Friday, January 7, 2011

Local tomatoes in January? In Ithaca?

YES!  Well, okay, it might not be the most beautiful tomato, but it is still a tomato, destined to become part of a green(ish) tomato salsa:



And, since this is the view outside my window today...


... I'd say that a local tomato on a snowy January day equates to a New Years miracle.

Back in November, I bought four green tomatoes from a vendor at Ithaca Farmers Market (eek, I can't remember who).  I asked if they would keep and he said probably for a couple of weeks.  Two of the tomatoes had minor blemishes (not sure from what, they kind of looked like scars at the top), two were perfect.

This is the first year I'm trying out my new experimental basement root cellar/ closet, and I read that green tomatoes will keep for several weeks in the right conditions.  The space has been holding steady at about 45F, so I just put the tomatoes on newspaper on the metal shelving and waited to see what would happen.

The blemished ones lasted until early December, and the one pictured above is the last one standing.  Granted, the flavor won't be phenomenal, but I'll still savor it in a homemade salsa, substituting my greenish tomato for the tomatillos in this recipe.


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2 comments:

  1. Shoot, I think my comment was deleted - anyway, what I said was, we get these funny tomatoes in our winter CSA box and I don't really like them. My solution is to "sun dry" them in the oven! This brings out their natural sugars and makes them a wonderful, summery addition to our winter cooking.

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