Organic Tomatoes

Date: 9/29/08
Common Name: Organic Beefsteak Tomatoes
Location Grown: IL (one of 50 local farms)
Obtained From: Fresh Picks
Use: Tomato sauce

Date: 9/29/08
Common Name: Organic Yellow Tomatoes
Location Grown: IL (one of 50 local farms)
Obtained From: Fresh Picks (delivered right to my door)
Use: Tomato sauce

Other:  There are so many seeds in each tomato.  I do not know if beefsteaks are hybrid (gotta check that), but I suspect they are, just given their size.  I have been thinking about extending the use of tomato plants that do not produce fruit.  When you rub a tomato plant and smell your hands, that is one of my favorite smells.  I would like to learn to make tomato oil/essence and make tomato soap.  A drop of that smell in salad dressing, in the middle of winter, that would bring a sense of summer back.

Salsa

Date: 9/29/08
Common Name: Jalapeno Pepper
Location Grown: Raised beds in SAIC courtyard
Obtained From: SAIC courtyard
Use: Salsa

Date: 9/29/08
Common Name: Organic Lemon
Location Grown: Farm in Illinois
Obtained From: Fresh Picks
Use: Salsa

Date: 9/29/08
Common Name: Organic Lemon
Location Grown: Farm in Illinois
Obtained From: Fresh Picks
Use: Salsa

We started getting organic veggies delivery weekly from Fresh Picks.  I have been saving all the plastic I cannot resure for the last year. It will become a year-long length of rope in January.  Having veggies delivered in a box had greatly reduced the amount of plastic that moves through the house.

Eggplant

Date: 10/1/08
Common Name: Organic Lemon
Location Grown: Farm in Illinois
Obtained From: Fresh Picks
Use: Roasted Eggplant for salad

I got a discount on this eggplant because it had a bruise.  As I scarped seeds, the surface flesh oxidized and turned brown, causing further bruising.  I don’t know if it was the inherent flavor in the eggplant or the juicing it got from my seed harvesting, but it turned out really sweet. I baked the slices at 390 until brown after brushing them with olive oil and giving them a generous sprinkling of salt.