Seasonality
Varieties
Varieties we grow and love:
Too many I reckon. Firstly, Curtis Stillman of Still Life Farm, does all the cherry tomato growing. That’s been his specialty crop since he was little – and now it is a big production. He must have 15 varieties and they are all delightful.
The rest of the tomatoes are grown here, By Glenn, at the New Braintree farm. While we grow over 150 varieties of plants, we focus on these varieties for the fresh market and CSA:
- Jetstar- our favorite red slicer, soft when ripe
- Primo Red- a great red slicer, a little firmer than Jetstar
- several BHN varieties, because you never put all your eggs in one basket
- German Stripe- heirloom large golden yellow with red stripes and marbling, and simply deliscious, but maybe too sweet for a tomato sandwich
- Cherokee Purple- dark maroon fruits with green shoulders, one of the best tasting tomatoes (if you like tomatoes)
- Great White- a very pale yellow variety, mild flavor
- Green Zebra- ripe when green! Pale yellow-green with dark green stripes, green jelly. Sweet, tangy, unique
- San Marzano- a great paste variety, red, meaty
- Speckled Roman- heirloom paste/plum, rich flavor
- Brandywine- large pink heirloom with well rounded flavor, amazing in salad or on a burger
- there’s more, there’s always more
Storage
As always, fresh produce is most delicious and nutritious when consumed as close to the harvest date as possible.
Store tomatoes on the counter. NEVER refrigerate an unripe tomato. If you need a tomato to ripen faster, you can keep it in a bag to consolidate the ethylene gas they produce. If, and only if, you have a perfectly ripe tomato that you wish to store, you can keep it unwrapped in the fridge for a week or more. Be sure to take it out and enjoy at room temperature 😉
Of course you can dry thinly sliced tomatoes and either pack in oil or store in airtight container. Use your dehydrator or spread out on baking sheets in very low oven (125) until rubbery and not moist at all.
I have frozen chopped tomatoes with the knowledge that they will only be used in soups and sauces. Just cut them up and freeze in plastic bag.
My preferred method is canning. Tomatoes are easy to preserve and you do not need a pressure canner to do it. I also like to do stewed tomatoes and TONS of salsa.
Culinary Info
– can be enjoyed in: Gosh, is there anything better then a ripe tomato in July? If you don’t know, be sure to try one again 🙂
- salad (how about JUST a tomato salad?)
- sauce
- chutney
- salsa
- casseroles
Tips for preparing:
Wash gently, some varieties have deeper stem cores than others, so cut that out if you want to avoid the harder pithy part. If you need to peel tomatoes for a recipe, you can either score one of those peelers for soft skinned fruits, or you can char the skin if you have a gas stove, keep turning the tomato on the fork until all the skin is bubbling a little, or you can drop the tomatoes into boiling water for a minute, then into cold water and they will peal easily. I find it is adequate to just poke the skin with a paring knife, no need ot make a fancy x or anything.
Also check out these great recipes: