Plum tomatoes ready for the oven

"SUN DRIED" TOMATOES (OVEN ROASTED)

Oven roasted tomatoes can be made any time tomatoes are in season, but we like to wait for a cool day in early autumn, when we can turn on the oven and fill the house with the smell of roasted fresh tomatoes. They are best made with plum (a.k.a. 'Roma') tomatoes as they have less moisture, but any tomatoes can be used. Red is classic, but all colours work great too. The roasting intensifies and sweetens the tomato flavour, and you can use them anywhere you would use fresh tomatoes (plus oodles of other yummy recipes).

 

Plum tomatoes -about 20 medium (1½ quarts) cover a cookie sheet.

1 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt

Wash and halve plum tomatoes lengthwise. Place in a big pile on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and salt. Toss until tomatoes are lightly covered with oil, place in a single layer, cut side up, and roast in oven until they just start to char. The tomatoes may be roasted to varying degrees, depending on how you want them: from soft and juicy to very dry and leathery (low temps work best).

The higher the oven temperature, the faster the drying. As a general rule, the tomatoes will take an hour at 375°, or you can cook them overnight at 200°.

FYI: The green tomatoes in the photo are an heirloom variety called "Green Sausage" -they are ripe!

Hutchinson Farm News Vol. 16, No. 5

A Study in Scarlet - Berry Update #1

As I write this, we're enjoying a rainy day (the fields have been so dry we'll enjoy any rain, even though it's on a market day). This gives us a chance to catch up on my long list of rainy day jobs (including this newsletter), and gives the strawberries a much needed drink!

The strawberries are coming along nicely, and we will probably have a few for sale this weekend (June 2-3), lots more by next weekend. Pick-your-own is a "maybe" for next weekend, I'll send out another quick email when we know for certain.

Flower Update
You may look at our greenhouses and say, 'wow, they're mostly empty, you've sold a lot!' I look at the greenhouses and say, 'they're too full!' Either way, there is still  a good selection of most, but not all flowers. They are a good size now -perfect for an instant garden!

Scarlet Red
Once upon a time, this was the classic red geranium colour. We probably sold more red geraniums than all our other flowers put together. Not this year! Any red with a touch of orange is now the slowest selling colour, and not just in geraniums: scarlet red verbena, Red Sunpatiens, impatiens, scarlet calibracoa (aka Million Bells) -all selling slowly. 

First Berry
The photo is from a few days ago, I'm not going out into the patch until it dries!

Three Cool Herbs
We've got a great selection of herbs including:

Chervil: (top pic) One of the French 'Fines Herbs', we've never actually cooked with it, has anyone tried it?

Aristotle Basil: (right) This dwarf fine leaved strain is tres superbe! Same great flavour as the regular stuff, and it's tight compact shape is beautiful in the garden or containers.

Purple Sage: (lower left) The purple colour looks great in the garden, plus it is more compact than the regular green sage that can be a bit leggy.

Rhubarb Our rhubarb is finally ready. It came up early, but it just sat there at the "too-small-to-pick" stage, waiting for a drink. This means we will have lots of rhubarb for the strawberry season. Some years, rhubarb is practically over by the time strawberries start!

If it stops raining, we'll do our best to have a few berries this weekend to go along with our great selection of flowers, planters, and hanging baskets.  One last reminder: Milton Farmers Market is cancelled Sat June 2nd thanks to the Downtown Business Improvement Association.

Bye for now,    

Hutchinson Farm News Vol. 16, No. 1

Another year, another winter has come and gone (okay, it never really came), and another growing season has begun. I hope that this first newsletter of the season finds you and your families well, invigorated, and ready for another year of growing beautiful things in your gardens, and eating really yummy things (I'm thinking heirloom tomatoes).

2012 finds the folks on our farm quite well. Alexander is almost taller than me, Rebecca has adjusted well to her new school, and if the dogs would quit eating stupid things, us adults would have no worries!

We've got lots of exciting things upcoming this year, and I'll be telling you all about it upcoming newsletters, but for this issue, I thought I'd give you a taste of what happened in our greenhouse during the March Break.

