Week 16 - Tomatillos from the Hoophouse

This week we are cleaning up the last fruits in the hoophouse. That means everyone will get a last hurrah of tomatoes. Eat them quick because they are starting to split on the vines out there. Members will also receive a bag of tomatillos this week. It's time for a big batch of salsa verde or, for those interested in another canning project, pickled tomatillos (recipe below).

Pickled tomatillos, pictured snug in their jar, make an awesome addition to quesadillas,
burritos, roast meats, and fish all winter long.

For week 16 members will receive Spaghetti Squash, Carrots, Apples, Fenugreek Sprouts, and Kale or Chard along with their Tomatoes, and Tomatillos.

We've let the last of the tomatoes ripen up in the hoophouse.
As you can see, the plants are done now. Eat your tomatoes
up fast because they are ready to burst!

Tomatillos will keep for a week or so on the counter. Use them in salsas, stews,
or sauces. They also make fantastic chili. Or try them out in the pickle recipe below.

Pickled Tomatillos

Last year we were overrun with tomatillos from the hoophouse very late in the season. I had to figure out what to do with them before they rotted. The favorite solution turned out to be these pickles, based on a recipe from Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Pickling. If you are itching to can something, give these a go. They're simple to put together and oh so welcome when the summer garden is covered in snow.

This recipe makes about a quart of pickles. It works best canned in 1/2 pint (1 cup) or 1 pint (2 cup) jars

• 1 Pound Tomatillos (amount in share), husked, washed, and halved or quartered.
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons pickling salt (or sea salt - just make sure it doesn't have an anti-caking agent)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar

The following ingredients are per jar of pickles:

• 1 clove garlic, slivered
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seed
• 10 whole black peppercorns

Pack the tomatillos into two prepared pint or four prepared half pint jars (prepare jars by washing them and drying them in a 200 degree oven, or sterilizing in some other manner) leaving a half inch head space. Add one clove of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, and 10 peppercorns to each jar.

Bring the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a simmer. Stir until the salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Pour the liquid over the tomatillos, separating it evenly between the jars. If the tomatillos are not quite covered add an equal amount of vinegar and water to cover them.

Cap the jars with two piece canning lids, be sure not to close the rings to tightly. Boil for ten minutes in a boiling water bath. Let sit for one month before eating so that the flavors (especially the oregano) have a chance to mellow and combine. The pickles will keep for at least a year, or a month in the refrigerator once opened.

The Tomatoes We Grow

Michigan's Western Upper Peninsula is a challenging place to grow tomatoes. It is not unheard of (though, thankfully, also not very common) for this area to experience freezing temperatures in July. Ick.

For that reason, a few tricks are necessary if you want to ensure a yearly supply of luscious ripe tomatoes. We grow most of ours in the hoophouse. In chilly years, when the high temperature seems to stay below seventy degrees all summer long, the hoophouse is the only place tomatoes will ripen up here. In warm years, like this one, the hoophouse offers us an extended season for growing our heat loving favorites.

We grow several different tomato varieties, including both heirlooms and hybrids. They range from standard bright red slicers, to dusky brownish-mauve cherries.

If you are only familiar with the red varieties, it can be hard to tell when a brown (or peach, or orange...) tomato is at its peak. We try very hard to offer only the most perfect specimens to our market customers and CSA members, but if you are not sure if your tomato is ready for eating, or you just want to know what you're munching on, check out the following list of tomatoes we grow for more information.

Black Prince

These relatively small slicing tomatoes ripen to a brownish red with army green shoulders. Inside, they are green, brown, red, and meltingly delicious. An heirloom variety from Irktusk Siberia, black prince tomatoes are fantastic for salads, sandwiches, and are even meaty enough to cook into a sauce.

Brown Berry

Brown berries are large cherry tomatoes with the colors of an early fall sunset. They have the same sophisticated tomato flavor of large black slicers (which are very long season varieties that take lots of heat to ripen - hard for us to grow even in the hoophouse) but they come in a convenient bite sized package. Pop them in your mouth whole, or slice them in half, drizzle with oil and vinegar, and add to a salad of greens or other tomatoes.

Cosmonaut Volkov

These are the show stopper, fire engine red, perfect for a BLT, slicer tomatoes that we grow. The one in the photograph is one of the bigger specimens, but even the small ones are substantial. Cosmonaut Volkov is a Ukrainian heirloom variety that always delivers. Expect to see this variety at Wintergreen Farm for many years to come. We will grow them until we are no longer capable of planting tomato seeds.

