Tomatoes!

We had our first good size tomato harvest this week. Back in May/June when we were waiting, impatiently, for our field to dry out and the tomatoes were growing taller and taller in their little cells there were moments that I thought we might not get to harvest tomatoes this year! We like to grow a number of heirloom varieties. These are tomato varieties that have been saved and passed down from year to year, oftentimes for their individual characteristics, as opposed to bred and hybridized selectively by researchers or seed companies. So heirloom tomato plants produce tomatoes that look and taste nothing like grocery store tomatoes. On the other hand they are more susceptible to variations in weather and disease pressure. This year our heirlooms are splitting like crazy. This is usually the result of uneven watering that has been exacerbated by the fact that the weather has been consistently hot and humid. Enough talk about tomatoes, now let's meet some of our heirlooms!



These three are our small tomatoes. From left to right we've got garden peach, green zebra and black trifele. Garden peach is juicy and sweet with just a little fuzz (hence its name) on the outside. Green zebra has a strong flavor that lends itself well to salads, or to being sliced and added to a grilled cheese sandwich. Finally black trifele is a new tomato for us this year, and like other dark tomatoes it has a rich, sweet flavor.



These light-colored, large heirlooms are called (again from left to right) great white, goldie, and copia. Great white is a new tomato that we tried this year because the yellow tomato that we usually grow (Lillian's yellow) was unavailable this year. These are mild and juicy tomatoes that are ripe when the bottom just begins to blush. Goldie is turning out to be one of our favorite heirlooms because it hardly cracks! This meaty tomato also has a great taste and texture that make it ideal for sandwiches or burgers. Finally, copia is one of our mottled tomatoes that is a stunning mix of yellow and red. We usually grow a variety called striped german, but didn't get any planted this year due to a couple of issues with potting mix and the weather. Copia is a similar tomato to striped german and is also great for sandwiches.



Some heirlooms look pretty close in terms of color to your "regular" red tomatoes. These are brandywine and cherokee purple (the two tomatoes in the top row are brandywines and the bottom row are cherokee purples). The tomatoes on the left are the less ripe version of each variety of tomato. Both of these tomatoes are requested by name each year at our market stand. Brandywines are sweet and juicy with a very thin skin that makes them great for eating on salads or simply sliced on a plate with a little bit of salt. Cherokee purples are dark, meaty and flavorful. Even in a good year they crack all over so it is not surprising that many of ours are cracked again this year.



Finally, we've got two different types of hybrid tomatoes. The dark red tomatoes (top row) are big beefs which are consistent, hold up well and taste great. The lighter pink tomatoes are, appropriately, pink beauties. They are just a bit juicier than big beef with a slightly thinner skin. We hope that you will enjoy all of these tomato varieties this season!