Each Little World: Sweet red tomatoes & poetry

The Westside Farmers’ Market just sent out its weekly e-newsletter before Saturday’s market and the good news is that tomatoes are still going strong.

Our tomato taste-buds were tickled earlier this week when a friend brought a beautiful layered salad of heirloom tomatoes to dinner. If that wasn’t treat enough, she gave us a bag of beauties to get us through the week.

I want to pick up more tomatoes at the market so we can have this easy Saturday supper. It will be perfect with a handful of purple basil from the huge plant our neighbors just gave us. It’s been growing in a pot on their patio all summer but still has lots of life left. I put it on our deck with two lavender asters in pots — all of which we can see from indoors.

PASTA WITH FRESH TOMATO SAUCE

In a non-stick pan, mix together:

1 pound assorted tomatoes (cored, seeded and diced into bite-size chunks)
¼ cup minced shallot or onions
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
About ½ cup of mixed — and minced — herbs, but basil should predominate (I just use whatever is in the garden, usually a mix of thyme and parsley, plus the basil)
A heaping ½ cup of pitted Kalamata olives, sliced into 2 or 3 pieces
Drizzle with about 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Heat over low to medium heat just enough to gently warm the ingredients and release their flavors.

Serve with your favorite cooked pasta and grated Parmesan cheese.

Though we used spaghetti last time we made this dish, I’m going to remember to use Rotini or Farfalle which should work better with the chunky sauce.

Serves 4-6 and you can use leftovers — if there are any — on a green salad or in an omelet or just eat it cold out of the storage container.

The tomatoes in the blue bowl include Garden Peach, Red Zebra and an unknown orange-fleshed variety.

SWEET RED CHERRY TOMATOES
FROM YOUR HARAMBEE GARDEN

Have you ever wished to venture forth beyond
Your primal ancestral circles
And see what's up in the village
Across the river from your own?

Have you ever longed for sweet red cherry tomatoes
So fresh and juicy the old world
Protestant or Catholic in you worries that
Eating them might be some kind of carnal sin?

Have you ever felt the joy of sacred fatigue
At the end of a workout in rich soil
Hands in the dirt, good sweat, and
Joyous work laughter moments with friends?

Have you ever imagined that...

Your nation gave rise to a movement
With other nations you are learning to love,

With an eye, strong body, and heart
Fixed on the prize of
Ten thousand backyard city farms.

With 4 chickens (no rooster) each
(Roosters visit from the early rising towns)

Eyes on the prize of...

Ten Thousand community farms and gardens,
In old industrial city neighborhoods,

Transforming themselves into

Planetary villages of grace, beauty, and health?

And the nation chose a leader
Who could understand all this!

— James Godsil

James Godsil, a poet and roofer, lives in Milwaukee and works closely with Will Allen, the retired basketball player who is known for Growing Power, a 2 ½ acre urban farm producing chemical-free vegetables. For more information, see http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/OldeGodsil/Poetry. Used with permission.