Pick your own
Do you live near a farm where you can pick your own produce? Bob, Sam and I took a field trip to Linvilla Orchards this morning. This was my first trip to Linvilla in a couple of years. The last time we went was on a weekend in the height of fall apple season and there must have been 10,000 people there. I was pregnant and though I had fun I wasn’t too keen on returning. Today was absolutely lovely. Just an hour after opening in the middle of the week, it’s not crowded at all.
Blackberry picking was excellent. It didn’t take Sam too long to catch on and he was picking the ripest berries he could reach in no time. Blueberries were pretty picked over so we moved on, but not before Sam ate as many as Bob picked for him. Peaches weren’t quite ripe so we didn’t spend too much time there. The tomatoes were fantastic. Bob and Sam picked cherry tomatoes and I went for the Romas.
We ended up picking a pound and a half of blackberries, enough blueberries for a small snack, about 10 pounds of tomatoes and two pounds of peaches. Sam ran out of steam and needed a nap after stuffing his face with all the berries he could, so we held off on checking out the apples and grapes. We stopped at the market there to use the bathroom and bought a spinach and cheese bread for lunch before heading home.
I’m currently debating whether to freeze or can the tomatoes. I don’t have canning equipment, but it seems like it would be a worthwhile purchase, especially since my chest freezer is permanently out of commission. I’ll probably end up freezing most of the eggplants and green beans in my garden so it would be nice to can the Roma tomatoes to make room.
I have a confession to make. I don’t particularly care for raw tomatoes. I love them roasted, grilled, and in sauces and salsas, but a slice of tomato, on its own or in a sandwich doesn’t appeal to me at all. I almost always pick the raw tomatoes out of everything I eat. I guess I’m just not a tomato person. But these Sungold Cherry tomatoes?
They’re the sweetest tomatoes I’ve ever eaten and it seems like it would be a waste to eat them any other way. With tomatoes like these I might become a tomato person after all.
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August 16th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Yay tomatoes! First, sungold tomatoes = too sweet for me. Sorry you don’t like regular tomatoes raw.
Romas are great sauced and frozen (you need to boil them down for an hour or so to thicken them with the bonus that they then don’t take up too much space) or canned. We just canned tomatoes last week! It’s kind of fun, blanching and peeling them and then sticking them in the jars and being able to put them on the shelf to await winter. With only 10 lbs of tomatoes, if you have a big stockpot you could get away without the whole canning setup–but a canner would make it a lot easier. However, we got a $4 jar tongs from a hardware store and that was a great investment.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Yum, that looks so good! When I was pregnant with my son, I lived on grilled tomatoes with balsamic vinegar. Now sometimes I throw a little feta cheese on top and toast it. When my son was a little baby, I bought a tray of tomatoes from Costco and my son took a single bite out of every single one. LOL! Anyway, LawMummy sent me to your site and I couldn’t resist commenting on this delicious post.