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market-farming - Re: Transporting tomatoes

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  • From: Aaron Silverman <cgrowers AT pond.net>
  • To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Transporting tomatoes
  • Date: Tue, 25 Jan 00 10:11:09 -0800


Short Intro: Creative Growers raises 3 acres of mixed produce, edible
flowers, cut flowers, and herbs on 3 owned acres & 3 rented acres in
Western Oregon, 20 miles west of Eugene. Our primary marketing is to area
restaurants, but we also have a small subscription program. In addition,
we raise and process 1500-2000 broilers on 12 acres of pasture, sold to
individuals off the farm.

We raise around 700 row feet of tomatoes each year in Western Oregon. All
plants are transplanted into single-row beds with IRT film laid down at
least 1 week prior, more if time allows. Our primary market is
restaurants, and last year we raised something like 30 varieties. No, not
all of them were worthwhile, but the diversity is what we're going for.
Our tomato offerings break down to about 100 ft or so of cherry tomatoes,
marketed as a colorful mix (except for currants, marketed seperately), an
equal amount of canners (mostly for us). The remaining space is 40% red
slicers & 60% heirlooms of every color out there.

All tomatoes are supported using the stake & weave method: a T-post stake
between every 3 plants (ie, 3 plants between each stake), plastic twine
is wrapped around each post & pulled taught between posts, repeated on
each side. Weaving is done so that the twine rests below a couple nodes
from the top. I try to weave once a week, although it often turns into
every other, from a week or two after transplanting in June until the
second week of September. The last several weavings are key, especially
for heavy yeilding indeterminates, such as Brandywines. Otherwise, the
tops tip over, and greatly increase harvesting time, or the overall tippy
weight brings down an entire section of plants.
It usually takes me about an hour to 1.5 to weave all 3 rows, depending
on how messy they are. Employees usually take 30-45 minutes longer.

Other cultural notes: the main drawback of this system has been some
occurance of sunscald on southern facing fruits. This may be due to the
twine tying back the foliage, exposing the fruit. This year we may try
Sun Shield, an accepted Organic material that is supposed to protect
against sunburning. We also spray the tomatoes every 7-10 days with
chelated calcium and fish/kelp. This pretty well eliminated blossom end
rot that has continually dogged many of the heirlooms in the past. As we
already spray, a couple more applications of Sun Shield shouldn't be too
taxing on our system.

Harvesting: timing is CRITICAL! Our tomatoes must be able to hold in
either a hot kitchen, or in the cooler (horrors!). Chefs and their crews
generally have little time to baby product. We have found that if a
tomato is ready to eat when picked, it is overripe. It will bruise when
picked, bruise when sorted, bruise when transported to market, bruise
when rifled through in the kitchen. ALL our tomatoes are picked 1-3 days
early. This is when most color is present, but the flesh is firm, with a
small amount of give. It is a feel thing, and probably the hardest crop
to teach employees how to harvest. Yellows are the most critical - if a
yellow tomato has all its color when picked, it will most likely have a
mealy consistancy. Picked with some green within the yellow, the texture
will remain firm while the flavor will retain some tartness/acidity when
fully yellowed. All our tomatoes are harvested onto plastic bread trays,
lined with several layers of newspaper. The trays are tall enough to
allow stacking without smooshing fruit. Trays are sorted by both type
(green, yellow, red, pink, black, etc.) and ripeness. We have smaller
plastic trays we use for packaging to one restaurant (again, they stack
nicely, and hold up great in the jostling kitchen), and use either
scavanged boxes or berry flats to the others.

2 more notes in closing:
1) If bruising persists during harvest or transport, you probably need to
harvest the fruits a couple days earlier.
2) While hierlooms are once again the rage in the tomato world, remember
that sometimes a variety goes out of production for good reasons, and
should probably stay out of production.

Aaron

Creative Growers
Aaron Silverman
88741 Torrence Rd.
Noti, Or. 97461
cgrowers AT pond.net
Quality Produce & Pastured Poultry





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