This week at Sacatomato, we're knee-deep in almonds, getting ready for a big dinner tomorrow with the Almond Board of California. But one of the neatest things on the menu is going to be a squash I had never heard of before a couple of weeks ago. It's called tromboncino (see above; thanks to Garrett for the fine photo). Suzanne Ashworth at Del Rio Botanical grows them, and they are curved squash with a small seed cavity. I'll be peeling and julienning them to make squash noodles with almond oil and slivered almonds. The trick is the julienning though. Luckily, Suzanne also pointed me toward a julienne peeler (see below), which makes very fine strands that don't even need to be cooked. You can find one at East Bay Restaurant Supply, where I got mine, the Kuhn Rikon 2200 Julienne Peeler. I'm looking forward to using it on other vegetables to make thin strands of potato for tender bird's nests or on beets for a fluff of red to crown a plate.

Another interesting produce item I just came across is an article that came out in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, from nearby UCDavis. The very scientific article, "Ten-Year Comparison of the Influence of Organic and Conventional Crop Management Practices on the Content of Flavonoids in Tomatoes " came out this past June. It reports that quercetin and other flavonoid levels in organic tomatoes were 79 to 97 percent higher than in conventionally grown tomatoes. What's more, the levels increased over years of successive organic farming. So that's more good news for our organic farmers and purveyors, like the Sacramento Co-op. Don't short yourself on flavonoids! You didn't know you needed them a few years ago, but now they're all the rage.