August 6, 2021

Tomatoes and summer squashes should be especially good this week. In the case of the tomatoes, that’s because of the predominantly dry, sunny weather we’ve had this week. Tomato flavour is very sensitive to weather conditions before harvest, and the best flavour comes with dry, sunny weather. I should have plenty of cherry tomatoes this week (both the Matt’s Wild Cherry and Sun Gold that I’ve had before and some Green Bee), as well as slicing tomatoes.

I will also have lots of summer squash of all varieties — cousa, patty pan, yellow crookneck, and zucchini — thanks to an unusually healthy batch of plants. If you’ve never tried cousa squash, I’d encourage giving it a try. It’s the favourite in our house. It can be used in the same places that you would use zucchini, but tastes a bit better. Or so we think.

Some of you have been asking when I’d have half runner beans, and I’m happy to report that I’ll have the first batch this week. Not a huge amount, but some. And for those of you who don’t understand the appeal of half runners, what with having to string them and all, I expect I will also have plenty of the very much stringless Carminat beans. — Sydney

This week’s items (subject to change until late Friday evening)

Items we plan to have at the market this week (an asterisk indicates unusually limited quantities):

• Beans, dry (Peregion, Pinto, and Rosso di Lucca)
• Beans, green (Carminat and half-runner)
• Beets, loose (Badger Flame, Chioggia, and red)
• Blackberries*
• Cowpeas, dry (Black Crowder and Whippoorwill)
• Garlic
• Granola (Pecan Cushaw)*
• Lavender
• Microgreens (Peas and Tokyo Bekana)
• Okra* (Hill Country Red and Jing Orange)
• Peppers (banana, cream and green bell, jalapeno*, Jimmy Nardello, and Leutshauer Paprika)
• Potatoes (Carola, Purple Majesty, and Red Gold)
• Summer squash (Cousa, Pattypan, Yellow Crookneck, and Zucchini)
• Sweet potatoes (Murasaki)
• Tomatoes, cherry (Green Bee, Matt’s Wild Cherry, and Sungold)
• Tomatoes, slicing (Chef’s Choice, Eva Purple Ball, Evil Olive, Moskvich, and Thorburn’s Terra Cotta)