Ready, Set, Go
8:00 am

The previous days were spent cleaning and sterilizing the greenhouse, we've filled the hanging baskets with soil-less mix, now we're just waiting for the plants to arrive!

They're Here!
11:15 am

John just got back from picking up the cuttings from our suppliers, 42 cases, about  10,000 cuttings in total. Enough to keep us out of trouble for a while!

The Unboxing
11:46 am

The fun part is opening the box of course! Here we have some of the exotic "Graffiti" series geraniums.  This side up really does mean this side up! 

Planting Party!
1:35 pm

Deb, Wendy, and Lana planting, planting, planting, planting... most of the cuttings go in 4½" pots, the rest are going in planters and hanging baskets. We hope to finish by Friday afternoon.

Tags
1:37 pm

Rafael came up from sunny Mexico last week. We tried to save some snow for him, but....
His family is all well, but there was a severe drought in his region -his corn crop only grew 8" tall. Here he is putting the little tags in the pots.

A Dog's Life
3:30 pm

Planting geraniums is exhausting work for a dog.

 Tea Time!
6:10 pm

After a day of planting, a cup of 'tea' hits the spot!

Thai Curry Squash Soup

We made this at the end of March with one of our heirloom pumpkins, an Australian Blue called "Triamble". This particular pumpkin had been in our greenhouse as part of our pumpkin gallery since October, and we just left it there at the end of the season. Not exactly ideal storage conditions: warm on sunny days, freezing on cold nights. After five months, you'd think it would be in rough shape -most pumpkins would be moldy or have become a puddle on the floor! Not Triamble. It was almost in perfect condition.

4 cups baked pumpkin or squash
1" chunk of ginger, peeled and minced
1 onion, diced
1 tsp curry powder
900ml box of chicken stock
1 can coconut milk (14 oz/ 425 ml)
1 sprig cilantro

Fry onion until soft in a large saucepan.
Add garlic, ginger, curry powder, stir for 30 sec.
Add squash and stock, simmer 15 mins.
Puree, add coconut milk, return to simmer.
Serve garnished with cilantro.

Squash Tomatillo Soup

We've been fans of Moosewood cookbooks since the late '80's and finally made it to the restaurant itself in Ithaca, NY last summer (2011) where we had a fabulous dinner and, as it just so happens, bought the cookbook where this recipe appears ("Moosewood Restaurant New Classics" p 75).
One day in October we were looking for something new and seasonal to make for dinner. We were still harvesting both squash and tomatillos on our farm (as well as onions and tomatoes), so this recipe just leapt out at us. It is a superb soup, both our kids love it, and it has quickly become part of our standard cooking repertoire -plus it's a cinch to make!

Tomatillos
Fresh tomatillos are still very hard to find in Ontario. We grow and sell them at our farm from early August to late October. To extend the tomatillo season, you can keep them in the refrigerator for about a month, and they freeze very well -just remove the husk, wash, and freeze whole in freezer bags. Avoid canned tomatillos at all costs!

Squash
We often use butternut for soups, etc. It tastes great, has a rich colour and smooth texture, plus it's the easiest squash to peel and cube. This soup would also be great with any of the great tasting heirloom pumpkins that we grow, such as Musquée de Provence, Flat White Boer...

Our first batch of Squash-Tomatillos Soup, a memorable meal, Oct 30, 2011

Recipe (original Moosewood version)
This recipe makes a lot of soup (serves 8-10), reheats perfectly.

18 fresh tomatillos (about 2 pounds)
4 - 5 cups chopped onions
8 garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups peeled and cubed winter squash
6 cups vegetable stock
3 cups chopped tomatoes
1 - 2 teaspoons minced chipotles in adobo sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
sour cream
chopped fresh cilantro
avacado cubes
crumbled tortilla chips



Preheat the oven to 450°
Remove and discard the husks of the fresh tomatillos. Rinse the tomatillos, cut them in half, and place them cut-side up in a single layer in a shallow baking dish. Roast for 30 - 35 minutes, until soft.


Meanwhile, in a soup pot, cook the onions in the olive oil on medium heat, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the squash, stock, and the tomatoes with their juice, cover, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes, until the squash is quite tender. Add the chipotles and the roasted tomatillos.


