Harvest Notes Week 13

Basil A yummy herb to go in all of that sauce you’ll make with the paste tomatoes or on tomato sandwiches. The leaves turn a dark shade if stored wet.


Pointy Italian Sweet Peppers The large, pointy, red and/or yellow peppers in your share are sweet! They may look suspicious like they could be spicy but they actually have a delicious sweet flavor when roasted or eaten raw.


Cayenne The small, pointy red peppers, however, are quite spicy. These are cayenne hot peppers and they can be used fresh or dried.


Leeks These onion/scallion relatives are versatile. Cook them slowly to maximize flavor.


Lettuce Lettuce really doesn’t like to grow in hot weather so these are not quite as delicious or tender as they were in the spring. That said, doll them up with a little dressing and you’re good to go!


Rainbow Chard Greens to toss in with eggs, soups, salads, curries, or stir-fries.


Cantaloupe These melons are so incredibly sweet! As with watermelons, there is some very careful discernment that happens in the field to determine which are ripe and ready to be picked. The process is usually successful but if you ever get a melon that isn’t yummy, please let us know! We’re happy to replace it for you and it’s just helpful for us to know.


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 so you can eat the ripest first and keep the less ripe ones on your counter top for a few days.