Farm share, weeks 11 and 12

[magid]

The list from last week (week 11) courtesy of Bitty.

• a giant beet
  
• anise or fennel (BB gave away, so not sure which)
  
• five potatoes
  
• a bunch of kale
  
• a bunch of dill
  
• a red leaf lettuce
  
• half a peck of apples
  
• two squashes
  
• three peppers
  
• two cucumbers
  
• three onions (two red, one yellow)
  
• about a dozen tomatoes

This week's share (the newsletter having pointed out the difficulties of no rain in far too long when the farm doesn't have an embedded irrigation system yet...):

• a stalk of broccoli
  
• one and three-quarters pounds of carrots
  
• a bunch of chard or kale (they had lacinato kale, so I got that)
  
• a head of garlic
  
• four hot peppers (I got two long thin red ones and two larger light green ones; apparently I was too late to get any jalapenos)
  
• three and a half pounds of tomatoes (lots of kinds, ranging from a sort of matte lemony yellow to golden to red with yellowish stripes to different reds)
  
• half a pound of spinach
  
• three leeks
  
• four green peppers

I'm contemplating getting some tomatoes in bulk, but next week wouldn't be the week to do it, with Rosh Hashanah that night. So if there are still tomatoes after that, I'm going to try for the following week. Suggestions for what to do with half a bushel of tomatoes (other than sauce or drying) are welcome. (It's $25/half bushel, which seems like a reasonable deal to me.)

I called the farm and confirmed that I again have a winter share (four distributions in November and December). I asked why the delivery switches to Fridays (as Friday afternoons in those months are a little tight before Shabbat), and found out that during the season, they harvest three times a week, while later in the year, it switches to once a week, on Thursday. I'm still not thrilled by the Fridayness, but at least there's a reason for it.

Also, porch update: I came home and harvested three grape and four sungolds, for a total of 53 grape and 28 sungolds. Note to self: if going away for more than a week, remember to have someone water them at least once. They were not happy when I got in this morning, though they were trying valiantly, and have lots of flowers.

Comments

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Suggestions for what to do with half a bushel of tomatoes (other than sauce or drying) are welcome.

Lots and lots and lots of bruschetta?

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I think that might be more than I can handle.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Another thought -- homemade salsa

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yummy. I'd have to figure out canning salsa, I think.

[trainingmom.livejournal.com]

Tomatoes freeze very well. We used to just cut them into quarters or eights and throw them into ziploc bags to cook with later. Does not take much time and nice for cooking later. I don't know if you have the freezer space or not.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that! Not that I have tons of freezer space, of course. Though if I manage to cook some meat out of it for yom tov, there will be a bit more room...

[mayica.livejournal.com]

I roast them (cut in half, brushed with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, 200 degrees for two hours, I think -- I've got to check at home) before freezing. They take up a lot less space and are wonderful, slightly carmelized and concentrated. I use them all winter long.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've been roasting them more chopped up than halved at 450 F for about an hour... and haven't ended up with the willpower to leave anything for freezing. This sounds halfway between that and the oven drying I was thinking of trying. Yum.

[mayica.livejournal.com]

Having just started a batch, I roast them at 300 (not 200), for two hours. I just bought 25 pounds worth at Russo's, which will probably be 3 two-cookie-tray batches, with some left over for the week

[magid.livejournal.com]

25 pounds of tomatoes = 6 cookie sheets (ish)? I'd've guessed it would be a lot more than that! Half a bushel is sounding a lot more manageable now.

And thanks for the revised time/temp.

[mayica.livejournal.com]

Having just put the last batch in the oven -- yeah, 25 pounds of pum tomatoes cut in half almost exactly filled 6 cookie trays (the "jelly roll pan" kind with sides, 'cause the juice spills). And they take a lot less space after roasting (although that won't help you if you're really low on freezer space; I freeze them in ziplock bags so they can fit in anywhere there's a bit of space).

[(Anonymous)]

About how many tomatoes would be in the half a bushel?

I'd probably enjoy them fresh. I like them sliced and dressed, in Israeli and other salads, and in sandwiches.

Fresh tomatoes are also good served atop babaganoush or as one of many accompaniments served with falafel.

Tossing pasta with lightly sauteed tomatoes and other sauce ingredients is a nice alternative to pasta with actual sauce.

Stuffed tomatoes could be fun. Aren't stuffed foods traditional for the upcoming holidays?

Have you ever pickled tomatoes?

Related to the salsa idea, try tomatoes with ingredients like jalepeños and cheese in scrambled eggs, wrapped in a tortilla. Also a tasty egg dish would be a tomato, spinach, and feta omelette (or "not-omelette").

Or how about topping your flatbread with the tomatoes, spinach, and feta before baking? Can you incorporate tomatoes into your actual bread dough, make perhaps a tomato basil bread?

The roasting that you do has always sounded appealing. You could also arrange overlapping slices of tomato and eggplant (and/or zucchini) in a casserole dish and bake topped with cheese.

Now I want tomatoes.

[magid.livejournal.com]

All lovely ideas for fresh tomatoes, which I adore (except possibly stuffed tomatoes; I've never been big on stuffed veggies, though stuffed poultry is fine :-). But this would be far too many tomatoes for fresh eating only, even if I hosted a couple of tomato meals. I remember being inundated last year, but didn't remember how much, so went a-Googling: according to this site, a bushel of tomatoes is about 53 pounds, so half a bushel is about 26 pounds. Even loving fresh tomatoes, too much to use up without preserving some somehow.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for calling my ideas lovely. I'm sorry they weren't what you needed.

Many of the ideas, however, can be preserved.

The sauce-alternative can be refrigerated. Stuffed tomatoes can be mostly-baked then frozen. Pickled tomatoes would be canned or at least refrigerated. Topped flatbread can be mostly-baked then frozen. Bread dough can be shaped then frozen. The casserole can be mostly-baked then frozen.

I don't have any additional ideas for preserving the tomatoes alone for later use in cooking, but I like all the ideas already discussed.

If you do oven-dry some tomatoes, you can try storing them in a jar of olive oil and herbs. No refrigeration would be necessary, and it would be pretty in a nice jar. They'd reconstitute a bit from the oil and be flavorful and chewy, and would be delicious on French bread with brie or with challah for Shabbat.

Thanks for the bushel measurement information. So half a bushel translates to what, 50 to 75 tomatoes? Okay, yeah, even with the obnoxious amount I would too quickly devour fresh, there would be more than a few left of the yield to be preserved.

[magid.livejournal.com]

For the most part, I'm trying to avoid freezing as a primary preservation method, because I don't have an auxiliary freezer, and the one I do have is mostly filled with ingredients (meat, nuts, cranberries, fish, soup stock, interesting flours, chocolate chips, also frozen desserts, though we're coming out of the truly hot time, so they don't feel as necessary). Which is why I tend to try for canning instead of freezing. (And since I'm doing it to preserve tomatoes, rather than get ahead in my cooking, I'm less likely to do casseroles/breads/etc for freezing.)

Sudden thought: I wonder whether I could can a tomato chutney.... Also sauce and salsa, of course. And dried tomatoes in oil sounds good too. In fact, those four might be enough to get me through a half a bushel! I'll have to call them next week (I'd call tomorrow, but I'd rather minimize the chance they'd show up this Wednesday by mistake).

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I had realized that list was rather freezer-heavy and wouldn't work well for you.

(And since I'm doing it to preserve tomatoes, rather than get ahead in my cooking, I'm less likely to do casseroles/breads/etc for freezing.)

I'm sorry I hadn't realized this at first. You phrased this well.

I don't know anything about tomato chutney. You could probably can the sauce-alternative, though perhaps less easily than sauce.

The salsa idea struck me as a good one, but is it an issue for home canning that salsa is not usually cooked at all?

I'm glad you like the oil-cured dried tomatoes idea.

Good thinking on the call scheduling.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I just Googled tomato chutney, and there's tons of recipes, many of them like this, which looks quite doable, happily. Er, once I get the spices I need, of course.

It looks like tomatoes are on the edge of what can be canned in a boiling water bath, rather than needing a pressure cooker, which I don't (yet?) have. I'm feeling like I'm not a precise enough cook to be able to use these recipes for canning unless I get a pressure cooker (which could happen, but is unlikely by next week). In the meantime, I might make a corn-tomato salsa for eating nowish. And if I go apple picking at the same place as last year (once I figure out where that was), and they have peaches again, I think a peach-tomato salsa would be cannable in boiling water...

[(Anonymous)]

That chutney looks good. Except for the fennel seeds. (Er, and the discarded condoms.) How would you use it?

Mmm, peaches.

[magid.livejournal.com]

(Yeah, that was a rather vivid description. Amused me, though.)

I don't know quite how I'd use it yet, but then, I had no idea how I'd use other chutneys before I made them, either. Could be the basis for some interesting soup, or cooked with chicken or atop fish, or a dipping sauce for crudite or chips, or in some truly fusion black bean something, or with greens, or...

[(Anonymous)]

Heh, I found a website called Too Many Tomatoes (http://toomanytomatoes.blogspot.com). (It's not actually all about tomatoes, but it's a nice CSA blog.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm officially envious of the blogger's CSA.

[(Anonymous)]

Me too! Now I'm all wistful and nostalgic about living in that area.

Did you see that she posted a photo essay of her canning of tomatoes? That would be the purest way to preserve your tomatoes, no? But it looks like special equipment is needed for this raw packing. Then again, maybe you have a method for this, one that you were envisioning using for the salsa.

The link I made above came out funny again.