In a blender, purée the soup in several batches and return to the pot. Add salt, pepper, and more chipotles to taste, and gently reheat if needed.


Serve hot, with some or all of the toppings.

Our latest Newsletter, August 2011

A Great BLT!

The Worlds Greatest BLT

We are now in peak tomato season, with lots of roma, cherry, beefsteak, heirloom, and good old field tomatoes coming in from our fields every day. It's time for freezing, canning, making chili sauces and salsas, and most importantly, eating as many yummy tomatoes as you can, especially in the form of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches! To make a truly great BLT, you need to do it yourself. If you order one at a restaurant, it will never be as good as homemade. Enjoy it with a glass of milk for lunch, or maybe a glass of Chianti for dinner. Then make it a meal with a delicious heirloom watermelon for dessert.

Fresh Picked Field Tomatoes

The Real Tomatoland!
It's time to celebrate and wallow in great tasting tomatoes. I think the ones we grow on our farm are probably about the best you can find anywhere. Under our tender loving care, our tomatoes have survived drought and deluge, and have ripened into delicious maturity. They are being picked at their field-ripened best, so you can't go wrong with whichever type you choose. They're at their peak for the next few weeks.

Photo: Our just a few of our fresh picked field tomatoes ready for grading.

I just finished reading Barry Estabrook's Tomatoland, all about growing tomatoes in Florida (everything you didn't want to know about growing tasteless tomatoes). A fascinating read, now I know why our tomatoes taste so good, and why so many others are not worth looking at. 

Brattleboro, NH Farmers' Market

Best Farmers' Market Yet!
At the end of July my family took a quick vacation to Bretton Woods, NH to visit Mount Washington (the highest mountain east of the Mississippi, and home to the highest wind speed ever recorded). While traveling, we always keep a lookout for farmers' markets, and we found ourselves one Saturday morning at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market in southern Vermont. It is perfect in size, with about 50 vendors situated in a park with huge trees providing shade, gravel pathways and a grassy centre courtyard. The vendors could only sell what they grew themselves (in other words, none of the "reseller" nonsense that you find at Burlington and Milton), so it was refreshing knowing we were buying from real farmers. The market also had a good selection of artisans/craftsmen, and what we really liked was the vendors offering prepared food. Everything from African dishes to Indian yum yums to gourmet pizza, all made by people passionate about their culinary heritage. You could eat at the market or take it home for dinner. In addition, each Saturday there is a different musician serenading the market. We love the Burlington and Milton farmers' markets, but the diverse array of goods, and the relaxed community atmosphere at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market was a delight, we didn't want to leave!
 

Heirloom Watermelons

Not Seedless! :-)
One of our sources for heirloom seed is the Seed Savers Exchange. While browsing through their gorgeous catalog last winter, I was intrigued by all the watermelon they had listed. Big ones, small ones, early ones, late ones, pink ones, yellow ones, white ones and orange ones. I thought to myself, you don't suppose the breeders of modern seedless watermelons are sacrificing flavour as they try to breed out the seed?
There was only one way to find out, and that was to grow some heirloom watermelons ourselves. Our harvest has begun, and we like what we're tasting. Our favourite from yesterday's taste test was "Cream of Saskatchewan" (bottom centre of photo).

For the next few weeks it is peak season for all the summer goodies growing on our farm, including melons and tomatoes (see the full list at the upper right corner of this email).

There are a million ways to make a BLT, here's mine:

4 slices of your favourite bread (I'm a big fan of sourdough), toasted lightly
8 slices of bacon, cooked almost crisp (don't succumb to grocery store bacon, get the fabulous thick sliced bacon from J&G Meats at Burlington Mall Farmers' Market, or Maziarz Meats at Milton--- if you're going to do this BLT thing, do it properly!)
6 big, thick slices of your favourite heirloom tomato (in the photo we used Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Pineapple)
Lettuce
Mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper to taste

Enjoy your sandwich(es). Follow it with an heirloom watermelon, and if you have kids, have a watermelon seed spitting contest! Enjoy summer's bounty. Life is good.

Bye for now,  

Zucchini Salad

I think this recipe comes from Jamie Oliver. It's become one of our favourites, the key is to use zucchini that was picked that day.

