Tomato salad from the garden
August 23, 2008 at 6:32 am 6 comments
This year I decided to grow tomatoes (to save money, organic tomatoes are like luxury items), but I didn’t get around to it till late June. After some research on the web, I got an early variety; ‘First Lady’ that only takes 66 days to yield fruit. I bought 4 plants, and place 2 in the ‘Tomato Success Kit’ and the other 2 in a window box type planter. The ones in the Tomato Success Kit grew huge. I didn’t expect much from the other planter but it grew pretty large (but less than half the size of the other ones) with many tomatoes.
Some finally ripened early last week when the temps came down from the 90s. My first batch was about a pound and a half. I sliced them up with some basil from the garden, olive oil, black pepper and fleur de sel. It’s my favorite thing to do with these tomatoes. I made salsa a few days later with new tomatoes, which was very tasty but it can’t beat the basil-olive oil-pepper-fleur de sel experience.
Next year I’m going to grow red bell peppers. At $6.99/lb for organic at Whole Foods, I haven’t had any red bell peppers in over a year.
-Lina
Entry filed under: cooking, food, recipes, vegan, vegetarian. Tags: food, gardening, organic, salad, tomato, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian.
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1.
eatyet | August 25, 2008 at 12:51 pm
$6.99/LB?? do yall not have a less snazzy shop to get organic veggies from? geez…when yall come down here, we’ll get you good, yet cheaper red bell peppers. =D
2.
emmarose | August 25, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Your tomatoes are beautiful! How’d you grow such a great crop without squirrel, etc. intervention? If my husband’s telling the truth (he took horticulture in college), colored bell peppers are simply green ones which have been allowed to mature to their color-progressive stage of ripeness before being picked. Your tomato salad sounds perfect. 🙂
3.
oneshotbeyond | August 25, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Basil & olive oil over tomatoes…so yummy & healthy!
4.
eatyet | August 26, 2008 at 4:34 am
emmarose- in theses parts of Brooklyn, the squirrels don’t seem interested in my tomatoes. there are large trees in the front on the sidewalks and there are 2 fruit trees in the back yard (maybe the squirrels are more into pears and figs). the early tomatoes did have some blossom bottom rot (probably because it was so hot and humid last month). the rest seem to be free of it because of the cooler temps now. and i do use a natural spray from gardeners.com for extra prevention.
red bell peppers are just ripened green bell peppers and Whole Foods sell the organic green ones for $1.99/lb usually and the red 6.99. sadly one cant ripened the green ones at home like certain fruits. i guess it’s something about the northeast, we don’t have an abundance bell peppers?
5.
eatyet | August 26, 2008 at 4:40 am
chelle- i think at Trader Joe’s and the farmers’ markets they might be $1 to 2 cheaper per lb (if they are available), organic red bell peppers have a really short season here.
6.
SteamyKitchen | August 29, 2008 at 1:40 am
can’t wait to plant tomatoes again! will visit nursery this weekend.