This week we're keeping it light... Farm Notes is all about farm fashion and our favorite farm wear... and we have lots of tips, tricks, and opinions!
A little reminder: It is just one big, long vegetable season this year! Now is about the time when veteran members are trained to wonder when the summer season ends and fall season begins, but there are no summer and fall shares like past years. CSA runs through the week of November 13.
The people who get to name vegetable varieties must sit around and conjure words that mean delicious or exciting or exotic to them. Or maybe they just get carried away, getting lost in a maze of strange associations. Lettuce has names like Panisse, New Red Fire, Sierra. Tomatoes are called Chef's Choice, Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, Early Girl. Beans have aggressive names like Magnum, Provider, Jumbo.
They really work hard to come up with enticing names for winter squash. There is a whole family of butter and honey names. Plus Bon Bon. But in truth, all winter squash tastes kind of similar—some is moister, some is sweeter, but they are mostly interchangeable. And they do not taste like butter or honey; they taste like sweet pumpkins.
The thing is, seed companies constantly change what they sell. People get attached to a name (Big Boy was popular for decades, even after it was long gone) and they request their favorites, of course. At our farm we try hard not to let our customers get too loyal to a specific name—we do this by withholding information, basically. At the farmers markets we don't put the names on the signs. We just describe the flavor of the tomato or the qualities of a certain type of bean. It is too sad to have to tell people that the variety they love got bought by Monsanto and we can't grow it anymore. The kind of bean they grew up with (Kentucky Wonder) has been replaced by several more improved varieties. The corn they remember (Silver Queen) is long gone, now there are types that taste good for a whole week after harvest.
We know that knowledge is power, and we love to share knowledge. But in the case of variety names, knowledge can be so frustrating. We would rather ask you if you like an acidic tomato or a sweet one. If you like a spicy onion or a mild one. We eat all our vegetables and we can describe them to you, but we usually can't even remember what the name is unless we look in our records to see what we planted. And why would you ever care if it was a Sierra Blanca or a Zoey?
About 30 years ago, there was a feisty old lady named Mrs. Beall who sold corn and tomatoes in McLean. She decided that the best way to handle the name problem was to tell everyone they were getting a Better Boy, no matter what. And this made them happy. We just can't do that...
We have our favorites too, of course, but we know that these varieties will disappear before we are ready, and we have to keep trying new ones. It's an everlasting adventure.
For more recipe ideas you can find us on Pinterest!