Use a potato peeler to thinly slice green and/or yellow zucchini lengthwise (remember with zucchini, the smaller the better).

Dressing:
Equal parts olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice
fresh red chile -deseeded and very finely chopped

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake
You can't let a strawberry season go by without making strawberry shortcake. Here's our recipe, a traditional, complete from scratch version (and that's my bowl, hands off!).

The three parts of a superb strawberry shortcake:

The Biscuits
(makes 8, freeze the extras for next time)
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup shortening
¾ cup buttermilk

Mix the dry things, cut in the shortening, mix in the buttermilk, roll ½" thick, cut into 3" round shapes, bake @ 450º 12 mins.

The Strawberries
Wash and slice 1 quart of berries. Mix in 1 tbsp. sugar.

The Whipping Cream
Nothing beats the flavour of home made whipping cream!
Whipping cream, mixer, a spoonfull of sugar, beat it!

Assembly
Slice the biscuit in half, and layer the berries and whipping cream in any which way you can!

Enjoy!

Where have all the blogs gone?

I don't think it's just me, but it seems that a lot of blogs die. There are probably many reasons, the novelty has worn off for the writer, and Facebook, are a couple that spring to mind. I am not posting very much to this blog, and Facebook is the main reason. I write this blog for two reasons. 1) I like to write. and 2) I like to spread the news about what is going on at our farm. Facebook does a better job at that than this blog! I plan to continue posting copies of our newsletter here (some people with old email software have troubles reading it), and I will continue to post recipes here. Heck if there were two of me we would have lots of recipes posted here.
So, if anyone is reading this, I sure hope you're following us on Facebook, because that's where all the action is these days!

Hutchinson Farm News Vol. 15 No. 3

April 17, 2011

As I begin to write this newsletter, it is a cold and blustery Friday morning. With the sun shining bright, it is a lovely place to be. The greenhouses are comfy and warm, and one is surrounded by plants with deep vibrant green leaves, with splashes of colour from the blooms that are starting to open up. The air is moist, and smells alive. I set the greenhouse temperature to about  23 - 25C, great for growing and enjoying. It feels great. Short sleeves and all that. With the sun streaming in through the greenhouse plastic, the greenhouses gradually heat up, and the thermostat sends a signal to the ventilation fan: "start blowing, it's getting hot in here!" If you are standing at the back of the greenhouse, the temperature gradually falls a few degrees as the fan blows out the hot air, and draws in the cool air from outside. If you can picture our greenhouse fans, they are pretty big, about four feet across, so they can move a lot of air in a hurry. Now, if you happen to be standing near the front of the greenhouse, you're basking in 25C air, and then the fan goes on and WHAM, you are hit with a blast of frigid 3 degree air. Ugh. It gets worse: our greenhouses aren't connected, so you have to walk outside from one greenhouse to another (which I do a lot). Today was simply unbearable, the shock made it almost too cold to breathe, and you've got to feel sorry for the plants by the doors!

• Third Annual Open House (pun intended)
  All our greenhouses will be open for a sneak peek on Sunday April 24th from 1:00 - 4:00 pm.
  It's a time to see what we've be doing for the past three months (growing annuals), check out the new flowers, get some ideas for your garden,  enjoy some time in the country, and just have a nice visit with my family while enjoying the beautiful flowers in our greenhouses.
  
  
• One of my favourite parts of our open house is that everyone gets to vote for their favourite flower. It may be an easy decision, or hard decision, but either way, it's a lot more fun voting for flowers than politicians!
  
  
• We also have a couple of special activities for kids. Rebecca is going to be running a seed planting station where kids will be able to plant their own pot of seeds to bring home. We also have a little treasure hunt exploring the diveristy of our flowers, and there is a rumour that the Easter Bunny may have hidden a few goodies amongst the flowers.
  
  
• New Flowers
  This year we have close to 400 different flower varieties growing in our greenhouses. Lots of the tried and true varieties, and some new ones too. Calibrachoa (aka Million Bells) has the most new colours. If you've never grown cali's, you should. With an outstanding colour range and season long flower power, cali's are a welcome addition to any garden. There are two new cali's this year: SuperBells Blackberry Punch, and SuperBells Coralberry Punch. For the first time we are also growing the complete series of trailing calibrachoas, so in total, we have 26 different cali's in our greenhouses. Also of note: Lanai Strawberries and Cream Verbena, Luscious Citrus Blend Lantana, some 'new' heirloom nasturtiums, plus a few more. We had requests to grow ivy, so new for us this season is German Ivy, and three varieties of Engish Ivy.
  
