Tomato Secrets ’Tis the season for a local farmer to reflect on one of her favorite things, its top types and a righteous recipe.

A few centuries ago, when I was but a mere kid, I used to help a farmer pick his tomato crop.

Part of the pay was that I could eat some of the tomatoes as I picked.

That part of the pay was well worth it.

To this day, I still can taste that terrific flavor of the tomatoes right off the vine.

Don't think I have eaten a tomato since that measured up to those eat-as-you-pick tomatoes.

Matter of fact, I know I haven't.

what about those really great catrpillars...green tomatoe hornworms....they are giant! and friendly!  It is like they encourage you to try and plant again, just so they can have brunch with you.....actually, of all the bugs I have ever handled, these were actually the friendliest...they seemed to like the companionship...(ulterior motive? feed me?)and heavy....almost like an animal,instead of a bug.....even with that scary "horn"...and they pooped like rabbits....golllllley....I had never seen anything quite like it....hated to tobacco juice 'em...but thought that just shooed them to a neighbor's yard(shame on me...)(I had to...it already had a name; Harold...and, well, you know, if it has  a name.....)

Up until some time around 1600AD the Tomato was thought to be poisonous, as it  is  a member of the Nightshade Family ... The Fruit itself was discovered to be delectible and were suddenly ejoyed by most of Europe, to the dismay of Would-Be Practitioners of the Borgia Arts, and Divorce Lawyers ...
 The Fruit of the Tomato is safely edible, but the Leaves of the Plant and the Vines are very Toxic to Humans and several species of Canine ... Suitably so, the Latin Name for the Fruit is, "WolfPeach" ... And, the Tomato  IS  a Fruit, and not a Vegetable ... One of my favorite things on the earth is a Big Ol' Cathead, slathered with a scary amount of Butter, and loaded with Fresh Tomato Preserves ... Really Great for a Mid-Morning Nosh, along with Good Coffee, or some properly prepared Black, English Breakfast Tea .......
 
Think I'll go and make a few Dozen Catheads, Right Now !!!

Now I have to on a ripe avacdo hunt - gotta do that recipe at the end of the article up top .

I have to admit... There's nary a day goes by without me slathering a few dry
biscuits with soft-spread butter and slipping on a few slices of vine-ripened
tomato. I always ALWAYS add ground black pepper - tonnes of it! The snack is so
moreish... In fact... they are so tantalisingly moreish that I think I'll skive
off and make some right now...

There you go - cyber article prompts immediate eating
response! What efficacy!

Bore Da, Taffy!
You say tom ate O & I say tom art O the Welsh say Tomatoe. I love them, grow them, cook them  and eat them. Happily, I don't have the big horned caterpillars that RY described. Ugggh!

Hey Hazel... Nice to hear they can still grow tomatoes (and caterpillars) in the Old Country... Cymru
am byth!

OK I have to admit though Hazel... I fervently barrack for the Wallabies in all
Internationals - DESPITE the fact I have my great-uncle's Number 3 Rugger
jersey (Wales v France 1939) hanging in my cupboard.   ;)

Mr. P. has nailed it with the tomato article! And roasted tomatoes, oh my.

Growing up, my dad kept a salt shaker in the garden for eating tomatoes off the vine. My mother's and my favorite week night supper was scrambled eggs with sliced tomatoes on the side. To this day I find tomatoes, kosher salt and a ton of mayo on white bread to be irresistable. Of course, Insalata Caprese--that classic with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil & olive oil--just with a fork or folded into a wrap or put on bread and grilled., or tossed with pasta.....fresh mozz, store mozz, any.

Tomatoes stuffed with chicken salad, egg salad, lobster salad, anything. Baked tomatoes topped with parm & crumbs topped with poached eggs & hollandaise or just on their own.

The proper Rhapsody to Fried Green Tomatoes has yet to be written.

which brings me to Peter Lake's post from yesterday---yes, a Bloody Mary Soup is something that I have done using fresh tomatoes, roasted tomatoes & canned tomatoes with basil & celery, but it now occurs to me that a Bloody Mary Gazpacho would be a nice addition to Brunch.

Many people "ripen" tomatoes on their windowsill, but tomatoes ripen much better in the dark. In the long cold winter when tomatoes revert back to not sublime, I ripen Plum Tomatoes in the dark for days and they actually taste like tomatoes (well...you know).

Well I have some Gazpacho experimenting to do now....

Hi there Taffy not Toffee!

Mornin' Taffy not Toffee -- welcome! ---------------------------- RY - Had me smiling out loud so early. ----------------------- My son in law grows the best tomatoes and shared them with me this year.  So though I'd like to rhapsodize further, I'm going to have a fried egg, bacon and tomato sandwich for breakfast mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm   Then maybe I'll check in with the other computer so I can get paragraphs -- drat, look not quite bright this way.

Welcome Taffy and Toffee.   I was in a supermarket chain on 7th Avenue yesterday and they wanted 4.99 each for organic tomatoes!  No wonder city kids are living on fast food!
 
I've never roasted a tomato, but I find a few that I can afford, I'll try it tonight. 

Whenever I think of Tomato Soup, I'm reminded of Andy Warhol's famous painting. 

I think it hard to imagine Italian cuisine before Marco Polo and the introduction of pasta and the introduction of the tomato from the New World.  I gather that it was meat and bread like the rest of Europe.  My daughter still does not like raw tomatoes, but this too may pass.  We do have Saturday farmers markets in Arlington, Falls Church and more distant points.  And there is a small store that has opened in Falls Church called Local Produce that sells produce from local farms.  So we can get tomatoes that are not a month in the pipeline and have no flavor.  At least we are past some of the odd notions like tomatoes being poisonous and can enjoy good food.  Potatoes are another one that came from South America (Peru).  I'm told that the local markets down there care hundreds of varieties, some in amazing colors and with wildly different flavors.  Thank you, Christopher Columbus, for giving us new food.  And thank you, Marco Polo, for bring us some of China's finest.

Gotta love those Just-off-the-vine tomatoes!! I am growing mine in huge buckets on my upper deck to keep them from the lips of the resident herds of white tail deer. We have had some tasty ones this year. I have both big ones and the little cherry tomatoes. We also buy and enjoy V8, tomato juice, regular blood mary potions, and fresh sliced tomatoes on sandwiches, as a side dish, and just as  you say, eaten alone with a salt shaker and leaving over the sink for the drips!
 
RY - Those huge fat horned green caterpillers just this week found my tomato plants! The dead give away they are present is the black doodoo pellets on the deck around the plant! I remove them by hand and squish them to green ooze. They hang on the stems ferociously, but a gloved hand can pick them off. I hate to spray chemicals on eating plants, but Sevin dust seems to keep them at bay!

My Aunt Alavene raised those cherry red taste treats called Tommy Toes and she would give me a salt and pepper shaker after rinsing them with a garden hose and like lotlot I ate them while I looked at the vine from where they came. That connection I imagine made them taste better but then there was the BLT when I got home and perhaps a little bottle of Coke that always tasted colder and better.

One of our daughters brought home from The Netherlands, a fresh tomato soup recipe that gets the most out of even undistinguished, never-going-to-fully-ripen or gnarly, misshapen tomatoes.
A chopped yellow onion is browned in olive oil that doesn't have to be extra anything.
Two pounds of cut up tomatoes are cooked in chicken stock.
The cooked tomatoes, onions and oil are run through a strainer, vermicelli or orzo is cooked in the resulting liquid and basil (we prefer dried) is added near the end.
A grilled cheese would be perfect but cheese toast is quicker and easier: buttered toast topped with sliced brick cheese and run under the broiler until bubbly.
I cut that cheese toast into little cubes and toss it on top of the soup.
I could and have eaten that meal more than once in a day.

