ecoyear

The nice plump frosted fruit from the last photo turned into a wrinkled soppy mess overnight as the tomatoes thawed (are still thawing a good 24 hours later). I divided them up into different "types" of tomato, and made something you won't find in any store.

As I happen to think that the "food snob" angle might be a good one just to get tons of people really hooked on local food, I'm sharing the most amazing pedigree tomato sauces I've seen in a while:

From left to right:

1. Orange banana sauce

I started with 4 lbs of homegrown orange banana tomatoes. This is nice thick sauce, with oil and garlic added, cooked about 15 minutes as per Alice Waters' directions. Incredible color!

2. Core di buoe sauce

These tomatoes are actually eating tomatoes. A nice pink color, shaped (as their name implies) like an oxheart, they are sweet and delicious in a salad, and made nice sauce. Here I started with about 5 lbs.

3. Ananas noire tomato sauce

These tomatoes are quite green and yellow with brownish streaks. They are also sweet and delicious in salads. I'm really excited about my sweet green "black pineapple" tomato sauce! I started with about 7.5 lbs. So, word to the wise, sauce tomatoes really do work better for sauce... but the taste... 

Food snobs of the world to the rescue of local farms and gardens!

I'll be adding actual paste tomato jars to my collection when the Amish Paste tomatoes actually finish defrosting. I also have 13 lbs of mixed tomatoes that I will turn into Barbara Kingsolver's family recipe sauce. Then, I will also have several more lbs of tomatoes I did not in fact defrost just yet.

My otherwise delightful visit to the market this week was punctuated with moments of mild panic whenever I saw a tomato display. I'm not tempted by the cases of tomatoes on sale. But you might be...

Also, see the "local eating this week". It's time to join the Eat Local Challenge.