Recently available we have eggplant, pickling cucumbers, sweet corn, Patty Pan squash, cherry and grape tomatoes.  Below are some tips for best uses of these products, and a little more information about them.

Italian Eggplant: Italian eggplants are a smaller, thinner, more elongated variety of eggplant from the traditional Globe Eggplant most people are accustomed to.  Flavor and use of the Italian Eggplant is quite similar to Globe Eggplants.  Eggplants are not eaten raw, but can be grilled, sautéed, or baked.  Eggplants are commonly sliced thin, and coupled with tomatoes, garlic, and cheese, which work to add flavor and counteract some of the bitterness that eggplant can have by itself.  A unique use for eggplant is to cube and bake it with tomatoes and garlic.  Then to put the baked eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, with fresh basil in the blender, to create an eggplant sauce that can be substituted for a red sauce in your favorite pasta dishes.

Pickling Cucumbers:  Pickling Cucumbers are a shorter, thicker skinned variety of cucumber that as the name suggests are commonly used for pickles.  However, pickling cucumbers are also consumed raw as well, and tend to have significantly more flavor than the long green cucumbers most of us are accustomed to in the grocery store.  Robbie Cox of Cox Farms has been growing pickling cucumbers for years, and says that they easily outsell the long green cucumbers on his farm stand.  They are rarely available in the grocery store, but are commonly found in the summer direct from the farm.    

Sweet Corn:  Sweet corn is available in North Carolina from early June to late July.  Corn farmers here have to battle a pest known colloquially as corn ear worm (actually a moth larvae), throughout the season when growing corn.  At the beginning of the season (early June), this pest is much less widespread.  However, as temperatures rise, and the pests locate the corn fields, they become much more common.  Throughout the season we ask farmers like Gary Wise how “wormy” the fields are, which is to ask how much of the corn crop has been located by the corn ear worm.  The season generally ends when the fields get too wormy, as opposed to when growth declines as with most crops.  Sweet corn is best cooked as fresh as possible.  It should be stored at refrigerated temperatures with the husk on.  As time goes by the corn sugars convert to starch, so it is best to eat corn early for the sweetest results.  If you cannot cook your corn within a few days, we recommend freezing it for later use.  

Patty Pan Squash:  Patty Pan Squash is a tender summer squash with a flying saucer shape.  They come in white, green, and yellow varieties.  As a summer squash, their flavor and use is similar to yellow or zucchini squash.  However, their disc shape offers new options for preparation than their elongated cousins.  They can be easily hollowed out and stuffed for a variety of uses unavailable with zucchini or yellow squashes.  Patty Pan squash is commonly stuffed with bacon, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and/or tomatoes and baked at 350F until tender.  

Cherry & Grape Tomatoes:  Grape and Cherry Tomatoes are available from early to mid June until early August.  The two fruits are quite similar and often interchanged, but do have notable differences.  Grape Tomatoes have recently become the more popular of the two in the United States, and production has shifted to reflect this popularity.  Grape Tomatoes are generally considered the sweeter of the two, and have slightly thicker skins, which means they tend to keep a little bit longer.  Cherry tomatoes have a higher water content, which essentially means they are juicier than Grape Tomatoes.  Cherry Tomatoes’ thinner skins and larger size also make them a better option for roasting, as they have a nice “bursting” effect when fully cooked, releasing juices and flavor to any accompanying ingredients.  Cherry and Grape Tomatoes are most commonly used raw in salads, but are also delicious roasted. 

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