week 8

First week in August and the tomatoes are really coming on. We grow many different types of heirloom tomatoes in all colors and some standard modern hybrids as well. We do not plant genetically modified tomatoes. Modern hybrids are made by removing the male parts off some plants and pollinating them by hand with a paintbrush to get a cross that brings out the best of the parent plants. Burpee has made this big business. Don’t try to save the seeds from your Burpee Big Boys as they do not breed true from seed. But our Mortgage Lifters will be true if you save the seeds. As far as self sufficiency, heirlooms are the best. We’re creating new heirlooms as well by saving the seeds of the best plants that produce the sweetest fruit with the most disease resistance. They might not have names yet, but if we keep saving the seeds from the best plants that grow in our climate, eventually we’ll have something really amazing that’s well suited for our area. Take that, Burpee.

When storing tomatoes, do not put them in the fridge. Leave them in a sunny window until you’re ready to use. Any that have blemishes should be used right away. Heirlooms are best when picked slightly green and then ripened in a sunny windowsill… but some are green zebra, a striped green and dark green variety that is perfect when green but will ripen into a mushy yellow and green ball if allowed to overripe. So use your judgment and let the BLT’s begin.
Anyway, it’s another mishmash week of a whole lot of different things. Some of you will be experimenting with pattypan squash and some baskets will be loaded with tomatoes of all colors. There’s more potatoes as well for the roasting, steaming and smashing, or just saving them for later along with some delicious onions that I can’t get enough of. Okra is starting to come in now, but if you don’t know what to do with it but you got it, just email me and I’ll give you my grandma’s fried okra recipe. Delicious. I’m not big on gumbo so I like my okra to be crispy and not mushy.

Blackberries are done. Blueberries are in a lull (or someone else got to them before I did this week) but we do have some beautiful little Shiro and Red Ace plums from a farm down by Apple Creek.

Oh, and you’ll find some little paper lanterns popping up in some baskets. Those little delicious bites are called husk tomatoes or ground cherries. If they’re green, give them a few more days in a sunny window. They are perfect when the husks are thin as paper and brown and the little tiny tomato inside is a nice golden color. Remove the husk and eat, or throw it in a salad. They’re called ground cherries because they are ripe when they fall to the ground. If you husk them, they keep in the fridge for a couple weeks and I’ve got some nice ground cherry pie recipes for anyone interested.

Apples are ripening well. Grapes are turning and setting their sugars. Our first wave of sweet corn was Temptation bi-color. This week we’ve got some Incredible and next week the winery neighbor said his Bodacious might be ready. I’ve never had it but he swears it’s the best. I’ll let you all be the judge.
- Janee