Steve Schwartz & Lori Selke discuss our computer setup at Farm Day 99

What’s Growing This Week:  Grapes Peppers Tomatoes Sweet corn Orange Honeydew Melon Onions Cherry Tomatos Beans

 Pablito....

WHICH IS THE SWEETEST…
Imagine you are selling heirloom tomatoes at a farmer’s market.  In front of you lie ten, maybe 15, completely different and unique varieties of tomatoes.  Colorful names match the appearances, all shapes and sizes.

Arrive a horde of shoppers.  One by one, they ask the same question.  “Which one is sweetest?”.  Suppressing a scream, you try to describe the subtle differences in taste and texture between, say, a Marvel Stripe and Cherokee Purple.  Words fail you.  Looking up at the shopper, you see a look of impatience.  “But which one is sweeter?”, they ask again.

Calling all subscribers who are also poets, would-be poets, or anything close.  We are looking for a handful of wordsmiths who can produce a handful of prose, a short stanza, a magical metaphor, or even a haiku — describing the flavor of each of the main tomato varieties we grow.  (We only ask that you stay away from racy, suggestive descriptions along the lines of “The Lemon Boy is a saucy, juicy, tart little mouthful”, etc.)

If your creative urges are sparked by this challenge, we invite you to come to the Saturday Berkeley Farmer’s market (MLK & Centre St.) or Sunday Marin Market (Marin Civic Center) and pick up a bag full of mixed tomato varieties, free.  We will take your names, and then expect you to produce some poetry.  We will choose the winners out of the thousands of likely entrees (yeah right), print the descriptions on laminated cards that will be displayed at market along with your name, and you will forever be immortalized by tomato lovers.  Maybe we’ll even get a small publishing house to issue a small run of high quality, illustrated books containing all the tomato varieties and their poems...May the best wordsmith win!

SO YOU’RE NOT A POET?
Maybe you don’t have a knack for describing the flavor of tomatoes.  How about for throwing them?  For years I have read about a tomato-throwing festival in Spain where the streets of a town are filled with ripe tomatoes and thousands of folks don bathing suits and swim goggles to spend three hours pelting each other with tomatoes.

If that sounds like fun to you, keep reading.  Every week, we compost several hundred pounds of ripe tomatoes that don’t make our high quality standards.  If enough people were interested, we could save one weeks worth of tomatoes and start a small tomato fight right here at Terra Firma, on Farm Day this year.  It’s certainly warm enough here in October to run around in bathing suits, and we have plenty of clean water to hose people off afterwards.  Any takers?  Write or e-mail if you think this isn’t a completely idiotic idea!

CHOOSING DATES
Speaking of Farm Day, we haven’t chosen a date yet, but it will almost certainly be one of the last two weeks in October, on a Sunday.  We will decide very quickly which day it is going to be, and let you know.
Another date that we haven’t decided on yet is that of our two week vacation at the end of December.  If you care which two weeks we take off, you might peruse your calendar and consider the options:  The weeks of Dec. 18th and 25th, or the weeks of Dec. 25th and Jan. 1.  Let us know which you think would be less inconvenient for you, and we’ll tally up the results and choose a date by the end of September.

 CULTURE MIXING
How many people, when picking up their CSA boxes or shopping at the farmer’s markets, think
 of Mexican polka music, black cowboy hats, and roasting pigs while they’re buying their produce?
All these things were strongly in evidence here on Saturday night at a birthday party for TFF driver Hector Melendez’ celebration of his daughter Karen’s 4th birthday.  Among the 100 or more folks at the party were most of  our current employees, as well as numerous people who’ve worked for us in the past — and their kids.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a social setting where I’ve known so many people by name.

Of course, among the people attending the party were most of our organic espousing, mostly-vegetarian 20-something gringo workers.  Normally clad in overalls and dirty khakis, they dressed up for the occasion and fit right in among the pressed shirts and long dresses of their Spanish speaking co-workers.

Anyone who thinks cultural diversity is an urban thing would have done a double take.  No less surprised would have been the English-only, anti-immigration types — at hearing the 20 or so 1st generation children moving effortlessly back and forth between English and Spanish.

MISSING GREEN VEGETABLES?
Me too!  By the end of this week, I will have planted spinach and salad mix as well as cilantro that will be ready to pick before the end of September — and we hope the weather will cooperate and not cook the seeds in the ground. Chard and kale will get planted, too, although they take considerably longer to grow to harvestable size.  Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage have been planted already, and are growing quickly.  Meanwhile, many subcribers have noted the absence of basil in the boxes.  A planned summer hiatus for basil has gone on for longer than we had hoped, but new basil is up and growing, and we hope to have some in the boxes by the middle of the month.  Fall bunches will be abundant and perfect for making up batches of freezer pesto to keep you going through the long, basil-free winter. Eggplant will be back either next week or the following week.  Also, as fall approaches, get ready for the first winter squash and sweet potatoes, which are currently sizing up and getting ready for harvest.  The first carrots are up and growing, and should arrive sometime in October.

 In the fruit department, you will be seeing grapes regularly, along with a few pears or asian pears.  Peach season is over, but the fig trees may still ripen up a third crop in a few more weeks.  Our heat-loving Sharlyn melon field is finished for the summer, but there are still plenty of cantelopes and orange honeydew that will continue to be a regular feature of the boxes for anywhere from two weeks to a month, depending on the weather.  Watermelons will be a less regular feature, but we even have a patch of watermelons that won’t ripen until October, assuming it’s still warm enough to ripen them at all.
 Lastly, we will be offering bulk canning tomatoes to you as soon as we can guarantee a steady supply, probably in mid-September.

Thanks,            Pablito
 
 

Recipes    ............................

Summer Polenta— you can eat this soft, or pour into a baking pan and refrigerate it, then cut into slices and fry until crisp.
In a large pot, bring 5 C. water to a boil, then add 1 1/2 C. polenta and lower the heat to a simmer.  Add 5 C. minced garlic, 2 thinly sliced red peppers, and 2 C. diced tomatoes.  Stir while simmering to keep the cornmeal from clumping.  After 10 minutes, cut the kernels off 2-3 ears of corn, and add to the pot along with 1 C. sliced brown mushrooms and 1 C. trimmed, chopped green beans.  When the polenta begins to thicken, add 1 C. grated parmesan or asiago cheese, plus salt and pepper to taste.

Easy Roasted Vegetable Salsa
Line a baking sheet with foil.  Empty one basket of cherry tomatoes onto a baking sheet, plus 1 whole bell pepper, 1 jalapeno pepper, 2 ears of corn, and 1 onion, cut into quarters.  Place in an oven pre-heated to 400 degrees and cook for 20-30 minutes, turning the corn and peppers every 10 minutes or so.  Remove the cherry tomatoes when they begin to explode, then continue roasting until the corn and peppers are cooked on all sides.   Place the pepper in a plastic bag for ten minutes, then peel and remove the seeds.  Cut the kernels off the corn.   Puree the vegetables in a food processor and add salt to taste.
 

Produce 101: preparation & storage  GRAPES this week come from Guru Ram Das Orchards in Esparto, and are CCOF certified.  Keep grapes in a plastic bag in the fridge and eat within 4-5 days to avoid disappointment. Ripe CANTELOPES and ORANGE HONEYDEW will be fragrant at room temperature.  If your melon smells like melon when you get it, refrigerate it until eating.  Slightly less ripe melons may be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days first.

Vacations & Billing Inquiries
We need seven days notice before a vacation hold or other change of service.
Contact Valerie through voicemail at (530) 756-2800, or e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com

MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farm
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com
 

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