Anybody growing their own?  I have four hierloom tomatoe plants "Cherokee Purples" growing in two terra cotta pots on the patio.  I harvested some of my crop today and had bacon and tomatoe sandwiches for lunch.  Hmmmm good.  I always ask folks for their perfect tomato sandwhich ingredients and always share mine. 

I use Merita Old Fashion white bread, Duke's mayonaise, three strips of crisp bacon, and two thick slices of tomato with fresh ground pepper and sea salt.  There are options such as Vidalia onions, or sliced cucumbers but rarely do I use lettuce.  Corn is being picked here and there is one variety called sugar and cream that is sweet and juicy.  Did I mention shrimp are plentiful?  Is summer special or what?

Okay dtel and wife.....show me your bounty

 Tarheel, your livin' it up. I can't wait for our tomato's to ripen up. We have had good luck with the red and white cabage, broccoli,lettuce, swiss chard,and radishes. The corn is on but not ready yet. My wife planted 3 different patches of corn at different times so they don't all come on at once. We are having trouble with racoons killing our chickens and I hate that but when they locate the corn there won't be any left for us so the war is on. My wife has over 100 tomato plants in( don't ask me why) and looking good. Some Cherokee Purple and some German something heirloom and better boys and others. Tarheel enjoy that tomato and good luck with your garden.

Costal shrimp- Fresh???- Now I hate you. Every once in a while we get the 8-10 count with the heads still on- killer- but most are the 20 count flash frozen garbage- not bad -unless you have had the fresh- then they suck.There is one guy who drive up from the coast with fresh grouper and shrimp but you better bring your big checkbook for that party

I had a source for commercial resturant grade thick sliced apple cured bacon. That was my favorite BLT ingredient. Now i have to settle for the storebought stuff. The hierloom tomatoes rock. I am too lazy and busy to grow them but there is a local farmers market that sells them. There is another variety called German Johnson that you find up in the mountains for sale Either one will do. Dukes mayonaise is the obvious . I prefer La brea or Pannera sourdough bread if I can find it. Sea salt- fresh ground pepper. hydro-bib or Boston lettuce. Sometimes with a few crumbles of Maytag blue cheese. No onions- over powers the rest of the stuff. Wash it down with a nice cold pilsner uqurel, Dos equixos amber, or a Newcastle ale. This is making me hungry.

Yeah Pesh this is life in the fast lane for me.  Getting excited over tomatoes is about as wild as I get these days.  Everything is so pretty here with the hydrangeas, azaleas, rhodedendrums, and lush St. Augustine.  Tomatoes did'nt get blossom end rot like last year so I may have enough for me and the little lady.  I hope you're helping the wife and not just supervising this year.  Sounds like a nice garden but 100 tomatoes.....whew....thats a crop. 

Good luck with your garden and I'll have a tomatoe sandwhich for you tommorow.

Want to see tomatoes....wait for dtels wife to post!

Bleu cheese!  There you go Winchester....I knew someone would add an ingredient I had'nt considered.  Bleu cheese and tomatoes....a perfect fit and should have been so obvious.  Maybe some fresh basil from the wife's herb garden!   

I am 2 miles from Wrightsville Beach and fresh seafood is readily available.  Last week the wife cooked hardshell crabs one night and fried softshell crabs the next.  Life is good pal

Tarheel:

Yeah Pesh this is life in the fast lane for me.  Getting excited over tomatoes is about as wild as I get these days.  Everything is so pretty here with the hydrangeas, azaleas, rhodedendrums, and lush St. Augustine.  Tomatoes did'nt get blossom end rot like last year so I may have enough for me and the little lady.  I hope you're helping the wife and not just supervising this year.  Sounds like a nice garden but 100 tomatoes.....whew....thats a crop. 

Good luck with your garden and I'll have a tomatoe sandwhich for you tommorow.

Want to see tomatoes....wait for dtels wife to post!

You made me walk outside to get a pic. The tomatoes are doing good, the weeds are doing better ! It has been HOT with No rain here for 3 weeks so I have not weeded anything but this is a pic of the tomatoes. We had the same problem as you last year with the blossom end rot and got almost no tomatoes. My wife told me I needed to plant them in a different place, rotate to a different place and it won't happen this year ( I hate when she's right ). So I planted them on the end of the chicken coup that was the yard for the chickens before we got rid of them, they did fertilize the ground apparently because I have put nothing except water. We have picked about 15 tomatoes so far this year and I need to pick again soon.

