Dear community of meadowlark friends, Cool and rainy weather today slows us down, adds sand to the process yet we continue to feel pleased and proud to send to you a plethora of beautiful produce. Boxes today include: ripe cantaloupe for all, red onion, garlic, butterball potatoes, carrots, zucchini, sweet red pepper, tomatoes galore, salad mix, red kale and for premiums,a plum tomato package and green beans plus extras. Fruit shares receive blackberries/raspberries and little purple plums. We are happy to announce the date for the annual Meadowlark Farm Harvest Party! Sunday, Sept. 21st is the 2008 Harvest Party date and we hope that you will mark your calendars and save the date. We know that this also coincides with the Leelanau Harvest Tour bike event, but we feel like the party has had wonderful weather during the third week of Sept. for many years and that as a result, our sweet and lovely party has been a fun success. The shindig will start at 4:00, and we will plan to eat at 5:30. This is a potluck so please bring a generous dish to pass, your own table servings and a hearty appetite. If you have a few extra chairs, they are appreciated as well. This is the height of summer's bounty, so the food is always good. We will press cider, have a tomato tasting(I promise!) so you can try the many heirloom varieties that we grow. There will be kid games and a capoeira demonstration(brazilian martial art/dance) and other fun too. This is a true coming together of community, and for many it signals the highlight of the experience of being a meadowlark shareholder. We hope to see you then..... For next week we are still accepting orders for bushels or half bushels of tomatoes. A half bushel will be $18 and a bushel will be $35. Consider popping open your own can of roasted tomato sauce this January and tasting the sweetness of summer while the snow flies......Contact jenny at meadowlarks4@yahoo.com. We also still have A-Z cookbooks available for sale for $15. We encourage you to think of filling your freezer or your pantry with either your excess veggies or you could actually do some serious canning. We like to do both. One of our favorite ways to have stored tomatoes is to simply remove the core, chunk and freeze into Ziploc bags. Jon really raised the aesthetic ante this year by layering different colors of heirloom tomatoes in a beautiful rainbow. You can then unfreeze and use any way you would canned tomatoes. They are fresh tasting and hold their color. Also, remember the tomato roasting trick in the oven? For the most delicious tasting sauce ever, simply cut tomatoes into slices (remove any blemishes and the stem end), layering in a roasting pan and drizzling with olive oil and kosher salt. Roast at 300 degrees. This process takes some time, but once you try it you'll never do stove top canning again! You can get fancy and add leeks, onions, garlic, shallots and any combo of herbs (how about rosemary?) that appeals. Roast in a low heat oven until the juices evaporate and the sugars of the tomatoes caramelize and harmonize. Don't let it go too far though, or you will have tomato candy. It shouldn't have too much browning and should have a little bit of liquid left. You can either roast in a single layer and freeze individual slices of tomato, or you can puree the cooked down tomatoes into a sauce that sings "YUM" in the middle of the winter. Think of homemade pizza, pasta your favorite chili or soup recipe enlivened and invigorated by tomatoes at the peak of their freshness and flavor...treat yourself and your family to some stocking up. The best written canning resource we know of is the Ball Blue Book. Ace Hardware on Front st. is a good resource for canning supplies as is Hansens or the Merc. Enjoy the bounty of september's treats, love from the meadowlarks
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