Meet Our Tomato Team 🍅
PEAK TOMATO SEASON IS HERE
It’s the first week of August! It’s that time of year when all the farming catches up to you. You’re still swimming in summer harvests while those sneaky fall plantings suddenly need a huge push. August is deceptively not the end of summer, either. In most of California, summer lingers well into September and October, with highs still warmer than June. And yet, somehow, it’s back-to-school season and pumpkin spice lattes are already threatening our commercials.
But here’s what really matters: it’s peak tomato season. It’s fleeting, it’s fabulous and we’ve waited all year to be here. Let the Caprese salads, pasta sauces, Greek salads, salsas, and the tomato toasts overwhelm you.
And speaking of abundance, I wanted to introduce our team. Like Marvel characters (Jake told me I would be too nerdy if I assigned a character to each tomato), they each bring something special to the scene. Fair warning: I’m about to describe tomatoes like they are fine wines. If that’s way too pretentious for you, I’m sorry. 😂
But honestly, tasting tomatoes this way is one of my favorite parts of growing them. Each variety has its own personality once you start paying attention.
Taste them all!
Cherokee Carbon
A hybrid beefsteak with an old-fashioned tomato flavor: deep, rich umami with excellent sweetness and low acidity. Its medium-sized fruit ripens to a gorgeous dark purple-red and makes an excellent slicer for burgers, BLTs and tomato toast. This is the tomato you reach for when you want that classic, deeply savory tomato experience.
Ananas Noire
A true heirloom that we saved seed from a farmer friend up in Redding because we loved its specialty look so much. The outside is beautifully marbled in green and red, while the inside surpringly reveals pink, red and orange colors. These large fruits are made for showing off, especially on a Caprese salad, simply drizzled with balsamic and olive oil, or baked on top of a pizza.
Ananas Noire is our juiciest tomato, with a sweet-but-balanced acidity and tropical notes of pineapple and melon.
Abigail
Another hybrid beefsteak and our most classic garden tomato.
Abigail produces consistent, medium-sized fruits with a beautifully balanced tomato flavor. She ripens to a soft, perfect pink and is made for sandwiches and salads.
Mt Spirit Bi-Color Swarm
A true heirloom producing very large, juicy, beautiful fruits in shades of yellow, orange and pink.
They taste just like they look: sweet, fruity and tropical.
These are the showstoppers for snacking, colorful simple salads and a charcuterie board (and YES, tomatoes should go on charcuterie.)
Sicilian Paste
An heirloom sauce tomato grown by seed savers all around the county.
I first found Sicilian Paste at a friend’s house over dinner and, admittedly, snuck one home because its lobed shape was so perfect. Rather than grow a San Marzano, I wanted a more interesting paste tomato, and it fit the bill.
They are a brilliant true red, with every fruit uniquely shaped. Their dense, meaty flesh and relatively few seeds make them perfect for sauces, roasting, canning and drying - while still being sweet enough to enjoy fresh.
Slice her lengthwise and she’ll add beautiful texture to any tomato platter.
Citrine Cherry
Jake and I’s first true tomato love. We’ve been growing Citrine for three years now, and they never disappoint. Bright orange, thin-skinned and almost more like fruit than tomato, they have a big sweetness with a citrus-like acidity.
I’ve never found a cherry tomato that has beaten a Citrine.
Stupice
A Czech Republic heirloom slicer that produces early in colder climates, like ours!
We have been loving these. They have bright acidity balanced by a pleasant sweetness, with fruit that’s a little smaller than your ideal slicer but bigger and meatier than a cherry.
They’ve become our everyday tomato. We’ve been popping them straight into our mouths, but they’re also great in salads, baked dishes or alongside scrambled eggs.
Sebastopol Cherry
Our red counterpart to the Citrine.
Sebastopols are a little bigger, sweeter and lower in acidity, with that classic red cherry tomato flavor that makes it very difficult to stop eating them.
I’ve been roasting them whole for quick pasta dinners, but honestly, they shine just as brightly straight out of the pint on the drive home from the market.
The gang is all here, and there is still plenty of time for you to taste them all. We hope you’re having a tomato girl summer and soaking up as much edible sunshine as possible. 🍅☀️
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Summer crops:
Tomatoes duhhhh
Peppers (limited, you might see them sneak onto the market tables otherwise limited to the CSA)
Zucchini
Persian Cucumbers (available at the Avocado Shack as of last thursday)
Greens:
Mighty Mix - nutrient dense baby greens blend
Mellow Mix - cut lettuce blend
Arugula
Green and Red Leaf Head Lettuce (available at the Avocado Shack as of last thursday)
Pea Shoots
Garlic is starting find its way on the table!
Carrots most likely limited to the CSA.
Golden beets at farmstand only.
Fresh herb bundles ( now available at the co-op!)
Tarragon
Genovese Basil
Thai Basil
Tulsi Basil
Sage
Cilantro
Thyme
& strawflower bouquet :)
See you at the farmstand on Monday (4-6:30) and the Morro Bay Market (2-4:30).
Thanks for reading!
Your farmers,
Jake & Jesse :)