For the love of Produce...
Replies
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I'm almost as opinionated about tomatoes as @purplefizzy. Pretty much, I just don't buy them ever. I always seem to end up with some starts for the garden; this year I have six. I always grow Sungold if I can. This year I also have Green Tiger, Cosmonaut Volkov, Berkeley Pink Tie-die, Estrina, and Valencia. Sliced still warm from the garden with just a little pepper and some fresh basil is pretty fine. Every now and then I might buy some romas for a particular recipe, but grocery store tomatoes just don't do it for me.
That said, because of our climate, our tomatoes can actually be sweeter and more flavorful if we harvest early and bring them inside to ripen in a window. In the cool nights, some of the sugar turns back into starch, and it usually doesn't get quite as cool inside the house. I started experimenting with this last year. I will try again this year.
If I have room in my dehydrator, I love to make tomato chips. Oh yum. So much flavor in a crispy wafer. I might even have enough (of course I will) to pickle some green tomatoes this year. Woo hoo.
Too many years ago for me to actually remember, but I do, back in grad school, my neighbor offered me some canned tomato juice. I never was a fan of the stuff except maybe in a good Bloody Mary. Well, this was special juice. It came from his family's garden in southern Idaho. There was a cannery there and you could take home-grown produce and have it put up. This juice was over the top fantastic by itself. Even better was the time we essentially made a gazpacho from garden produce, added plenty of garlic, blended it smooth, and added vodka to make what we called Vodkazpacho.4 -
I ate the last three small artichokes the other day. As much as I felt overwhelmed by them, I'm now sad I won't have any more for ten months or so.
But now it's full-on blueberry season. I can pick two or four pints every few days. They freeze well, so after I eat as many as I want, I can put 'em on a tray, freeze them, then vacuum seal them for later in the year when I miss them so.
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The tomato box was actually 5kg for £2.50. No shortage of asparagus either.
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I'm almost as opinionated about tomatoes as @purplefizzy. Pretty much, I just don't buy them ever. I always seem to end up with some starts for the garden; this year I have six. I always grow Sungold if I can. This year I also have Green Tiger, Cosmonaut Volkov, Berkeley Pink Tie-die, Estrina, and Valencia. Sliced still warm from the garden with just a little pepper and some fresh basil is pretty fine. Every now and then I might buy some romas for a particular recipe, but grocery store tomatoes just don't do it for me.
That said, because of our climate, our tomatoes can actually be sweeter and more flavorful if we harvest early and bring them inside to ripen in a window. In the cool nights, some of the sugar turns back into starch, and it usually doesn't get quite as cool inside the house. I started experimenting with this last year. I will try again this year.
If I have room in my dehydrator, I love to make tomato chips. Oh yum. So much flavor in a crispy wafer. I might even have enough (of course I will) to pickle some green tomatoes this year. Woo hoo.
Too many years ago for me to actually remember, but I do, back in grad school, my neighbor offered me some canned tomato juice. I never was a fan of the stuff except maybe in a good Bloody Mary. Well, this was special juice. It came from his family's garden in southern Idaho. There was a cannery there and you could take home-grown produce and have it put up. This juice was over the top fantastic by itself. Even better was the time we essentially made a gazpacho from garden produce, added plenty of garlic, blended it smooth, and added vodka to make what we called Vodkazpacho.
I've grown sungold a few times and grew Berkeley Pink Tie-Die, Sungold did great in the heat and I love them but I didn't get many Berkeleys but really liked them. This year as far as tomatoes I'm only doing various heirloom cherries and two regular from Lowes. I've never tried tomato chips, they sound awesome! All I've dehydrated so far this year is lavender, all but basil, dill, and parsley grow year-round as I'm in the Sacramento area (9B). I wish I had room for artichokes like you! I went totally overboard with basil, I have 13 pots and it's been in the 100s, I need to start whipping out basil cubes!1 -
purplefizzy wrote: »just_Tomek wrote: »Our local green grocer is selling huge boxes of tasty tomatoes, maybe 2.5 kilos per box. Have bought these in the past to peel and freeze for fresh tomato sauce, especially as I am not a fan of the taste of tinned tomatoes that have been cooked at high temperature. We are now trying to clear out the freezer to make room for tomatoes.
