Heirloom Tomatoes

It's been a long wait, but our most anticipated crop for 2009, our heirloom tomatoes, are all ripe! After a busy weekend, we went out to the tomato patch yesterday (Sunday, after we closed) to check how they were doing, and even the late varieties had a couple of ripe fruit waiting to be picked. Needless to say, we had a yummy dinner of bread and cheese and tomatoes (along with a glass of red wine), sampling all the different heirlooms. They all have different flavours and textures, but to sum up, they all are great tomatoes, and it was impossible to choose a favourite.

I'll do a detailed entry on each variety in the days ahead, but here is a quick summary of the varieties in the photo. I took the picture (before we started eating) on our kitchen counter, and the colours are quite accurate (Brandywine Pink is pinker than pictured). There are two of each variety, one stem side up, the other stem side down. Starting at the upper right, Aunt Ruby's German Green is ripe, and tastes just like a red tomato. Green spaghetti anyone? Amana Orange looks almost the same as Brandywine Yellow, hard to tell them apart without knowing where in the field they were picked. Brandywine Pink is the classic heirloom tomato, and it's flavour lived up to its reputation. Cherokee Purple is a dark purple tomato with a solid, yet soft, texture. Brandywine Red and Brandywine Pink came from two different seed companies, each labeled simply as "Brandywine". I had a sneaking suspicion they might be different, and you can see that I was right (yes, it does happen). The three smaller tomatos are all striped, we especially liked the Green Zebra. Carbon is similar to Cherokee Purple, it's slightly oranger, and less "beefsteak" in shape.

World's largest tomatillo?

The summer veggies are starting to come in, including tomatillos! As you can see they are doing great. Usually they are about the size of a plum, maybe as big as a large strawberry, but this one is a handful. The kids are away, so I took this one on the kitchen counter. Same variety as other years, and bigger than anything you'll see in Mexico too, according to our tomatillo guru!

Never heard of a tomatillo? They are not well known in our neck of the woods, but super popular in Mexico and the southern U.S. where they are used to make Salsa Verde. Salsa Verde is a delicious green salsa, if you've never had it, it is a must try. Here's our favourite recipe:

Roasted Salsa Verde

1 quart tomatillos
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 (or more) serrano or jalapeño peppers
¼ cup fresh cilantro
½ fresh juice of a lime

Remove husks from tomatillos, rinse. Place tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chiles on cookie sheet, and place under broiler until skins brown. Cool and puree. Add cilantro and lime juice prior to serving.
Keeps three days in refrigerator, freezes well.


If you're interested in blogging, and love food, Julie & Julia is a film not to be missed. Meryl Streep is absolutely superb as Julia Child. I think I put on a couple of pounds just watching the movie! Bon apitite!