Never having 'gardened' in any way, shape or form before I'm fretting over my tomatoes.  It seems that they have become a real treat for the squirrels who nab them before they have a chance to color up.  I've wrapped the plant in some netting (the kind you used to use for ladies' petticoats) in an effort to stop the foraging little beasts.   I've had one or two wonderful fruits before the squirrels did, but am now in high hopes of the afore mentioned goodies--tomato sandwiches (yum!  just the way ChefDeb prepares them), oven dried tomato goodness, eating out of hand, etc.                          ChefDeb, I see that our tastes run alike on a lot of food issues....the tomato sandwiches, raspberry jelly, cream cheesed scrambled eggs, etc.......

Oh! and Stoney that soup does sound really really good!!

When I was a child, my father would start his Burpee Big Boy tomatoes from seed in February. He planted them in several "flats" and my job was to water the plants daily. The "watering can" was a soda bottle with a sprinkler cork inserted. By the time it was warm enough to transplant them outside, they had grown to be about 6"-8" in height. We always had the earliest tomatoes ,and consequently I spent summers canning 400+ quarts of tomatoes. I learned to cook with instructions like "go the basement and get a quart of tomatoes".

My current favorite tomato "dish" is Insalata Caprese on a stick drizzled with a bit of EVO and balsamic vinegar served as an appetizer

We have a great location for growing tomatoes and wind op with many more than we can use and giving them to neighbors, except for one, he also grows great tomatoes and gives them to neighbors. He is  friend so there is no competition. On a hot summer day when you don,t want to spend time around a hot stove try a cheese, lettuce a d tomatoe sandwich. Cheese of your choice. Choose a good white wine or a coooold beer and enjoy while sitting in the shade.Omelets that include tomatoes are also good.

Eating a tomato

You pick it,
Wipe it on your sleeve to clean it,
Slice it with you trusty, Just slightly rusty knife, if ya got one, or
Just bite into it,
Enjoy it immensly,
Wipe your tomatoed face on your sleeve,
And work in the garden some more.

Repeat as often as you can

Olive oil, salt, and crusty-on-the-outside-chewy-the-inside bread can wait 'till your
yard work is done (more or less), and you can make it all the way back in the house
with an armful of just picked tomatoes without eating them on the way.

P.L.  "Ode on a Garden Tomato"

Ah, the sweet little cherry tomato
Pop one in your mouth and bite - O!
A tomatorgasm of flavour
Something to really savour.
I grow some on my patio
And pop one in my mouth Eee, O!
Every time I pass.
 
Hope that will keep Carol happy 'till PL comes up with something less silly.

Hazel--was that "Ode to a Love Apple?"   I like it..........I also like Peter's ........

Totally off topic, here I am sitting out a dismal rainy day in Wales - at least God is doing the outdoor watering. The weather man said it was the tail end of Irene, so I should be thankful for small mercies. A mouse let loose by the cat scuttles from under the sofa at intervals and  steals a bit of kibble from the cats' bowl. Little does he realise he's fattening himself up to be a tasty morsel anytime soon.

Goody goody, the sun is below the yardarm. I'm with Moose on the Bloody Mary. Made with my own tomatos, juiced. Yay! Ice, Lea & Perrins. Cheers. Wot, no celery? Who cares?

You see, Hazel.....that's what I like about you!  Most of us would be screaming and vainly trying to get rid of the mouse--and you see the cycle of life!!  Even through the rainy gloom you are able to think more poetically about a moment of life and render it picturesque to those of us far far away.  Well done!  

CHEF DEB: You had to mention lobster salad. You know that goes with everything and now my mouth is totaly watering for lobster.

IVAN: I do need that recipe for tomato preserves. Can you email it to me. I've got some tomatoes from my crop and would like to try it.