Any other ideas on what to do with a large quantity of tomatoes besides peeling and eventually simmering down for tomato sauce?
Roast?
Dehydrate?
This.
Plus... ketchup, marinara (base for all other sauces)... and freeze.
2.5kg of tomatos is not all that much once you start going.
Disagree with the ‘not that much’ part.
My opinion is that tomatoes have such a high risk of sucking, being mealy, looking like tomatoes but not tasting like them.... They are like apricots. Eat off the tree or vine, or buy from a farm stand on location where grown, or... I’m not bothering.
They don’t transport worth a kitten.
To get them as deliciously amazeballs as they can be, they should - in my highly biased opinion- be consumed on premise, at ambient temperature. Salt shaker in hand for tomatoes. Apricots need no adornment.
All the rest I’m not bothering.
I’ll save stomach space for stuff that doesn’t so often disappoint me. I HATE produce disappointment.
So, for me, ANY amount of tomatoes 🍅 is likely too much
(snip)
Wellllll . . . to each her own, I guess. I agree that corporate tomatoes are generally quite sub-par, bred for shipping qualities, consistent turning-red time for a whole plant worth of fruit, and redness before ripeness, among other silly things. Not good for eating, because they put that too far down the list.
But even moderately poor tomatoes are pretty good roasted, IMO. 3 -
Goodbye artichokes, hello beets.
Marion berries are just starting to come in.
And while I'm not eating these plants, the hummingbirds like the scarlet bee balm
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I ate the last three small artichokes the other day. As much as I felt overwhelmed by them, I'm now sad I won't have any more for ten months or so.
But now it's full-on blueberry season. I can pick two or four pints every few days. They freeze well, so after I eat as many as I want, I can put 'em on a tray, freeze them, then vacuum seal them for later in the year when I miss them so.
Sad to hear it'll be a while for you to have your artichokes again. Mine are still getting there. Cross fingers. Gave up on our blueberry but our cherry tomato is going great! Passion fruit not too far off I think.3 -
So new treat for me... sugar kiss melon. It's like cantalope and honeydew had a delicious, sweet, juicy baby melon. It may be my new favorite.
Also for my radish experiments... not my favorite. Not bad and they will have their uses but not one that I will just add to random recipes.0 -
Any recommendations for stuffing squash blossoms, but not deep fried?0
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I just noticed that my squash blossoms have arrived. Blueberries are looking good, not quite ready yet. Some animal (I suspect rabbits) ate all my strawberries, though.2
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Time to make another salad.....
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My lettuce, chard, and arugula is all growing great. My broccoli is coming along, the cauliflower not quite as well.1
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Any recommendations for stuffing squash blossoms, but not deep fried?
Here is a baked stuffed courgette flower recipe.
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/stuffed-courgette-flowers-recipe2 -
Any recommendations for stuffing squash blossoms, but not deep fried?
Here is a baked stuffed courgette flower recipe.
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/stuffed-courgette-flowers-recipe
Thank you. I'll have to see if I can adapt this for dairy-free / gluten-free eating that we require.0 -
Have you got a favourite way to prepare carrots that doesn't involve the oven?
My favourite thing to do is to roast with a glaze of harissa, maple syrup and lemon but now that the weather is warm I don't really want to turn on the oven.
I sometimes make carrot rapees (=grated carrot salad) or quick asian pickled spiralized carrots. New ideas would be welcome .2 -
Shred them into very fine threads. Add lots of cabbage chopped in chunks and some salt, hot chile, garlic, fish sauce, and .... Keep the surface under the liquid and wait a few weeks. Mmmmm.4
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These are a few dishes on a typical day, then the last one is a platter I made for a dinner party4 -
I think carrots are delicious whole or chopped into a salad (or dipped in whatever dip you like -- I think it's a good way to eat baba ghanoush). I'm not particularly into shredding carrots -- dilutes the flavor for me and I don't like the texture as well.2
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These might be the last artichokes of the season.
