I am not ruthless enough to be a good gardener.
If you garden, you know what I mean.
If you don’t? Well, listen up because people don’t talk about this very often. Gardening requires ruthlessness. And a lot of it too.
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Debbie Bosworth
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
Rebekah Teal
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
Cathi Belcher
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
Mary Murray
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
Alexandra Wilson
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Nicole Christensen
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
Rebekah you crack me up!!!! We did not plant any yellow tomatoes this year but the tomato plants we thought were going to die and need replaced lived, I think we have close to 40 because we added some in other spots to replace the ones we thought would die but would not pull them out until they were dead. Not dead. Then up in the raspberry garden where we use to plant some tomatoes we have probably another half a dozen that came up on their own. Looks like they may all be cherry or grape tomatoes. Only two little tomatoes are red so far but it is August now and August is tomato month here. I have been remembering my mother use to make a tomato jelly but she did not skin them she cooked them down then ran them through a sieve that had a crank type handle on it. I am thinking I my buy one just in case this year. Wonder if you could do something like that with your yellow tomatoes. I think they might make a pretty jelly? Wedding has came and gone. It was a success. Started posting about it today. Your all going to have me checking in with you more often. I will probably just become a bug I have been gone so long. Happy Farmgirl days!
Rebekah,
I had those tomatoes last year. I did what Brenda’s Mother used to do. I cooked them until their skins cracked and ran them through a hand crank seize. I then put the puree into my red sauce and my stewed tomatoes. They do add some interesting flavor to the mix. Needless to say, I did not grow them this year. You can also go to a shopping center and look for unlocked cars and then throw a bag of the little buggers on the front seats! I used to do this with zuchini.
Rebekah, I live in an apartment in San Francisco and we have at least a dozen farmers markets scattered around for every day of the week. I’m disabled and have a difficult time walking around so I don’t go to them as often as I would like.
I’m a vegetarian and if I lived closer to you, I would take all those lovely yellow tomatoes off your hands. Since I can’t, here are some suggestions:
Do the same as you did with the cannellini beans except pour the tomato mixture over some angel hair pasta.
Can them and use them in a big pot of vegetable soup.
Blanch them and put them in the freezer for later.
Take some to the local elementary school to add to their lunch menu.
Take some to a nursing home or shelter: they really appreciate fresh veggies and fruit.
Congratulations!
Hi,
LOVE yellow tomatoes! I grow big ones and little ones. A great way to use the small ones such as the pears and cherry varieties are to dehydrate them, pack them in snack size zip lock bags and store in the refrigerator.If you poke a hole in the skin with a toothpick before you place on the dehydrator, they will dry better or if they are large, you can slice in half. The flavor concentrates as they dry and they make a delicious,chewy snack or add to winter soups or casseroles. I also pack a few jars of the dried tomatoes with lemon basil and top with olive oil and store in the refrigerator for later use. YUM.I make a golden chili sauce using large yellow heirloom tomatoes every year.Try it, you’ll like it!
I made jam with these although I used red and yellow. Boil the tomatoes (whole) in water with sugar and lemon peel and I added lemon thyme. Cook till thickened, cool and keep a jar in the fridge. I serve with meatloaf or grilled meats, also makes a nice sweet and sour sauce.
We have one plant that produces quite a few. We also have a 3 year old that knows where the yellow tomotoes are on teh counter and he will consume them like candy. Wish we had your problem. The other children get mad when they go to snack on one and their younger brother has already got them. Just love to read your blog.
OMG I LOVE these so much!!!!!!!!! We don’t get them here in SW florida. They are so sweet. I just put them in a bowl and snack on them. Lately I have been roasting little colored peppers and grapes tomatoes. Then I add herbs and some olive oil and put them in the food processor and then over pasta with parmesan. Yum. I love your stories and I am a big James Taylor fan.
Hey Rebekah,
I always fill up a baggie and send them with my husband to work for a snack. He shares them with the guys….every day 🙂
Cindy Bee
love those tomatoes. you can make fresh salsa and we like to eat them just fresh from the garden. thanks for making me smile.
Rebekah, I wonder if you couldn’t pick them while green right before they turn and can them as green tomato relish, they seem like they would be the perfect size for cutting in half for that. Goes great in the winter with fried fish and pinto beans and cornbread.
My Mom always told me that they are less acidic than the red types of tomatoes. She loves them, as do we. We put them in salads whole and in pasta salads. I think the best way to eat any small tomato is, washed with salt and whole!! Yummy.
Regarding yellow tomatoes, aren’t they lower in acid than the red? Recall reading an article about their lower acidic properties and mentioned this to my mother who loves red tomatoes. (She stopped eating red tomatoes or anything with red tomatoes because she could not "digest them".) Interestingly, Mom can eat the yellow variety with no problem. By the way, all of the ideas submitted read so well! I was not able to do my garden dance this year but will definitely reference some of the suggestions when I visit my weekly neighborhood farmer’s market. Thanks!
Rebekah, I laughed the whole time I read this. You are quite funny! And I really like the salad you made with the yellow tomatoes. Very happy to come across your blog. I will be back.
Absolutely CANNOT get enough of these tomatoes. There is NO SUCH a thing as too many tomatoes. The deer have eaten all my plants so far this year (and I didn’t know deer ate tomato plants?)…I am SO envious that you have an overload! I’m sure there are friends out there freakin’ out wanting tomatoes and you just don’t know it. We take "extras" to church and to club meetings and they are all gone at the end of the meeting.
In today’s San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2011/08/09/21_tomato_recipes.DTL&object=
You might find some ideas you and your family would enjoy.
For excess tomatoes I slice them in half, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with course salt and a dash of pepper or two. Place cut side up on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet for ease of clean up. Roast in a low oven until the tomatoes are super soft. Some browning is okay. After roasting, I run them through my Foley food mill and freeze in quart bags. Use in any recipe requiring a lovely, warm tomato sauce; spaghetti, lasagna, eggplant parmesan, etc. Wish I had the same problem as you. My family loves this as sauce.
I got a bunch of these also from a farmers market over the summer. One of my favorite things to do with them was to slice them, drizzle them with balsamic vinegar and toss with chopped basil and put them in a grilled cheese sandwich.
So funny 🙂 My yellow tomatoes actually did not do good this year and the red ones won out . But i enjoy the bright colors of the yellow . I keep them in one spot by my fence