Summer harvest in the city

Roslindale Square hosts a modest farmer's market every Saturday during the summer and into early fall. I usually walk over there, or at least pass through, when I'm home on a Saturday. The highlight of the farmer's market (aside from the live jazz band that plays there from time to time, and Boschetto's pizza) are the shaded crates of fruits and vegetables from a suburban farm stand. MacArthur Farm pulls up their truck every week and brings us city folk all kinds of fresh produce, lots of the veggies with dirt still on them, which I love. Today the ripe tomatoes filled several big crates -- they were huge, and uniformly red, with some cracked and overflowing with sticky juice and seeds. The cucumbers were the biggest I've seen there all summer.

Brookwood Community Farm, a new (that I've noticed, anyway) farmer's market participant had a table set up today. They sold colorful heirloom tomatoes and exquisite, shiny little peppers of many varieties -- this list of vegetables covers their offerings. The Black Cherry tomatoes looked like red grapes on steroids, and the Sun Golds were teeny. I added to my veggie loot with a few of Brookwood's tomatoes. The guy working the table explained Brookwood's scheme -- the recently started farm near the Blue Hills sells shares to stakeholders, who then get a box of vegetables each week during growing season.

Here's what I did with the tomatoes for dinner:


Just olive oil, red wine vinegar, basil from our Boston Organics box, parsley, salt and pepper, and slivers (sort of thick slivers) of Parmesan on top.

This fleeting harvest always feels to me like a harbinger of the dreary, flavorful-tomato-free New England winter to come. I know, we still have all of wonderful fall with pumpkins and apples, and I bet even another few weeks of these perfectly juicy tomatoes--but this tomato bounty is so precious when I think of waiting a whole year before tasting such late-summer deliciousness again.