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Beef lok lak is a national dish of Cambodia. You would have that Cambodian parents invented it to get kids to eat salad, but it was apparently introduced by the Vietnamese. We did our version with chicken breasts tonight. Served with lime and pepper sauce I forgot to bring to the table for the picture. Will use leftover khymer sauce on steaks tomorrow.
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Well, maybe it's boring because it's just more roasted roots, but the red beets and the golden beet were the first ones I pulled out of my garden this year. I ate some of the gold beets that got done before the rest of the batch. I did not grow the purple potato.
Anybody want to make something from red currants? They are super tart. My friend that always liked to make things from them moved out of state.
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Steamed artichokes with bearnaise. The step I hate doing with bearnaise is making the vinegar/wine/shallot/tarragon reduction so the last time i did this in quantity seeing as it probably keeps indefinitely in the fridge. Googled artichoke season and apparently it is longer than I thought. So yippee.
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As the weather warms, my salad greens will start to bolt and get bitter. Not yet though! The lettuces are getting HUGE though. As I also have some other things planted in the same area that would like to get some more of that fantastic sunlight, I started to take out whole lettuce plants rather than pull a few leaves off of many plants.
The oak leaf I cut yesterday for myself was HUGE. I couldn't eat it all.
I also cut a few plants to give away to people who are garden deprived. When I had made some space, I realized I have a few cucumbers that are almost big enough to pick. Bonus! I also need to start harvesting more beets to give a lemon cucumber some room, and I'm pulling the last of the radishes that are in between two of the tomatoes; I've stuffed some basil in there as a good companion plant, but they may or may not survive. It was one of those big pots that you can buy at Trader Joe's that's actually 20 or 30 plants meant to sit in the window. I split it into three or four clumps and spread them among the tomatoes. If one or two live, I'll be happy.6 -
Nam prik ong is a northeastern Thai meal I make regularly. A great way to eat lots of raw veg. It's a warm dip of pork, red curry paste, garlic, and tomatoes for raw veg.
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I've been trying different ways of keeping cilantro in a fresh state. In the past just keeping a bunch in a glass of water worked, but not lately. So my experimenting produced best results when herbs are put in the tupperware container wrapped in paper towels. Honestly, all my greens stored with paper towels lining their bags or tubs, whatever it comes in. It lasts well like that. I buy a lot of produce every week, and i eat a lot of it raw, so keeping it nice, fresh and crispy is very desirable.2
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I've been trying different ways of keeping cilantro in a fresh state. In the past just keeping a bunch in a glass of water worked, but not lately. So my experimenting produced best results when herbs are put in the tupperware container wrapped in paper towels. Honestly, all my greens stored with paper towels lining their bags or tubs, whatever it comes in. It lasts well like that. I buy a lot of produce every week, and i eat a lot of it raw, so keeping it nice, fresh and crispy is very desirable.
Have you tried produce bags? The ones I've found are made by Zip Loc. They have very tiny pores, not unlike GoreTex, so the produce can sort of "breathe" so the moisture doesn't build up and rot the leaves. I think they recommend washing and drying with towels or paper towels before putting them in the bags. I have a salad spinner and can put clean, spun lettuce and it keeps quite a while. Works for other things, too. I reuse the bags, so one box lasts for YEARS. In fact, I think one bag might last nearly a year.
I bet if you put a paper towel in one of THOSE bags, you'll really extend the life of your prone-to-rot veggies.
These aren't the mesh bags you can use when you shop to avoid the thin one-time use plastic bags, but around here you aren't allowed to use those right now. It's all single-use. There are also reusable plastic produce storage bags that allegedly absorb ethylene. They can help keep some fruits from getting overripe.
