We are simply swimming in tomatoes this summer. At peak production which will come in just a couple more weeks, we’ll be harvesting 1,000 lbs a week of juicy, vibrant tomatoes. We’re growing over 10 varieties, including Purple Cherokee, Paul Robeson, Big Rainbow, Copia, San Marzano and more.
In the kitchen, Anna is cooking up a tomato storm. Right now, she and the kitchen crew are making batch after batch of tomato conserva. Tomato conserva is somewhere in between tomato sauce and paste. It starts as 200 lbs of tomatoes. First, we cut the tomatoes and let them drain over night. The next day, any remaining juice is drained and they are cooked down in a big braiser. Next the tomatoes are pureed and put through a strainer. Finally, they are cooked down to eliminate almost all the moisture. In the end, a 200 lbs batch of tomatoes becomes just a 5-10 lbs batch of conserva.
This type of processing brings out some pretty amazing flavors in the tomatoes. They start out with our already delicious Valley Girl, Amish Paste or San Marzano tomato varieties. And after hours and hours of painstaking work, each conserva batch has a remarkably rich condensed flavor with flares of sweetness, unmani and tartness. In the cafe, we use it as pizza sauce, as a garnish with sandwiches and as a base for soups. We also plan to sell it in jars at market and online as a CSA add-on.
Even more exciting is our plans for what to do with the conserva next. We’re making ketchup! Every week, Anna and the crew make conserva with the tomatoes harvested that week. Each of these small batches will ultimately add up to enough conserva to make a variety of Ketchups for wider sale. Anna and Becky are still day dreaming about exactly what flavors they’ll experiment with. Right now Anna’s thinking they’ll do a spicy variety, as well as a fruit variety like plum. We hope you’ll get a chance to try some of them!
In the meantime, there are plenty of absolutely delicious tomatoes just waiting for you to add on to your next box. We’ll be ready to start selling them as add ons, starting this coming week. Keep your eyes peeled for an email on the subject. Wishing you a summer filled with delicious, savory sweet tomato soups, sandwiches, salads, sauces, salsas and more.