  
• Sustainability
  As we continue to strive to reduce our environmental footprint, some of our actions affect our customers, such as:
  
  
  • Flower Labels: We are now only using labels when we are forced to by the flower patents. Our unlabeled flowers will have their name hand written on the pot.
    
  • Flower trays: Please bring your own boxes to take your flowers home in, or skip the tray completely and gently place your flowers in your car.  We will have many free used boxes, but not enough for everyone. New flower trays are available, $2.00 each. Donations of boxes are most welcome!
  • Coffee: lots of customers enjoy a cuppa, we know, because our store garbage can is primarily full of Tim Horton cups! We will have complimentary coffee, tea & juice available at our open house, but YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN MUG!
    
    
  We hope you embrace our sustainable philosophy!
  

Our official selling season begins Sat April 30, and we'll be open every day until the second Monday in August. We're looking forward to seeing lots of you at our open house, bring your whole family, and please invite your friends and neighbours as well. The long range forecast looks sunny and warm, so it should be a fun afternoon. Don't forget your camera!

Bye for now,



More than a newsletter: Our FaceBook page is becoming more and more popular, and this month we're posting almost every day with lots of pictures and quick stories that aren't in the newsletter.

Spring in the greenhouse

We've been planting in our greenhouses since Feb 23. The first thing that gets planted are the ivy geranium hanging baskets. Normally we'll cut off all the buds, but it is nice to leave a few so that we can enjoy the colour! In the foreground of the picture is "Minicascade Pink", in the background are "Minicascade Lavender" and "Minicascade Red". If you talk to me in May, I'll tell you that Mini Red and Mini Lav. make the greatest hanging baskets (colour all season, extremely low maintenance, and they're forgiving if you forget to water them)! I'm not so keen on Mini Pink -it fades, but right now in our greenhouses, with relatively low light conditions, it is a beautiful colour. Click to see the full size image.

New Heirlooms

Thanks to everyone who voted in our 2011 heirloom tomato poll, and double thanks to Alexander who voted twice. Six new heirlooms have been decided on for planting in our fields this May, giving us  a total of about three dozen tomato varieties. If you discover a tomato cultivar you would like us to grow next year, let me know, and I'll add it to next years poll. 

Here are the winners:

Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red: This will be the first "regular" red heirloom tomato we've grown. I keep coming across more and more growers who love this tomato not just because of its flavour, but also for the quality of the fruit and health of the plant.

Blondkopfchen: This is a yellow cherry. We've grown lots of yellow cherries before, and like most yellow tomatoes, they are mild flavoured. This one is supposed to be the best tasting yellow cherry, we'll see! Anyone speak German? Tomato websites say it means "little blond girl", but Google translates it as "blond brains!"

German Red Strawberry: We grew an orange strawberry last year, so this is a welcome addition to the strawberry, or heart shaped tomatoes.

Indian Stripe: This one wasn't on my top six list, and come to think of it, I don't think I voted, oh well. It's described as being similar to Cherokee Purple (one of our favourites) but with occasional stripes.

Stupice: One of the best tasting red tomatoes. This small tomato is the earliest tomato to ripen, maybe we'll taste these in mid July! Stupice is from the Czech Republic and is pronounced "Stoo-peach-ka"

Speckled Roman: This is a red plum with orange stripes that looks great in photos, and supposedly tastes great also. Can't wait to see it!

The photo is of our three colours of plum tomatoes, about to go into the oven. In our poll, I was hoping that "Black Plum" would get enough votes, it would look so good next to the red, yellow, and orange plums. Better luck next year.

How to dry an apple gourd

This is perhaps an odd time of year to write about gourds, but bear with me, you'll see why. We grow too many gourds, but what's not to like about all the crazy shapes and sizes, multitude of colours, and textures? Most gourds are simply used to decorate your homes for the autumn harvest celebration, and probably get thrown in the compost when it is time to put up the Christmas decorations. Some of those gourds will have started to pass to the other shore, I know I've found my share with a puddle underneath where they are sitting, these are the ones you're sometimes afraid to lift up!

