Harvest Notes Week 11

Paste Tomatoes The narrow, oblong shaped tomatoes are often referred to as paste tomatoes or sauce tomatoes. They aren’t as juicy as slicing tomatoes and thus are more often used to make sauce since you don’t have to boil them down as long to get that concentrated tomato flavor. They are also often used for pico de gallo to get a firmer tester with less juice. That said, I make sauce out of slicing tomatoes all the time and salsa too and it’s all delicious! We grow two varieties of paste tomatoes, San Marzanos (a classic Italian type) and Speckled Roman (a gorgeous and delicious heirloom with golden stripes).


Slicing Tomatoes These are the round tomatoes in your share and are classically thought of as being suited for salads, sandwiches and, if you’re my seven year old, simply being sliced up and salted for raw consumption. Remember that there is a range of ripeness represented in your tomatoes to last you the week so you can eat the ripest first and keep the less ripe ones on your counter top for a few days.


Cherry Tomatoes When it rains tomatoes, it pours! These of course are perfect for a simple snack or salad but are also delicious roasted in the oven with other veggies.


Cilantro This would be a great week to make salsa with all of the tomatoes, garlic, onion, and peppers!


Garlic These heads are now fully cured and can be stored out of the fridge.


Green Peppers and Purple Peppers Both of these types of peppers are savory rather than sweet like red or yellow peppers.


Hot Peppers You have one hot pepper to add a little kick on salsa week:)


Sweet Onion These white onions are like walla wallas. They are quite yummy raw or caramelized. They are fresh, not cured, so they are best stored in the fridge although they’d do fine on a counter top for a week or two.


Zucchini Someday, it will no longer be zucchini season and we’ll miss these prolific veggies. But that day is not yet today! Enjoy them while they last:)


Celery This is a tricky vegetable to grow in our climate. We always end up with skinnier, drier ribs than we’d like but these are excellent for soup!


Potatoes This variety is pink on the inside and out! The particular texture of these makes incredible baked potatoes and would also be delicious in soup with celery, zucchini, peppers, onions, and garlic.