it's all tomatoes, all the way down

A big thank you to all who came out for the Tomato Tribute last Saturday at the Midtown Farmers Market.  Before dawn on Saturday morning we stacked the truck as high as we dared with crate after crate of tomatoes, drove into Raleigh ever so carefully, and you cleaned us out of nearly every tomato we brought to town.  That never happens!  We rejoiced in packing up and driving home a nearly empty truck on Saturday afternoon (then took a nap).  We still have a lot of tomatoes; I picked another truckload of tomatoes this morning, but we are starting to see them slip past their peak point.  What looks like a lot of green fruit left on the vines can ripen in a heartbeat through these dog days of summer.  Remember to eat your fill before they're gone!

We're still getting socked with heavy rains nearly every night, and praying for a stretch of dry weather so we can get our fields cleaned up and turned over for planting to fall and winter crops in August.  I usually like to try and grow a quick cover crop in between the spring and fall crops; that window is closed and gone.  Now we are just hoping to be able to get it all in decent shape by the first of August or so - yikes - just two weeks away!  It doesn't take long for the ground to dry out enough to work it over when it's in the 90s every day, but we desperately need more than one or two days between torrential thunderstorms.  Not that I get to decide what the weather will bring, but given a choice between a dry summer or a wet one, I would choose a dry one every time.

Quite a few of you were asking about melons and sweet peppers last week - they'll be here soon!  I try to time these to ripen in August (or at least post-peak tomato season), because no one here wants to haul 500+ pounds of tomatoes out of the field one box at a time then lug another truckload or two of heavy watermelons in when the heat index has topped 100 by noon.  One heavy crop at a time, I say!  Both crops are shaping up nicely (though both could use less rain) and with a little luck should start appearing in a few weeks.

Thanks as always for your business, and have a great week!