Ok folks, tomato season has arrived. I’m here to tell you how and why we package tomatoes the way we do. We put a single tomato or multiple tomatoes in a pint or quart container. Our farm label is on the outside of each container and there is a price listed on it. That is the price you pay for the contents of that container. So when you come to our farmstand or a farmer’s market, look for that price. We do this for a variety of reasons but the primary one is to avoid the squished tomato syndrome. Picture this, and I’m sure this happens in the supermarkets – many people walking by the tomato display and they have to squish the tomatoes. Times that by 30 and you now have a unsaleable tomato – too many bruises. So we ask that customers please do not squish the tomatoes.
Where do you Get Your Summer Produce?
We had a customer at the farm stand yesterday. She lives in Chichester but her son lives down the street from us. She asked him if he ever visited the farm stand. He said no, not yet. So this got me thinking. Where does he get his fresh summer vegetables that are so abundant everywhere this time of year? So I applied this question to all my neighbors. Yes, some have their own gardens but many do not. So do they go to the supermarket? In the past during strawberry season, I would see people buying strawberries in the supermarket. This drove me nuts. Why? Why, don’t they go to their local farmstand/farmer’s market and get it fresh from the farmer? I continually am asking myself why do people do this? Yes, you could say busy lives, young children, etc., etc. Well I was that one long ago busy with busy lives and young children and always went and picked my strawberries when they were in season when I did not grow them myself. Folks, we need to get back to supporting our neighbors, our local farms and farmer’s markets. What did our ancestors do 100 years ago? They weren’t going to Walmart! Can you imagine if we all had our own gardens, supported our local neighboring farms or farmstands? I think our health would be so much better and probably our attitudes. Anyway, rant over and thank you for reading this far. After I finished typing this post, I ran across the below picture. So appropriate.
Seed Inoculation
As we mentioned earlier this year, we have been watching weekly webinars with the Bionutrient Food Association. On one of the latest webinars, we heard from John Kempf, who we are very familiar with and have known about for many years. He has developed a seed inoculation blend that will speed up germination of your seeds and actually re-energize older ones. See his website for a better description on what these products do. This information is incredible. We should be getting our order tomorrow. I’m holding off on seeding the carrots in the greenhouse until it arrives. I want to try it on the carrots. A little goes a long way. According to the webinar we watched, he suggested Seed Flare and BioCoat Gold.
That’s it for this week. Farmer out, until next time. Have an excellent week!
