And My Garden Said 'Welcome Home'

On Sunday night, we arrived home from a lovely two-week vacation in Ontario--most of it spent on Lake Muskoka at my parents' house. Returning from vacation is always difficult--there are the normal internal questions as I approach the house: 'Is it still standing?' (yes), 'How is the garden?' (weedy but well-watered, thanks to our thoughtful neighbours), 'Anything new and different?' (well yes--just look at those tomatoes!).

The green tomatoes that I left behind two weeks ago have turned into the most glorious harvest. The plants were so heavy with fruit that they were toppling. In the photo above, you see pale yellow 'White Queen', red 'Opalka' (don't they look like peppers?) and 'Green Zebra' tomatoes.  I have grown tomatoes for the past 12 years here, but the plants have never been taller or more laden. It is very exciting.

Look at the gorgeous flesh of the 'Pineapple' tomato (also shown on the plant just above)

Gardens teach us many things but one of its most important lessons is patience. Two months ago, I read a wonderful sounding recipe on my friend Sonia's blog for a traditional French savoury tomato tart. But in June here, tomatoes only can be bought in grocery stores, either imports or grown in greenhouses. They're okay but not all that tasty.

So I waited until today to try Sonia's recipe. I made two tarts because we have house guests at the moment--two of my nieces.

The assembly stage, just before adding a final layer of cheese and herbes de Provence.

This one was made with honey mustard, tomatoes and gouda cheese.

In this one, I used whole-grain Dijon mustard and a little espelette mustard, tomatoes and Emmental cheese.

The tarts were a tremendous success. The round one was made in a quiche pan with a removable bottom so it was super easy to cut. Because this pan was a little deeper than the rectangular sheet, I added more tomatoes and it took a few more minutes to cook.  I used a quick food-processor pastry recipe for the crust. Here's the recipe link for the tart from Sonia's blog again.

A little tip: I hummed 'Thank you Sonia, thank, thank you Sonia' to the tune of 'Help me, Rhonda' as I baked them. You don't need to, but it added to the experience. :)

And a very big thank you to my garden!