This recipe can easily be made with our Large Homegrown Tomatoes, Red Roma Tomatoes, San Marazanos, or Inglorious Slicers. Make your order here before our bulk sale is long gone!

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Recipe by Elaine DiRico

Thirty seven years ago today, a friend brought me a bushel of VERY ripe tomatoes. It is easy to remember the date because my son, Tony, was born the next day. Last week, I flashed back to spending the night canning when I picked up my 25 lbs of tomatoes from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. In 1980, I was in Tennessee, had no air conditioning, and oh yeah, the pregnancy thing. This time was going to be a breeze.

Basic Tomato Sauce

• 12 lb of tomatoes, washed

While my ex-grandmother-in-law peeled and seeded her tomatoes for sauce, I didn’t even core mine. As with many fruits and vegetables, the skins and seeds carry a lot of the nutrition. I halved them, then quartered them, as these were large, and packed into my Instant Pot. I used a potato masher to crush them down, and pressure cooked them for 6 minutes. I crushed them again, left the lid off and slow cooked them for 7-8 hours. When they cooled a bit, I used an immersion blender to break them down further, then a food mill to get a smooth sauce. Back into the slow cooker for another four hours, watching carefully so it cooked down without burning. I ended up with two quarts of intense sauce.

Since it is just the two of us, I packaged it in small zip lock bags. A trick I learned to make this easier: use a pint measuring cup, place the plastic bag in it, like a liner, and ladle in the sauce. Labeled and stacked, this keeps 6-9 months frozen, but is usually used up well before then.

Now we can get fancier… I am busily writing a series of articles on cooking gadgets, and how well they can simplify preparing healthy and nutritious food. Because of this, I have a ton of gadgets, including a dehydrator. Great Grandma DiRico was reputed to make a sun-dried sheet of ‘tomato leather’ so I decided give it a try. Because the tomatoes are low in pectin, for every eight tomatoes I added a Granny Smith apple, but otherwise it was prepared the same way.

There are special sheets available for making fruit leather with a dehydrator, or a piece of parchment paper cut to fit works just as well. Brush olive oil on the paper, then spread a ¼” layer of tomato paste across it and place in the dehydrator tray. Mine took 8 hours to dry, so overnight. While it can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container to protect it from bugs, it went easily into a bag and into the freezer. I know Grandma used it to make her sauce, but I am really liking it cut in strips in a salad as well.

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Tomato Sauce 2

• 10 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 12# mixed ripe tomatoes, quartered and peeled if the skin is thick
• 1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

In a 6 quart stew pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add in the onion, garlic, basil, oregano and salt and pepper. Stir and cook just until you can smell the garlic, about one minute then add the remaining ingredients. Crush the tomatoes with your hands as you add them. Cook over medium heat until it boils, then drop to a simmer and cook over low until reduced by half, perhaps 45 minutes.

Let cool; taste for seasoning. This freezes well, but is not acid enough to can in a water bath. I have heard that a spoonful of citric acid can help, but I am too lazy, and stick with freezing. I like my sauce with pieces of tomato intact, but it can also go through a blender or food processor and/or food mill.

Recipe by Nadia Tamby

This twist on a classic gimlet is the epitome of summer - the sweet juicy honeydew is a perfect contrast to tart -- almost grassy -- green tomatoes. Gins are distilled with various botanicals such as juniper berries, so using a fresh herb like basil is the perfect complement to those earthy spices. This is a great cocktail to make for a small crowd - you can prep all the ingredients the day before and serve it out of a pitcher. Save some of that tomato water - it's refreshing on it's own and makes for a great hangover cure!

Photo by Rick Cortez

Ingredients:

• 3 oz honeydew melon - green tomato water*
• 2 oz fresh lime juice
• 5 oz gin (The Botanist is what I used)
• 2 oz basil simple syrup*
• Fresh torn basil to garnish

Honeydew melon - green tomato water: Puree half a honeydew melon with the same volume of quartered green tomatoes (add a small amount of water to get your blender going, if needed)

Strain through a fine mesh sieve and chill until ready to use

Photo by Rick Cortez

Basil simple syrup: Combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and bring to boil

Remove from heat and add 1 cup of basil leaves (packed in tight) and cover for 10 minutes to let basil leaves steep

Pour syrup through a sieve to remove leaves

Instructions: Place all ingredients in shaker with ice and shake until frothy

Pour into glasses and garnish with basil

Photo by Rick Cortez

CSA Box Contents Week of July 3rd

A quick reminder before we dive into this week's topic, our final Tomato U-Pick of 2017 is tomorrow! There ain’t nothing like harvesting your own food, especially these sweet summertime 'maters. Pick it or miss it! Soon it’ll be too hot for our tomatoes to make it through the impending and relentless heat. The quality of this crop right now cannot be beat. If you sign up before the event, you can purchase 1 tomato box for a discounted $20, or on the day of, it will be $30 for a box. All boxes can be piled high with tomatoes! So sign up now to take advantage of that yummy discount. Pile the literal fruits of your labor as high as you can for all that canning, salsa-making, and tomato pie! A note on the kiddos: We might be biased, but we indubitably believe that this is one of the best events out there for your kids. We hope you consider bringing the whole family to bask in the sun and get some fresh air! Plus, Cold Ones Pops will be out there keeping us cool with their delectable popsicles! Back to Brenton!