Yes, Carol~ I loved Peter's account of how to eat tomatoes. I chomp my way round my veg patch worse than a caterpillar, trying to judge just the right time to pull the carrots etc. Breaking my back lifting potatoes - very pleased, I got enough goodies into the soil to get a fantastic crop. I have this sort of mantra as I'm wheelbarrowing my home-made compost - "You gotta feed the soil so it can feed you." I have amazing compost heaps and cannot turn them too early in the year because snakes and birds have discovered a nest place with central heating. And hundreds of worms. Worms are great news for gardens. Sorry - I can get a bit passionate about gardening.

ChefDeb - Totally with you on the myriad uses for tomatoes, especially the stuffed tomato with salad, tho' I usually stuff with tuna salad, your choices sound great, too.
 
Hazel et al - Yes, on the Bloody Marys!! Lots of lime juice, Tabasco, worchestershire, horseradish, and some greenery! Very cold after you stir the ice around a bit, and about 2 shots of vodka, of course! We keep crisp, washed celery for just that early morning treat! Out on the upper deck to watch the orange sun rise above the eastern mountain of Jasper, throw carrots to the deer, see the birds attack the feeders, watch the hummingbirds sip and soar, and water the deck garden...."God is great, beer (bloody marys) is good, and people are crazy..." as the country song goes!! Yee, ha!!
 
Hazel  - Your garden sounds fabulous! I, too love to dig in the dirt and see things grow....found a huge fat earthworm as I was feeding my chipmunk this morning....left him alone, as he helps the soil.
 
Everyone have a fine Labor Day weekend! We are doing  porterhouse steaks tonight,  chicken on Sun., and ribs on Monday. The kids are gone to Fla. and all is copasetic....Just grateful to be alive and well!

I expect half a dozen worms per spade full of digging. Soil is like christmas cake mix. Hand-tame Robin begs for worms. He's so fat I'm amazed he can fly. He does eat bugs off my tomato plants.

The duvet calls - Nos Da, dear people. xxx

Just returned from the Sclttish Games and sat down to check in of the village.  Had a delightful time reading from beginning to end and laughed often.  Thank you all.
 
It was unplanned for sure but dinner tonight is tomato and avocado salad with lime and celantro served with tuna dressed in lime and brown sugar and grilled.  Off to grill.
 
Nos Da, Hazel, dear.  

Scottish!  How could I have meissed that Scot that I am!

Oh my it's been a long day  My fingers arre missing all the keys.

I can't win for losing.

Improvising is more valuable than research. The willingness to walk to a market grab and go eat a tomato or anything fresh is like saying someone somewhere grew this thing for me and I am eating it without fear and it may not be the finest ever but neither am I. Two imperfect little things...here...now...and probably no one else will ever know. But it matters.

One medium sized juicy, fleshy beefsteak tomato- peeled.
One dark toasted and buttered slice of whole wheat bread.
Two rashers of crispy bacon.
Bit of mayo.

We'd like to be alone now.

MISS KORTHAL:  I am far too lazy to make my own Preserves ... I buy mine from Smuckers wherever I can find them, or get the Manager at Kroger to Order a Case or three for me, without their being merchandised up on the Shelf ...
 
There is a little Amish Community that I love visiting, in Hartville , Ohio ... and THEY make some sinfully marvelous Tomato Preserves ... I am sure that all one need to do, upon visiting there, is ask where to buy Tomato Preserves ... and the LIPs will all point him to the same place ... Several of my Aunts made Great Tomato Preserves, as did my Uncle Reuben, and I learned from them ... but it is simply too much work for a Lazy Boy like me ... I am much better at eating them than making them ... (Uncle Reuben also made out         standing  Tomato Wine, Too ...)

LYNN:  Before the Polo Team returned to Italy with Pasta, the Italians would ladle the Red Gravy over Rice, or chunks of Bread, sometimes Toasted, or little Dumplings call'd, Gnocchi ... All are still popular Dishes today .......