Dear Gardeners and Cooks,

          Though the tomato crop is not as abundant as last year, the recent heat wave has hastened ripening of plants that got a late start.  This is the perfect time to make Caprese Salad (sliced tomatoes and mozzarella garnished with basil), BLT’s , and the following recipes, which are some of my favorites.  The soup can be served cold with a garnish of finely chopped cucumber, red onion, and avocado, a variation of gazpacho.

          At the end of the growing season, if you have room in your garage, you can follow an Italian tradition and pull up the whole tomato plant and hang it upside down from the rafters.  The green tomatoes will ripen slowly and you can enjoy them for weeks.  Last March, I was astounded to find a tomato branch from a San Marzano vine behind a table downstairs. The tomatoes were firm, red, and moderately flavorful, after hanging there all winter long.

          When you prepare your soil for next year’s planting, dig deeply and amend with chicken manure and compost.  Do not plant tomatoes in the same bed each year as they will be susceptible to verticilium wilt.  This is especially a problem with the wonderful heirloom varieties.  Check your seed catalogues for disease-resistant varieties.  Plant young seedling plants deep because they will also send out roots along any buried plant stem.  Be sure to water consistently as a way to prevent blossom end rot.

          Enjoy the bounty of our beautiful valley as long as possible.

Barbara Micallef, the author of this article, combines a love of color, flowers, and produce for the kitchen in her Dry Creek garden.  A watercolor painter who enrolled in the U.C. Davis Master Gardener program in 2004, she now feels she “paints with flowers” in her garden.  She encourages flowers that reseed and can be transplanted for color and texture.

She finds she can grow lettuce all year round, using shade cloths in the summer.  She always looks forward to her tomatoes which, she says, would almost make gardening worthwhile if they were the only crop, but then, you can’t leave out herbs, garlic, and a few zucchini plants mainly for the blossoms.

Recipes using the Tomato

Summer Tomato Soup

3 Tbs. butter

1 cup diced shallots, 8-10

5 pounds ripe, red, juicy tomatoes, rinsed and cut into big pieces

Salt and freshly milled pepper

Melt the butter in a wide soup pot over low heat.  Add the shallots and let them cook while you prepare the tomatoes.  Add the tomatoes to the pot along with 1 teas. salt and ½ cup water.  Cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours.  Give the pot a stir every now and then, checking the liquid.  Pass the tomatoes through a food mill into a clean pot.  You should have about a quart of soup.  Taste for salt and season with freshly milled pepper. Serves 4-6

At this point you can do several things:  1. serve as is, 2. freeze, 3. add a few Tbs. of cream 4. swirl in a Tbs. of butter seasoned with shallots, dill, pesto or basil puree.  5. Chill and serve with crème fraiche, diced avocado and lime juice.

Thanks to Debra Madison via Donna McFetridge.

End-of-Season Tomato Coulis for Pasta

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed and minced

5 lbs. very ripe tomatoes, peeled

½ teas. salt

½ teas. pepper, freshly ground

½ to 1 Tbs. sugar (optional)

1 Tbs. minced fresh Thyme

Heat olive oil in a pan large enough to hold all the tomatoes at one time.  Add garlic and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes.

Taste the sauce and add salt, pepper, and sugar if needed.  Continue cooking another 30 minutes to an hour until the sauce thickens.  Skim any remaining clear liquid off the sauce.  Stir in the thyme and cook for another 10 minutes. 

Let the coulis cool, then bottle it and keep it refrigerated.  In France, coulis is usually stored in wine bottles with corks.  Makes about 3 cups.   

 Thanks to "Tomatoes"