Garden Peach

This heirloom tomato first became available in New York in 1890. With its blushed peach skin, slight fuzz, and delicate fruity flavor, for over a century the garden peach has been billed as a novelty tomato. I think this does it a disservice as this tasty tomato deserves significant respect. It's small, but packs a lot of fabulous flavor for a salad or sandwich and it keeps well off the vine.

Heinz

The story is that these little guys (the red ones in the photo, the others are garden peach) were actually bred by Heinz for processing. So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the flavor is a bit flat. This is the first year we have grown them, and we haven't reached a final verdict. They do seem to be producing a lot of nice paste tomatoes. We shall see, tell us what you think of them please.

Juliet

These small, grape shaped tomatoes appear at first to be just another cherry tomato, but they are actually so much more. These very small paste tomatoes are exactly the thing that we have been searching for. A heavy yielding, short season tomato that can be used with abandon for salads, fresh sauces, canned sauces, and even drying. These ripen to a lovely orange red and beg to be experimented with. The plants are currently loaded with green fruits. We'll report further as soon as we have had the chance to try preserving some. 

Sun Cherry

These little red charmers are sweet and attractive. Sun cherries are the perfect red cherry tomato for snacking, salads, or slicing and sauteing with some herbs and green beans.

Sun Gold

The sun gold cherry tomato is one of few hybrid tomato varieties to reach household name status (at least among tomato geek households). It is also the one tomato for which I reserve the term "jewel-like", a phrase many seed catalogs like to use when describing tomato varieties. Sun golds ripen to a translucent orange hue, have a sweet, almost tropical, flavor, and are perfect for eating by the handful, enjoying in a salad, or cooking lightly. They hold their shape and texture very well when added to stir fries or sautes. They are also short season and prolific, so they are the only tomato variety we chose to plant both in and out of the hoophouse this year. As the season progresses we should be harvesting quite a few of these beauties.

Hoophouse Work Day

Our first member work day was a blast. We met some of our new members, fed worms to chickens, and accomplished a lot!

These are the plants we put in the ground last Sunday.

Seda hanging out with the pepper, tomato, and basil plants that are waiting to be
planted. We didn't put those eggplants in the center of the photo in yet because
they didn't appreciate the chill. They will be planted soon.

We finally met our goal of getting hoophouse tomato plants planted on May 1st! If the sun cooperates we could theoretically have our first cherry tomatoes by the Fourth of July. (For those readers that are not from the Upper Peninsula that would be more or less miraculous) I'm betting that it will take a bit longer than that, but we have a fighting chance.

Lots of members working away with Scott in the background yapping.
He saw the photos I took of the workday and asked "Did I do any work at all?"
He did. He turned all the beds we planted. I guess doing the hardest
work means taking more breaks.

We plant our tomatoes around two foot wide cages. We plant five plants around each cage, then tie the plants to the cages as they get taller (we use old T-shirts as ties). The cages are filled with straw and compost as the plants grow. The compost provides a slow fertilizer and the plants will root in the cages, making them very sturdy. Then, when we pull the plants, we get to knock all the compost into the beds. The initial cost of the fencing to make the cages is a little hefty, but it's a great system and the cages last many years.

All tucked into their cozy beds.

The nights following our work day dipped just below freezing - putting our newly transplanted starts in danger. Scott came up with the clever solution of laying the cages sideways in the paths and spreading row cover over the beds. We ran a propane heater (you can see the tank to the left) under the row cover for a bit of extra heat. After three freezing nights the plants still look great. In fact, they have put on a bit of size, especially the peppers.


Thanks again to everyone who made it to the farm. What a perfect way to kick off the season!

Too Many Tomatillos?

Just a few of the many.

November may seem an odd month to be buried in tomatillos. Normally November is more likely to see us buried in snow than garden fresh produce. Nevertheless, we've got tomatillos. This state is a testament to the fabulous hoophouse. We in the north do appreciate season extension.

Our hoophouse is a little wonky, we bought it used and discovered (through some serious trial and error on our part) that it is not sturdy enough to withstand the winter wind and snow of Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the plastic on. Whoops. But we put it back together and, as our end of the season harvest proves, it still works just fine, wonky or not.

Here you see hoophouse wonk and happy tomato plants.

A few days ago my wonderful husband performed one of his many annual hoophouse related tasks. He converted it from a tropical oasis growing structure into a temporary chicken and duck housing structure.

