By Mandy Catlette

Updated every Friday

Last Updated: August 27, 2010

The end of August belongs to the Nightshade family. The fruits of this family embody the culmination of an entire season's worth of sunshine and heat—they are voluptuous, rotund, fertile with seeds. They perfectly represent the maturation of summer, with its inevitable fleeting and fade into fall. Boldly colored and shiny, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers constitute the show-stopping portion of our produce department. Don't be shy—you know you want to hold a piece of summer in your hand, if only for the time it takes to lift it to your mouth...

Beefsteak Tomatoes

And so this week I recommend tomatoes in a big way. From our own Gardens of Eagan in Farmington, Minnesota, comes a startlingly good red beefsteak tomato. These big, heavy, ripe crimson slicing tomatoes are the kind you might not remember ever having eaten before, unless you grew up somewhere at the end of a dusty dirt road and ran around barefoot hunting crayfish in the "crick" as a kid. In former times, these tomatoes were everybody's backyard standby—there was nothing known as the "crunchy white winter tomato," back then. You either had this hefty gem in your hand, or you had it in a canning jar, and that was that. Travel back in time with just one bite of these tasty, perfect tomatoes.

San Marzano Tomatoes

Speaking of time travel, we have San Marzano plum tomatoes from Breezy Hill Organic Orchards outside of Maple Lake, Minnesota. These Italian heirloom tomatoes have been exclusively used for tomato sauce in Italy since as early as 1770, and are still the number one exported canned tomato from Italy. Now, I don't know about you, but when I hear these facts it doesn't take me too long to figure out that that's basically the final word on the subject, then. If my opinion on the subject matters at all after that, I will meekly state that I concur with these centuries of Italians. The San Marzano makes a rich, luxurious sauce that is more silk than liquid, more seasoning than condiment, more delicious than the mere sum of its parts. In other news, there's this Bill Shakespeare fellow who wrote some pretty good plays, you should really look into him.

Heirloom Tomatoes

For a variety of purposes, of course, there is nothing that can compete with a display of vine-ripened local heirloom tomatoes. This year, we have had yellow and red German Stripes, crinkly and grooved red French Marmande tomatoes, purple and green Black Krims, white Beauty Blancs, Tangerine and Amana orange varieties, a rare yellow paste tomato known as "Banana Legs," classic red Brandywines, and that mysteriously flavored, smoky and sweet Green Zebra. You'll also see Cherokee Purples, Burbanks, Zapotec Pleats, and Aunt Ruby's German Green varieties this year. Whew. I should mention, not all varieties are available all the time. We get these in boxes called "mixed heirlooms" by our farmers, and they contain whatever varieties are ripe at picking time, so it's grab bag style. I am fond of saying that with heirlooms, like with pizza, even bad ones are pretty good. Ours are currently coming from Featherstone Farms of Rushford, Minnesota.

Eggplants

Beautiful and varied though they are, tomatoes are not the only nightshade worth mentioning this week. Riverbend Farms of Delano, Minnesota has quietly grown a thrilling array of heirloom eggplants for years now. Did you know there was such a thing? Rosa Bianca is an Italian heirloom variety that causes people to linger over the display, they have a lovely pink and lavender stripe color to them. We also have the exotic sounding Italian Listada di Gandia variety. This one is purple and white striped outside with a creamy, rich flesh. There are long, thin, pale purple and easy-to-prepare Japanese eggplants that are less bitter than their larger counterparts. Finally, some of the most spot-on shiny patent-leather dark purple Globe eggplants you've ever seen. Eggplant is more versatile than you might think, it isn't just for complicated Italian cooking. Try cooking it down with plenty of sesame oil, and seasoning with garlic and ginger for a quick Chinese way with it that makes instant comfort food when paired with white rice. It's also simple to halve and bake eggplant until soft and wrinkled (about 30 minutes at 375F), then scoop the insides out and make into any number of purees—Middle Eastern or Greek.

