omato Time: Summer Week #11 – 8/20/25
Over the years, many members have reported that tomato time is their favorite time of the season. The flavors of August… sweet corn, melons, the first peppers, and tomatoes are their favorite.
Tomatoes in particular are one of the vegetables we grow that are in another league compared to what you find in a grocery store. Here’s why:
Tomatoes are HIGHLY perishable. Meaning the number of days one has to get them off the vine and onto a dinner plate are few. Commercial growers figured out that if they pick the tomatoes completely green and rock hard, put them on a truck, and then pump the truck full of ethlyene gas, they can better control the rate of ripening. In this way a tomato can be picked in California, shipped to a grocery store shelf in Wisconsin, and make it to a dinner plate without rotting. But just like in every Disney movie, in every fable and fairy tale, there is a price for this magic. The price? TASTE!
I absolutely hated tomatoes until I worked on my first farm, and that’s because I hadn’t tasted a vine ripened tomato until then. Every tomato I’d had before had been part of this ‘magic’ where its life had been elongated by being picked green, ripened chemically, and then making to my plate. I thought they tasted like cardboard. Then, then I had an actual ripe tomato in the field and my mind was blown. They were so delicious! I had no idea I liked tomatoes!
So if you are new to a veggie share, I hope you are excited to eat vine ripened tomatoes!
There ARE a couple of things you need to know about tomatoes that are actually picked ripe.
1) They will keep ripening.
2) You can slow them from ripening by putting them in the refrigerator, but they won’t like it because your fridge will be too cold for them.
3) You’ll want to eat them in order of ripeness. Deepest colors first!
Beginning this week, you will receive a large paper bag full of tomatoes. You will get lots of kinds of tomatoes! Here’s a little bit about them, in the order of their perishability:
1) Heirloom. HIGHLY perishable. This is why you can’t find them in a typical grocery store. Their flavor profile is phenomenal. You can recognize them by how unlike and different they look from a traditional red tomato. They have funkier shapes, stripes, and all kinds of different colors. You’ll want to prioritize eating them first.
2) Juane Flamme Saladettes (Heirloom). These are an orange tomato about the size of a hackey sack. They are an heirloom as well and Farmer Michael’s fave.
3) Slicer Tomatoes. These are your basic, vanilla looking tomatoes. Though we do grow a pink slicer just to keep it spicy.
4) Roma Tomatoes. These are smaller, oblong, and will store the longest. They have the least flavor, the least amount of water, and are hence the best for sauce. Their other name is ‘paste tomato.’
Best practice is to leave your tomatoes on your counter on a place covered with a glass bowl. Eat them in order of ripeness. Throw them in the fridge if it looks you can’t get to them all in time! OR throw them in a saucepan.
To recap: Crossroads tomatoes are full of flavor, but need special care so as not to be wasted. Store on counter and eat in order of ripeness…
ENJOY!
Sincerely,
Farmer Cassie
