Week #19 2018

 

• Tomatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Sweet peppers
• Hot peppers
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Pears! Let them sit on your counter and ripen
• Apples
• Onions
• Garlic
• Chives
• Basil
• Beets
• Tomatillos or eggplant (weak production so choose one or the other)

Tomatoes are here! We finally have the heirloom tomatoes kicking in to high gear. Time to make all things tomatoes. We are racing to get onions pulled, potatoes dug and gardens weeded. We got the last of the overwintering broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower transplanted as well as some late fall broccoli. It is such a relief to see those transplants in the ground and not languishing in the plant mortuary by my seeding greenhouse. I was doubtful that I would get those prized crops in the ground with the heat and the fact that so many of the onions need to be pulled out yet. Juvencio is a machine and pulled and weeded in 95 degree weather.

We managed to get our carrots, beets and late cucumbers weeded yesterday, also a big feat. The carrots look good, but don’t count your chickens before they hatch, so many things can go wrong with carrots! It is near impossible to keep this place going at this time of year with so many moving pieces and the heat making some days impossible to work out there. It looks like we may get a reprieve this week, fingers crossed.

We hope you have all marked your calendars for October 14^th, our big harvest festival. We are lining up the performers, getting that cider press cleaned up and hoping you will join us with your families and friends in toe. Our season continues through the end of October but we hold the harvest fest mid October in hopes of good weather. Rain or shine we have our festival so please plan on joining us that day.

For the past 10 or so years we have offered a limited enrollment winter share. The winter share goes from November to March. We will harvest 12 times (usually every other week, but occasionally I can’t resist and have to give you all we’ve got two weeks in a row). The Thanksgiving share is not included in the winter share and is a add on available to all members. Our returning winter share members have seniority but we will be accepting new members. If you are interested please do email me as the early bird gets the worm. We have many members who love the winter share even more than summer (impossible right??) but it is full of greens, root veggies and lots of salad.

Follow Juvencio and I on instagram: Juve66 and lyn.c.jacobs for photos of the farm and snap shots of our adventures.

Here are some recipes to get you started!

 

Jamie Oliver’s Heirloom tomatoes with horseradish

• 4 large handfuls mixed tomatoes
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• good-quality red wine vinegar
• ½ clove garlic , grated
• 2 teaspoons fresh horseradish , grated, or jarred hot horseradish
• 1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley , finely sliced

Method

1. Cut the bigger tomatoes into slices about 1cm/½ inch thick. You can halve the cherry tomatoes or leave them whole. Then sprinkle them all with a good dusting of sea salt. Put them in a colander and leave them for 30 minutes. What’s going to happen here is that the salt will draw the excess moisture out of the tomatoes, intensifying their flavor. Don’t worry about the salad being too salty, as a lot of the salt drips away.
2. Place the tomatoes in a large bowl and dress with enough extra virgin olive oil to loosen (approximately 6 tablespoons), and 1–2 tablespoons of vinegar, but do add these to your own taste. Toss around and check for seasoning – you may or may not need salt but will certainly need pepper. Add the garlic. Now start to add the horseradish. Stir in a couple of teaspoons to begin with, toss around and taste. If you like it a bit hotter, add a bit more horseradish. All I do now is get some finely sliced flat-leaf parsley (stalks and leaves) and mix this into the tomatoes. Toss everything together and serve as a wonderful salad, making sure you mop up all the juices with some nice squashy bread.
3. This salad is fantastic with roast beef, goat’s cheese or jacket potatoes. And to be honest, even if you put these tomatoes in a roasting tray and roasted them with some sausages scattered around them it would be nice.

 

 

Tomates Concassées

This is the French term for chopped, seeded, and peeled tomatoes, I think. Andy likes to make a fresh pasta sauce this time of year and call it “Tomates Concassées” because he read about it in a book years ago. He basically makes a ‘salsa’ but with the Italian red sauce ingredients, all raw but the onions and garlic and of course the noodles. I’ve seen him make it many times, below is my approximation:

3 pounds ripe tomatoes, any color
1 pound onions
3 garlic cloves
some olive oil
1 bunch of basil
juice from one large or two small lemons
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Rinse the tomatoes, and make a 1-3 inch shallow slit in the bottom of each one. Lower the tomatoes, 2 or 3 at a time, depending on their size, into the boiling saucepan of water. They should only bathe for *5* seconds, no longer. Remove to a plate, rinse in cool water if you like. When all the tomatoes are done, remove peels and seeds, and roughly chop. (I personally admit to skipping the final cool rinse and fully admit to skipping the seed removal, no one has complained about my own sauce yet.)
2. Peel and chop onions and garlic. Saute the onions in a little oil over a medium heat in a wide largish soup pan for a few minutes, then add the garlic. Take care not to burn either. Remove from heat when both are soft and won’t be raw and crunchy in the sauce.
3. Wash and chop basil, then mix it with the cooled onion mixture, and the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Andy is very liberal with the pepper….) Toss with just cooked noodles, and eat.

GREEK SALAD SANDWICH Bon Appetit May 1995

12 ounces small tomatoes, cored, halved, thinly sliced
6 cups spinach leaves, stems trimmed
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced cucumber
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pitted black brine-cured olives (such as Kalamata)
16 large fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced
4 5- to 6-inch-diameter pita bread rounds, toasted

Place tomato slices in strainer; drain 15 minutes. Combine tomatoes, spinach, cucumber, feta cheese, olives and basil in large bowl. Whisk 1/4 cup olive oil, 5 teaspoons lemon juice and minced garlic in small bowl to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat.
Cut pita bread rounds in half crosswise. Divide salad mixture among 8 pita halves and serve.

 Tuna Salad a la Scarlett

 

By Tejal Rao

Yield: serves 4 as a side or 2 as a dinner

Time: 15 minutes, plus 1 hour for pickling the onions

½ cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 red onion , peeled, halved and thinly sliced

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 Persian cucumbers, peeled if skin is thick and waxy, sliced about ¼ inch thick

2 spring onions, thinly sliced (of chives)

2 lines, juiced, about ¼ cup

5 to 7 ounces olive oil packed tuna

1 avocado, peeled and cubed

½ teaspoon or more finishing salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Handful of basil leaves, washed and torn

Handful of cilantro sprigs, washed and torn

Handful of mint leaves washed and torn

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

 

Step 1

In a clean glass jar with a tightfitting lid, mix vinegar, sugar and 1 teaspoon kosher salt with ½ cup of hot water, shake until sugar is dissolved. Bring a pot of water to boil, add the onions let them sit for just a few seconds in the hot water, then drain well and transfer onions to the jar with the vinegar. The pickled onions will be ready to use in an hour, or can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for up to a week.

Step 2

In a large mixing bowl, dress the cucumber and spring onions with remaining kosher salt and lime juice. It should be fairly we. Pour into a deep serving plate or wide bowl, along with any extra liquid.

Step 3

Spoon tuna out of oil, use your hands to break up the tuna into bite sized pieces. Add avocado, 2 tablespoons of pickled onions and 1 table spoon of the pickling liquid and mix gently with your hands to dress. Scatter over the cucumber mixture, and season with finishing salt and black pepper. Cover with the torn herbs and generously drizzle with olive oil, eat right away