London City Farm Tomato Fest

Mark your calendars for the London City Farm Tomato Fest Saturday September 18th, 2010 11 am – 2 pm Covent Garden Market Enjoy tomato tastings of over 40 unique varieties of tomatoes. Specialty dishes created by some of London’s finest chefs. Live entertainment as well as education and recipe seminars.  Read More

Zelda's Garlic and Herb Seasoning

My good friend Karen gave me this intriguing little jar for Christmas – thanks Karen! Inside the jar, was Zelda”s Garlic & Herb Seasoning. This particular blend contained 10 herbs and spices. I am told that Zelda grows most of her own herbs (making it local) and then dries them and packages them up into different spice packets and blends. Zelda”s business is based out of Dashwood, Ontario – which is near Grand Bend. Attached to the jar was a simple, mini card stating that the ingredients are all natural and salt free. Some helpful information along with serving suggestions were also included. For instance, this particular blend can be used as a seasoning for a creamy dip, a herbed cream cheese perhaps, a marinade or a even a meat rub. It can also be used as a flavouring for soups, pasta, mashed potatoes, rice, vegetables and eggs. I happened to have a glut of some small tomatoes that my aunt had brought over on Boxing Day, I was getting worried about what I would do with all of them before they started to go downhill and the it occurred to me,I could roast them up – this provided me with the perfect opportunity to try these little dried herbs out. Results? Delicious. There are many ways to roast tomatoes,probably the most popular way would be to roast them at 225º for about 4 hours. I was a little impatient this evening, so I upped the oven to 300º and roasted for about 2 hours instead. These are great slathered on top of a little goat cheese on a piece of toasted baguette, or you could use them in a pasta dish or just in a salad. Semi-slow Roasted Tomatoes About 20 small tomatoes, halvedParchment paperoil of your choicesalt and pepperspices Preheat oven to 300º. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Cut each of the tomatoes in half. Place cut side up, sprinkle with salt, pepper and spices, then drizzle with the olive oil, pop into oven and wait and wait and wait. If you are interested in trying out these herbs please call Zelda directly for information on where you can purchase them, as well as any other blends that she has available. Zelda Woods69644 Corbett LineRR2, Dashwood Ontario519-294-6576  Read More

Heirloom Tomatoes!

I now officially have so many little tomatoes, I do not know how to eat them all! I should have grown some bigger ones, then I could have at least canned some of them. I grew a few heirloom varieties this year and I have some pretty interesting shapes and colours happening. I have a Yellow Pear Tomato, which dates back to the 1800”s and like it”s name suggests, is shaped just like a little pear – this little guy is surprisingly fleshy/meaty for it”s size. I have another little yellow cluster type tomato that is about the same size as the pear tomato but it is a tad more round and much sweeter and juicier, which is delicious. Also, my favourite so far – is a really pretty kind of tomato called a Garden Peach Tomato, which has a fine, fine fuzz, just like a peach! This tomato is yellow with a pink hue here and there – very pretty and extremely tasty! I have a few other red tomatoes in the group growing that are real gnarly looking but taste so earthy and are a real favourite – I think they are Brandywine. For some reason the slugs keep going for these and usually get them before me! Tomatoes. My favourite thing to grow and my favourite ingredient to cook with. Grow them, love them.. report back to me with your favourties! Kelly  Read More

You say Tomato, I say Tomatoe…

Everyday I come home from work and I stroll over to my 3 little raised beds and I check on my tomato plants. I have great affection for these plants, this type of affection can sometimes be hard to explain to people, but the tomato plant holds a very special place in my heart. Maybe it is the effort that I take in growing the different heirloom varieties all the way from seed, or perhaps it is the irresistible musky/earthy and green type of smell that only tomato leaves possess, whatever it is I just love the tomato and I am not calling the whole thing off! I fuss and prune and pinch these little plants until they grow into the large wilda-beasts you see above. Truth is, they are well worth the effort when it comes time to harvest them, they have the most delicious taste and texture – nothing beats a fresh tomato, picked at its perfection – right from your own backyard. Not to be neglected, I also have Brussels Sprouts, Rainbow Chard, Tomatillos,Eggplant,Mint, Coriander, Basil, Rosemary, Sage, Hot Peppers, Bell Peppers and Carnival Carrots growing in my garden. Take a look! Those marigolds I planted amongst the vegetables this year really did the trick in keeping the bugs away. My tomatoes do not have a single bite out of them – the fruit has not shown up yet, but the beginnings of them are there. I have been thinking and I know alot of you planted your very own vegetable gardens this year. Maybe you can send me a picture (just one!). Pick your favourite photo and email it to me and I will make a post of all of your gardens. Email address can be found here. Happy Gardening!  Read More

Spicy Tomato Chutney

This week I had an abundance of tomatoes..I am talking about a lot of tomatoes..seriously. To quote Grey in Grey”s Anatomy (which started again this week- yahoo!). Seriously! Tons of them coming in from my little, yet abundant garden. Many of my tomatoes are yellow this year- I am not quite sure why. You see, I cannot remember when I was planting the tomatoes this spring, if I actually planted yellow tomatoes or not, but as it turns out, I have a profuse amount of yellow tomatoes. Perfectly formed, ripe.. but still..yellow. It”s probably due to lack of sunshine and too much water this summer, but its all okay in my books because they still taste delicious! To give credit where credit is definitely due – I saw this recipe last fall on another blogger”s site and bookmarked it for this year because it sounded very “yum-0″. Colour note: Mine is more a wonderful orange color, due to the mixture of yellow and red tomatoes. Here is where you can find the original recipe: http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-make-wonderful-spicy-tomato.html And the following recipe is what I did. It is very similar, but still different. Enjoy! Spicy Tomato Chutney 8 tablespoons of Olive oil 2 tsp mustard seeds (brown or black) 2 tsp fennel seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 4 dried red chilies 1 tsp cayenne pepper 4 cups sugar 2 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar 4 1/2 lbs tomatoes – yellow and red salt to taste Heat your olive oil in a large tall pan. Add in mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds,dried red chilies and cayenne pepper. Cook a couple of minutes until the seeds start to pop and spit. Reduce the heat to low,add the vinegar and sugar – stir until sugar is dissolved into the vinegar. Core all of your tomatoes – then add them into the vinegar solution. You can leave the skins on because you are going to simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally, where after this hour, start to pick out the tomatoes skins with a pair of tongs. Continue to cook for about a half hour more on low until the tomatoes have all turned to mush and sauce thickens up a bit. Pick out what you see left of the dried (now wet!) chilies. Note: the consistency to me seems quite runny, but so be it.. I think it will still be delish. Get your jars all sanitized – it should be about 7-8 medium sized jars. Pour the spicy chutney into your jars, and seal. Put filled jars into a hot water bath (cover the jars at least 2 inches of water) for another 10-15 minutes, remove to cool – you should hear the pop as you take them out, but don”t freak out if they don”t pop straight away..some will pop later. If you have jars that do not “pop” you will need to store these in the fridge and eat within 1.5 – 2 weeks. This chutney is spicy! I have not decided what I will eat it with just yet – I am thinking with cheese or on sandwiches and burgers.. ah.. decisions, decisions.  Read More