TL test cook hits the fields to pick some produce
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Summer had just turned to autumn when the Times Leader taste testers experienced one of the simple joys of harvest time — juicy tomatoes, simply prepared.
These were fresh from Golomb’s Farm & Greenhouses in Plains Township, dressed up with a bit of onion, also from the farm; parsley, from my backyard in Wilkes-Barre, and a splash of apple cider vinegar.
“I love this!” page designer/taste tester Toni Pennello said. “The tomatoes are so fresh!”
I can attest the tomatoes came straight from the field. I’d picked them myself.
Faithful readers might remember that, in the middle of August, I visited Larry O’Malia’s Farm & Greenhouses, also in Plains Township, and had a fun and educational time picking corn, beets, carrots and eggplant.
But I hadn’t picked any tomatoes, as Laura Golomb Kosco pointed out to me the next time I saw her at the Golomb’s farm stand at Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market.
“Do you want me to help you pick tomatoes?” I asked. “If you want me, you’ve got me.”
It took a few weeks to coordinate our schedules, but I finally had the chance to spend an hour or so picking tomatoes, and then green beans, alongside Laura at Golomb’s Farm.
“I love being out in the fresh air,” I told her. “And it’s so peaceful.”
She told me she grew up on the farm and spent 30 years “away” from it, working in a bank, but has returned to help her brother, Harold Golomb, who is the official fourth generation farmer.
While his sister and I were picking tomatoes, Harold was picking zucchini — in a variety of sizes.
“People who make zucchini bread like the big ones,” he said, showing off a large specimen.
And, of course, if you like to saute or stir fry them, the tender small ones are a good choice,
Surrounded by fields of peppers, kale and Brussels sprouts, Harold Golomb said the biggest challenge the 50-acre farm has been facing recently is damage from wildlife.
“The deer are the biggest issue,” he said. “They mow down the top of the bean plants.”
But the greatest satisfaction comes when customers appreciate the produce.
“It’s exciting to see people excited about pumpkins,” he said.
Years ago, Harold said, most of Golomb’s produce went to wholesalers. When the Farmers Market started in Wilkes-Barre during the 1970s, a relative helped the Golombs get involved with retail sales by making Harold’s father an offer: “Give me some produce and a kid to help, and I’ll drive a truck downtown.”
Nowadays home cooks can find Golomb’s vegetables at three Farmers Markets through the growing season. They’re at Main Street, Pittston, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays; at Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays, and at the Dallas Education Complex on Hildebrandt Road from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
“If there’s a Farmers Market tomorrow, we’re picking today,” Laura said, explaining neither rain nor mud nor humidity will stop her.
“Why did you want to pick tomatoes?” she asked, prompting me to tell her how I seem to gravitate toward farm experiences, once even attending a day-long “farm camp” at the Lands at Hillside Farms, where I gathered eggs, fed a calf and held down a squirming sheep so a staffer could inject her with medicine.
Golomb’s doesn’t keep farm animals; here it’s all about vegetables. When we were done picking, Laura insisted I take home some samples.
Among my bounty there were six plump red tomatoes and, later at home, I had a decision to make. Should I share the tomatoes with the taste testers? Hmm.
I’d recently attended a social event where at least four people told me they enjoy reading the taste testers’ comments. Very well, I would share.
Following an old family “recipe,” I made a plateful of the sour tomatoes and dropped some off at my Mom’s house.
“Oh, they were so delicious!” she told me later, raving about how she’d put the tomatoes and onions on bread and made a sandwich out of them.
Then I made a second plateful for the newsroom, where you already know Toni loved her sample.
Reporter Jen Learn-Andes and columnist Bill O’Boyle also gave me a thumbs up.
Reporter Kevin Carroll, who naturally was trying to eat healthy while he was in training for the Oct. 1 Gentleman’s Dash fund-raiser in Pittston, accepted a second portion of tomatoes but told me he would have preferred them without the vinegar.
Then two of my regular taste testers declined a sample because they are not tomato fans.
As for Mark, my husband and fellow test cook, he said his sample was good, but he prefers to serve fresh tomato slices with Parmesan and basil leaves — andNO vinegar.
“I don’t know why you always want to make things sour,” he said.
Ha! Maybe because, in this case, that left more tomatoes for me.
Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT