You're done making your strawberry jam and it's nestled in the pantry or freezer ready to be opened for a taste of summer in the middle of winter. Now you're moving onto to other preserves like canned tomatoes and pickles. If you're thinking about canning tomatoes and making pickles, now is the time to do it. With the colder nights upon us, the flowers on the Kirby cucumbers or pickling cucumber plants are slowing down which means the season for Kirby cucumbers is coming to an end. Kirby cucumbers are still available at all our market locations but only for a limited time! If you're looking for a great recipe for pickling cucumbers see today's feature recipe, Aunt Georgia's Bread and Butter Pickles.
Our field tomatoes are now in full swing and we're now selling them in 20 lb cube boxes, available our market locations across the city. Our roma and regular field tomatoes are available in the cubes. Roma tomatoes are great for making tomato sauce and the regular field are great for canning to have local farm fresh tomatoes all winter.
Not only do we grow roma tomatoes, we also grow 6 varieties of regular tomatoes, 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 6 varieties of cherry tomatoes and tomatillo's.
Let's dive a little deeper into a couple of the tomatoes we grow.
Tomatillos, sometimes called husk tomatoes, look like green, unripe tomatoes with a dry, leafy husk that wraps around the outside. The color of the fruit is a beautiful bright green, which fades a bit once you cook them. Tomatillos have a slightly more acidic, slightly less sweet flavor than ripe and unripe tomatoes. Prepping a tomatillo is pretty straight forward. The husks can be easily removed with your hands and discarded. You’ll notice a sticky film on the surface, which will come off with a quick rinse under warm water. From here, you decide what you want to do with them. If you want to play up their bracing acidity, use them raw. If you want to mellow out that acidity a bit and access the fruit's deeper, more savory qualities, cooking them—whether you're roasting or grilling them whole or chopping them for a saute—is the way to go.
Our heirloom tomatoes love to show off their colours, from orange to yelllow to chocolate brown. While you won't find these tomatoes in an antique store, it's the seeds that make an heirloom tomato an heirloom. They are passed down from season to season, the seeds are taken from the tomato plants that produced the best fruit. This process allows for certain desirable traits like juiciness, size, shape, or color. Heirloom tomatoes are also often open-pollinated, which means that they are pollinated naturally, by birds, insects, wind, or human hands.
Holiday Monday
Please note that even though Monday, September 2 is a holiday we will still be running our CSA locations as normal. If you would like to make a vacation request, we do require one weeks notice. Otherwise you can have a friend or family member pick-up on your behalf. They just have to give your name at pick-up.
Your Rochon Garden CSA Share
If you are a full or half-share member, here's what you will see in this week's box:
Corn
Melon
Sugar cube
Beans
Carrots
Cabbage
Strawberries
Cucumber
Zucchini
Tomato Cherry
Tomatoes
Celery
Onion
If you are a lite-share member, here's what you will see in this week's box:
Corn
Sugar cube
Carrots
Strawberries Cucumber
Zucchini
Tomato
Cherry tomatoes
Celery
Fruits Plus Package
Please note, there is no fruits plus this week as we are waiting on the fall raspberries to come in full swing.
Farming is very unpredictable so it's difficult for us to guarantee you a fruits plus every week but we can guarantee that you will receive more than the full value of your fruits plus package as before the end of the season.
Aunt Georgia's Bread and Butter Pickles
My aunt Georgia makes the tastiest bread and butter pickles. They're a big hit at all the family gatherings, especially Christmas when they've have a few months to pickle and are at their most flavorful.
Wash and cut cucumbers into medium sized pieces to measure 16 cups, about 1 (6-quart) basket.
Place the cucumbers in a large pot, sprinkling 1/3 cup coarse salt between layers.
Mix a tray of ice cubes through the cucumbers and cover with another tray of cubes. Let stand for 3 hours.
Drain vegetables well.
Combine
3 cups white vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
Pour over drained cucumbers.
Heat to boiling point only (this is all the cooking that is necessary)
Pack into hot sterilized jars and store in a cool place for one month before using.
Yield: About 8 pints
Do you have recipe you want to share? Send it to us at info@jardinrochongarden.ca and it could be featured in an issue of What's up at Rochon Garden.