Garden Archive

Tomatomania

Posted March 26, 2011 By Adri

 

 

Wake up!  It is time to start your gardens!

Each year Bart and I kick off our garden season with an early morning visit to day one of Tomatomania at Tapia Brothers Farm in Encino. Great name. Great event.

Tomatomania

For tomato gardeners the Tomatomania seedling sale is the place to be. Gardeners are presented with a dizzying array of choices. And I do mean dizzying. Hundreds of varieties, thousands of plants, along with herbs, items for soil preparation and fertilizer. This is the time of year to shift into high gear for Spring and Summer gardening.

Tomatomania

It is time to clean up the garden area, prepare the soil, decide what to plant and where to put it all, and purchase the plants. We had a ball this morning, looking at the seedlings, chatting with fellow gardeners and listening in on people’s comments about their favorite plants.

Adri

I picked up some favorites from last year including Juliet, Ananas Noire, and Sungold. I decided to try some new ones too. Among them are Jaune Flamme, Haley’s Purple Comet (couldn’t resist that one) and Green Envy. Let me say it was hard to choose and harder still to leave all those other little babies behind. Check their web site for a sale near you. If you can not find one, do not despair. They sell seedlings online.

Tomatomania

The more I garden the more I am utterly amazed at the tremendous number of choices available to us. I love to grow unusual plants, and so over the years I have settled on a few specialty purveyors. For herb plants look no farther than Goodwin Creek Gardens. They have over 1000 herbs and plants including every herb you can think of and more varieties of lavender, thyme and geranium than I ever knew existed.

Tomato CagesIf it is peppers you are after, Cross Country Nurseries is the company for you. Again, more plants than you can imagine – hundreds in fact. Their catalogue lists the plants and their culinary uses. Another thing I love about their catalogue is the chart that gives the name and type of pepper, length, width, heat level and country of origin. What more could a gardener possibly ask for?

Tractor Man And finally, never again will you sneak seeds back home in your suitcase. Seeds from Italy is a specialty purveyor of heirloom seeds from Franchi Sementi of Bergamo, and from southern Italy the seeds of a very small company in Andria, Bari. This company is unmatched. Grow these seeds and you will be the talk of your neighborhood. Many of these are things you will never see in an American supermarket. They specialize in traditional heirloom Italian varieties, and lots of them – 9 types of arugula, 14 types of cima di rapa, 7 types of eggplant, 25 varieties of lettuce and 18 types of zucchini! Their catalogue also features growing instructions and recipes. Sign up online for their terrific newsletter.

A gardener’s life is good. I hope you decide to garden this summer. No one says you have to have a huge garden. Just grow something. Anything. Feel the dirt. Plant something, tend it and watch it grow. It’ll taste better than anything you ever bought in a store.

Ananas Noire

 

Note: You can click on any picture to see a slide show with even more pictures!

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

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Tomatomania

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Tomatomania

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Blood Orange Panna Cotta

Posted February 9, 2011 By Adri

Blood Oranges


So dramatic. So exotic. Winter in Sicily. Breakfast in the finest hotel. I am talking about blood oranges, Moro blood oranges in particular. Does any citrus make such a statement? This fruit will have you seeing red.


Blood Orange Juice


Cut a Moro open and see brilliant crimson throughout. Juice it and see an opaque liquid as dark as blood. Drink it and experience the marriage of orange with a hint of raspberry over a pedal point of tartness.


Blood Orange Juice


This is orange juice for adults. I figured that the juice, along with being a magnificent drink on its own, would be an unbeatable component in panna cotta. There are several kinds of blood oranges – Moro, Tarocco and Sanguinello being the most common. Although they all ripen in winter, the Moros ripen first and are at their peak right now. You can find them in Farmer’s Markets and many supermarkets these days. Lucky me, I find them in my back yard. I love my blood orange trees, but the Moro is my favorite – especially at this time of year. It is a wildly productive tree and now its branches are heavy with a medium sized fruit. The skin is quite rough and sports an enticing crimson blush. And, thank you Mother Nature, Moros are virtually seedless. If you would like your own blood orange tree, check out Four Winds Growers, a great source for hard to find citrus.


Blood Orange Panna Cotta02

Let’s get to the recipe – for a step by step discussion of Panna Cotta and the proper use of gelatin, take a look at my recipe for Espresso Panna Cotta. You will find lots of explanations and photos there. I cooked up several versions – all cream, cream and milk, more milk than cream – more gelatin – less gelatin. I settled on 1 cup of cream and ½ cup of milk. All cream and the dessert was undeniably voluptuous, but the orange flavor was somehow masked, muted, while the 2 to 1 cream to milk ratio allowed for a pleasant creaminess and a startlingly clean orange flavor. I settled on 1 teaspoon of gelatin to allow for a softer set. If you prefer a firm set, go ahead and increase the gelatin to 1 1/4 teaspoons. This panna cotta is something of a trickster – its dusky rose hue belies a bright clean orange flavor. So get busy, find some Moro blood oranges, or any other variety, and make some Panna Cotta. A word about the choice of oranges. Not all blood oranges are created equal. Moros are much darker than the other varieties, so if you use Sanguinellos or Taroccos, your Panna Cotta will take on a lighter hue. The varieties vary in sweetness, you may have to adjust the sugar.


