Vanishing Feast – An Heirloom Solution

Sunflowers a Go Go 2012

Sunflowers, who doesn't love them? I'm sure there are are folks out there who don't, but for the most part, they are adored by many, inspiration to others, and an important food and oil source for birds and humans. Van Gogh painted, Martha Steward gave them brand approval, and Greek mythology tells a very interesting tale of how the sunflower was created;

Clytie was a water-nymph and in love with Apollo, who made her no
return. So she pined away, sitting all day long
upon the cold ground, with her unbound tresses streaming over her shoulders.
Nine days she sat and tasted neither food nor drink, her own
tears and the chilly dew her only food. She gazed on the sun
when he rose, and as he passed through his daily course to his
setting; she saw no other object, her face turned constantly on
him. At last, they say, her limbs rooted in the ground, her face
became a sunflower, which turns on its stem so as always to face
the sun throughout its daily course; for it retains to that
extent the feeling of the nymph from whom it sprang.

A Dried, Sweetened Tomato as a Fig Substitute?

Evidently in colonial times in America, this Philadelphia heirlom variety did exactly that. It seemed odd and intriguing to me when I first read about the Red Fig tomato being used as fig susbsitute in early America. When I read about that use, of course I had to experience this piece of hertigae and history for myself. I was born in Philadelphia, and my family has lived in the city for 100 years. I'm also a history buff and sucker for a good story like this. I love fresh figs, and fresh tomatoes, but I never thought about substituting a tomato for a fig. As far as the dried versions of either, I can do without them.

So I ordered the seeds, and got a new perspective on the use of a tomato. The seeds came from tomatofest.com. On the Red Fig description page I found instructions on how to prepare tomato figs. Basically, you boil some water, place the tomatoes in the hot water so you can peel them. Once peeled, you place them in a jar with an equal amount of sugar and let them sit for a couple days. Everyday you pour off the syrup and add more sugar. Once that is complete, the colonial folks dried them in the sun for a few days on screens. I used my dehydrator. Once they are dried, in colonial times they covered them with powdered sugar and packed them away. I didn't coat my version in powdered sugar. It's too sweet and too processed for me. I also used light brown sugar to cure the tomatoes. 

Lime Green Salad Tomatoes, A Unique Tomato Experience

Lime Green Salad Tomatoes, aka Green Elf tomatoes, are a unique tomato bred by Tom Wagner, a well-known breeder of heritage type potatoes and tomatoes. When I first read the name Lime Green Salad Tomatoes, the concept of a compact tomato plant that offered up small green tomatoes captured my imagination. It boggled my mind that a tomato plant less the 3 ft. tall could produce an abundant amount of tasty tomatoes. And the fact of the matter is, they do it very well.

The tomatoes themselves are 1 oz.– 3 oz. in size, and have the sweet and slightly spicy taste that the green tomatoes have. The tend to get a nice hue of yellow as they get very ripe, and they contrast nicely is a gazpacho or salsa with the black cherry tomatoes, and some northern lights bicolor. The flavor is not as deep as a Aunt Ruby's German Green, however it is satisfying enough that you'll go back for more. 

Disaster Abound, a Diamond Emerges

Well the kickstrater thing didn't happen, and some family of mine are betraying their commitment and my trust in them, so I will not be at the Heirloom Expo as I had hoped. A hail storm decimated my garden, and I now longer have anything but rotten and scared tomatoes, and plants that ar so damaged that I'm debating pulling them up to end their misery. I was able to to salvage some tomatoes, but my melons are gone approximately two weeks before they would be ripe. I had some really nice Canary melons and some equally nice Jenny Linds. I have sunflowers that are decapitated. It looks like a scene of a horror film. Oh well.

The book, Future Tomatoes, has a very rough draft completed though. That's the diamond. So as would be expected in any any epic, disaster has to strike. It just does. Just read Greek mythology. And while I'm a big fan of reading Greek mythology, not so much though of living a slight version of one of their myths. It's a good thing I focused on the buds, or else this book might not have happened.