Weekend cooking project: Get you some gazpacho

What happens when you chase a wet/cool spring with a wicked hot summer? Produce explosion. All of my farm and farmers market friends are remarking that we are in the middle of a bonafide tomato bonanza.

At Casa Purvis, I took evasive action several weeks ago: Among the many projects I tackled during a recent stay-home-and-cook vacation was bacon making. I ordered 3 pounds of pork belly from a local farm, but my order got misinterpreted as 5 pounds. Not a problem: This is one summer when 5 pounds of bacon, cured, smoked and tucked in the freezer, will get regular starring roles on BLTs, BTs and tomato-heavy salads sprinkled with crispy, brown lardons.

Of course, it doesn't take home-cured bacon to celebrate the Mighty Tomato in a summer like this. We've been mowing through platters of caprese salads and bowls of tomato wedges tossed with a little olive oil, salt and sherry vinegar.

This weekend, I'm hungering for a big batch of gazpacho, the perfect thing to pack for lunches at my desk next week with hunky chunks of crusty bread. Yes, Spainophiles, it is true that not all gazpacho is made from tomatoes. But my favorite definitely is. It's a recipe from old friend Fred Vultee. Haven't seen him in years, but he left me with a good recipe. That's what friends are for.

I've already got the recipe loaded on my Blackberry so I have the essential summer shopping list handy.

Fred's Really Tomatoey Gazpacho
4 to 5 large tomatoes, or about a dozen smaller Roma tomatoes, plus 1 more tomato for topping
1/2 of a large sweet onion
1 green pepper, seeded
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
2 to 3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground coriander
A little vegetable or tomato juice if needed
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
Chopped fresh basil to taste

Peel all but one large tomato. Cut out the stem end and cut in half. Squeeze out the seeds, then roughly chop the tomatoes. Place in a blender.

Chop half the onion, pepper and cucumber roughly and add to the blender. Dice the remaining onion, pepper and cucumber and set aside. Add the garlic, oil, vinegar, lemon juice and coriander to the blender. Puree until smooth. (Do this in batches if you need to, to keep the blender contents from splashing over.) Add a little vegetable or tomato juice if needed to thin it out a little.

Refrigerate until well chilled. Before serving, dice the remaining tomato and basil and mix with the diced onion, pepper and cucumber. Top soup with some of the chopped vegetables before serving.

Makes about 6 servings.

From the story vault: Canning peaches

Peaches are doing just as well as tomatoes. In the summer of 2008, photographer Gary O'Brien and I went to see Charlotte cook Cydne Watterson, who is absolutely nuts about canning peaches.

We put together a video of Watterson canning her peaches. You can watch that here: Peach video.

And you can read my story about Watterson and her peach passion here: Peach Lady.

One warning, though: Watterson uses a steam canning method. It's common in her native Utah, but is used less often around here. If you have the equipment though, it's a simple way to can.

Thanks again, Cydne.

Bourdain, Ripert, Park Road Books - and a food-writing club

You have to act fast (before 10 a.m. Friday, July 29), but Park Road Books has a special offer for tickets to "Good Vs. Evil: An Evening With Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert," which is coming to the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center on Oct. 26. If you buy tickets here through Park Road Book's deal, you can save $5. (After 10 a.m. tomorrow, you just buy them through the Blumenthal site at the regular prices, which range from $34.50 to $150. Go here.)

Park Road Books also will be the bookseller at the event, which is a nice perk for a great independent bookstore that has brought so many cookbook authors to town. (To read my colleague Pam Kelley's recent story on Park Road Books, go here.)

And in other cookbook author news, Rick McDaniel, the author of "An Irresistible History of Southern Food," will sign copies of his book at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at PRB. McDaniel was quoted in my recent story on pimento cheese. (And you can read that here.)

One more thing (I saved the best for last): Park Road Books is starting a food writing club to discuss great food writing of the book variety. The first meeting is at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 to discuss "Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge," by Edgar Gordon. What a cool idea.

Thinking about culinary school?

Kayla Webley of Time has an interesting story up: Can culinary school lead to a career that pays enough to equal the cost of the tuition (and the student loans)? Or would budding chefs be better off skipping the degree and heading straight to the kitchen line?

It's a valid question. And an intriguing one, here in a city with four culinary schools. Here's the link: www.time.com.

At last, a superhero I can believe in: Mrs. Butterworth

New farmers markets take root

I'm starting to get used to this: By mid-summer every year, several new farmers market set up shop in the middle of the summer season. I haven't been out to see these yet, so if you have feedback to share, add a comment and let me know how these are doing:

Elizabeth Avenue Farmers Market, 1521 Elizabeth Ave., in the parking lot between Torrence and Hawthorne. 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays. This one was started by Trey Wilson of Customshop and has only been running for a few weeks. But it's about time Elizabeth had a market, isn't it? The list of vendors is short, but growing: Stone Seafood (let's hear it for Rock Stone fans), Wild Turkey Farms, Landis Mushrooms and Think Bees. Details: www.elizabethavefarmersmarket.com.

Wallace Community Tailgate Market, 11202 Harris (Eastfield) Road, Charlotte, 704-252-1654. 9 a.m.-noon Thursdays. Producer-only market with quite a few north-end growers and makers, including Houston Farms, Windy Hill Farms, Cabarrus Farms, Commonwealth, Cloister Honey, Great Harvest, Pickleville and Rocky River Coffee. Details: Wallace Community Tailgate Market on Facebook.

Village at Robinson Farm, at Rea Road and Williams Pond Lane. Noon-6 p.m. Wednesdays. It's organized by Jason Stone of Unity Farms, which is a familiar vendor at Trade and Tryon most weekdays. Check the Village at Robinson Farm on Facebook for more details.

There's also a new market project coming up on North Davidson Street, behind Area 15 at Davidson and 15th Street. That will include the output of a group of 19 farms around Reidsville, as well as art and some other events. It plans to start Aug. 13 and continue on the first Saturday of the month through November.

And while I haven't had a chance to add these, we still have our searchable list of farmers markets all over the Carolinas. Go here to look for more.

Yes, I'm a biscuit-eater

Thanks to Sam Sifton of the New York Times, who kindly asked me for a quote or two for his story on biscuits in this weekend's New York Times Sunday magazine. It's only July, but I was flattered to be in such august company, including Nathalie Dupree. Here's a link to the story.