Midsummer on the farm

It’s peak summer around here…and we’ve got the record high temps to prove it. We’ve been a bit negligent about updating the blog -but are rejuvenated with a new energy to let you know all we’ve been up to!

IT’S TOMATO SEASON!

We are now harvesting lots of tomatoes and you’ll see that bounty in your share this week! Tomatoes are one of our most labor intensive crops that we grow on the farm. This year we seeded the slicing tomatoes on March 3rd and a week later we seeded the cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse. We create a germination chamber so we can more closely regulate the temperature of the starts. Once the seeds start to sprout and begin to outgrow their first seeding trays we repot them into larger trays, as shown in the photo below.

Tomato plants are very sensitive to frost but also need a lot of time in the ground before producing, so we watch the weather app and put the transplants in around the third week of April. Once the plants are in the ground the work has only just begun. The plants are staked, tied, and suckered, which is all done by hand. This keeps the plants growing vertically and reduces the chance of disease and makes harvesting much easier. We grow cover crop in between each row of tomatoes as a grass walkway and to prevent erosion and to limit mud getting on the plants. We keep the paths neat by mowing in between the rows throughout the season.

Tomatoes are susceptible to foliar diseases, which includes early blight and septoria leaf spot. Foliar disease can cause a total loss of the plant, but we mitigate these issues by choosing a tomato variety that we have grown successfully over many years. Mountain Gem, the specific slicing tomato variety, is one that we have chosen for its flavor and how well it does being grown in organic cropping systems. In total, tomatoes take roughly 16-18 weeks from seeding to placing your tomatoes in your box. We hope you all enjoy this labor of love!

In a typical midsummer week we are sending out about 2,000 pounds of tomatoes/week to our Farm Share CSA, our Fresh Stop shareholders, farmers markets and local restaurant partners. Tomatoes need to be harvested on a tight schedule so the plants keep producing and the fruit is picked at the peak optional time for all that vine-ripened flavor. We also aim for late morning or even afternoon harvest when the moisture is low, which lessens the likelihood of stirring up any foliar disease issues in the harvest process. Our intake and pack shed team also have to be on the top of their game inventorying the dates of harvest, keeping an eye on quality, and making a judgement call on when it’s time to call our friends at the tomato processing plant. Every year for the past 5 years we’ve worked with our friends at KHI Foods in Burlington, KY to make our custom marinara, sauces, diced tomatoes, and salsas. This relationship helps us to preserve the tomato bounty for the months ahead.