rantlust

Posted by meerkat on September 22nd 2007 in Agriculture, Disease
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Just when I was all set for making more tomato dishes before the end of the season, looks like there is something else that is bringing an end to the tomato season, at least for my farmer, Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm in Dixon.

According to the article in Sacramento Bee, Dixon in Solano county seems to be the ground zero for the Mediterranean fruit fly, which is a dreaded agricultural pest. In order to cease the movement of the fruit fly from the affected area, agriculture officials have placed a quarantine on certain produce within a 4.5 mile radius. This places Eatwell Farm within the quarantine, and they are not allowed to move any tree fruit, eggplant, tomatoes, or peppers off the farm. The potential cost to Eatwell Farm is about $8000 to $10000 for the next six weeks, until the summer produce runs out. Read my farmer’s blog for more insight.

An infestation by the fruit fly can make fruit inedible and cause it to drop too early from the tree. Supposedly, the fruit flies got a free ride from Hawaii in the bags of vacationers, who could not help bringing some mangoes back to California.

PS If the Sacramento bee asks for a login(damn!), try dontbugme/dontbugme as login/password.

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Posted by meerkat on August 23rd 2007 in Agriculture, Food & Wine, Raves
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Wednesdays are my farm box day. I open the mystery box from my farmer(Community Supported Agriculture CSA) and I hope to get what I love. I see Swiss chard, blue potatoes, basil, plums, onions, corn, cucumber, summer squash and so many tomatoes- heirloom, red, orange, green , yellow cherry tomatoes and green striped ones. I am not all that fond of tomatoes. For sure, I do not like them raw. So, eating a salad is out of the question. I have to look for quite a few recipes to cook the tomatoes as it would be a sin to waste them.

These tomatoes are ripened in the plants and harvested 24 hours before it gets delivered to me, they are so juicy and flavorful when I cook them. I got to know tomatoes should not be refrigerated as chilling stops the ripening and kills the flavor of the tomatoes . That leaves a short and finite time before I need to cook them. I did try my favorite ones like the tomato pickle, tomato rice and the egg curry with plenty of tomatoes. I also had to find new ones to use up all the tomatoes and have been figuring out how to can the tomatoes so I can use them during winter. The New York Times had an interesting article with recipes So Many Tomatoes to Stuff in a Week, this will surely come in handy now.

Although the tomatoes have been overwhelming, I am very happy with the farm box without which I would never had the courage to try Swiss chard, fava beans, leeks, arugula or rutabaga(what a name!). I do not like all the vegetables I get, but I do try them and have liked many of them. It has been an interesting experience so far.

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