Our First Tomatoes!

Powisset farm cherry tomatoes!

Today we crawled along the six rows of early tomatoes filling them with our first big harvest from our early tomato crop.  Mountain magic, Juliet, Orange Blossom, Polbig and New Girl—the varieties we chose to begin our tomato season.

Even though we treat tomatoes with a reverence reserved for no other crop, I instructed our Monday crew to try not to look at each fruit as if it was precious.  Less precious! Less precious! I gently shouted down the rows as people harvested.  On a day when we only pick a few hundred pounds, it may seem funny to my crew that I am rushing them along through the harvest.  But, what they don’t know about are the days of 1000 pound harvests—the days when our knees are stained with rotten tomatoes, our hands black from where the plants left their mark on our skin, and our dreams infested with over-ripe, ripe and not so ripe tomatoes taking the place of sheep as we slumber. Those days are coming!

Our Early Tomatoes, as described by the Johnny’s Selected Seeds Catalog (and some added thoughts by me):

Mountain Magic

 

Mountain Magic produces high yields of 2 oz., bright red, round salad tomatoes with very sweet flavor. The uniform, crack-resistant fruits may be truss harvested. Great in salads or right off the vine.  These tomatoes produce well into the season, after we have stopped harvesting all the other early rows,

New Girl

 Our earliest tomato--the plants are usually the first to get diseased--but we usually get a few good harvests before that happens.  I think these have a sweet, rich flavor--and there's nothing like the taste of that first tomato of the season.

Juliet

 

Juliet is one of the most disease resistant plant that we grow! Deep red, shiny fruits avg. 2-2 1/4" L x 1 3/8-1 1/2" W, weighing 1 1/2-2 oz. Typically 12-18 fruits per cluster. Delicious, rich tomato taste for salads, great salsa, and fresh pasta sauce. Good crack resistance, vine storage, and shelf life.

Orange Blossom

 

The medium-firm, globe-shaped fruits average 6-7 oz., have a nice texture, and are mildly flavored, balanced with a little acidity. Developed by Dr. Brent Loy, Univ. of New Hampshire.  I love orange tomatoes and this one usually does not disappoint me. yum.

 Polbig

 

High yields of very good tasting, meaty, 6-8 oz globe shaped fruit. Uniform ripening time. Excellent deep red internal and external color.  

These are just starting to ripen out there--i am excited to try them! 

See you in the tomato fields,

Meryl (on behalf of the Powisset Farm Crew)

What's in the share this week:

Up at the barn: tomatoes, carrots, leeks, potatoes, cukes or squash, mustard greens or kale, lettuce (smallish heads), basil, sweet corn (from Sunshine Farm, Sherborn, MA)

In the pick-your-own:  chard, beans, and maybe the first few cherry tomatoes