Evanston Market 10/17

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At Henry's Vegetable Stand...

The light green Mei Qing Choi is flanked by the taller, slender Komatsuna (L) and the emerald rosette of the Tatsoi.

Although today felt like August all over again, tonight's lows will be in the mid-40s, and tomorrow's will be in the mid-30s.  So come get the very last of the summer squashes, eggplant, and okra, and the last of the field tomatoes and field peppers.  There will most likely be a few more weeks of hoophouse tomatoes, and hoophouse colored bell peppers, but there aren't many, and even those will succumb as the temperatures continue to fall.  So stock up now!

The fall greens are doing great, and will continue to thrive even after a frost, getting sweeter as the  weather gets colder.  This week don't miss the Chinese Tatsoi, and the slender dark green Japanese choi called Komatsu-na (literally, the leaf from Komatsu, and also known as Henry's Favorite Stir-fry Green).

This is the next to the last week for head lettuce, but we will also have ready-made mesclun salad mix, and lots of it.

Green Tomatoes! Because of the impending frost, we picked all the green tomatoes today.  These immature tomatoes will never ripen, but that's ok because a green tomato is a wonderful vegetable in its own right, distinct from its brightly colored older sibling.  Take a look at "About Green Tomatoes" and check out the recipes.  You can't do much better than a fried green tomato, but there are many other ways to use green tomatoes as well.

Many kinds of potatoes - great for your every cooking need, including French Fingerling, La Ratte Fingerling,  Kennebeck, Carola, Russet, Magic Molly, and Colorado Rose.

Not a grave, just digging down to extricate the burdock.

On Wednesday, some 4,000 pounds of sweet potatoes were dug, and as many as could fit (about 3,000 pounds) are now curing in the tropical room Shiva set up in the trailer.  In about 10 days, they will be cured, and will last through the winter and into spring.

I got to taste the new"Ginseng Red" Sweet Potatoes this week, and am happy to report that they have a deep, rich flavor, and creamy texture. In sweetness and moistness, they fall midway between the Asian sweet potatoes (Japanese Red and Okinawan Purple) and the moist, bright orange Georgia Jet and Jewel.  This is an older heirloom variety, and so there the size, shape, and color are somewhat variable, but most of them have a lovely salmon colored skin, with yellow-ivory flesh that often has shades to light purple in the center.  The purple turns a light-red-orange when cooked, but the flesh is overall much lighter than the orange Jewel, Beauregard, and Georgia Jet.  There's not a lot of this variety, but it's well worth a try!