Tomato Summer

We had an unusually short tomato season this year due to a summer of rain. We had too much rain and not enough sun. But boy were they good while they were here. We still have two cherry tomato plants and two juliets hanging on, but those will probably be pulled up in another week. We've already planted the fall garden and we'll post soon on that. Here are some pictures of how our tomatoes supplied us with yummy meals.

The best way to enjoy tomatoes. Ahhh! Just a drizzle of olive oil and surrounded
by some of our cucumbers.


Wow! This was one of our favorites. We sauteed garlic, red pepper flakes and garbanzo beans. We added that to whole wheat shell pasta and topped with tomatoes. The tomatoes really gave it a fresh punch. Also mixed in was a huge amount of chopped fresh parsley and sage from the garden. This dish reminded us of another favorite. Pasta with pesto and tomatoes.






This was a real quick snack lunch. We made homemade hummus and sliced up tomatoes, avocado and red bell pepper for dippers. All it need was fresh chives from the garden and a sprinkle of celtic sea salt.


With most of the tomatoes, we made homemade tomato sauce and put up in the freezer. We normally can our tomatoes, but the freezer sauce just tastes fresher with our fresh herbs from the garden. We'll share our fresh tomato sauce recipe in our upcoming cookbook.

Instead of trying to peel thousands of cherry tomatoes (yellow pear, sweet 100s, and juliets), we decided to use the dehydrator. This really concentrates the flavor of the tomatoes. They're good just plain for snacks, but they also make great sun dried tomato pesto for the bread we make at our market. Poor Elizabeth doesn't like tomatoes, but she was a fantastic help with harvesting and putting them up. We do give the first prize of best picker of the year to our Dad. Thanks Daddy!


Bye Bye Tomato Season! For those of you wondering about fall tomatoes, we just don't like to take up the room in the garden. We have so many other fall yummies that take the space.

~~Laura