Tomato Jam

The first ripe Indigo Rose tomato of the season

I see it's been 5 years since I've published a recipe. Let's get on with it.

Barrett and I grew Indigo Rose tomatoes in our 4' x 8' box at our community garden, Smarts Farm. As is so typical with beautiful things, they don't taste amazing. (jewelry, art, sunsets: do not eat) They're not awful or anything, I mean, they're garden fresh tomatoes, how bad can they be? But these won't win any taste competitions compared to many others you may grow in your garden.

So why the hell did we grow them? They're gorgeous.

They're prolific too, check out the background of that picture, all those shiny indigo things? We harvested about 3 pounds and after eating a pound of them as snacks, I decided to attempt to crank up their bland tomato flavor into something tomatoier and settled on jam.

Dude, this is going to revolutionize cheese and crackers for the month of July. It is holy shit good.

So if you find yourself in possession of tomatoes that need to get their shit together, I recommend this Tomato Jam.

Diced Indigo Rose, they're red inside

Ingredients

• 2 lbs tomatoes, diced
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1 Tbsp grated or minced ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp clove

Procedure

Dump all ingredients in heavy bottom saucepan or dutch oven, bring to a boil over medium high while stirring occasionally. 

Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, continuing to stir occasionally for 2 hours.

Actual Garden Salad

I truly love growing food at home. I get to choose to grow weird stuff I couldn't find at the store (many of the best tasting fruits and veggies are delicate so they don't ship well, or quickly go downhill after they're picked), I get to triumphantly watch seeds sprout, and I can run outside and collect ingredients for a meal, working with what's ready to eat- nothing could be fresher or more delicious.

I planted a patch of 25 "Berri Basket" everbearing strawberry plants (one of the few things that I was too impatient to plant from seed and is not an heirloom variety) in one of my 3' x 3' raised beds last spring and they really do produce throughout the year thanks to the gorgeous weather we enjoy in San Diego.

Berri Basket Everbearing Strawberry

The lettuces that I grow are a colorful heirloom mix from Seed Savers Exchange, and I sprinkle down a bit of extra butter lettuce because I love it. Lettuce is easy to grow and I sow it in succession, sprinkling a quadrant of the bed every two weeks, to ensure that I don't have too much lettuce all at once. I find it's best to pick it early here, before it gets mature and tough from any hot days.

Seed Savers Exchange Lettuce Mixture

The strawberries are amazing sliced in half and tossed with a little balsamic vinegar and cracked black pepper and besides being great on a salad, are wonderful on ice cream too. (yes, with the pepper!) My go to vinaigrette involves extra virgin olive oil, a splash of sherry vinegar, a tiny dab of dijon, some salt and a dash of Sunny Paris seasoning from Penzey's.

Actual Garden Salad, the berries were still warm from the sun

Let's Eat!

Harvesting Chioggia Beets,
homebrew in hand.

I really needed a home for food adventures on the web, so today we start the adventure together. Locavoracious is about eating (and drinking) like crazy where you are. I am Tristan and I live in San Diego. I like to make stuff from scratch, growing my own where possible, and buying food local to wherever I happen to be. I hope you enjoy the recipes and stories to follow.