Well that settled it; we were trying them and right away. The three of us marched to the farm garden and picked some greenies with a bit of girth. We heated up a skillet, dipped them in some egg and flour then set them to frying. If I remember correctly I felt let down, the movie made the FGTs seems so delicious and so much fun (food fight in the kitchen scene). But then again so was the Whistle Stop Cafe bbq.

Like I said, my food pallet was always expanding and years later I found myself eating them again. They offered a completely different taste than mature ripened tomatoes. Green tomatoes are tangy instead of sweet with crispness to the flesh. I stuck to pan frying them, but started to experiment with the batter ingredients. Instead of just flour I tried combining cornmeal, once even adding a large serving size of Parmesan cheese. Also, there was an array of different condiments. Ketchup, butter, salt, pepper, and mustard were just a few ways I jazzed up my FGTs.

It wasn’t until last year that I began to crave the simple tangy flavor of the green tomato. No longer a slave to the crispy goodness of deep fried batter, I sought out simple flavors to enhance the green tomato. One night Lora asked if I wanted to make dinner and what I wanted to eat. On my list were chard, sweet onions, and green tomatoes. We created green tomato chutney, which is now the central theme of a sandwich of my own creation. I call it di’s sandwich (I am still playing with sandwich names, let me know if you have ideas). It a secret recipe but if you would come out and volunteer with the crew for a day I might divulge its ingredients. I feel that I must not be the only one craving the green tomato. I have seen its addition to restaurant menus and recipes. Next time order a BLFGT or eggs Benedict with a green tomato instead of English muffins.

Now, a few years later or 17(ha!), I think those ladies at the Whistle Stop Café were right. Green Tomatoes are fun. I have wondered what they would be like canned and I have heard tales of green tomato salsa. Now that I have my sandwich under my belt, I might move on to create other green tomato dishes, a real green tomato advocate. So use you green tomato however you like; fried, sauced, salsafied, or flying across the room.

Please note: this box summary is written the week before you receive your box. It is updated but not all the boxes packed for your delivery day will be exactly the same, although it is likely that all the boxes at your dropsite will be the same. Some things may be in your box that are not listed, and some listed things may not be in your box. As always, be sure to thoroughly wash all your vegetables.

The page numbers listed below refer to cooking tips and recipes in Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables as provided to all shareholders. Some recipes are listed at AngelicOrganics.com/RecipeService

ROOTS

• Celeriac-with their tops which you can cook just like you do with celery, pp. 270-273
• Carrots-beginning of a good fall crop, pp. 163-168

COOKING GREENS-pp. 81-94

• Toscano Kale or Collards-New York Times recipe for toscano kale
• Spinach-tasty cooked or in salads

BRASSICAS

• Cabbage-red; a few more recipes at this link, pp. 257-263; most likely or Cauliflower-unlikely
• Broccoli-pp. 248-252

ALLIUMS-pp. 121-128

• Leek(s)
• Onion(s)-yellow storage

FRUITING CROPS

• Winter Squash-delicata and sweet dumpling, these are not good storage squash, use soon! pp. 307-315
• Heirloom Tomatoes or Tomatoes-green or just beginning to blush; pp. 228-235
• Eggplant-some of the last for season 2008, pp. 174-180
• Peppers-maybe, pp. 215-222

HERBS-pp. 102-120

• Cilantro-bagged and maybe with a hot pepper
• Summer Savory, Sage, Anise Hyssop, or Oregano

SALAD GREENS-pp. 136-141

• Lettuce-heads of Magenta (a red summer crisp) and Black Seeded Simpson (a green leaf)

Coming Soon...Sweet Potatoes, Radishes, Rutabaga, Daikon Radish, Red Russian Kale

It is now official--our fall carrots are made. Last year, the continually wet August eventually led to liquefied carrots. Once we knew that all of our carrots were lost, we planted extra spinach and other cooking greens and finished up with very nice boxes through the season’s end. This year, we were optimistic that, despite 4 separate rainy periods, there had been enough dryness in between to keep the carrots firm (plus we had sprayed beneficial nematodes on the carrot fields in the Spring). The mid-September tropical weather related drenchings (see our week 14 newsletter) worried me that a wet fall might make it impossible to mechanically harvest our fall carrots or worse, they would be lost to rot. Fortunately, we’ve learned more of when, how, and where it is best to help dry the fields of selected crops as they grow. Additionally, after September 14th, we had nice, warm drying weather and no rain--especially through the 24th--the day we harvested 6 beds (or 18 rows each 520 feet long or 112,320 inches) of carrots and 1 bed of parsnips (18,720 inches).

It is not feasible for us to manually harvest our fall carrots--there would not be enough time for us to do everything else. Depending upon our crew,1 bed can take us over 50 people hours to harvest. So 7 beds would be over 350 hours. But using our carrot harvester, it took 4 people less than 5 hours (plus one person moving around empty [and then full] bins for about the same amount of time)--a total of under 25 people hours--1/14th as long!!! (This gets 3 exclamation points.) Of course, we still have to wash and bag the carrots but this is necessary regardless of how they are harvested.

Now regarding our yields, there were approximately 21 20-bushel bins of carrots and 2 20-bushel bins of parsnips. I estimate that after washing this will be over 15,000 pounds. This means that there will be over 10 pounds of carrots per share. These carrots (and parsnips) will be delivered over the course of the remaining 5 weeks (in October) and also during the “winter/late-season” share (in November).

Bringing in 23 bins of carrots when our coolers only have a 32 bin capacity created a new problem to solve. Enter the renting of a 53 foot refrigerated semi truck trailer. For around $1000/month, we now have ideal cooling capacity for this and other cool temperature critical crops. Now our cooling capacity is more than doubled. Things are coming together well.

All of this, coupled with our excellent potato yields (I estimate that for the whole season we will harvest over 32,000 pounds out of our 2 fields of potatoes--18 total beds 520 feet long with 2 rows per bed--a total of 18,720 row feet or 224,640 inches), makes me confident that we will be able to fill all regular season vegetable boxes and at least 800 of the 4 delivery winter/late-season boxes. To be safe, we have not promoted these “winter” shares and have only sold around 650. But now, we encourage you to get on board. For $100, you can extend your regular and 12-week shares (which end by November 1st) further into November (we skip delivering on Thanksgiving week) with a 4-delivery winter/late-season share. And if you already have a winter share, you may purchase a second one for $80. Either way, email your interest to the farm and then mail your check to 1547 Rockton Road, Caledonia, IL 61011. Good Eating!