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August 2010

Garden Ignored

My garden has been grossly ignored this summer. Seeds have gone unplanted for flowers that will never bloom this year and veggies I will never eat. Heavenly blue morning glories, cardinal vine, Joseph’s Coat amaranth, Love-Lies-Bleeding… moon flower...

But the good news is my heirloom Pompeii plum tomatoes that I planted from seeds from Renee’s Garden are ripening like mad, despite not having the volcanic ash to go with them as my organic farmer friend mentioned. And just to prove it, here is how I cooked the first batch harvested.

Ingredients:
A colander full of tomatoes
3 sweet red peppers
1 green pepper
2 fresh cayenne peppers from my garden
1 big onion
5 or so garlic cloves
Extra virgin olive oil
A handful of fresh basil leaves
A handful of Italian flat leaf parsley
A couple shakes of dried oregano
A little salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Sauté the peppers, onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft. Add tomatoes, herbs, salt and sugar and cook for 1 hour. Puree in a blender. Done. Enjoy with whole wheat spaghetti, turkey meatballs and Parmigiana Reggiano.


I leave the skin and seeds in the sauce. An ecology/ wildlife professor friend who frequently cooked outdoors as part of student rapport and education once said about eating an apple: “If you peel it you may as well throw it away.” And don’t seeds contain all that is necessary to create plant life?

My Van Gogh sunflowers (also Renee’s Garden seed) are thrilling.

There is still season left. All I need do is gain better organization and discipline. We’ll see in September.

**All photos by Mary Jasch

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