe a caprese salad type of thing with red wine vinegar, balsamic would add too much sweetness.

[Paul Bacino]

This is the first yr,, I grew nothing but REDS

I"M not diggin the greens and Yellows..

[Emily_R]

I made this Scalloped Tomatoes with Croutons dish last year and it was amazing... Just made tonight for the first time this year and again, it is stupendous. So good! Tastes like the best parts of a chicken parmesan sandwich without the chicken. My husband had it with two fried eggs tonight and said it was great...

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/scalloped-tomatoes-with-croutons/

[DTBarton]

A previous poster thought that it was a bad idea to use garden tomatoes to make tomato sauce. I have to disagree strongly. When we have a good tomato year (like 2011), we have way too many tomatoes to consume even after much sharing with lots of folks. That said, my yard is very exposed to wind, so I get a lot of small, not so pretty tomatoes with cracks and splits. Making sauce allows you to use large quantities of these ugly duckling tomatoes. The trick is to squeeze as much of the tomato water and seeds out of the fruits before you dice them and put them in the pan with the olive oil, garlic, and onion. By greatly reducing the liquid content, you don't have to simmer the sauce for very long (15 - 30 minutes depending on juice quotient) and it maintains an intense, bright fresh tomato flavor. Finish with chopped basil.

We froze about 15 quarts last summer in tupperware type containers and it was great even when you thawed it out the next March, blows away anything you can make with canned tomatoes no matter how pricey or San Marzanoey.

Another dish we like is eggs in hell. Make a soffrito with garlic, onion, chili peppers (hot or not or a mix) and diced tomatoes squeezed as above for the sauce. Simmer until the liquid is reduced somewhat and poach eggs on top of the soffrito. Great with toast, even better with grits.

[ScottyBoy]

Seems like it gets later every year but mine are finally coming in. Sandwich season has started!

[Bella S.F.]

I could eat my weight in tomatoes, and this time of year, I usually do. When they are this good, I can't seem to do much to them except cut them and eat them. Then there is fresh mozzarella, basil, and some Tuscan olive oil. That's about all I want to do with them. I don't want to disguise their taste.

[Pierogi]

Scotty, that's so weird that your's are just starting to come in. Did you start them late? I put mine (all seedlings) in around mid-May, and I've been rolling in the 'maters for about a month now. Of course, your climate is much cooler than mine, even with the very cool and foggy summer we've had (to this point, sadly that's all gone now). I'm actually on the down slope now. The plants aren't setting any new fruit, so it's just maintenance at this point to ripen the ones on the vine.

This....

is pretty typical of what I've been picking once or twice a week for the last month or 6 weeks.

Leading to this....

which is the current inventory.

Many, many, MANY tomato sandwiches have been enjoyed, and BLATs are on the agenda for this week. As is gazpacho.....

The large red ones are "Beefmaster" (I've had some of them that weighed over a pound each), the yellow/red ones are "Marvel Stripe" (I got the seedling from my CSA, it's an heirloom) and the cherries are "Big Cherry". I'm a little disappointed in those. Up until the recent harvests, they've been a little mealy and flavorless. Next year, I think I'll try some grape tomatoes instead of the cherries.

[Kouign Aman]

Early Girls and Bacon sandwich. Perfection.

The grape tomatoes are ripening steadily. The sungold never sprouted (very late planting tho).

[abooja]

I'm officially overwhelmed by tomatoes. I only grew two (heirloom) varieties -- Brandywine and Hillbilly -- but it's just the two of us, and they've been prolific, for six hours of sun per day. I have around ten pounds right now that I have to figure out what to do with by tomorrow.

This is a 17.4 ounce Brandywine:

And here's a selection from the most recent crop:

The Hillbillies were supposed to be streaked, but a lot of them turned out straight up yellow. Cross pollination with the Brandywines? I certainly prefer the latter. DH wasn't a big fan of the yellow tomato sauce. I'm not quite sure what to do with them. They were very watery. I don't think I'll bother growing them again.

[Toliver]

I was going to suggest to make a sauce from the excess but if your significant other doesn't like yellow sauce, then that's not a good solution.

You could always oven-dry the extra fruit in a slow oven. That should concentrate the sweetness and excess water shouldn't be a problem with dried tomatoes.

[abooja]

You could always oven-dry the extra fruit in a slow oven. That should concentrate the sweetness and excess water shouldn't be a problem with dried tomatoes.

I am actually doing this right now. 225 degrees Fahrenheit, convection mode, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt. I plan on freezing them when they're done.

[Emily_R]

Maybe a yellow tomato and corn soup?

[heidih]

I have never done slow roasted tomatoes, usually managing to eat them raw. The romas I was gifted with today were over ripe. I decided to slow roast them and they are lovely. They were done for an hour and a half at 325 with olive oil, salt, fresh cracked pepper, thyme, rosemary and garlic. The only miss was the garlic - I should have held it back as it got that burnt flavor - maybe add last half hour. Lat shot is a poor one of some of the tomatoes on toasted sourdough.

[dcarch]

They are here! They are here!

A shame to cook them. Plain salads, sometimes not even dressing is needed.

dcarch