Tomato, Shallot and Goat Cheese Tart

I know I'm a little early for the tomato harvest, but I made this last night with some tomatoes from the Farmers Market as a "practice run" for my own harvest. You know had to check it out with their tomatoes before I was going to risk some of my own home grown gems ;)

I have got to say, this is tart is well worth using some of your harvest! I made a few tweaks to the recipe I found in my first issue of Heirloom magazine. Are any of you out there reading this magazine as well? If not I highly recommend it. It is put out by the folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and there are some pretty interesting articles! Not to mention yummy garden recipes...



This tomato tart was so simple. I'll admit, it was a crazy weekend and I had a bunch of studying and homework to do for my horticulture course, and I spend most of Saturday in the garden, so I used store bought pastry dough. But we'll keep that our little secret ;)

Tomato, Shallot and Goat Cheese Tart 
1 large sheet of frozen puff pastry
1/3 cup of goat cheese softened at room temp (I just eyeballed this)
3-4 medium tomatoes sliced and patted dry
2 shallots thinly sliced
chopped basil to sprinkle all over tart 
1 clove of garlic minced 
salt and pepper 
Olive Oil 


1. Thaw pastry dough according to directions. Spray tart pan with non-stick spray (If you don't have a tart pan, the original recipe from Heirloom says to just spread out on cookie sheet and you'll leave an edge to curl up around creating like a boat for the ingredients) 

2. Pre-Heat Over to 400F 


3. Spread the goat cheese on the pastry.  Place tomatoes and shallots all over the goat cheese.  Sprinkle with basil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle about 2 TBsp of Olive Oil over tart. 


4. Bake 20-25 minutes until the crust is brown. Allow to cool for about 10 min before serving. 

Tart after baking

Leftovers kept well over night in the fridge. I zapped the tart in the microwave for 30 seconds and it tasted great!

Well...must go back to study latin names of landscape plants and identify them by their leaves. Of course tomatoes, peppers and herbs aren't on this test...noooo that'd be too easy ;)

I wish you all a wonderful week ahead!

Winter Has Finally Arrived

Just when I thought we could move right into Spring, Winter surprised us here in Williamsburg today! They told us we had a 50% chance of snow flurries with no accumulation. I'd say this miscalculated a bit

About 10 min after the snow started....

So I had a few plants out in the yard still and figured I'd go check on them. The Winter has been so mild the rosemary has been thriving. I left it out tonight, hoping it'll overnight okay.  It is supposed to get back up into the 50s tomorrow

Rosemary dressed up with a little snow

Hope it will be okay through the night

I know the garlic is good in the snow, I left it out last winter during the week long freeze in Atlanta and it did fine. But I thought it looked pretty all covered in fresh snow.  

Siberian Garlic

The weather has been so mild I've been craving seedlings and new plants.... guess there is still a few more weeks until I can get the seedlings started ;)

This has to be my favorite picture from the snow today though. They sat on the window and watched the snow fall for hours

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

It feels more like Spring than January! Garlic Planting?!?!

 2012! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!!

The weather here in Southern VA has been so strange, I finished picking the habanero's and jalapeno's off my plants only 3 weeks ago.  So I have been cautious about putting the garlic into the ground.

I put some into containers in late October and they're already growing well

Siberian Garlic planted from stock I harvested this year

One New Years Eve it was 65 degrees (felt so wrong!) so I figured it was time to clear out the Summer garden and get some garlic in the ground before it was way too late (I am already a little behind the curve on this one I know)

I figured I'd share a photo collage of the garlic planting.

Because garlic will not be ready for harvest well after I want to get Spring planting done, I devoted the far left corner of my plot to this endeavor.  I decided 3 rows of 6 cloves each (2" apart) was a good start. Plus I have 9 cloves growing in plots














I went a little crazy ordering Garlic varieties this year (who can blame a girl, there are so many good ones out there)

Here is what I ended up planting in the garden

Row 1
    Cloves 1-4: Ajo Roja
    Clove 5-6:  Xian Turban

Row 2
     Cloves 1-3: Spanish Roja
     Cloves 4-6: Persian Start

Row 3:
      Cloves 1-2: Burgundy
      Cloves 3-4: Chesnok Red
      Cloves 5-6: Susanville

I also planted in pots:  Siberian (home grown stock), Oregon Blue and Red Toch

Preparing the cloves

After preparing the cloves (I LOVE the color of some of these cloves, they're just gorgeous!) I placed them in pre-made holes. I am hopeful, but I have never grown garlic in the ground before.....  Everything I planted this spring in the plot grew very very well. So I'm hoping for the same with my garlic 

Ajo Roja getting ready to be tucked in for a long winters nap

Giddy as a Little Girl

So I just had to share, I'm as giddy as a little school girl meeting her favorite star...