I'm sure that you've heard the news of Amazon's recent acquisition of Whole Foods for a hefty $13.4 billion. It's been weighing on quite a lot of food producers' minds as of late. This news definitely is accompanied with a deluge of unanswered questions and concerns, as the repercussions won't be felt for a little while. With Amazon's low-price precedent, small producers who sell to Whole Foods have been worried about how this merger will affect their dealings with this grocer. Being an extremely positive person, I think that there is a lot of potential for this next generation grocery era that we are creeping into.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

JBG has had an amazing relationship with Whole Foods since we first starting selling wholesale in 2009/10 which coincided with when we started selling to restaurants, too. Our knowledge expanded exponentially about quality and grading during this time. Before that, we didn’t have to worry too much about that with CSA and farmer’s markets; however, expectations are all about consistency with wholesale accounts. The first time we ever dealt with Whole Foods, we tried to sell tomatoes, but we had no idea how to pick them for wholesalers. None of the tomatoes we provided for them were quite ripe enough. The grocery stores didn’t have a ton of experience buying from local producers either, so we were both fishes out of water in this exchange. Whole Foods ended up buying 50 cases of tomatoes... I remember them piled up taller than me. However, the boxes weren’t strong enough to hold tomatoes, so they all started to crush in the warehouse. Needless to say, it was quite a disaster, and we ended up taking the whole order back and re-doing it. We've made a whole bunch of mistakes, especially in the beginning, but WF was and is so wonderful because they let us learn by doing. They have always been super supportive and patient with us during our learning process.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The grocer world is a tremendously competitive business segment. My brother who resides in West Palm Beach was just telling me the other day that a German discount grocery store, ALDI, is opening 900 stores in US during the next 5 years. That's crazy! There’s always going to be change because it’s such a competitive field. Those with the highest quality, best products, the best prices, and can satisfy their customers the most are the companies that are going to be the most successful. I’m excited to see what a company like Amazon can do to change how we think about what the norms of a grocery store are. Amazon is going to approach sales in a very different way... a highly innovative way that no one previously could have fathomed.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

I think that our farm has a lot of potential when it comes to this new unchartered territory. Since we produce a larger volume of vegetables, and since we are one of the larger organic farms in Texas, if the consumer is asking for local, organic produce, I think and would hope that Amazon would source from us. It's possible for us to have a healthy and thriving relationship with Amazon, just like we did with Whole Foods. Also, since Amazon has become the top business to innovate and hasten delivery to be almost instantaneous, maybe they could help us to innovate as well. I can see a model where we would have the CSA boxes ready at the barn, and Amazon would come and deliver them for us in certain situations. Our mission is to provide healthy, local and organic veggies to the community, and if someone else can come in and deliver it more quickly than we currently do, I don’t have a problem with that at all. It's exciting to think that you can place an order, and have it delivered a couple hours later. That’s what people like about Instacart, it’s convenient and a quick turnaround. Who says that organic veggies can't be a part of that business model?

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

With regard to small producers and the low-price precedent that Amazon prides themselves on, Amazon pricing is all about supply and demand. If you have something that is limited availability, the price will reflect that. The goods that are really cheap are items that are abundant with lots of competitors selling something common. For our product there are few producers, which ideally would not affect our wholesale prices. I'm not worried about competing with California organic kale, because people in Austin value locally sourced, organic food. Have we mentioned... we love you, AUSTIN!

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

I know there’s demand for local organic produce, and I don’t think that it’s going away any time soon. I really do think that there is opportunity here, Amazon is great at selling products, and even better at delivering said products. Plus, the innovation never stops! I want to meet up with these folks, and figure out how to work together. I’m sad that Whole Foods has been acquired because they have been such wonderful partners, but optimistic that it can be an even brighter future! That's my two cents... 'Til next time, folks!

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Since Scott David Gordon, our staff photographer, is out of town this week, we had a guest photographer, Casey Wiggins, pop out to the farm to document the daily hustle and bustle. You might recognize her name, since not only is she an amazing photographer, but she is also our customer service extraordinaire in the Hergotz office!

Casey is an Austin, TX based photographer who has also spent much her life working with organic farms and promoting community supported agriculture. Drawing inspiration for her photography from the landscape and people involved in growing food, her favorite things to shoot are people, light, vegetables, and her sweet pup, Odie. She loves finding extreme light differentials to create powerful images and enjoys the challenge of telling a story in a single frame.

