Trip to Barney

One of our favorite things about this time of year is the fresh produce: silver queen corn, acre peas, Elberta peaches, blueberries (Buddy Coleman grows the world's best) and local tomatoes. Yesterday Jimmy and I drove the fifteen or so miles to Barney, GA (population 902) where there are a couple of good farmers' markets.

On the way there, I tried to get Jimmy to play Twenty Questions and guess whom we know who came from Barney. Jimmy didn't want to play, so I eventually told him: Andy. Andy's American Kennel Club papers from the pet shop said he was from Barney. "That dog," grumped Jimmy,"is about as much a purebred Chihuahua as I am a full-blooded Arapaho Indian." But I digress.

Because of the salmonella scare, I've been nervous about feeding Jimmy uncooked vegetables, and I came across a recipe on the Internet the other day, so I decided to try it out on a basket of tomatoes I bought.

After dropping the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute to loosen the skin for easy peeling, you halve them a put them face down in a shallow dish. Sprinkle them with coarse sea salt, freshly ground pepper, finely chopped garlic, and drizzle them with olive oil. Then bake them all day in a 200 degree oven.

I cooked these for nine hours, and I think they could have cooked a few more because they were such large tomaoes, but I couldn't wait any longer.

They have a very intense flavor, and the article said they're great in pasta salads, in omelets, on hamburgers. I doubt we'll get too far with experimentation, because we like them so much we're eating them right out of the pan.