For the past two weeks we've been able to bring small amounts of tomatoes to the farmers market, but this week the harvest is finally big enough to share with all of you. The fact that our tropical growing season is the exact opposite as the rest of the country is a strange fact that most people in South Florida struggle to get comfortable with.  The fact that it's almost Christmas and tomatoes are officially in season is WEIRD!  Most of the country is covered in snow and we're celebrating the most quintessential "summer crop" of the season.   The tomato is the most representative crop of the season because it marks the peak of it.  Tomato plants take a super long time to start producing fruit so even though they are started as early as everything else, they don't start fruiting until much later.  In places where warm weather is limited (like most of the country) they mark the peak of the warm months, hence the peak of the growing season.  Of course for us it's technically a bit different, but people still identify with their seasonality.  

Tomatoes are undoubtedly the most popular vegetable.  They fall under the "snacking" category on our list; we try to break up each week's share into categories to balance it out, for example we try to include salad greens, cooking greens, roots, an herb, a snacking veggie and a cooking veggie every week.  Snacking veggies are the most popular because they are easy to eat.  They can be eaten out of hand and kids generally like them.  Since we know most people love to get tomatoes, we try to include them as much as possible.  Michael Borek is a second generation farmer in Homestead who has always focused on heirloom tomatoes, but also grows a wide range of vegetables and herbs for his own CSA program.  His mom started their farm many years ago under the name Teena's Pride, but recently Michael has taken over the business and now goes by the name Michael Borek Farms.  Michael is an awesome guy to know and a top notch farmer to have in the community. 

IN THE SHARES THIS WEEK:

You'll be getting a mix of Cubanelle and Poblano peppers.  Both of these varieties are sweet peppers that are good for stuffing, but you can also cut them up for sauteeing, roast them for sauces, grill them or whatever else you can think if of to do with sweet peppers.   In Mexican cuisine poblano peppers are traditionally stuffed with cheese and sausage and baked in a sauce, but there are millions of other recipes for stuffing peppers.  Google around and you'll find everything from polenta to fried eggs stuffed in peppers. 

Our favorite crop to grow in our urban farm field is bok choi!  You'll be getting these cuties about once per month this season, if not more!  We are partial to two varieties, this one is called Li Ren and it's a petite, but very compact bok choi.  The other variety we grow is called Pak Choi and it's a big guy with super dark green leaves and white petioles (that's the "stem" part of bok choi).  The compact nature of Li Ren makes it good for sauteing, cut in half or quarters lengthwise so that the leaves are attached at the base.  A simple olive oil, salt and pepper will do just right, but you can also go the Chinese route and cook it with butter and garlic.  Bok choi keeps for a while in the fridge so there's no need to rush with it.  If one or two of the outer leaves start to turn yellow you can peel them off and the core will still be perfect.

The famous spicy salad mix is back for a second time.  It's one of our most popular salad mixes at the farmers market and we can see why.  There is so much flavor and spice in this mix.  Chris French changes the exact recipe based on how the different crops grow, but it always includes arugula, mustard, some kind of pac choi and mizuna.   Every leaf plays a role in creating a flavor profile that hardly needs dressing because it is so good.  Just add the simplest vinaigrette and maybe some sliced radishes and salad turnips since you'll have them in the share too, and voila! a salad is ready for dinner to accompany any old thing.