Heirloom tomatoes and white peaches

I was listening to the songs of crickets tonight; summer is here in the mountains of North Carolina.  They were delayed compared to the Piedmont, not surprisingly, but are singing loudly now.

I've been harvesting lots of tomatoes since I returned home (to the mountains) and have been trying to shore up the vines (the lightweight tomato cages available at the big box stores simply can't support the weight of Cherokee Purple and Summer Feast tomatoes without extra support).  I thought I'd taken a picture of the raised bed vegetable garden since returning, but apparently not!

I slow-roasted a batch of sliced Cherokee Purples overnight, and stuck them in the freezer.  They'll be summer magic in the winter, for sure.  And there are lots of green Summer Feast tomatoes that were casualties of the tipped-over cages.  I'll need to see if they ripen well, or not -- they're quite big, in any case.

I succumbed to buying a basket of white peaches at the Western North Carolina Farmer's market yesterday.  White peaches are wonderful, but, hmm, this is a lot of them.

But, the cost was remarkably low, and I'm planning to slow roast some of them for the freezer, make a peach salad for a potluck party on Saturday, and we'll eat lots of them fresh, and maybe I'll dry some of them as halves?

I was going to make a peach tart, too, but then realized that I don't have a pie or tart pan here;  it could be rectangular, however, or a 'rustic' tart on a baking pan.

Comments

  1. Peaches and tomatoes make a great salad, with a balsamic vinagrette, paper thin onion slices, cracked pepper and mint leaves. Sounds insane, but it's delicious.

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  2. I'm just barely starting to harvest tomatoes here in Arctic Michigan -- can't wait until I have more than I can eat!

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  3. I wish I'd known that tomato cages wouldn't support Cherokee Purple when I planted them this summer...Came home from Buffalo to find them all flopped over. LOL.

    Enjoyed meeting you in Buffalo, Lisa!

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  4. Lisa, what a great idea for a salad! I'm definitely going to try it. That basket of peaches is big...

    And Joseph, I hope your tomatoes come on fast -- enjoyed talking with you in Buffalo...


    Susan, I have some older sturdier fold-up cages too, which still tip over, but these newer flimsy ones are really worthless with giant tomatoes and a bumper crop! The metal breaks (or bends and sags, bah humbug). I'm staking them up with all sort of extra posts. Not the neat and tidy look I was hoping for!

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  5. Uh oh, I hope my trellis hold my Cherokee Purple, Probably not an issue as I am not getting too much productivity in the 100 degree heat we're having in the mid-Atlantic. I have the V-shaped tomato ladders from gardeners.com--so far so good.

    Do you do any canning? That's what I am doing with my peaches this year. I made this peach butterscotch sauce and it is incredible:
    http://wellpreserved.ca/2009/02/21/butterscotch-peach-jam-speachless/

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