Week 14: Share Contents and Usage Summary

• Sweet Corn- corn fritters
• Shiitake mushrooms
• Cucumbers- sliced
• Cabbage- shredded with carrots, tossed in sweet vinaigrette for slaw
• Heirloom tomatoes- in Summer Vegetable Gratin
• Cherry / Salad tomatoes- on pizza; inside soft flour tortilla with bacon, cheddar & Sriracha, with garlic, basil and mozzarella over bruschetta
• Melon- I didn't actually receive a melon :(

In his weekly CSA newsletter, Farmer John Wright posted these helpful tomato tips:

1) Always store the tomatoes on their shoulders.

This is upside-down to most. The shoulders are

much firmer and greener and can bear the weight

of the fruit (especially larger) tomatoes

without bruising.

2) Generally, try to leave your tomatoes at room

temperature, to ripen properly and hold the best

flavor. Once they are fully ripened, or are beginning

to soften, or if you have not used an entire large tomato,

then refrigerate.

3) Those pesky green shoulders. There is just no

avoiding the green tops on some "heirloom"

tomato varieties. If you wait for all of the green

to ripen the majority of the fruit may become too soft.

In general, the pink, purple and brown tomatoes hold on to

their green shoulders a little longer than others.

You have to rely on giving the bottom of the tomato a

very gentle squeeze, when you feel a little 'give' your

tomato is ripe.