I dearly love good, fresh tomatoes. Many of my growing up years were spent on the mid-Atlantic seaboard, and from a young age I looked forward to the bounties of both local truck farming and my father’s garden. I have been in Austin for ages, and the horrible soil, the relentless sun broken only by rare deluges such as we experienced a few weeks ago, and the deer make growing tomatoes a huge challenge. Although I have a hog wire fence around the back yard to keep out the deer, I also have a canopy of cedar elms. The only spots that get sun are the pool and a wee corner of the deck where the basil lives. I have a friend who has a small plot in the Austin Community Garden, just across the river. Decades of compost have made it quite fertile, it gets loads of sun, and the entire garden is well fenced. He graciously shares tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. His black Krims are just incredible. I can also get very fine homegrowns at Vespaio, which has a tomato and herb garden out back, but dropping a couple hundred dollars to dine there renders that an unreliable option. So the closest I usually get is heirloom and green tomatoes from Central Market, a very sad first world problem. I have yet to find a solution for my love of white corn, especially shoepeg.
A good black krim is hard to beat.
I’m at a tomato festival!
Aaaaand my photos from the tomato festival didn’t post! Ha. Trying again.
This shindig is thrown at a park as an annual fundraiser by a fire department. This was our first time. There were many hundred people there. A locally-famous bluegrass outfit (featuring some family friends no less) was setting up to play in a tractor-trailer stage when we arrived.
There were two produce vendors (both with additional
bakery offerings), food trucks (including one with funnel cake, a very important local food group) and a really serious outdoor pavilion with a full industrial kitchen attached. An army of obviously experienced volunteers ran the food operation in the pavilion. There was a dedicated line for BLT’s/tomato sandwiches, and then separate queues for hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled sausage, and, much to my delight, chicken corn soup.
We split a BLT and I admired the soup operation (two enormous steaming vats on a punishing hot summer day.) I had to taste some to compare to my own, so I bought a cup.
I asked the produce vendors about the many labeled varieties of tomatoes on offer because it’s too early here for regular field-grown. They confirmed the tomatoes were grown in that county, in the ground, under a plastic tunnel (this is what I suspected.) To tide me over til the best stuff is available in a few weeks, I bought one enormous heirloom and a nice basket of cherry tomatoes.
The chicken corn soup, unfortunately, was not a success. They’d used some prepared broth or stock (this is not typical for this dish) and it was wicked salty; there was also too little corn. There was however chopped hard-boiled egg in the soup, which is common round here but I don’t put it in my own bec of familial preferences.
That all looks stunning. The black raspberry pie with crumble topping (or is it just a crumble?) would be enough to bring me back. You never see Montgomery pie down here in Texas. It looks good, too.
It’s that time of the season when every one of these is precious but I’m beginning to wonder why I planted so many…again.
I picked my first Cherokee Purple today - was hoping to let her ripen on the vine, but I discovered a crack in the skin today so I decided to bring her in. Several of her sisters are now blushing, though, so I’ll get a vine-ripe one eventually!
Early Girl has several breakers today as well - I’m letting those go a bit on the vine. I ate one that I let counter-ripen well past where I thought I should this morning on rye sourdough toast with Boursin - it was actually much tastier than I expected, though still a pretty meh tomato overall. I foresee some oven-roasting and freezing in Early Girl’s future.
Last night I roasted both tomatoes and peppers and plucked off the charred skins to make gazpacho. I think that will be a standard practice now.
WE are getting local tomatoes from both PA and NJ at the Philadelphia farmers markets
I did not mean to capitalize the “e” in we. Makes it read like I’m bragging…
It does!
I was like “random flex, but alright.” 
I am too - but they are not what I would call open-air field grown. They are grown under a tunnel or other structure.
Not saying they aren’t good. They just aren’t the best 
Soon tho!
I got some really good ones this weekend. Last weekend they were okay but not great.
Yea the ones I got at the tomato festival are not too shabby at all. I’m pleased.
It’s finally happening - the BLUSHENING! I went out today and found at least 10 new breakers - must be the unseasonably mild weather we’ve had the last couple of days. I left several on the plants but harvested those that looked vulnerable (cracks, catfacing, etc.). I also found a couple of green ones that had critter damage, so I need to keep a close eye on them as they start ripening faster. Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Early Girl and Golden Boy.
