In this issue:
Cherry tomatoes in January
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Cherry
tomatoes
To kick off the new year,
Goodness Greeness is featuring a surprise of a mid-winter
treat - certified organic cherry tomatoes. (No, you do
not need new reading glasses. It is January and
we are featuring an impressive array of colorful and
tasty cherry tomatoes).
For many years now,
during the winter, we have supplied the Midwest with fresh,
organic cherry tomatoes from the Del Cabo Cooperative Farms
on the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. Del Cabo,
consisting of over 250 small-scale certified-organic family
farms, specializes in growing organic cherry tomatoes and
basil.
This year, despite the
ravages of hurricanes, Del Cabo growers are now harvesting
and shipping us a wonderful selection of these organic
cherry tomatoes:
Sweet 100's
Sungolds
Cherry-on-the-vine
Red Pear
Yellow Pear
Honey Bunch (gold grape)
Sugar Plum (red grape)
Sugar Drop (blueberry size)
Rainbow (a mixed medley)
We'll highlight these
different varieties for you later in this article.
You can find these cherry
tomato varieties at your local organic market in 1/2 pint
containers (except for the Honey Bunch variety, which is
sold in pint containers) with the Del Cabo label on them.
Del
Cabo
The Del Cabo story is a
fascinating one. It's a story of social activism, community
action, sustainable agriculture and economic
self-sufficiency.
In the early '80's, the
Jacobs family (of Jacobs Farms in Pescadero, California)
began organizing growers in the form of a cooperative
organization on small family farms in Baja California.
They introduced these growers to the principles of organic
farming, stressing the importance of healthy soils leading
to healthy crops. They arranged organic certification
of the family farms through Oregon Tilth. They set up
distribution channels in the US for these growers and
provide on-going coordination of the growers efforts.
 Today,
the Del Cabo cooperative consists of over 250 family farms,
with over 3500 acres in organic production, from the
southern tip of Baja California to within 50 miles of San
Diego. And, most importantly from a self-sufficiency
perspective, these growers have increased their average
annual earnings from $3,000 to $20,000.
Cherry tomato
varieties
As you can see from the
list of varieties above, there's a lot of choice in cherry
tomatoes. Here's a quick overview of these different
varieties:
Sweet 100's -
perhaps the best known cherry tomato, with medium size and
an incredibly sweet, sparkling flavor.
 Sungold
- an exceptionally sweet, tangerine-orange or golden colored
cherry tomato, with an intense fruity flavor (see picture on
left).
Yellow Pear - a
petite, distinctive salad tomato with lemon-yellow,
pear-shaped fruit.
Red Pear - a
little larger than yellow pear, with a richer flavor.
Honey Bunch - a
new deep yellow "grape" variety, firm, bite-sized with a
mild, sweet flavor.
Sugar Plum -
bright red "grape" variety, bursting with a sweet flavor and
a chewy texture.
Sugar Drop -
another new variety, with fruit the size of blueberries and
a crisp tomato flavor.
Cherry
tomato tips
Tomatoes, including
cherry tomatoes, are a good source of vitamin C and a great
source of lycopene, a "carotenoid" (a plant-based
anti-oxidant) with cancer-fighting properties. Recent
research also suggests that lycopene may fight heart disease
as well. Serving fresh tomatoes with a drop of olive
oil actually enhances lycopene absorption.
Don't refrigerate cherry
tomatoes (and don't buy them from a refrigerator at your
market) - store them at room temperature for best flavor and
texture.
Contact
us
You can find
a great selection of fresh organic cherry tomatoes - along
with a broad selection of fresh organic
fruits and vegetables - from Goodness Greeness at your local market.
Email us
at
newsletter@goodnessgreeness.com if you can't find them and we'll help you
locate them.
Access
newsletters online
As you know if you've
been reading this weekly newsletter each week, there is a
lot of information provided on organic fruits and vegetables, their
nutritional qualities, availability, shopping and
preparation tips, as well as some recipes.
You can now access most of
the past issues of Organics for you on our web site (www.goodnessgreeness.com).
Click on the Newsletter link at the top of any page on the
site. There you'll find a quick index to most of the past
issues.
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