CSA Week 10: Tomatoes, Tomahtoes. And, the battle of the local mozzarellas!

It was an odd CSA week. They had a somewhat confusing CSA week where you had to pick 13 items out of a list of about 6 things, with limits on how much of each item you could take. We figured it out, but it wasn't all that easy while trying to keep two three-year-olds from jumping in mud puddles. Well, here's what we got:

• 6 ears of corn
• 3 cucumbers
• 4 squash
• 2 purple-y, greenish peppers
• 2 eggplant
• 2 bunches tatsoi
• 1/2 lb onions
• 6 lbs of tomatoes
• Plus you-pick stuff:
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• 2 pints of the other you-pick tomatoes
• Green and yellow beans
• 4 hot peppers
• 2 Tomatillos (we could have picked a pint, but we couldn't really find any that were ready)
• Herbs: Basil, Thai Basil, Cilantro, Dill

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The scale at the CSA was kind of tilted...when you'd put things in it, they had a tendancy to fall out. One of the tomatoes fell out and broke its skin a little (the big purplish tomato near the tatsoi in the picture). So after we got the kids in bed, we threw together a late-night snack of insalata tricolore. Tomato, fresh mozzarella, and just-picked basil, with a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So yummy!

And this reminds me that I meant to post a review of two local mozzarellas. On Tuesday, I went a little cheese-happy (I made insalata tricolore that night, too). I picked up a ball of Fiore di Nonno mozzarella at the Lexington Farmers' Market and a ball of Maplebrook Farm mozzarella at Verrill Farm. TK and I used both to make our salad. We loved them both: chosing between them is like trying to choose between Fenway Fudge ice cream and coffee/chocolate swirl ice cream. However, we both thought the Fiore Di Nonno was slightly better. It has a little more resistance when you bite into it, and a slightly more buttery flavor. I think it might be the difference in that the Fiore Di Nonno was made the morning we ate it, while the Maplebrook Farm cheese came from Vermont. When we ate the leftover cheese last night (Thursday), the difference wasn't quite as noticable.

If you see either Fiore Di Nonno or Maplebrook Farm mozzarella, I'd recommend picking them up. But the Fiore Di Nonno is worth a trip to one of the farmers' markets where it's sold...