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Writer's picture10th St. Farm & Market

Summer CSA Week 7 | (Tomato) variety is the spice of life

Week 7: July 25 - July 28


NOTE: Please bring back any purple bags you may have in your home, car, or elsewhere. We rely on people bringing these back to be able to re-use them!


Tomato season is upon us! If you’re anything like us, that statement brings warm fuzzies to your heart and myriad recipes to your mind. Tomatoes are tasty and versatile - especially when you can get them locally grown at the peak of their flavor. Grocery store tomatoes in January, no matter how well sourced, are a crime against flavor.


We take tomatoes pretty seriously here at 10th Street Farm & Market. They rank up there with carrots among the most time-intensive and space intensive crops we grow. Our tomatoes live in our three movable high tunnels, where they command our attention all summer, requiring weekly pruning and trellising, frequent and calculated watering, and harvests basically every other day for months. 


Beyond that care and attention, part of taking tomatoes seriously is deciding which tomatoes to grow. Tomato planning begins in November or December, when seed catalogs arrive in our mailbox like early Christmas presents. We page through, reading the variety descriptions, marking old favorites, and seeing what new offerings are being touted as the next big thing. Then, we get to work and make some tough choices. 


We start with our standbys - familiar varieties we’ve grown to love over the years. Citrine, for an orange cherry tomato that tastes incredible and doesn’t crack easily. Cherokee Carbon, for a dark, luscious tomato that is just perfect on a bagel with cream cheese. Green Doctor, for a unique specimen that ripens green, adding color and intrigue to a mixed pint of cherry tomatoes. 


Then, we look for complementary attributes - color, taste, size, seasonality, disease resistance, and more. We like red slicers, purple slicers, yellow slicers, orange slicers, and pink slicers. We want a red cherry, a yellow cherry, and a dark, mysterious cherry in every mix. Our eyes are often bigger than our stomachs, and this year we are growing eleven varieties of slicing tomatoes and nine varieties of cherry tomatoes. Excessive? Maybe. But we think it’s all worth it when we set out a showstopping array of tomatoes that delivers on looks and taste alike. It’s early still, but we’ve been really pleased with our varieties this year - they are fruitful, beautiful, and most importantly: delicious.


Curious to try a few of the different varieties we’re growing? If you don’t want to leap before you look (or taste), on Thursday of next week (August 1st) from 3-5 we’ll be doing a tomato tasting near the market barn, slicing up some of the different varieties of tomatoes for you to taste side-by-side. Let us be your tomato sommelier and help you pick the perfect tomato for whatever you’re cooking up! In the meantime, we hope you’re enjoying the selection - and do let us know if any of them are knocking your socks off!


Have a week full of variety,

Ashley, Chris, Hallie, and the 10th Street Farm Crew


 

In Your Bag This Week

Flavor Mix microgreens: Mild and tasty, these make an easy salad on their own or can add some color to any other salad. Try them on eggs or sandwiches – or anything, really! Store in a bag in your fridge.


Cucumbers: Crunchy and refreshing, chop up for a salad, add to sandwiches or just eat raw! Store in a bag in your fridge.


Green Beans: A more traditional green bean than the haricot vert we’ve had in previous weeks, these green beans are flavorful and ready to rock. Store in a bag in your fridge.


Carrots: These carrots are sweet, crunchy, and oh so addicting! The tops were a little weak this week due to all of the rain a few weeks ago, so they're topped and bagged this week. Store in your fridge.


Tropea Onions: Our favorite fresh red onions - mild and versatile. Store in a bag in your fridge.


Tomatoes: The tomatoes are really tasting great right now! Make sure to grab yours from the CSA-only table. Store on the counter - never in the fridge!


Napa Cabbage (half shares): The perfect partner for tomatoes and other summer veggies! Herbaceous and tasty. Store in a glass of water outside the fridge.


Summer Squash (full shares): Green zucchini and yellow squash - delicious sautéed, grilled, or baked. Store in a bag in your fridge.


Head Lettuce (full shares): Beautiful crisp lettuce heads. Great for everything from lettuce wraps to salads and sandwiches. Store in a bag in your fridge.


Jalapeño Pepper (full shares): Add some zip to whatever you're cooking up! Not the hottest pepper, but these flavorful and familiar jalapeños serve up plenty of spice! Store in a bag in your fridge.

 

What should I make with what’s in the bag?


We could write a whole newsletter about how the perfect tomato sandwich differs from the perfect B.L.T., but we’ve probably spent enough time talking tomatoes today. If you're looking to branch out from those classics, though, we’d recommend a few slices of tomato and some flavor mix microgreens on these chickpea salad sandwiches for an easy and interesting vegetarian lunch - so delicious.


Everyone has green beans in their bag this week, which seems like a good time to recommend something like a green bean almondine or even just an elevated version of something simple like roasted green beans. Or, if you want to practice ahead of time to wow everyone at thanksgiving, maybe try whipping up this updated version of the classic green bean casserole?


If you’re working your way through a carrot backlog, we can’t recommend this roasted carrots and chermoula recipe highly enough - a real show stopper (swap your tropea in for the shallots called for). Or try peeling carrots into ribbons for this fresh carrot, date, and feta salad, which seems like a great dish for a hot day.


If you've found a recipe you're loving, please send it our way. We're always looking for new things to cook and who knows, maybe it'll make its way into an upcoming newsletter!

 

We wash everything in your bag but we wash them in bulk so some things may need an extra rinse at home. Please bring your bag back next week so we can re-use them! Thanks!

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