On a whim I sent an email to my favorite author Chester Aaron, who I've mentioned before wrote my favorite book (which my copy is extremely well worn) "Garlic is Life"  I thanked him for being such an inspiration for getting me to put some garlic in the ground and I sent him pics of newly harvested bulbs

Today he emailed me back the nicest email.

It was just such a nice thing, I wanted to share with everyone. If you are looking for a good and humorous  garden novel, please check this book out!

Thanks for letting me indulge...

:)

1st Garlic Harvest

Wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!! I hope you're enjoying your weekend! I am excited to get to watch Fireworks over the York River tonight.

As great as I think the fireworks will be, I have to admit, the highlight of my weekend is my 1st garlic harvest! I'm sure many of you will understand that feeling having planted a seed months ago and watching it grow and then harvesting. These garlics were even transported from Atlanta to Virginia late this winter.  Hardy little guys!

This is my first year growing garlic, so it was a lot of trial and error for sure. I watched a few YouTube videos (what did we do before those) and read a lot, to learn these few tips that I would have never thought

1. When the garlic scapes start to loop around, cut them off. This allows the plant to put its energy into the bulb not producing the flower. PS, they taste and smell AMAZING to, you can use them like you do scallions

2. About 2 weeks before you plan on harvesting, stop watering (what?!?!)... apparently it helps harden the bulb. I gotta admit, this one was hard for me. I kept throwing just a little bit on because we've had temps in the 100s. I don't know if it made a difference, but it didn't seem to hurt

3. Watch the leaves of the plant to know when its ready. When it looks like it starting to die, and the leaves start turning brown when only the top 4-5 leaves are green its ready.

So this was a strange plant to harvest for a newbie, but the result was pure joy!!!

I'm leaving the other two in a few more days to see if they get a little bigger.

1st bulb of Siberian Garlic 

The Great Garlic Transport Part 2: The Transport & Transplant

I didn't want to leave my garlic back in Georgia when I moved to Virginia this week, so I decided to take 3 of the 6 cloves with me. I would have taken all six, but it was really a matter of space.... there is not much room in a Mini to begin with, add in 2 cats, and well...you get the picture.

So my plan was to dig up around the bulb trying to include as much of the dirt it was growing in & place it in a large ziploc bag. I had hoped this would help reduce shock.

Garlic bulbs in ziploc bags 6 days after digging up

I misted the bags and sealed them up. I had fully intended to replant them immediately but the move got in the way, as usually happens. I just got to re-potting them today.

Re-potted garlic after six days

They look a little weak, and just to challenge my poor garlic a little more....they're calling for snow tomorrow morning. Coming for 80 degrees in Atlanta, spending 6 days in transport and then possible snow... I just hope its not too much for the garlic...

We'll just have to wait and see

The Great Garlic Transport: The Beginning

The "Stinking Rose" it might possibly be my favorite fresh ingredient to have on hand!

Have you ever grown your own garlic? Just taken an extra clove from your dinner and stuck it in the ground to see what happens?

If you're even slightly inclined to do this, you MUST READ "Garlic Is Life" by Chester Aaron

Life is Garlic by Chester Aaron

Chester is a former teacher and has written several other books before becoming a serious garlic grower at 65. He currently grows over 93 different types of garlic in Northern California. Who knew there were 93 different types of garlic?!?!?!  This book is like sitting down with an old friend with a glass of wine (and probably some wonderful food with lots of garlic) and just talking for hours about gardening, garlic and life!

So I finally took the plunge this fall and planted several cloves of Siberian Purple Striped Garlic I purchased from Filaree Garlic Farms in Washington State (Filaree Garlic Farms) in the large pot outside that holds my rose bush

Siberian Purple Striped Garlic 

** Interesting:  Garlic and Roses are companion plants. Garlic is known to repel aphids and other pests. So plant a few cloves around your favorite rose bushes and you'll get double benefits, healthy roses and delicious home grown garlic! 


Above is what my garlic "crop" looks like. Out of six planted cloves, I have 5 healthy scapes (the green portion of the bulb that grows up out of the soil is called a scape). The sixth one is barely hanging on....

So here comes the challenge a nomadic urban gardener faces... how do you move your crops hundreds of miles in your small "mini" car????

Plan: Dig up around the bulbs, taking a lot of the dirt with it, and placing it in a large zip lock bag, keeping the scapes exposed.... then I will replant immediately!

The Outcome: Stay tuned to find out how the Great Garlic Transport turns out.....