Fun With Heirloom Tomatoes

Now that I’m over that nasty bout with salmonella-laced foreign tomatoes, I must say I’m delighted that my own heirlooms are finally turning red in the garden, providing the sweetest, meatiest, most desirable fruit/veggie on the planet. Since the FDA rescinded its warnings due to the sudden availability all over America of actual locally-grown tomatoes, we can talk about what to do with all that juicy incoming bounty.

Processing tomatoes for preservation (or just for making dinner) is a messy job. That’s why I planted varieties this year that are known more for their usable inner ‘meat’ than their juice and seeds. Plus it’s been a bit dry this season, so too much water definitely isn’t their issue. When it comes time to do the processing, you may wish to do what I do and use the back deck grill instead of the kitchen stove to boil those large amounts of water. No air conditioning here, it’s usually not necessary and is a total waste of ‘trons. But when you’ve got big pots of water boiling in the kitchen for long periods of time, even the most mellow of summer mountain weather can quickly become unbearable.

Here are the basic prep steps for processing fresh tomatoes:

1. Wash all your tomatoes in running cold water. Even if you never use pesticides or pepper spray on them, washing is always a good idea (unless you’re eating tomatoes while out there picking them).

2. Put tomatoes in rapidly boiling water for 10-20 seconds, until you see the skin split. Remove quickly and put them in cold water (I fill up the sink with cold water ahead of time). This stops the cooking and further loosens the skins.

3. Cut the parboiled tomatoes in half and cut out the stem-end core, pull off the skins. Then quarter, squeeze out the seeds, seed membranes and juice into a compost container or bowl (from which you can later extract seeds to save and juice to drink).

4. Put the peeled and seeded tomato quarters (or pieces, if you chop further) into a colander or sieve to drain more moisture. I usually sprinkle salt on them at this point, it helps to get the moisture out.

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How NOT to Be Poisoned By Your Food

As we homesteaders begin to rake in the summer produce (while planning for yet more), it may be time for some good advice on how to make sure that the produce you’re buying at the grocery store, at the farmer’s market, and off that farmer’s truck by the side of the road fully safe for your family to eat in this age of imported food, bad farming practices and bacterial contamination.

I am presuming that homesteaders know enough about the critters in the soil (and compost) to be regular produce-washers and cooks who know how long to cook a hamburger or egg so as to preclude any possibility of e.coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella poisoning. But with recent news of e.coli contamination of fresh produce - everything from “pre-wahed” lettuce and spinach and scallions to tomatoes - it’s good to review the basics.

Most of us who can our own produce as well as cook our own food also know that contamination like Salmonella and e.coli can be easily transferred from one food to another if we’re not very careful with the cleanliness of our working areas, cutting boards and utensils, and equipment. Sure, we can kill the critters with high enough heat and processing times, but as a semi-vegetarian, who wants to eat dead bugs either?

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The Most Refreshing Summer Tea

During the very hottest portion of the year I get really very sick of lemonade and regular old iced tea. Worse, I find that I can’t actually drink iced tea after noon if it’s been brewed honestly because it has even more caffeine than coffee. Plus, I live in the south where “regular iced tea” comes complete with about a full cup of white sugar per glass. I don’t like my drinks to be sugary, but I get pretty sick of plain old water too, despite having the Planet’s Best Mountain Spring Water right here in the tap.

So I make some cool summer teas from the first plants in the garden and the last to die out in fall - the mints. In fact, cool summer teas are the #1 thing to do with all those exotic mints - like apple mint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint and lemon mint (as well as good ol’ peppermint). To these I like to add a bit of rose hips, just for the tart flavor and excess vitamin C. I harvest those when they turn red in the fall, then freeze them in a jar for later use.

Now, the very name of the mints tells you all you need to know about the specific taste undertones you get out of them. I like to make my tea fresh, as making it of dried herbs requires less material and no simmering (I use the dry for hot wintertime tea). So in the following recipe, use your mint of choice!

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More Home Made Condiments

Walnut Ketchup and BBQ Sauce/Marinade

I have no nut trees on my property other than the oaks from which I get acorns in the fall, and hickory nuts that you need a hammer and rock to crack. But my son-in-law has four walnut trees on his property, from which I collect sacks of walnuts both in the summer (when they’re green) and in the fall (after they’ve fallen).

So in case you’ve a source for green walnuts, I thought I’d offer a recipe for walnut ketchup that can’t be beat!

Walnut Ketchup
About 100 immature walnuts, shelled and crushed
2 quarts cider or malt vinegar
1/2 cup kosher (non-iodized) salt (can substitute 2/3 cup dark soy sauce)

Put these ingredients into a crock and cover, stir it daily for 8 days. Sieve out the liquid and put into a large pot with…

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