Finally Tomatoes!

I feel like my tomato plants have lived on and on, without the benefit of a ripe, juicy tomato. Finally we are eating our cherry tomatoes "Sweet Baby Girl". They were definitely worth waiting for and definitely sweet, although it has been a long wait since March 15th when I started the seeds under grow lights in the house.

A very cold, rainy Spring and early Summer really set back the growth of the plants and emergence of the tomato blossoms once they were set outside, but now we have them in abundance. Now I wonder about the larger "Brandywine" tomatoes I planted. Although they are slowly getting bigger they are still very,very green.

 

 

The only problem now is with lots of blossoms and green tomatoes, will we beat the first frost with a bumper crop or will we be disappointed with only a handful of slicing tomatoes this year? Time will tell, but with an average date of the first frost for this area being between September 27 to October 7, I'd say the odds are in my favor with frost still a month away. If not, there is always next year to try again, and of course we will.

 

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Peach Pie

   Well, our plans often take time to come to fruition and we must be patient. The case in point being the planting of peach trees on our farm. I read up on all the species of peach trees and came to the conclusion that the "Reliance Peach" was the one to plant in Vermont in order to have it survive our cold winters and produce luscious fruit for jams, pies, and just eating. I started with one tree (this is it's third summer here) and added two more trees this spring. I thought for sure this would be the summer we would pick peaches from our first tree, but all we got were two blossoms in the spring and no peaches this summer.

 

 

 

 

So patient I will be, and dream of all the juicy peaches-next summer. In the mean time I bought the most beautiful peaches grown in Pennsylvania (not my own yard) at the local market in town. Bright and early this morning I baked the pie I have been dreaming of, even if I didn't grow the peaches.

   Here is the recipe I use for a simple peach pie from my first cookbook "Betty Crocker's Cookbook" bought almost 40 years ago when I was in high school.

 

Prepare pastry for a two crust 9" pie. Everyone seems to have a favorite family recipe for pie crust, so use the one you like best. Do you have to be from the Pillsbury family to use their pie crusts? I don't think so!

 

For the filling:

5 cups sliced fresh peaches

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons butter

 

Heat oven to 425. Peal and slice peaches, mix with lemon juice. Stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon; mix with peaches. Turn into 9 inch pastry lined pie pan, dot with butter. Cover with top crust, which has slits cut into it or prick with the tines of a fork, seal and flute. Cover edge with foil to prevent excessive browning. Remove foil last 15 minutes of baking. Bake 35 to 45 minutes for 9" pie. Cool and enjoy!

 

 

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