jam

I’ve been reading a few posts here and there over the past several months about tomato jam. Now, I don’t know if it was just my family, but being from the Texas Panhandle I’ve heard of strawberry jam, apricot jam, blackberry jam, and even toe jam. I’ve been in traffic jams and jammed up. But never had I heard of tomato jam until this, the 54th year of my life. How could I have lived so long without this amazing condiment? Tomatoes are a staple in our diet. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of great tomatoes to be had at the store. Getting them locally at your farmers’ markets is usually a better option. Something about a sweet, tangy, ripe, red tomato that just says “home” and “comfort” for me. My mom loved to have a few tomato plants every year growing up. We had to raise them in flower beds with some good soil because the natural soil in our area was nothing but caliche – in other words, no nutrients and certainly no acid. Rich, dark, acid soil is necessary if you want to get that tangy, fresh tomato taste. Hydroponic tomatoes are similar in taste to those grown in alkali soil. Ugh. I’m really spoiled to sweet, red, tangy tomatoes. You see, my dad was raised in East Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains. Grainer County, Tennessee, is just north of my grandparent’s home place and is the Tomato Capital of Tennessee. In fact, there is a Grainger County Tomato Festival every July! And I can taste why. If you’ve never had a tomato grown in rich, dark, acid soil – well, then you’ve never tasted the flavor of a real tomato! When we would go to my grandparents’ home in the summer a couple of big, red, ripe tomatoes were the center of the meal, surrounded by fresh corn, fried okra and cornbread. Slap me, but that’s about as good as it gets! It only takes one of these babies to ruin you for the rest of your natural life. Last week, I went to our local farmer’s market and there was box after box of Tennessee Tomatoes! From Newport, Tennessee! Newport is only about 20 miles from the old home place. I was under no illusion that these Tennessee Tomatoes sitting in all these boxes in Grapevine, Texas, would be vine-ripened […]

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