SAUCE TIME!
We are overflowing with delicious tomatoes! Come check out our ever-so-slightly-imperfect B grade tomatoes for sale Tuesdays & Fridays, 8am-noon, through September or while supplies last. $17 for a 10 lb flat. Please check our website and/or answering machine for any and all updates.
Now is the time to fill your freezer with tomato sauce- it is easy to do. Here's how we do it:
Cut out the center core of the tomato where the stem attaches (and any scars on the skin) cut into quarters and fill a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally to keep tomatoes from sticking to the bottom. Once boiling, cook uncovered for 1-2 hours on low heat, stirring every half hour. As the water boils off and the tomatoes sauce gets thicker, remove from heat and take an immersion blender and chop up the tomato skins (or use a food processor). We eat the seeds and skins blended with the sauce.
Cool the sauce and fill freezer bags, label them and place on a cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze as flat 'bricks'. Once frozen, they stack nicely in your freezer.
When ready to use, defrost the sauce, and saute some onion, garlic in olive oil, add the sauce and spices. Cook down a bit more and Voila! Tasty homemade tomato sauce.
Canning tomatoes is another option if you don't have freezer space. Find some canning jars and lids and cook the tomatoes the same way, but fill jars when sauce is still hot. Check online for info on canning.
And while you're in the kitchen..... if you want to have the fresh taste of basil, Italian parsley or other fresh herbs available during the winter, blend the herbs with olive oil in a food processor to a smooth pesto type thickness. Put into freezer bags and flatten so you can simply break off a frozen piece when needed. Or freeze in ice cube trays. Easy peasy and oh so summery on those cold winter nights!
Enjoy.
Richard, Sally, Flint and the team at Cate Farm.
June News
What’s the Best Tomato? Cate Farm Newsletter June 3, 2021
Our final Seedling Sale is coming up this Saturday June 5th, 8am-2pm! Come shop in-person and see our wide selection of healthy organic plants and say hi to your neighbors and friends.
Searching for the perfect tomato? We often get asked what is the best tomato? That’s a tough question, with a complex answer.
Flavor is very subjective. Besides the differing sugar and acid contents, there are over 400 volatile compounds that give tomatoes their unique taste. Plus, there is “mouth feel”, aroma, appearance (red/orange/purple green/yellow), and size (cherry to large beefsteaks) . Generally, yellow and orange tomatoes tend to be less acidic and milder tasting than red or pink varieties, and smaller fruited tomatoes more sweeter.
In terms of growth habit, two classifications are used: determinate and indeterminate. Tomatoes can grow as a vine, (think Jack in the Beanstock) and are called indeterminates. These tomatoes could grow 100 feet tall if space allowed! Indeterminates prefer being supported by a cage, stake or trellis, and some say tend to have better flavor. Pruning off “suckers” yield earlier and better quality fruit, and promote better air circulation for disease control.
The other type of tomato growth habit is determinate, or bush type. These varieties grow to a certain height and stop growing upwards. The fruit set/harvest window is more concentrated, and as with indeterminates, some support like a cage is recommended.
To confuse things, there are also semi-determinate varieties. And humans can physically make an indeterminate plant a determinate one by topping off the top most growing tip of the plant. TMI? Feel free to ask about tomatoes if you come to the Seedling Sale this Saturday, and you can see some trellised and pruned indeterminate varieties that are already five feet tall! For even more info, Johnny’s Selected Seeds has a great website: https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/growing-center.html
Happy Gardening.