"Apple Gourds"  have a much longer life span.  They start off looking like a big apple, with their mottled dark green and light green skin, they even have a cute little stem on top. We've had one decorating our kitchen counter for three months now, and until recently it looked great, and its colour even matched our Christmas decorations.

As you can see from the photo, it is now time to banish it elsewhere. It is covered in white mold, which will soon turn black. If you saw any other vegetable covered with this mold, you would throw it out. With apple gourds (or any other of the "bottle" gourds), I'm don't have to do that. I don't want all those spores in my house, so I could wash it, but the mold would come back quickly.

I'm going to let that gourd dry out all by itself, covered in mold, in my garage. I'll post an update in a few months.

That Darned Highway

On Monday Dec 13th, 2010 we attended an information meeting hosted by the City of Burlington and Halton Region. This is what we learned, please forgive and correct me if I've got any facts wrong, I'm basing this on a tiny bit of research, and what I remember from the meeting! I have provided links to the official documents that I know of.

Links: 

The presentation from Monday's meeting, maps, etc.

Burlington Post Coverage of the meeting

Niagara to GTA Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment Study

Halton's Regional Official Plan 

Map from Halton Region, I added our farm

• -Part of Halton Region's official plan (ROPA-38) calls for development to stop at Hwy 407, land north of 407 is designated as farmland or part of the Natural Heritage system (ie Niagara Escarpment).
• -ROPA -38 was passed unanimously by Halton Region, fully supported by all four of Halton's municipalities (Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton, and Oakville).
  
• -This would mean Burlington's development is nearly complete, land to the north of the 407 would remain unchanged, as it is today.
• -ROPA-38 was submitted to the province.
  
• -The province sent it back (only three days after the municipal election, coincidence or not?) wanting an amendment.
• -The amendment is for a highway corridor to be included in ROPA (see green arrow on map)
  
• -Everyone at the meeting, residents and politicians, is against this highway. No one at the meeting expressed any sort of support for the highway.
• -The purpose of the meeting was to inform residents and jump start opposition to the new highway. The elected officials indicated that even though construction of the highway is years away, once the corridor is put in the plan, it will be virtually impossible to stop the highway, so the time to stop the highway is now.
• -The message from the municipal and regional politicians is to write as many elected officials as you can (the premier, minister of transport, your MPP, etc.), indicating your opposition to the highway.

Following the presentation, questions and comments were taken from the floor: Here's a summary of what struck me, and what I remember (I wasn't taking notes, so I may have got some things wrong). The general tone being that the proposed highway is ridiculous.

• -Development in Burlington would sprawl north to the new highway.
• -Building a highway across the environmentally sensitive, world biosphere heritage site of the Niagara Escarpment is ludicrous.
• -Air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution
• -If oil prices continue to rise, will we be driving the same way 20 years from now? Will we need this highway?
• -The proposed highway is based on Hamilton growing a lot. Is economically depressed Hamilton actually going to see this growth?
  
• -There is no super highway going from Hamilton directly to the 401, that's what needs to be built.
  
• -Upgrading existing highways, and increasing mass transit such as rail is the way to go.
  
• -You can't buy local if there are no local farms
• -Where are all those vehicles to go once the new highway connects to existing highways that are already gridlocked?
• -Assuming the new highway connects to the 407 (there is really no other option) drivers will be forced to pay the tolls. Is the new highway going have tolls?
  
• -The 407 should not be private, if anything is to be expropriated, it should be the 407. Canadians should never allow the privatization of infrastructure.
  
• -The arrow goes straight through Halton Conservation head office on Britannia
  

Stay Tuned! 

Too many tomatoes

One of the fun things farmers get to do when it is cold and blustery outside, is to look over the seed catalogs that are arriving in the mail, and decide what to grow next year. With thousands of different tomatoes available, it can get hard to choose. It's impossible to grow them all! We'll keep most of what we grew last year, eliminating a few, and trying a few new ones.

