Although we have nearby friends who manage to successfully grow cherry tomatoes, our luck with them has been spotty over the years. We blame the sunlight/warmth factor – not enough of either during most growing seasons.
This year with its record-breaking number of sunny (or at least non-rainy days) would have been a good year to try again. But this was the year that the garden took a back seat to other outdoor projects – mainly fence repair – so we missed our opportunity.
Fortunately for us, our tomato-growing friends have been exceedingly generous. We’ve been gifted with tomatoes from Portland, from east of the mountains, and from right down the road in Nahcotta. We have received several different varieties, all delicious!
Like most people, when it comes to eating tomatoes, we think of them as a vegetable. They nestle well in green salads and we consider them a savory, rather than as a sweet. Not so the cherry tomatoes, however! They are bursting with sweetness and we find ourselves finishing off our lunches or dinners with a handful of them, popping them into our mouths like candy.
Those yummy morsels remind me that tomatoes are actually a fruit, botanically speaking, and can be further classified as a berry since they are pulpy and have edible seeds. Even so, I’m still a bit surprised at the new V-8 commercials that emphasize the fruit content of their products. I hope they don’t start calling it F-8.
Last night Nyel made a tomato pie for dinner. It took all my will power and good sense not to just eat the whole thing! We talked a bit about why we only think about having tomato pie at this time of year. And, as we eyed all those fabulous cherry tomatoes, we wondered how they would fare in a pie. Yum!
It looks like a savory pie–is it? I’ve had pretty good luck this year with my hanging, Topsy-Turvy planter and an early variety that’s small. Haven’t had enough to make a whole pie, but a co-worker’s husband has been experimenting with the bounty of Buoy 10, and just smoked his first salmon. It was a bit salty, but if you sliced a tomato and put a little of the smoked salmon on it (I like to lightly salt tomatoes, but didn’t do so since the salmon was salty already), it was fabulous, like a Northwest caprese salad! Try it, it’s another yummy way to enjoy the bounty!
Yes, savory. Though I’m wondering if those cherry tomatoes would lend themselves to a sweeter version.
Hmmm, sounds wonderful, Sydney and it is lovely to have a husband who can cook! When she could still eat tomatoes my mother always put sugar on them. Which brings to mind avacados. In Brazil they are eaten as a fruit (afterall they come from a tree) with sugar and my Brazilian daughter-in-law thinks we are a little goofy to put them in salad. Once a secretary brought an avacado cheesecake to work. I have to admit it wasn’t all that great, but I’m picky about cheesecake. I bet Nyel’s pie was yummy!