Basically that means he picked the last of the fruits, put all the plants into the compost pile, and blocked off the doors so the birds could spend a month in there eating up tasty tidbits (aka cleaning up and fertilizing for us) before the plastic is removed and they are put in their winter home. We are going to try a straw bale house for them this winter.

We love giant compost piles!
That's the west end of the hoophouse off in the distance (in the upper left corner).

The result of all his labor, other than the replenished compost pile, is a kitchen full of solanaceous goodies. When I say full, I mean very full. I mean we are in serious danger of losing the toddler under an avalanche of vegetables full. How will I use everything up?

I have one grocery bag of eggplants. This is an awesome quantity of eggplants considering we live five miles from the shore of Lake Superior. No worries there, I love eggplant and can easily use them up.

Yum.

I also ended up with a box of red tomato stragglers (to be made into more sauce) and three bags of green tomatoes. I have finally perfected a fried green tomato recipe and will try valiantly to use them up through frying. When I am sick of fried green tomatoes, however unlikely that sounds, I will can the rest. I suppose I can consider it an opportunity to retry the blueberry green tomato relish, albeit without the blueberries. See my post on failed blueberry green tomato relish.

The pepper plants had four remaining banana peppers and one sweet pepper that we missed earlier in the season. Those were eaten and added to pickles almost as soon as they made it inside.

And now I must return to the topic of this post, tomatillos. So many tomatillos. I can't even tell you how many tomatillos because they are spilling out of every bag, box, and spare container that we could find in the kitchen. And we waited all season for these tomatillos. Seriously, we were out in the hoophouse every other day this summer pinching the papery husks, waiting to squeeze the plump yellowish green fruits within.

Tomatillo flowers are pretty,
but we wanted fruit!



A tomatillo husk, no fruit inside.

A few ripened in the hot months, but we had kind of given up on getting a sizable harvest. So it was a surprise when he pulled the plants and there they finally were. I don't know what took them so long, but after all of our anticipation I do not want them to go uneaten. These are good tomatillos. They taste like tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and pineapples all wrapped up in one unassuming package. So I have been finding uses.

First I pickled five pounds. Then I made soup. Then I gave away five pounds. I've located a few salsa verde recipes that will be utilized this weekend - hopefully that uses up another ten pounds. My husband has discovered that our daughter can get about ten minutes of entertainment and eating pleasure from one nice big tomatillo. But that leaves us with more. Lots more. And it's fall, which isn't really the time of year I want to eat salsa verde anyway.

What fall is is chili time. Hmm...tomatillo chili.

Here it is, with lentils. My new favorite thing to do with too many tomatillos.

Tomatillo Chili with Lentils and Chicken

Don't be put off by the long ingredient list. The first eight things (over half the list!) are there to build a spicy and earthy base upon which to make your chili. The other seven ingredients are there to make your chili saucy and chunky, just as it should be. It's really a very simple recipe.



Chili spices.
You can grind them in a spice grinder
if you don't have a mortar and pestle.

• One Tablespoon Butter
• One Tablespoon Olive Oil
• One Teaspoon Sea Salt
• One Teaspoon Coriander
• Two Teaspoons Cumin
• Three Cloves Garlic, minced
• One Medium Onion, roughly chopped
• Two Jalapeno Peppers, sliced in rounds
• One Cup Green Lentils
• Three Cups Chicken Stock
• Two Carrots, sliced to make about one cup
• Two Pounds Tomatillos, husked and quartered
• 1/2 Pound Tomatoes, chopped into one inch pieces
• Two Cups Roasted Chicken Meat, chopped in 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 Cup Whole Milk

The first eight ingredients well on their way to becoming chili.



1. Melt butter and oil over medium heat in a large heavy bottomed pot.
2. Grind the cumin, coriander, and salt together.
3. When the butter is foaming, add the ground spices and stir for about 30 seconds.
4. Add the garlic, onion, and jalapeno.
5. Stir frequently until the onion is just soft and translucent.
6. Stir in the lentils, making sure they are coated with fat and spices.
7. Add the carrots and chicken stock.
8. Cover, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes.
9. Stir in the tomatillos, tomatoes, and chicken meat. It may look like there isn't quite enough liquid. Don't worry, the tomatillos will release a lot.
10. Return the pot to a simmer and simmer for an additional 30 minutes, or until the lentils are as tender as you like.
11. Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the milk.
12. Serve immediately or store and reheat. It is even better after it has sat a day.




We were eating greens too so I used a few as garnish.
The traditional cheese and oyster crackers also work nicely.