If I could eat weeds I would be doing great ! I love tomatoes on toast with mayo and salt and pepper, that's what I eat for lunch most days.

fuzzy pic   There is 4 different kind of tomatoes out there and I can't remember except for creole.

Nice tomatoes dtel.  Wish I had a garden spot like that.  I put tomatoe cages over my plants but they quickly out grew them so now they are leaning on patio furniture.  You can tell I'm a city boy  I would like to claim the credit for a couple of those in your second picture.

Say hello to Christy.  It's good to see her posting again.

This/was some snap beans that are just about done, we put 12 gallon bags in the freezer and ate about another 2 or three gallons over the last few weeks. I usually cook some bacon then after a little boiling throw in the snap beans and add garlic and onion and cook for a while, there is never any left over no matter how much I cook, it's like magic ?

This is some weed covered Eggplant, Ichiban, it's much easier to grow than normal and does not get attacked by bugs as much as the purple, for me at least and taste the same.

I like to peel it and slice long ways then run through eggs then bread with Italian bread crumbs and fry, I can't cook enough of this either it disappears also, If I don't get it first !

We cooked about 25 of them so far and they still seem to be making flowers so if they keep producing I will keep eating them !

That's about all we planted this year, I do plan on taking out the old Chicken coup and making that  whole space a garden next year.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4443900_grow-ichiban-eggplants.html

Tarheel:

Last week the wife cooked hardshell crabs one night and fried softshell crabs the next.  Life is good pal

 It don't get much better than that, OK maby Crawfish, Shrimp, fried fish, maby not better but just as good.

" Say hello to Christy.  It's good to see her posting again."

I will tell her, thanks....She has been sick but doing better now, she loves sewing so she post on the " sewing forum" sometimes,   I can't complain she let's me do my thing and take up as much space in the livingroom as needed so ...sew on !

dtel:

Tarheel:

Last week the wife cooked hardshell crabs one night and fried softshell crabs the next.  Life is good pal

 

 It don't get much better than that, OK maby Crawfish, Shrimp, fried fish, maby not better but just as good.

I've had crawfish a couple of tmes.  Never figured out what parts you eat  I remember the movie No Mercy with Kim Bassinger and Richard Gere when he tells her to pull off the head and suck out the juice.  Is that how its done?  Sigh......wish I had'nt started thinking about Kim Bassinger.

Sorry to here Christys been sick.  She has to be the perfect audio wife!  Thanks for the update.

Chuck

That's how it's done, there boiled with the same seasoning as crabs and crawfish. Suck the heads and pinch the tails, they even have it on T-shirts.

I started to make a joke about Kim B and your explanation of eating crawfish and decided I better leave it alone.    

We actually got some soft shell crabs last week and cooked them with shrimp and grits. Washed them down with some Starlight Sav blanc and  man it was awesome. My wife is from Wilmington and she got me addicted to the *&**ed  softshells. They are $$$$ up here- at least 5.00 each and sometimes 7.00. If you like sushi try spider rolls- they are made with soft shell crabs.

If you like blue cheese(also martini olive stuffers) try maytag. You can buy it off the net. $$$$ but worth every penny.

winchester21:

We actually got some soft shell crabs last week and cooked them with shrimp and grits. Washed them down with some Starlight Sav blanc and  man it was awesome. My wife is from Wilmington and she got me addicted to the *&**ed  softshells. They are $$$$ up here- at least 5.00 each and sometimes 7.00. If you like sushi try spider rolls- they are made with soft shell crabs.

If you like blue cheese(also martini olive stuffers) try maytag. You can buy it off the net. $$$$ but worth every penny.

I do like sushi but have never seen the spider sushi. That price for soft crabs is not that bad, here they are anywhere from $3.50-5.00 depending on the size and were about 1.5 hours from many sources. Years ago I did insurance and one of my customers were in  Delacroix island Louisiana, the lady shed crabs for a living. She would sell me the crabs that were missing one claw or a leg for $5 to $6 a dozen because they were not #1 crabs like the restaurants wanted, I would buy all she had.

I would buy them from her live/refrigerated, when a crab sheds if you take it out the water quickly and put in a refrigerator they stay soft and alive for days. They get hard in less than an hour if left in the water.