Hello Again!

A new day and a new post. Though really with everything we have done so far we are still catching up.

Today is a day for tomatoes! And though it is cold, gray, and wet here (which for some reason solicits spandex on fellow bicycle commuters) tomatoes can still be yummy. At the Learning Garden Labs, up in Brentwood-Darlington, volunteers pulled out approximately 100lbs. worth of unripened green tomatoes. The plants are all gone but their fruits remain, albeit tart, vaguely poisonous, and mostly immature (they all still believe in the Tooth Fairy, bless their hearts).

Things to do then: 1. For mature but green tomatoes harvest with at least one inch of stem still attached. Place in a paper sack and wait and pray. If they are not fully mature they probably will not ripened. A banana placed in the sack may aid ripening due to its natural emissions of ethelyne gas (also why not store fruits and vegetables all mixed up). A fully mature tomato when cut in half has the jelly surruonding the seeds, and should be yellowing.
2. Compost them. Waste not want not, but at least you can recycle the nutrients. Most of the seeds should not be fully matured and so probably will not germinate in a cold compost pile. Obviously a hot compost will sterlize the seeds regardless.
3. Various green tomato recipies. Today in the Oregonian there was a recipe for Veggie Enchiladas with Green Tomato Sauce. I will be making this you can betcha.
4. I imagine you can can them. I have not read anything about this, but you know why not?

5. FRIED GREEN TOMATOES...
*nom nom nom* My preferred option. After talking with a friend from the South here is a recipe.

Ingredients
Green Tomatoes (Variety is not important)
Buttermilk
Corn Meal
Flour
Coarsely Ground Black Pepper

Slice tomatoes in 1/2in. slices. Mix a little bit of flour into the cornmeal with black pepper to taste. Batter by placing tomatoes first into buttermilk, then into cornmeal mixture. Fry until golden brown on top. Enjoy plain. Or with Ketchup (I am biased here). Or with anything else. Really its up to.


And that is how you don't waste your precious green tomato gold.

~Flora

Found Item+Fresh Produce=Yummy Goodness

Homemade ice cream. Its a treat. Not many people make it for themselves. We did tonight.

I was out walking this afternoon and happened across a used ice cream maker (alas, it wasn't a hand crank kind that makes you really appreciate the final product... that's the kind I grew up with). Add in that the markets are now flooded with late-season strawberries. How perfect is that? We had to take advantage... so we made strawberry frozen yogurt.

For those of you wanting to make this too, here's the recipe:

3 cups fresh slices strawberries

3 T lemon juice

2/3-1 cup sugar (depending on sweetness of berries)

1/4 t salt

1/2 cup whole milk

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

1. Combine the salt, sugar, berries, and lemon juice in a sauce pan.

2. Heat mixture till the sugar has dissolved. Mash the berries a bit as well.

3. Remove from heat and cool till step 4 is possible without curdling.

4. Add in milk and yogurt.

5. Chill for 1 hour.

6a. Put in ice cream maker and process.

6b. Conversely if you don't have an ice cream maker you could just put the mix in the freezer, stirring every 1/2 hour to fluff things up and prevent the final product from becoming a solid ice block. Continue to do this till it is solid enough that it has the right consistency of ice cream.

7. Eat right away (or save some if you have self-control).

Bon appétit!

-Fauna