There are times when a picture tells the story better than words …. this is one of those times

It starts with a few ripe tomatoes …. well, more than a few …. well, A WHOLE DARN TRASH CAN OF THEM !

Now that the tomatoes are ripening faster than anyone could pick them and the commercial growers are only interested in the green ones (so they can gas them, ship them, and they’ll arrive un-bruised and ready for sale), it’s time for me to work on my tomato sauce / spaghetti sauce / tomato pesto recipe.

It starts with 6-8 plastic grocery bags that I stuff in my pocket before taking Zen for the morning walk. Once we arrive at the end of the field, Zen hangs out for about 15 minutes while I pick out just the best of the ripe red tomatoes. to be honest, if I were a little less picky (bad pun) the whole ordeal would last no more than 5 minutes because there are THAT MANY tomatoes passed over by the commercial pickers. One the bags are over flowing, I set them at the end of a row or off to the side and Zen and I head back. Later, I take the lawn mower over with a kitchen waste basket and fill it to the brim and then stuff the rest of the bags anywhere I can. Note: I made the mistake on the first day of filling two kitchen bins and it took me forever to process them all. I vowed, "never again". Now I am more critical of the tomatoes I choose to the point that i pass over literally hundreds of "left to rot" fruit.

Once back at the farmhouse, the labor begins. I wash all of the tomatoes in the sink – they just fit. Then I cut out the core, quarter them and run them through a food processer on batches; making tomato puree. This gets bagged in 1 gallon bags and frozen for later this fall and winter when I have time.

I’ve taken two of the 1-gallon purees and started to create my recipes. The first batch was turned into a lemon – tomato – basil pesto. It is amazing and crisp and refreshing. It will go great over linguine (al dente of course). The second batch was a more traditional tomato pesto with onion, garlic, basil, and course ground white and black pepper. I balance the tomatoes with a combination of raw cane sugar and sea salt to adjust for any variation in the concentration of tomato flavor. As you can see in the last frames, I cook the sauce down until it is so thick you push it around in the pan and it stays.

The cooking down process is simplified greatly with the chuck wagon sized cast iron pan. This one is 15" across and the combination of 360 cubic inches of volume and 175 square inches of surface area allows me to turn the heat to high for the first 30 minutes with very little attention on my part. The last 30 minutes requires less heat and more attention as the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens quickly.

There are tomato fields adjacent my farm and Zen and I did a little math recently. WE attempted to calculate how many plants there were. Here is what we came up with …

• there are approximately 45 acres
• the crops are divided into zones and there are 7 zones
• each zone is divided into "banks" and there are 10 banks in each zone
• each bank contains 6 rows
• each row is approximately 500 feet long
• plants are approximately 18-20 inches apart (my estimate is very close to 20 inches)

By these calculations, there are approximately 125,000 tomato plants and these plants are commercial grade generating as many as 15-20 large full tomatoes. That’s a lot of tomatoes ! (And this is just one field.)

The news these days always includes a story about the weather. I guess that only stands to reason. It’s universally a safe topic – or at least I use to think so.

This year the North East United States is complaining of cool temperatures and biblical rain. The Pacific North West is wilting under 100+ day after day. Here on the Eastern Shore its been a story of woe with a cool wet spring delaying crops followed but hazy hot and humid mid-summer drought.

Things changed a bit over the last 10 days with spots of heavy rain. "Spots" being a pivotal word as locals have reported over an inch of rain on one field and scant moisture just a mile or two away from the same storm.For the "row crops" – what the tomato farmers call corn, wheat, and soybeans – the rain is much needed but may have been too little too late for some fields. On the other side of the news, the tomato farmers are cursing the rain as it brought enough moisture to foster various pests and disease. It also hit just as the early harvest was taking place and caused tomatoes to burst as they swelled from the abundance of H2O. As far as tomato farmers are concerned, they’d be pleased as punch if it didn’t rain a drop from May through October.

So, two weeks ago the row croppers were ringing their hands and the tomato companies were bringing in a bumper crop. Today it’s the tomato harvest rotting in some fields and soybeans and corn starting to fill out. Two weeks from now is anybody’s guess. Surely the weathermen have no clue !

  There are a few things that must be inspected before an occupancy permit can be issued. One of those is has nothing to do with floors, walls, running water, or electricity. It does have to do with safety – in it’s own way.

The farmhouse is project now has it’s official 911 address displayed out at the road …

In the vast stretches of farmland it’s not uncommon to just get a box at the local post office. Still, the address must be clearly displayed. The solution is the "address post". In my case, my 911 number is #31368.