What to do with local produce (Jonesborough: to buy, store, food)

[NorthernLights]

After I moved here I immediately became aware that there were some things in the farmer's market I hadn't seen before. Like: Greasey Beans, Snowball Greasey beans, Turkey Crawl beans, Pink tip beans... all great [although my personal fav are just the ones simply called "greasey beans"...excellent.] Plus, you guys got fantastic tomatoes coming out your ears down here. Well, I have been getting a ton of tomatoes off of my vines in the last week and I've noticed the famous Grainger county tomatoes and the Cherokee purples are starting to come into the markets too. Plus, mid July is about the right time to finally start to buy the SC peaches and blackberries that are coming to our produce stands. [excellent].

My whole freakin' kitchen is covered in tomatoes so I went looking for a recipe that would use a bunch of them up besides just making salsa. This recipe worked out great!!!! If your family likes pie and likes pizza then serve them this. There will be no leftovers [two of us ate almost the whole pie at one sitting]

Tomato Pie;

two crusts, rolled frozen, fresh...whatever you like to use.

slice about 2 pounds of tomatoes a quarter inch thick and spread them out on a paper towel lined baking sheet. [about 5 tomatoes]
sprinkle salt and/or Mrs. Dash over them and let the tomatoes dry out all day, mop them with a paper towel if you have to so they are as dry as possible by the time you want to make the pie. moist tomatoes will make this a soggy mess.

slice, real thin about 3 or 4 scallions/green onions

mix a 1/4 cup mayonnaise, [preferably Dukes], and 4 tsp of cornstarch and One cup of shredded Cheddar cheese together in a mixing bowl [use good cheese].

heat oven to 450 degrees.

spread One half cup of shredded cheddar in the bottom of a pie crust and layer on top of that about one third of your sliced tomatoes.

On top of that spread about half of the cheese/ mayo / cornstarch mix and about half of your green onions. It's a clumpy mix but just kind of spread it around as best you can.
Then another layer of tomatoes and the rest of the cheese mix and the rest of the green onions and as many of the remaining tomato slices as will fit. Lay a crust on top of that. Cut BIG holes in the top of the crust, like about two inch holes or crescents or whatever but you need to let the moisture get out of this pie while it bakes. a cross hatched waffle style top crust will work too and look good to boot.

Bake pie at 450 for 10 minutes and drop it back to 325 for 40 minutes.

Let cool and firm up for about a half hour then serve.

It's a real winner, uses only a little bit of mayo and cheese and is mostly fresh tomatoes so...it's fairly healthy.

[Magnolia Bloom]

You all have the best tomatoes up there. I could eat them like apples! You could always bring them down to Florida....

[NorthernLights]

I bought a s--tload of blackberries and red havens and white peaches last week in Cooley Springs SC and after a week of eating fresh fruit needed to do something to beat the fruit flies.

raw blackberries freeze great if you can simply seal them in a baggie and suck all the air out of the bag before freezing or better yet use a vac-u-seal.

Peaches freeze great if you get a bottle of cheap white grape or apple juice, pour some in a bowl, peel and slice up a peach and put it in the bowl and add just enough juice to keep the peaches covered until you have a 2 or 3 cups worth to put in a ziploc freezer bag. The sugar in the juice and the added vitamin C acts like adding sugar and Fruit Fresh [powdered Vitamin C, citric acid] to the sliced fruit. Then a day before you want peaches for a pie or cobbler put a frozen bag from the freezer to the fridge and let them soften up in the fridge...the easiest way to store peaches, apple slices, nectarines or plums

[bound2TN]

Hi:
My wife and I used to just throw extra tomatoes into plastic bags and then put them in the freezer. When you take them out, the skin slips right off and "extra" water can be drained off. You have "concentrated" tomatoes that are perfect for spaghetti sauce. May I also suggest using the "green" tomatoes for mincemeat (and, of course, frying?)

[NorthernLights]

That's so cool, just freeze them huh? I've always blanched them or even stewed them down before freezing them. I read you should be careful to add a Tbsp of lemon juice to tomatoes to keep the acid level high to avoid botulis. I never have though and I'm still here at 47 but maybe that one bad bag o' tomatoes with my name on it is waiting just right around the corner.
I like the produce stands along 107 over near Lamar. The Smith girls get good stuff. It seems like most of it is truly local. Some of these stands the folks sell stuff no more local than Food City or Ingles.
The Farmers Markets are good.
Sure wish I could find the pickle lady that used to be at the Jonesborough flea market. They were some of the best dill pickles I've had in a long, long time. She hasn't been there for a while.