It’s nice to have too many tomatoes. This doesn’t always happen, so when it does I start looking for potentially delicious ways to consume them. I’ve had several absolutely perfect tomato sandwiches this year. I actually prefer the simple cheese + mayo+ tomato combination to the more classic BLT. But a sandwich really only uses one tomato, and I have many. Sauce is already made and frozen. We’ve given to friends and food banks (and to be honest, some of these season finale tomatoes are a little over-ripe).

Soup is an idea. Ketchup? Perhaps, but I don’t use that much ketchup unless I am eating fries. Fruit and veggie juices, on the other hand, if tasty, disappear rather quickly from the fridge.

The recipe is simple and not my own creation. As with all things, I learned this one on the Internet. These proportions are rough and can be adjusted to taste.

8 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped pepper
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
(optional) 1 spicy pepper

Add all ingredients to a stainless steel pot and simmer from about 1/2 hour. Press through sieve or food mill. Chill in fridge. The site I found this recipe on mentions it lasting in the fridge for about a week to 10 days. It’s really quite refreshing.

The seedlings of 2011 have begun to emerge. It’s an exciting time even though it adds to the general responsibilities. Seedlings are coddled. They cannot be let to dry out, but shouldn’t be dripping wet either. Peaches must be kept at a safe distance; The light shelves all have plywood doors attached. Now that the workshop is mostly assembled, I should think about building more attractive light shelves.

Now I am supposed to write about the potential of Spring and hope for things to come. Too cliché? I think so. More to the point, I want to eat a tomato. A really good tomato. I also want the garden space to be clean, planted and growing. And since I am making wishes, I would like the wind to stop for a few moments of stillness.

These little stems will not have to brave the wind for a few more months. Yep, I will coddle these for months. It seems crazy in a way. They will need some re-potting at some point. I’ll shuffle them in and out of the house, and hopefully into the hoophouse at some point. Eventually, I’ll need to find a spot to plant them. And then I’ll need to be watchful for signs of disease. I’ll use plastic mulch this year to keep the soil off the plants. Always adjusting the experience of the tomato.

(Click the image for a larger view)

This heirloom tomato variety, Kellogg’s Breakfast (aka KB), is wonderful. Great flavor, nice size, awesome color, and seems to be producing rather well considering it’s large size. The leaves are showing signs of fungus, but so are all the other varieties we are growing this year. I need to experiment with plastic for mulch to see if that keeps the fungus away. Each year we usually choose different tomato varieties, but this one is a keeper.

Here is a little eggplant + tomato dish we have been enjoying lately.

1. Slice eggplant – enough to cover the bottom of your pan/dish
2. (optional) Microwave eggplant to soften @ 6 minutes (this speeds up cook time), dump out any water
3. Arrange eggplant on bottom of pan
4. Add a layer of basil leaves
5. Add a layer of tomatoes
6. Add a little olive oil on top
7. Bake for about 20 minutes
8. Top with mozzarella/parmesan cheese and continue baking until cheese is toasty and/or eggplant is thoroughly cooked

Anne says she could eat this every day and never be tired of it. It is good, but we have beans and cucumbers to eat too.

I knew I would be spending a little time today picking beans. I actually spent quite a bit of time searching for the stealthy little legumes. What is a legume? I mean, what constitutes legumeness?  I’ll have to look that up later.

We planted quite a few beans this year. I had somehow found myself with four different varieties and thought I ought to try them all and before I knew what happened, I had planted just about all of them. Anne announced she likes beans at some point, so I felt justified. The variety above is Dragon Tongue – a bush variety with purple and yellow/white splotches. It’s a good one.

The seed catalog also enticed me to spend my dollars on some attractive eggplant varieties. The most unique is the Turkish Orange. We grew Bambini eggplant a few years ago, another small variety. I didn’t much care for it. This Turkish Orange is a little bigger, more orange and just great. We’ve enjoyed a few eggplant parmesan already.

And then there are cucumbers. You can’t really tell from the photo below, but the basket on the right is full of cucumbers. Why in the world did I need to plant so many cucumbers? Once again, I am a sucker for varieties. The burpless is a favorite, so I had to have some of those. Anne wanted some of the lemon variety we planted last year, and then I thought it would great to plant some for pickles. The pickling variety is pictured below next to the lavender touch eggplant (also very good). I ought to be picking these cucs a bit younger. Their size and abundance was a surprise this morning.

