Market Farming

[Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>]

On Feb 6, 2011, at 1:04 PM, Vern and Amy wrote:

> Rivka,
>   How much ($/#) do you get for (unripe) green tomatoes vs. how much  
> for ripe heirlooms or hybrids?  How long do you think they would  
> keep on the shelf at the natural food store in town if they are  
> harvested before becoming "breakers", or do you pay close attention  
> to the stage at which you harvest them?

Last year I sold green tomatoes at market for 2.75/quart and ripe non- 
heirlooms for 4.00 / quart. (This is not a high priced area.) Most of  
my heirlooms weren't sold by the quart as most of them don't pack well  
into quarts, so it's more difficult to compare prices. I didn't  
usually use the heirlooms for green tomatoes as most of my green  
tomato customers wanted evenly shaped tomatoes of the Big Beef type.  
The greens were faster to handle, and weren't in the field as long so  
had less risk of becoming seconds, and stored better; so I thought it  
was fair to price them cheaper than full ripe tomatoes.

I found I could keep them for a couple of weeks in the cooler, most of  
the time -- less as the season went on, because, although I did try to  
pay close attention to their stage at harvest, more of them would show  
color relatively rapidly in storage later in the season. It's OK to  
put them in the cooler, unlike ripe ones, as the green tomato flavor,  
unlike ripe flavor, isn't damaged by cold temperatures as long as  
they're above freezing. Once they started showing color,  
unfortunately, they weren't really salable either way; green tomato  
customers don't want pink, and they'd been picked so green they  
wouldn't develop decent flavor even if they turned full red while  
still looking passable.

I tried to pick them, as you say, just before they were breakers --  
they do need to be fairly close to mature, or they won't either look  
right or hold well. Big Beef at least will turn a sort of darker green  
-- with a bit of practice you get so you can recognize the right stage.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale