We’ve spent the last week pulling out the rest of our garlic, trellising tomatoes and continuing to get fall crops ready to go in the ground. Our tomatoes are trellised using a couple of different methods. One of our favorite methods for trellising the indeterminate varieties is by using a top line and dropping a piece of twine to twirl the tomato around or use tomato clips to hold them in place. For the determinant varieties which are much bushier we use what’s called a Florida weave. You weave a piece of twine from post to post and around each tomato. That method is much harder but a lot better for shorter, bushier tomatoes. Our tomatoes are loaded with fruit, we’re just waiting patiently for them to ripen!
As the summer heat kicks in the greens get to take a break. With it being so hot a lot of the lettuce, arugula and other things will be waiting to get planted until the cooler days. The heat makes them bolt very quickly or go to seed. Which can leave them with a bitter flavor.
This weeks feature is fresh Torpedo onions! Or Rossa Lunga of Tropea. They are an Italian sweet red onion, known for its delicious flavor! They come with beautiful fresh green tops, don’t throw those away! They can be used just like a green onion.
Another unique item this week is Shiso. Shiso is an herb in the mint family (but tastes nothing like mint). It is featured in Eastern Cuisine and makes an excellent dried herb flavoring for rice or furikake in Japan (one of its traditional uses). You can also use it fresh as a wrap if you have the bigger green leaves or chopped up and added at the end of cooking to add flavor. The flavor is similar to cumin, mint, cinnamon or citrus. Shiso info from Spiceography.com.
Enjoy and stay cool this week!
Your farmers,
Kelly & Patrick
