Tomato Pie

Among much conversation during our recent Spring Planting Day, a couple of our very supportive and passionate plot owners (Diane Beidler and Dot Russell) came up with the idea to share recipes from produce derived from the garden. I have since passed Diane's Tomato Pie recipe onto Dot, but thought I would share the wealth with others. See below recipe below. If you have a recipe you would like to share, please contact me at natalie_dougherty@bshsi.org.

Tomato Pie

1 9 inch deep dish pie shell baked (I've included my favorite below)
2 to 3 large tomatoes thickly sliced
2 to 3 green onions chopped (or about 1/4 C sweet onion chopped fine)
salt
pepper
basil
chives (optional)
1 C mayonnaise
1 C sharp cheese, grated
3 slices bacon, fried crisp
Parmesan cheese

Fill cooled pie shell with alternating layers of tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, basil and chives. Combine mayonnaise and cheese and spread over tomatoes. Sprinkle top with crushed bacon and Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350 for 30 min.

Pie Crust:

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C cold butter (do not substitute margarine)

In a small bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in butter until crumbly. Press into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake 375 until lightly browned, about 7-10 min.


Recipe Adapted from:
"Gracious Goodness Charleston"
"Taste of Home" (Crust)

Spring Planting Day, March 20th

It could not have been a more beautiful day for out 2010 Spring Planting Day! About 35 people showed up to work in their plots, lend support and enjoy the time with others. Suzy Seagrave was our Master Gardner on had for the day and she was a ton of help, physically and educationally. Our next Sprouting Saturday is scheduled for Saturday, April 10th from 9-11am.

A New Gardening Season....

It is time again for the St. Francis Community Garden to be revived. We took a much needed hiatus for several months to revel in the holidays and bear the chilly weather, letting the soil lie dormant and recover for this season. While our first planting day was set for this Saturday, we have since decided to postpone it for March 20th, our originally scheduled rain date. With the several inches of rain we have received and are continuing to receive, it will be much more pleasant to garden when the weather is more cooperative, and appropriately, the first day of Spring!

In addition, we have several new developments in our garden. We have officially set the gardening season from March through November and will host "Sprouting Saturdays" to collectively work in the garden a couple of times each month. We have 3 new benches built by Eagle Scout troop 747 to rest our working legs, and the large cargo POD has been replaced with a smaller and much more accessible storage shed. Finally, we have graded a large area for accessible parking around the garden. Cars may now enter from Andrews Street. Ta da!

Although several gardeners were not able to commit for another year, we have many new members joining our family! It will be exciting to see old and new faces this gardening season. A garden information piece was also developed by our talented marketing department (See below).

We are looking forward to dusting off the skills we have learned and embarking on new this second gardening season. Please look for more information on garden talks we are planning this year!


There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. ~Mirabel Osler