Caprese Salad -- ALL Homegrown and Homemade

Wondering about the name of the salad? It's insalata Caprese, meaning a salad in the style of Capri, the famed island off the coast of Italy.

Growing Tomatoes

One of the best reasons for growing your own tomatoes is being able to make as many Caprese salads as you want. We used homegrown Prudens Purple and orange Valencia in the salad we fixed yesterday. If you'd like garden advice about tomatoes, we have a couple of videos where Tricia plants tomatoes, and talks about how to prune them and address any diseases.

Growing Basil

Grow your own basil too, for Caprese salads, and for fresh pesto (plus frozen pesto to brighten up winter days). Sweet Basil is the variety layered in our salad. Tricia shows you how to plant and nurture your basil plants in our video, Growing Basil.

Making Mozzarella Cheese

As for the cheese, you can't grow that, but it's simple to make in your kitchen (just 30 minutes) and a fun project to do with kids. We use a Mozzarella Cheese Kit and never have any trouble. Get Tricia's tips on how to make mozzarella in this video. The article linked to the video includes directions for making the cheese with or without a microwave oven.

Pressing Olive Oil

Want to keep going? You could grow your own olive trees for the olive oil! Watch Tricia planting an olive tree in our video; the linked articles tell you how to choose a grove of olive trees, and how to grow them even in zone 7.  Happy late summer dining with your homegrown Caprese salads!