Enjoying Tomatoes…from Mrs. Crumly’s published writings.

Remember last February when John and I both planted tomato seed and mine came up but John’s didn’t? Well, I nurtured those tiny plants along and got them in the garden at the right time.  Those tiny seeds have furnished us a world of tomatoes.  I doubt if we would have tomatoes it I hadn’t done that – you should have heard John lament about the price of one tomato plant last spring.

We’ve shared tomatoes, put tomatoes in the freezer, made tomato juice, enjoyed tomato sandwiches and vegetable soup – now it’s time for tomato pie.  If you haven’t tried it – it’s delicious.  For some unknown reason I never make the pie until the tomatoes are getting small – and that’s now.

Somebody gave us tommy-toe plants, but we seldom use the tiny ones.  We did send a bucket full to Georgia last week.  Now the ground in the garden where they are is covered with tiny, red tommy-toes.

One variety I planted was German Pink and they have not produced good smooth tomatoes for some reason so I’ll ditch that one for next year – even though I like that variety for a tomato sandwich.  However, the climbing tomato plants have done really well.  Some bad wind we had here last week did one of them in and now it’s all crumpled up on the ground – but still has blooms on it.  We’ll see what happens from here on.  I have no idea what the variety is, but they are nice, large tomatoes.  We’ll save seed. 

An older person (can you believe there is one older than I?)  told me that if we’d prune the tomatoes back, put some fertilizer around them and keep then watered they would produce again.  I’m not sure we believe that; however, John has pruned two plants and we’ll give it a try.

Wish you could see the beautiful pot of basil I’ve grown it rests right beside a pot of rosemary.  As I write this, July 30, it’s my birthday and the plan is to have tomato pie.  It’s the best of country living.

Tomato Pie

10 Butter-Me-Not biscuits                         ¾ cp. Hellman’s mayonnaise (no substitute)

1 onion                                                                1 cup Mozzarella cheese

1 bell pepper                                                      tomatoes

Spray 10 inch pie plate and line it with biscuits.  Press down and together.  Fill plate (almost) with tomatoes cut into bite size pieces.  Sauté onion and pepper and sprinkle over tomatoes.  Spread with mayonnaise, then top with cheese.  Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees.