Beautiful Harvest

There is little more beautiful than picking a vine-ripened tomato.  It is a delight for the senses: the deep red colour with an undertone of orange, the warm weight of the fruit in your hand, and the perfume of sunshine, green leaves, and slight earthiness. The taste, too, can not be beat.  The orange ones (heirloom varieties) in the below picture, are the sweetest I have ever tasted.  They resemble more of a peach than a traditional red tomato. The red ones are a Roma variety called "Mama Mia" if you can believe it.

Multiple that beauty many times when you harvest 20 pounds of vine-ripened tomatoes from just one picking.  It is a "tomato year" as they say. 

This photo is just a section of our tomato harvest.  I have dealing with another shoulder injury, so my daughter, Chelsea, helped me pick them and then she chopped them all to make a roasted tomato and balsamic vinegar sauce that was inspired, although not exactly followed, by a recipe we found on Pinterest.  You can find it on a board of mine called "My Fall Kitchen."
http://pinterest.com/hkuttai/my-fall-kitchen/

Shoulder injury or not, I know there are many people who would frown, or perhaps call social services, to know that I let my seven year old use a knife.  In my defense, I taught her how to use it properly and she is always supervised.  Plus, she needs to know how to use a knife.  Everyone does.  It is a parenting goal of mine to give my children the tools they need to live well and because living well includes cooking your own meals, they need to know how to chop.  If he were here, my Dad would back me up on this.  He and my mom taught me to cultivate many of the skills and tools necessary to be able to solve my own problems and live well and happily, so I can, among other things, grow my own vegetables, fix a flat tire on my wheelchair, use a compass, forage for wild mushrooms, find North without a compass if I get lost foraging for mushrooms, filet a fish, bake bread, and make fresh sausages and even link them.  He has been gone for three years, but somehow he is with me every time I do any of these things.

And although I know that once my kids are on their own they might not have the space in their home or even in their lives for a big vegetable garden, I suspect there will be at least one little cherry tomato plant growing on their balcony or in their windowsill, and a sharp knife (that they know how to use) in their kitchen.  And I hope they will think of me a little when they use it.

wishing you a beautiful harvest,
hk