Timing is Everything

This year the produce has been anything but predictable.  The early things were late in my area, due to an unseasonably late frost and what would usually be mid June produce has made an amazing rally for a second round without replanting, so, although dinners have been unusual in the seasonal timing, the fresh produce is still such a blessing!

Featured this week in our Delectably Kosher section is great recipe accompanied by an artistic photo of "Tomato Pie."  Our very own Beth Rank sent me a PM, sharing this delicious dish, earlier this week and it was an instant hit in the Ozarks!

I literally, could not wait to tell her, everything that went into that pie shell was just now ready, here in the Land of Goshen.  The tomatoes have been late, very late.  A friend of mine who has an orchard and farm market said she just wasn't even dealing with tomatoes this year.  They just didn't work out in the timing.  She's well past 80 and her customers want perfection in appearance and timing, so I don't blame her for just not worrying about it!  She did have a lovely peach crop, but the timing was odd there too.  Now back to tomatoes.

This recipe that Beth shared could not have come at a better time.  My tomatoes are weighing down the staked vines with green tomatoes.  My daughter keeps complaining about the same problem in the north part of the state.  I suggested she put a "grow light" in her outdoor fixture at the back door.  But then, I remembered to warn her, Big Brother follows those grow light orders . . .  So, the Midwest and the Ozarks have been blessed with a late tomato crop, and Beth has blessed us with a recipe for Tomato Pie.

When Beth sent me the recipe, I had just picked enough beautiful organic heirloom tomatoes for the recipe.  It's September!  Don't despair, even if the tomatoes are green on the vine when the frost warning is sounded, we've got green tomato ripening measures as well as green tomato recipes.  Meanwhile, back at the homestead, if you have tomatoes ripening just a few at a time, Have we got a recipe for you!