Veggie Spotlight: Tomatoes

Farm Update

The piggies are happily rooting up their pasture.

Hello everyone! We hope you're making the most of the last few weeks of summer!  We can feel the waning of summer in the air, which will soon bring relief from the constant heat and an eventual transition to the hearty foods of fall.  For right now though, summer veggies are in high supply, especially the great tasting tomatoes which we have been eating tons of lately.  At the farm, the dry conditions we fought so hard against during the summer seem a distant struggle and now it is a game of waiting until the soil is dry enough to cultivate and do other field work.  Despite the increased rain, the weeds are now an easier battle and the cool season crops are starting to show more vigor.  The pigs, though wild in their youth, have become much lazier, spending most of their day with their heads in the feeder and sitting in their pile of wet straw.  Though lazy, they have almost rooted up their entire pasture, and they are fun to watch as they plow through the sod.

Speaking of the pigs, it’s time to reserve one if you’re interested in pork this year.  They will available in half and whole quantities, and they’ll most likely be ready to take home in early- to mid- November in time for the hearty meals of the holiday season.  We estimate most whole pigs to yield around 140lb of meat, but it will vary a little on the size of each pig.  You can also request a largish or smallish pig as well.  The piggies are a cross of two heritage breeds, Gloucestershire Old Spot and Hereford, and are raised on pasture and fed non-GMO feed grown and mixed by the Amish in and around Clare, MI. The cost to you is a simple $6.75 per pound (there will be no other charges, such as for butchering).  This is for finished individually packaged cuts including bacon, sausage, pork roast, pork chops, ham and maybe a couple others.  They will available for pickup at Bellingar’s Packing just south of Ithaca, and we will let you know when they are ready. So if you want a whole or half pig, let us know ASAP!

What to Expect in Your Share this Week

These are some of many lovely specialty tomatoes that
will be in the share this week.

Here are the options in each veggie station this week!  If you have a half share, you'll choose one from each category, and if you have a full share, you'll choose two.

• Tomatoes for everyone!
• Cherry tomatoes for everyone!
• Green beans or beets
• Potatoes or surprise veggie
• Cabbage, kale, or Swiss chard
• Green peppers or specialty tomatoes
• Garlic, small onion, or jalapeno peppers

If you have your share delivered to your home or workplace, or if you pick up at our East Lansing drop-off, here are your options for this week.  If you have a half share, choose one, and if you have a full share, choose two.

Share A:                                      Share B:

Tomatoes                                    Tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes                         Cherry tomatoes
Green beans                                Beets
Potatoes                                      Surprise veggie
Kale                                            Cabbage
Specialty tomatoes                     Green pepper
Garlic                                         Onion


If you have a preference for share A or share B, just let me know by noonish the day before your delivery day, and I'll make sure you get your preferred share.  If you don't have a preference, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Veggie Spotlight:  Tomatoes

The tomatoes are really flourishing in the coldframes!

You might have noticed that there are a lot of tomatoes in the shares this week, from slicing tomatoes, to cherry tomatoes, to specialty and heirloom tomatoes.  That’s because it’s that tomato time of year again!  This year has been hot and dry (with the exception of the last week or so) and the tomato plants have thrived in these conditions.  Now we are enjoying the vast abundance of tomatoes that all that heat has helped to bring to fruition!  We love tomatoes, and we encourage you to take full advantage of the great flavor and plenty while it is here (because let’s face it, those February grocery store tomatoes really aren’t worth eating.)  Also, tomatoes are great sources of the antioxidant lycopene, vitamin C, folate, potassium, and vitamin K.

The origins of tomatoes are disputed, but they are generally thought to have originated in Mexico or Peru.  Regardless of their origin, they were only grown in the Americas until the Spanish exploration and exploitation of Aztec lands in the 1500s AD led to the tomato being brought back to Europe.  These first tomatoes were mostly yellow in color and met a somewhat conflicted acceptance, surrounded by suspicions of being poisonous.  These original tomatoes were likely not quite as great to eat as later varieties, often being hollow and having harder cores.  In 1870 a breeder named Alexander Hamilton introduced a much improved variety called Paragon. This variety spurred the wider acceptance of the tomato on people’s tables, and led to it being a major horticultural crop on most continents in the world. 

On our farm, tomatoes are mostly grown in our unheated greenhouses called high tunnels or coldframes.  This has been the trend in the U.S., especially in Northern states like Michigan.  Tomatoes do best in very warm, dry conditions which are more reliably found in these tunnels.  However, our large (sometimes 15 foot) plants start at our farm as a small seed that is sown into greenhouse flats in the our heated greenhouses.  Then when the plant can be pulled out of the flats, we plant them into raised beds covered by black plastic mulch with drip irrigation underneath the plastic.  As the plants grow, they are trellised using the basket weave method until they are as high as we can reach, after which the vines start coming back down towards the ground.  Once the plants have fruit that starts to turn color, we only irrigate a little bit to give the plants enough water to keep going and to inject some fish fertilizer into the root zone to keep the plants healthy.  This helps concentrate the flavor and sweetness of the tomatoes and greatly lowers the chances of cracking.  We grow many varieties, and a few varieties like our red romas and small red beefsteaks, we grow outside with no trellis. These outside tomatoes are at greater risk for disease and deformity, but we often run out of coldframe space.  My favorite varieties for flavor are the yellow cherry with its rich sweet flavor, and Riviera, a new heirloom type tomato that is red slightly pear shaped with some ribbing.

We have really been enjoying the tomatoes these last few weeks, and have had a couple phenomenal Caprese salads, omelets, and roasted tomatoes grilled with sausage, onions, and peppers among other things.  Hopefully, you will have a chance to enjoy this great summer treat to its fullest as well.  There will be a lot of tomatoes, so enjoy them while they are here!

Recipes

I'm especially excited to try this Tomato-
Cheddar Cobbler!

Tomatoes, tomatoes everywhere, and so many awesome things to do with them!  Here are 40 Fresh Tomato Recipes from Midwest Living to get you inspired.  Some quick mental math informs me that I probably won't be able to make all of these before the end of tomato season, but I really want to try all of these gorgeous-looking tomato dishes!  I guess there's always next year...