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Our Heirloom tomatoes are ready! They’ve been a long time in coming. The tomatoes have been Matt’s project this year. He started about 500 plants from seed in late January. The office space downstairs doubled as a greenhouse as Matt nursed his starts along. Any extra table or floor space was filled with trays of seedlings.
Once the weather warmed up a little in
February, Matt moved the trays of seedlings out side into the sun everyday and then bring them all back into the office during the cold nights. In March, we built a small greenhouse off the new packing shed to give the starts some heat and encourage their growth.
A new field near our citrus grove was created for our tomato plants. In mid – April, the weather was warm enough to put the plants into the ground.
The new field has not been without its challenges. Our ever troublesome pests the gophers have killed quite a few plants by eating away at their roots. Some plants have fallen prey to disease, but most are doing beautifully.
We are pleased to be harvesting 21 varieties of tomatoes this summer. The diversity of color, shape, size, flavor and texture in a mixed heirloom box of tomatoes is pleasing to the eye, as well as the taste buds. I was more than delighted Farmer Al sent me home with a box to sample. So far I’ve enjoyed a scrumptious tomato sauce, highly enhanced sandwiches, snacks of sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper, and just popping the Sungold cherry tomatoes into my mouth one after the other.
Five pound boxes of mixed heirloom tomatoes are now available as an Add-On, and at $10 a box, you are getting a steal of a deal! Boxes are packed with a mix of whatever varieties are ripe, delicious, and available that week. It wouldn’t be summer with out tomatoes, so treat your self by adding on a box today!