Blood Orange Panna Cotta


Blood Orange Panna Cotta


makes 4 servings, ½ cup each


1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup blood orange juice, preferably Moro
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon gelatin
fresh berries and mint to garnish


Combine heavy cream, milk and sugar in medium sauce pan. Over medium heat, stir to combine and dissolve the sugar. Heat to scalding. Remove from heat. Meanwhile pour orange juice in small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow to soften. After gelatin has softened, pour the orange juice mixture into the scalded cream, stirring to combine thoroughly and dissolve gelatin. Pour through a fine strainer into a clean bowl. Place bowl over ice bath, stirring often to cool uniformly. Transfer mixture into serving glasses. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight, until ready to serve. When ready to serve top panna cotta with fresh berries and mint.


Blood Orange Panna Cotta


Note: You can click on any picture to see a slide show!

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Tomato Jam

Posted September 1, 2010 By Adri


Tomato Jam

Crostini with Ricotta and Tomato Jam


Well, I walked out into my garden yesterday morning and I started picking Juliet tomatoes. And I picked. And I picked. By the time I finished I was astounded at the morning’s yield from one plant. And in just a couple of minutes. Astounded, I say. There were four and one-half pounds! First off I reflected on how pleased I was with the yield from my one very productive Juliet plant. Then I got practical. I thought about what I was going to do with them. Ovoid, red, firm and juicy, they are one of my favorite tomatoes. I could eat them out of hand. I could make my favorite eggs for breakfast, Cheesy Eggs, that is. See my older post on the subject. I could share them with neighbors. Or I could do what any cook does in August when faced with abbondanza such as this. Make jam. Yes, indeed. Tomato jam. If you have never had it, stay with me. Tomato jam is sweet, the very essence of tomato. Over the years I have seen many recipes. Some call for nothing more than tomatoes and sugar. Others call for the addition of citrus juice and or zest, red wine vinegar, cinnamon, cumin, chiles de arbol, jalapenos, cloves, ginger, bay leaves, and that is just for starters. Remembering a post about Sicilian Tomato Jam from Judy of Divina Cucina and another from Deborah of Italian Food Forever, I got to work. One thing I love about cooking is looking at another’s work and building upon it. So here with sincere thanks to both Judy and Deborah is my version of Tomato Jam.

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Gold Medal Tomato

Posted July 30, 2010 By Adri

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes
 
Gold Medal Tomato
 
No wonder they call it Gold Medal!  Full, sweet flavor, low acid and almost two pounds, these yellow and red bi-color beauties sport a classic multi-lobed heirloom look.   If you can find some of these, try one. You will not be disappointed.

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

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Ananas Noire Tomato

Posted July 27, 2010 By Adri

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes
 
Ananas Noire Tomato
 
Green, purple orange and yellow all at the same time.  Meet Ananas Noire, or as Bart calls it “the Anais Nin tomato”.  WOW!! Another great find from Tomatomania.  It was marked Ananas Nir, but it was not until I googled it last week that I learned its correct name is Ananas Noire, French for Black Pineapple.  This fruit has it all, from the sweet opening to the well balanced tang at the finish.  These are big and juicy with bright green flesh.  I hope you can find some at your local Farmer’s Market… or perhaps in your own backyard.

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

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Sungold Tomato

Posted July 23, 2010 By Adri

The first in an ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes
 
Sungold Tomato
 
WOW!! What a tomato!  Introduced by Thompson and Morgan seed growers in 1992, Sungold is new to me this year.  While at Tomatomania some home gardeners were extolling the plant’s virtues, and am I ever glad I was there to listen in.  “You won’t believe how sweet it is.”  “You will get tons.”  “Pretty hardy.”  That’s what I heard, and it was enough for me.  This tomato is all that and more.

The fruit is borne on long trusses, and each of my Sungold tomatoes weighs between 1/4 and 1/2 ounce.  My plant, which I put in the ground in April is already taller than I am.  They are so sweet you will eat them out of hand, so if you plan to use them in a recipe, set them away from all the snackers in your home!

I hope you will be able to find some Sungolds this season.  Check out your local Farmer’s Markets.  I bet you will get lucky.
 
I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

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