My Upside Down Tomatoes

This is the season for fresh tomatoes. There are so many varieties to choose from and they are fresh and at their best. My favourite are from my own garden. . .oops, I sound like Martha Stewart, don’t I? Scratch that. I don’t ever want to be caught sounding arrogant when it comes to food. As far as I’m concerned, Martha’s got that all tied up!

Without sounding up-ity, I do grow my own tomatoes but you’ll be happy to here that they are not from seed. I’d love to do that but I don’t have the space or the talent for that kind of gardening. I can, however, buy a small seedling, plant it, water it and eat what it produces. I’m pretty sure anybody can do that.

A few years ago I was reading a gardening magazine while my girls were indulging themselves at the library. I’m not sure why I picked the magazine up. I did read a small excerpt about growing tomato plants upside down in pails. It was a very brief description but it was enough to inspire me. I found a guy selling old grape juice pails from wine making and bought a few. . .asked my husband to drill a small hole in the bottom of them and, voila; a Topsy turvy tomato pail. I’ve been using the same pails for years now and love the little tomatoes that grow from them. Of course, now you can order a kit from the TV to grow them but, I was doing it way before then. (Sorry, that sounded a bit snooty. . .I guess I might be a wee bit of a Martha Stewart!) 

One of my favourite recipes to showcase my tomato bounty is a tart. Now, don’t get nervous, this is a freestyle tart that requires no pastry knowledge. In fact, you can even buy the pastry at your local grocer. The key is the freshest of tomatoes and asiago cheese. The nice thing about this tart is that it’s not supposed to look great. It’s simple and only uses one crust of pastry. I just can’t say enough about how good this is:

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