Click the image above for a larger view

The new tomato beds have been planted. The hog panel construction is an idea I saw on a television gardening show many years ago. Probably PBS. These two beds are rather densely planted with 10 tomatoes each. And since there was some space in the middle, I tucked in a few melons (MN Midget, Banana and Pepino melons — these last two are completely new to us. Those seed catalogs must have come at a time I was really craving melons).

Click image for larger view.

Not pictured here are the basil I recently planted in front and between the tomatoes. We’ve been enjoying the spinach pesto, but basil pesto would be that much more amazing.

Most gardening books and seed packets will suggest planting for the least amount of re-planting. It makes a lot of sense. It saves soil, time and effort. It also likely produces less shock on the fragile seedlings. But in the Midwest and north, Winter is long and boring. If you glance back a few posts, you can see I gave in and started some veggie seeds in late February. With this jump start on the season, it becomes necessary to have lights, a good watering ethic, and eventually the resources to manage potting on.

Potting on becomes a very quiet, meditative experience. There is a certain rhythm to it. I can’t claim to have actually found that rhythm. I have always been a bit rhythmically challenged. Still, it was a day spent with dirt and sun, and that was nice. I did find myself a little bored toward the end of the day, but I potted on over 30 eggplant, over 50 tomatoes, and several peppers. Have loads more to go, but ran myself out of room.

That’s the other thing you need when potting on – space, and lots of it.

If you look closely, you will see patty-pan squash, rond de nice squash, tomatoes (cherry, brandywine?, stupice), beans, lemon cucumbers, lemon peppers (ripened red), okra, brussel sprouts and blackberries. It was a good day for harvesting. Tonight we had a cucumber and pepper salad with mustard vinaigrette along with a tomato and mozzarella plus basil salad with vinaigrette.

Whassup?! Where have we been!? Shamefully neglecting our blog apparently. I blame it on our faulty internet connection this past week and generally failing, aging computers prior to that. It’s really not our fault. Stop pointing at us.

Ok. So let me catch you up on some growth. While the blog has been neglected, I have remembered to water the seedlings. And they are doing pretty well. I’d like to toughen them up a bit, but it has been cold and incredibly windy these past few weeks. I’ve toyed with the idea of setting up a fan next to the shelf to simulate the wind. Worthwhile?

Pictured here are peppers (about 4-5 varieties) and tomatoes (about 3-4 varieties). Good times ahead.

Signs of Spring are not limited to the outdoors. Actually, the outdoors is still a bit cold. Well, freezing really. 9 degrees! And as depressing as that may be, there are pleasant signs of the upcoming season in our kitchen.

I’ve prematurely started some tomato and bluestem grass seeds inside. The tomatoes have started while the grass seeds remain unmotivated. I say I started these “prematurely” as most literature I’ve found indicates tomatoes should only be planted 4 weeks prior to your last frost, and not planted outside until 2 weeks after that last frost date. You can hasten the outdoor planting with covers (waterwalls, gallon jugs, etc). Our last frost date is optimistically May 15th. That means, if these other garden people are to be trusted, I have started these seeds about 8 weeks too early. We shall see.

Boxelder bugs are another clear, yet much less exciting, indoor sign of change in seasons. (Note – the photo is a bit doctored, boxelder bugs are really black with red markings)

And they really like computers. Is the warmth? The light? And more importantly, will someone come and get them out of the house? They are not dangerous and they can be interesting – the way fish in a fishbowl are interesting – but twice now I have found myself taking a sip of coffee and spitting the coffee out along with one of these guys. They don’t taste as bad as the multicolored asian lady beetles, but they still ruin an otherwise good cup of coffee. Jake has recently taken to eating them. Thanks Jake!

This was my morning. It was calm and reflective, but now my fingers are raw from pulling. And my fingernails are bent – I should have cut them before I started pulling weeds. 

That’s a good two wheelbarrows full of crab grass and other invasive trespassers. But mostly crab grass. It was out of control. And it was invading our beans and cucumbers and volunteer tomatoes and even the asparagus a little. All is well now. Except for my fingers.