I've made my "short" list of tomatoes that I want to try, but there are too many. I need to choose about half a dozen new varieties to grow next year. I can't decide, I can find reasons to grow them all, but it will be too confusing in the field if we do!

Help me decide what to grow by voting in our tomato poll (see the column to the right)

Varieties under consideration

In addition to the 30 varieties we liked from last year, we  will be growing a few more taken from the following. The descriptions are from seed catalogs


Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red -Deep Red Beefstreak great taste and aroma, healthy plant, HHS's main red variety  
Andrina Red Cherry -dwarf plants, we'll try them in hanging baskets
Aunt Gertie's Gold Yellow Beefsteak -one of the best tasting yellow tomatoes (most yellows are "mild")
Austin's Red Pear -SSE's best tasting red pear (we used  to grow a pear that was tasteless)
Beam's Yellow Pear -as above, except yellow
Black From Tula Black Round -one of the best tasting black's
Black Plum Black plum? we don't grow that yet
Blondkopfchen Yellow cherry -excellent sweet taste, enormous yield -we need a good tasting yellow cherry
Gary Ibsen's Red Red Round -Tomato guru Gary Ibsen loves it
German Red Strawberry Red Heart -best tasting
Gray's Sweet Cherry -Red best tasting red cherry 
Hahms Gelbe -yellow cherry -dwarf plants for containers
Indian Stripe -purple round -offspring of Cherokee Purple, great taste
Lutescent -Novelty ripens green, pale yellow, deep yellow, red
Mule Team -Red Round, Classic tomato, great taste, productive, blemish free
Orange Cherry -great tasting orange cherry
Pendulina Orange -orange cherry -dwarf plants for containers
Persimmon-Orange round -best tasting orange
Speckled Roman Red with orange stripes plum -meaty, tastes great
Stupice Small red round -very early, high quality, taste test winner
Sweet Pea Red Currant -best tasting currant (smaller than cherry) 

For further information on heirloom tomato varieties, check out Tatiana's Tomato Base

Fresh Picked Peppers

Poblano chile peppers -large, firm, blemish free, and so fresh they squeak when when they rub against each other. We picked these yesterday. If you're from more southerly regions of the continent this is unremarkable, but we've endured night times lows of -6ºC, so even these chiles that were growing in our unheated greenhouse are at the cusp of death by frost. Actually the plants within 12" of the greenhouse sides got zapped. I thinks these chiles are pretty amazing, especially considering they haven't had a drop to drink since October!

We made rajas with the poblanos. This is the same as roasting red peppers, but you use poblanos instead. Under the broiler go the whole poblanos, as the skin bubbles and blackens, you flip them over. Once that's done you take them out of the oven and leave them sitting in a covered bowl. After 10 minutes remove the blackened outer skin as best you can, and remove the stem, core and seeds. For authentic rajas cut them into strips, but we don't. We sprinkled them with a bit of olive oil and put them in the freezer. For the next few months we'll use them in sandwiches, sauces, fajitas, etc. etc. Yummy!

Happy Thanksgiving

Our latest newsletter.... 

Hutchinson Farm News Vol. 14, No. 8

Many years ago, back in the days when we entered our produce in the Milton Fair, one of the competitors had entered a large Atlantic Giant type pumpkin, and the judge disqualified it, by saying it wasn't a pumpkin. I don't remember what type of pumpkin we entered, nor do I remember how we did in the "pumpkin" class. I do remember wondering how the judge knew it was a squash, and why it wasn't a pumpkin. Did the judge think cucurbita maxima (Atlantic Giants) were squash and cucurbita pepo (jack-o-lanterns) were pumpkins? I just don't know, but I think it might have been the same judge that awarded first prize in the tomato class to an entry that consisted of five cherry tomatoes displayed on top of test tubes. I also remember that second place in the tomato class, went to an entry that consisted of five beautiful red ripe slicing tomatoes, with the attractive green stems still attached, grown on Walkers Line by a certain John Hutchinson.

