Market Farming

[Petersons <petersns AT whidbey.com>]

Here in Western Washington we are having the summer you eastern 
farmers usually have (and it sounds like you have ours).  Its been 
hot and dry.  For the first time ever, tomatoes are ripening well. 
I've had them in CSA shares for two weeks now.  I'm growing 150 
plants, mostly reds, in hoophouses.  The Sweet 100's, Northern 
Delight, Stupice and a large greenhouse variety whose name I don't 
have (maybe Buffalo), are all ripening now.  Taxi and Amana orange 
are both still very green.  I haven't worried much about late blight, 
since those cool wet conditions are absent so far this year.  Deer 
did walk into the open hoophouses one night and pruned almost every 
plant in ways I hadn't planned.  I close the doors now.
But, thanks for the tip.  Next year I'll plant more of the 
yellow/orange tomatoes on the assumption that our normal rainy cool 
climate will reassert itself.
Molly Petersons
Whidbey Island
Washington