And while you're at it, plant a little pot of the stuff in the window for super-fresh herbs!1 -
I've been trying different ways of keeping cilantro in a fresh state. In the past just keeping a bunch in a glass of water worked, but not lately. So my experimenting produced best results when herbs are put in the tupperware container wrapped in paper towels. Honestly, all my greens stored with paper towels lining their bags or tubs, whatever it comes in. It lasts well like that. I buy a lot of produce every week, and i eat a lot of it raw, so keeping it nice, fresh and crispy is very desirable.
I normally roll coriander and mint in a small face cloth or tea towel and store in the vegetable drawer. Not sure how optimal this actually is. At any rate it cuts down on single use plastics.1 -
I've been trying different ways of keeping cilantro in a fresh state. In the past just keeping a bunch in a glass of water worked, but not lately. So my experimenting produced best results when herbs are put in the tupperware container wrapped in paper towels. Honestly, all my greens stored with paper towels lining their bags or tubs, whatever it comes in. It lasts well like that. I buy a lot of produce every week, and i eat a lot of it raw, so keeping it nice, fresh and crispy is very desirable.
Hey @icemom011 I love fresh herbs so - I just bought a few of these herb savers. Love em!! I’ll have to take fridge pics soon - they look like little trees in there lol
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Safari_Gal_ wrote: »I've been trying different ways of keeping cilantro in a fresh state. In the past just keeping a bunch in a glass of water worked, but not lately. So my experimenting produced best results when herbs are put in the tupperware container wrapped in paper towels. Honestly, all my greens stored with paper towels lining their bags or tubs, whatever it comes in. It lasts well like that. I buy a lot of produce every week, and i eat a lot of it raw, so keeping it nice, fresh and crispy is very desirable.
Hey @icemom011 I love fresh herbs so - I just bought a few of these herb savers. Love em!! I’ll have to take fridge pics soon - they look like little trees in there lol
That's really cute, but they need to be refrigerated @Safari_Gal_ ? If so, my fridge is packed for first half of the week, lol, no place for anything.1 -
I've been trying different ways of keeping cilantro in a fresh state. In the past just keeping a bunch in a glass of water worked, but not lately. So my experimenting produced best results when herbs are put in the tupperware container wrapped in paper towels. Honestly, all my greens stored with paper towels lining their bags or tubs, whatever it comes in. It lasts well like that. I buy a lot of produce every week, and i eat a lot of it raw, so keeping it nice, fresh and crispy is very desirable.
Have you tried produce bags? The ones I've found are made by Zip Loc. They have very tiny pores, not unlike GoreTex, so the produce can sort of "breathe" so the moisture doesn't build up and rot the leaves. I think they recommend washing and drying with towels or paper towels before putting them in the bags. I have a salad spinner and can put clean, spun lettuce and it keeps quite a while. Works for other things, too. I reuse the bags, so one box lasts for YEARS. In fact, I think one bag might last nearly a year.
I bet if you put a paper towel in one of THOSE bags, you'll really extend the life of your prone-to-rot veggies.
These aren't the mesh bags you can use when you shop to avoid the thin one-time use plastic bags, but around here you aren't allowed to use those right now. It's all single-use. There are also reusable plastic produce storage bags that allegedly absorb ethylene. They can help keep some fruits from getting overripe.
And while you're at it, plant a little pot of the stuff in the window for super-fresh herbs!
Thanks, it's interesting, i will check it out. I reuse my bags too, even the produce single use ones, they last a while actually. Same with ziplock bags. I also have some herbs planted, basil, sage, thyme, rosemary. It's cilantro that won't grow for some reason, idk, maybe it's too hot for it where I live. Hence store bought and needs preservation. Btw, i love your posts about all the things you grow, that's amazing. I want a blueberry bush too, apparently there's a variety that can withstand our weather, i will look into it. In the meantime, we are still in our mango season, so enjoying the delicious sweetness of it.1
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