• Thanksgiving Pumpkins If you've been up to the farm recently, or you follow us on facebook, or have read our latest blog entry (it has some great photos), you already know that we have some really cool pumpkins this year. From Australia we have Jarrahdale, a  Queensland Blue pumpkin (no orange pumpkins for the men down under). France provided us with three heirloom pumpkins, one that is possibly what the pilgrims ate, and another that is "embroidered with warts" -you've got to see it to believe it. One of my favourites is a new release called "One Too Many" -it's white with thin red veins running across its face. Now I'm in charge of making the pumpkin pie this weekend (a note of clarification may be needed here, I'm only making a few pies for our family dinner, we won't be selling any pies, sorry), so I want to know which pumpkin tastes the best. For years and years I've always used the standard "Small Sugar" pie pumpkin. Do these French heirlooms taste better? I'm having a pumpkin cook off on Friday night, watch for the results on facebook!
  
  
• Dog toy season
  It's a hard life being a dog on our farm. There are all the customers to greet, and then they want to take your picture, you walk out to the pumpkin patch with them, they throw your stick for you...after all that sometimes you just have to lie down in front of a big pile of pie pumpkins, and watch what's going on. Yes, the little puppy has grown over the summer, and if you can't tell our dogs apart (that's the pup in the photo), Molé, (six years old) is the one with the gourd in his mouth -he wants you to throw it for him (yes, we even grow dog toys on our farm). Our puppy, "PawPad" (he was born the same day as Apple's iPad) is the dog who is eating the gourds. He also likes green beans, tomatoes, peppers, corn on the cob...
  
  
• Thanksgiving Traditions
  Thanksgiving signifies change at our farm. It's the time that the summer crops end. It's the time Rafael, Marco, and Ricardo return to Mexico. It's the time we stop going to market. It's the time the harvest is over. It's the time we sleep in a bit (it's too dark to work). It's the time customers come to the farm for their last visit of the season. I guess because there are so many changes, we mark them with customs and traditions every year. In spite of it being a hectic and busy weekend at our farm helping customers get their thanksgiving decorations and pumpkins, we manage to have a large Thanksgiving dinner with grandparents, one uncle and one aunt plus our extended Mexican family. We'll have the traditional turkey, with a bowl of gravy as well as a bowl of mole, and lots of veggies that we grew on our farm. Dessert is, of course pumpkin pie, but this year, if I can pick enough of those Seascape strawberries, we'll have strawberry shortcake as well. Sounds like the start of a new tradition.
  
  So what makes a pumpkin a pumpkin? The quick answer is that nobody knows. If we turn to botanical taxonomy, we discover that there are four major botanical species in the cucurbita genus (which includes pumpkins/squash/gourds) and each of the four individual species has what we call pumpkins, squash and gourds in it. For example, acorn squash, Crown of Thorn gourds, and the classic carving pumpkin all are members of the Cucurbita pepo species. If we look at different cultures, we learn that what some people call squash in one country, will be called a pumpkin in another, and explains why in Spanish "calabaza" means pumpkin, squash, gourd, and even zucchini! For me, I'm sticking with pumpkin guru Amy Goldman's definition: If you carve it, it's a pumpkin. If you just look at it, it's a gourd. If you eat it, it's a squash!

Heirloom Pumpkins

For many many years, we have grown, a wide variety of pumpkins. Big pumpkins, small pumpkins, tall pumpkins, wide pumpkins, round pumpkins, cooking pumpkins....our seed catalogs would devote a couple of pages to pumpkins, probably close to a hundred different varieties.

Taste Happiness

They are so good
They are catching on
Every day people phone about them
We only grew four rows
Time is running out
The lucky few who have discovered them
They are the best
Forget about the June ones
Seascape strawberries are so good
They smell like we imagine strawberries
They taste like wild strawberries
I nibble on them
They are so good
I took their picture
I ate the big one
Maybe for Thanksgiving
There will be more
Next year

Size Matters

I always say, the bigger the melon, the better it will taste. When all the melons are supposed to be big, a small melon simply hasn't grown as well, and doesn't taste as good as it's big brothers and sisters. This year there is a new melon on the block. It's small. It's supposed to be small, about 6" in diameter. It's called "Sugar Cube", and it tastes great, and is the perfect size for one or two people to eat in on sitting. For a size comparison, see the photo in our previous post. "Sugar Cube" is the small melon at the front. I guess the moral of the story is that size doesn't matter.