Tree of the Week: Kentucky Coffee Tree

This week seemed like a good time to link to our Tree of the Week list, and what better way than to link directly to one of my favorite trees? I just love the Kentucky Coffee Tree. Not only is it unusual and beautiful, it has a bonus for a plant geek: a really cool Latin name, Gymnocladus dioicus (hear it pronounced here). Legend has it that Native Americans and settlers drank a beverage made from the roasted seeds as a coffee replacement, which led to land developers using the tree as a marketing tool. That didn't last long, as the drink didn't come close to coffee's drink-ability!

Native to the Midwest, KCT has a nice light to medium green leaf color that contrasts really well with the shade that the leaves give, making a very "woodland" feel under the tree. That leaf color turns yellow in the fall and in some years is very striking, then the leaves, which are doubly-compound, come off to leave behind a strong, coarsely-textured outline.




Ok, so what's doubly-compound? Well, the leaf is composed of a stem, which has smaller stems coming off of it. Those smaller stems, in turn, contain leaflets. There are dozens of leaflets per leaf, and the whole structure is about 3' long!




Now for my favorite part of the tree: its fruit. The seeds (on female trees only!) come in a great big, bean-like pod that starts off a lighter green than the leaves, and then as it matures becomes a deep, rich, russet or chestnut color. They hang on the tree most of the winter, breaking off and apart late in the season. The tree only grows a couple here and there while it's young, then as it gets to be a 10-12" trunk diameter or so, you start seeing them pop up around more of the tree's crown. As it grows older, the tree fruits heavily only every 2-3 years.


So, back to Tree of the Week. We feature dozens of species of trees in this listing of good - and not so good - trees to plant in our area. Kentucky Coffee Tree is one of them, and we like to go through the list for a weekly feature. Descriptions are a bit more objective than you see here, but we try to provide a nice overview of how the tree can perform in the landscape. Enjoy!

Roasted tomato soup

So I think this might be tomato month, as two posts in a row are about them. Let's see what inspires next time. Maybe broccoli greens, or planting spruces. Ya never know.

Anyhow, here is a great way to use those tomatoes that have gotten really ripe before you had a chance to eat them! Roasted tomato soup has just a tad bit different flavor from other tomato soups. It's still got the great creamy richness, but there's a hint of the darkened flavor that you get from roasting instead of just boiling.




The ingredients for about 3 quarts of soup:
a nice, heaping panful of ripe tomatoes: enough to layer one 9x13 pan and a 6x9, too.
olive oil
1 to 1.5 teaspoons dried thyme
a couple of pinches of dried parsley
a couple of pinches of dried tarragon
a pinch of seasalt (or whatever salt you have on hand)
Heavy cream - or a 3:1 mixture of evaporated milk and milk from the fridge

How it's done:
Core the tomatoes and place them in the baking dishes, while preheating the oven to 425F. If the tomatoes have blemishes, remove them before roasting, to make them easier to peel later.

Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes - for this lot, I used about 2 tablespoons. Then pop the pan(s) into oven, and roast for about an hour or until they're browning on top. These large tomatoes took that hour, plus about 40 minutes at 200F before I was satisfied.


Let the tomatoes cool enough to handle, and peel them. Place them in a blender with their juice, and add about 3/4 to 1 cup of cream for every quart of tomato/juice combo. Add the spices, then hit the cream button until it's good and smooth. For this batch, I blended in halves: a little over a quart of tomatoes with an appropriate portion of the spices & cream.

Heat what you're going to eat, and enjoy!

I'm going to play around with this a bit. More spices, maybe a bit of garlic, perhaps adding a cup or two of chicken broth. I'd love to hear how you vary it, too!

This sounds like one of those recipes that takes a long time, and it can. But check this out: I roasted the tomatoes while doing other things, and stuck them in the fridge until I could create the soup. Then, when ready, I peeled them and the rest is history.

Veggie Tip - Storing Tomatoes

Tomatoes taste best at room temperature and can be damaged by cold temps, so I find it best to store at room temperature and out of direct exposure to sunlight. They will keep up to 5 days, and maybe more, depending on the variety and how ripe they are. However, refrigerating can help an overripe tomato keep for one or two more days. If you must refrigerate, try the butter compartment, where it's warmer When you're ready to use it, take it out 30 minutes ahead of time so it can regain some of its flavor.