CONTENTS:

1. Editorial: Frankentomatoes from Outer
Space
2. Recipe: Tuscan Tomato and Bread Salad
3. At Market: The squash are here
4. Food Chain News: Welcome!
5. Groups of the week: Nominate them
6. Subscribe/Unsubscribe

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FRANKENTOMATOES FROM OUTER SPACE

Please, oh please eat the tomatoes. The
heirlooms and the Early Girl, the beefsteak
and the plum all need your attention
now...don't wait until it's too late. If you
do, be careful.

As the days in the Central Valley shorten,
those red beauties you see in the store, and
that bright slice on your veggie burger will
look safe enough to eat, but don't be
deceived. Your nose will know first: where's
that fruity smell? You're teeth will tell
next when they encounter not tender
juiciness, but mealy cardboard. You palate
will plead forgiveness for whatever wrong it
has done to be punished with a taste closer
to tissue than tomato.

Let me tell you a story about this vegetably
fruit. Unlike the little wonders that
gardeners tease from local vines during the
long days of the year, come the end of
October it's a wonder that mealy monster on
your burger bun is there at all.

It all starts on corporately owned
plantations and subsistence farms in Central
and South America...you remember, the ones we
kept in business by overthrowing democratic
governments that threatened their profits for
the American owners? Nasty wars to keep the
world safe for the United Fruit
Company...which had to change its name to
Chiquita so we would continue to buy their
bloodied bananas? While it's getting cooler
here, things are heating up in the Global
South, and the 'maters there are just
starting to weigh down their vines.

If they were left to mature, they would be
okay...not great since they are drenched in
pesticides and varieties better known for
their ability to take a beating than a
broiling...but okay. After all, the Incas
were the first folks to cultivate the tomato
long before it ever showed up on the hills of
Tuscany.

But they aren't left alone. They are picked
green, put in boxes then in crates then in
shipping containers and on ships and trucks
and trains where they travel thousands of
miles over many days to processing plants in
the US where they are gassed - yes gassed -
to artificially ripen them. They might as
well be from outer space, or dunked in red
paint for all that's worth.

And two words: Flavr Savr. That's the
commercial name for a Frankentomato developed
by the friendly scientists at Calgene, Inc.
here in California who were worried that us
poor American consumers were having to eat
nasty tomatoes when it got cold. How we
suffer.

This genetically modified paperweight ripens
on the vine, but unlike other, less souped up
varieties that release an enzyme as they
ripen which softens them therefore making the
seeds more likely to spread and reproduce,
the Flavr Savr has had the bit of its
chromosome that produces this enzyme
reinserted backwards, which counteracts that
process, so it stays good and rock-like for
shipping...even after it's been dipped in red
paint - I mean ripened on the vine.

Genetically modified food is a huge issue
right now in every first world nation but
ours. More about that in future Chainletters.
The point is, eat the tomatoes now. Then
don't. You can wait for them to come back...I
promise that they will...and it's worth it.

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TUSCAN TOMATO AND BREAD SOUP

serves 4 to 6

It's getting darker - pretty soon we'll be
back on normal time and dinner will feel very
different. Enjoy a warm soup made with
tomatoes that are still in season. This is
also a great use for stale bread.

1 medium onion, diced.
6 whole cloves garlic
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
2 lbs. ripe tomatoes cored and diced- try
simple Early Girls, or plum if you can find
them grown locally.
1 small bunch basil, destemmed (keep the
stems)
2 cups bread crumbs or diced bread cubes -
from a white Italian bread ideally.
3 tbsp. light white miso dissolved in 1/4 cup
hot water.

Sauté the onion and whole garlic cloves in
the olive oil until the garlic is soft enough
to mash with the back of a fork - mash away.
Add the salt and cook briefly.

Set aside a third of the onion mixture.

Add the tomatoes to the remaining mixture,
along with the stems of the basil. Cook for
15 minutes on medium heat. Pass through a
food mill, or if you don't have one, just
pick out the basil stems.

Add the reserved onion mixture.

Stir in bread crumbs/chunks and stir over low
heat for 10 minutes.

Turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes
while the soup thickens. If it gets too
thick, add a little water.

Chop some of the reserved basil leaves, stir
in.

Serve hot or cold, garnished with a whole
basil leaf, a thread of olive oil and a
drizzle of the miso.

Adapted from Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice
Waters.

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AT MARKET

Melons: still going strong - look for the
more unusual varieties like Galia and
Ambrosia.

Tomatoes: You can still get some good ones,
especially the gorgeous heirlooms, but don't
wait.

Apples: Local Sonoma apples are coming into
their own. Think pie. Think crisp.

Squash: The first really decent looking local
squash, especially Butternut, are now here to
stay for awhile. Try baking them and putting
in a curry. Yum.
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FOOD CHAIN NEWS - Welcome!

Today marks our first official day of
delivering organic meals by bicycle in San
Francisco. Thanks to all of you who
contributed to getting us to this point.

Questions about Food Chain can be directed to
mailto:chef@food-chain.net

Orders can be placed at
http://www.food-chain.net/orders

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GROUPS OF THE WEEK - Nominate Them

Every week Food Chain delivers meals to
deserving not-for-profit groups, and
publicizes their work in the Chainletter.
Food Chain meal Subscribers may nominate a
group.

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