PawPaws, Tomatoes and the KSO

The ugly ones in the center top are ripe, the sort of nice looking green ones are hard as rocks and not ripe, and the the light yellow ones are getting close to ripe.

First off, we have quite a few tomatoes, so your BLT fix awaits! When a BLT is just right, juice will run down your hand on to the plate (and maybe on to your shirt), the bacon will shatter salt-sweet, and the tomato will bloom inside your mouth. Pat Smith of Kirklin Farms is, at this time, able to pick enough to take care of us. How long they last depends on the weather. The last week or so has been pretty good so enjoy the late, late summer bounty.  There really are no tomatoes that compare to the taste of these beautiful heritage lovelies. Yeah they don’t ship, they get fusarium wilt, they have low yields, often have weird shapes and sizes and need informed and expert handling—all things that have been bred out of modern tomatoes, and unfortunately we didn’t seem to notice that they took the great flavor with them.

PawPaw Season

And the PawPaws are falling. You can’t pick PawPaws, you have to let the tree drop the pawpaws or they won’t ripen—hence the children’s song with the line “Pickin’ up paw-paws, puttin’ ‘em in her pockets” (see here). So our suppliers, Donna Tellam and her husband, Bill, monitor the trees closely, and gather the PawPaws as soon as they fall or the deer will get them. Donna just brought the first batch and we have pulped the ripe ones. You have to pay close attention to them as they ripen.  Pulp them too soon and they are bitter and not creamy, wait too long and they get really funky and runny.  Get them just right and they taste like a cross between and banana and a mango and the flesh is “custardy”.

This lovely “tropical” fruit that grows in Michigan and, truth be told, over much of the US east of the Mississippi, especially in the South. It will never be a successful commercial crop because it is ugly when ripe, ripe for a very short time, very difficult to pulp, and has low yield as it has huge, numerous, difficult to remove seeds. But just imagine..…you are making the trek to swamps of Michigan in the late 1700s.

It is fall and along with malaria, vast swarms of mosquitos (and no DEET), exhaustion, hunger and desperation, you found PawPaws at just the perfect ripeness and had never tasted a tropical fruit!!! You would go bonkers!!!  OK, well, I would anyway.

Return of the KSO

THIS SUNDAY!! THE RETURN OF THE KSO! Cue the scary music. Just kidding, here is the rundown.

KSO Jazz Ensemble,
featuring:
Frank Silva, woodwinds
Rufus Ferguson, piano
"Everyone Loves Gershwin"

Concerts are at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. in the Sarkozy atrium.

 KSO musicians present two, free Sunday morning brunch concerts at Sarkozy Bakery. Listen to your Gershwin favorites with friends and family as you enjoy Sarkozy's delicious baked goods and coffee! These concerts are free, open to the public, and part of the collaboration of the KSO and Sarkozy Bakery, bring the music to you.

Join us and we'll give you a taste of PawPaw if we have some ripe ones. How can you turn that deal down.

See you then,
Judy