It's full fledged summer, and we are reaching the end of our tomato season. Can you believe it? So, either join us tomorrow at our final Tomato U-Pick of 2017, or head on over to our Tomato Bulk Sale page to place an order before these sweet treats succumb to the unrelenting heat! This week, we had the wonderful opportunity to host some of the sprightly kiddos from the Spilled Milk Social Club summer camp at the Garfield farm. They harvested tomatoes that they are going to utilize in a salad that the KIDS (age 5, 6, 7) are preparing and serving at a mystery dinner. On top of that, melons are rollin' in hot! Be sure to catch them at markets this weekend.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Photo by Casey Wiggins.

Recipe by Mackenzie Smith

Fresh tomatoes, the last of a pot of Louisiana-style red beans and a cheddar sharp enough to stand up next to the tang and the spice were the inspiration for this savory summer pie. I prefer the crunch and the defined flavor of whole spices in the beans, but ground spices work just as well here. Salting and draining the tomatoes keeps the crust from getting soggy as it cooks, so don’t skip that step! Emily HIlliard of Nothing in the House is a folklorist and pie-maker in West Virginia, and her pie crust recipe is my go-to. It’s easy to work with and always flaky -- ideal for making a galette.

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Make sure you salt and drain your tomatoes before placing them on your pastry-- the excess liquid will make for soggy crust.

• 1½ cup kidney or pinto beans, drained
• ½ teaspoon coriander
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• ¾ teaspoon mustard seed
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3 medium tomatoes (preferably different colors--a variety of red and green is great here) sliced ¼ inch thick, perpendicular to the core
• Butter

Adapted from Nothing in the House

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or 1 c. all-purpose + 1 c. whole-wheat pastry flour*)
• 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2 sticks COLD unsalted butter (12 tablespoons), cut into slices
• 1/2 beaten large egg, cold (save the other half to brush on top of the crust)
• 1/4 cup ice-cold water
• 1/2 tablespoon cold apple cider vinegar (I keep mine in the fridge)

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and pepper. Using a pastry cutter or fork and knife, cut in the butter. You want to make sure butter chunks remain, as that's what makes the crust flaky.

2. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the COLD liquid ingredients (Using cold liquids ensures that your butter will not melt--another crucial detail for a flaky crust!).

3. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour-butter mixture and combine using a wooden spoon. Mix until dough comes together, but is not overly mixed (it should be a little shaggy). Form into a ball, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, and let chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before rolling out.

*If you use whole wheat pastry flour, you may need to add additional liquid.

Lay sliced tomatoes on a cooling rack placed over a sheet pan or in a colander over a bowl and sprinkle with salt.

While the tomatoes drain, heat olive oil or butter in a small skillet and add the spices. Cook until you can smell the spices start to toast. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds, then add the beans. Using a potato masher or the back of your fork or spoon, mash the beans against the side of the pan as they cook. Cook on medium heat until the moisture is cooked out of the beans. Remove beans from the heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400F

Once your dough has chilled, split it in two and roll one into a flat, thin circle. Spread half of the bean mixture onto the middle part of the dough, then top with cheddar cheese. Arrange sliced and drained tomatoes on top of the cheese, alternating colors and size to keep it jazzy.

Fold the edge of the dough over the filling, letting the filling show as indicated in the picture. Brush the crust with egg wash and place a few pats of butter on your tomatoes. Repeat for the second disc of dough.

Bake at 400 for about 30 or 40 minutes, or until your crust is golden brown.

Before I made these pastries, which were a super hit at the tomato party, I read Bon Appetit’s article on common mistakes when making a galette, and an article from food52 on how to make savory galettes so I could see how to roll them out. Both articles are worth a read if you want to get better at making galettes.

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Tomato madness. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We had an amazing turn-out at our Tomato U-Pick last Saturday (check out photos here). We loved having everyone out at the farm, getting their hands dirty, and enjoying the best crop of tomatoes that we've had yet! A huge thanks to Kate Payne for yet another amazing canning workshop. We had so much fun and received so many requests for an encore, that we are going to host yet another Tomato U-Pick on Saturday, 7/1! We can't wait... see you there? Get your hands on our 'maters before the season is over!

While we love talking about our tomatoes, our peppers are really starting to shine. Check 'em out below, we have quite the array this year. Also, summer is officially here which means... watermelons are finally here! YAY!

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Herb harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplanting. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Montana on the prowl. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Sunflowers ready to pop. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Zinnia and sunflower harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Okra bloom. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Carrots. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Pomegranate progress. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Peppers! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Bell pepper beauty. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Shishitos. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Jalapenos. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Photo by Scott David Gordon.