Chinese Lantern Peppers

Our final point of interest in this Nightshade appreciation session is the glorious assortment of fresh peppers available to us this time of year. Sure, sure, we have gorgeous green and red bell peppers that are positively popping open with their fresh, spicy pepper scent, but pepper enthusiasts know that what's really exciting this time of year is the arrival of exotic hot peppers we never usually see in this part of the world! I'm talking about specimens like Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, with their mild, pale yellow coloring masking a fiery punch perfect for pickling and adding heat without overpowering flavor (think Hungarian hot-spicy cabbage and sausage). My personal favorite is the ooh and ahh inspiring Chinese Lantern pepper. Only seen but once a year, at this time, this is a pepper whose spiciness is just shy of actual combustion. Have you ever wondered what a flame tastes like? Well, okay, even a flame probably wouldn't taste this good. Bright, citrusy, it's hard to explain how something this hot has flavor, and yet, they are delicious. Be careful; handle with gloves.

Edamame

If you know a thing or two about the lower, rural third of this great state, nothing says it's harvest time like soybeans. So many, many soybeans out there. To celebrate this wholesome, Minnesota-licious time of year, some folks like to eat fresh soybeans, otherwise known as edamame—they are insanely tasty, full of protein, and bear some visual resemblance to the notorious Lima bean. For an easy, delicious snack, do like Japanese restaurants do: Boil a few handfuls of these tasty green pods until they are bright green in color (test one after five minutes—the beans inside should be firm but tender to the bite, do not overcook to mushiness!) Then, drain the beans in a colander and sprinkle with sea salt. Yes, the outside of the pods. When cooled slightly, you hold onto one end of the bean and put the pod in your mouth, then "skin" the beans with your teeth and the beans will pop right out. Discard the pod. You can also shell them and incorporate them in any number of salads or dishes to add a bright spot of luxury.

Romanesco

Also in the green and unusual category, romanesco from Gardens of Eagan has arrived. This beautiful relative of the cauliflower is every bit as tasty, but twice as intriguing as its familiar cousin. I am fond of calling it the world's most geometric vegetable, because it is utterly perfect in a mathematical precision kind of way. Prepare as you would cauliflower—taking care to preserve the beautiful spire shapes as you cut. They taste very much like a broccoli-enhanced cauliflower.

There are a few exciting notes about fruit: for one we have a terrific sale on specialty watermelons from Gardens of Eagan this week. If you've always wanted to make a watermelon salad out of all three colors of watermelon, the Orchid Orange, the Sunshine Yellow, and the Starlight Red, now is a perfect chance to do so. Get out those melon ballers and get to scoopin', my dears. Come on now, don't tell me I'm the only one who has ever had this desire!

Kadota Figs

Fresh figs from California are brilliant—there is hardly a fruit so sensuously perfect, so thrilling in its exotic familiarity as this. Plump and heavy, these teardrop-shaped fruits are wholly edible and visually stunning. A nice way to spend a summer hour: First, recline. Second, bite a fig in half. Third, watch the half you're not eating fill up in its beautiful pink center with a syrupy fig honey that will really make you consider the phrase "nectar of the gods." We have honey-bomb green Kadota figs, the more flavorful but less sweet Black Mission, and an on-and-off availability of the elusive Brown Turkey Fig, that lives up to its name because it will make you gobble gobble gobble them down. Mmm.

Do you shop here a lot? I hope you do—maybe we're even acquainted—I work here a lot, after all. Anyway, my point is, if you come here a lot you might not just recognize me, you might also recognize this great apple we had last year that returned to us this week. Remember when the Pink Pearl blew you away? They're back! Pink Pearl apples from California are tart and delicious, with a texture you have got to call straight-up crispy. Even more importantly, for many of us, they're novel. It isn't every day you meet apples like these—they are an unremarkable yellow-green color on the outside, but inside they are as pink as Barbie's dream house. No foolin', an apple that is red inside and not outside. Will wonders never cease?

Zestar Apples

Apparently not, because guess what, apple season is right around the corner, by which I mean we ought to have at least several varieties on hand this weekend, including the Zestar apple! Zestar is that rare breed of sibling—the younger brother that manages to be so incredibly sophisticated that people think he was actually born first. But nope, Zestar is the more recent release from the University of Minnesota, but you will not mistake its relationship to Honeycrisp. Bright and zippy with that breakaway crunch—Zestar! The grown-up's Honeycrisp. Sniff—sniff—what is that—do I smell a bumper sticker? Go produce nerds, show your colors!

Also, Organic Colorado peaches ya'll! Gets to munchin' cause they'll be gone so soon.