- Lemon Boy Tomatoes begining to ripen
Growing tomatoes this year has been like watching a kettle boil, as my mother would say, difficult. The cold spring delayed planting in the field and then they just stood there doing almost nothing for a month. May was not much better, finally in June it warmed up and the plants started to grow. As I have said since the beginimng of May we are about a month late. In a 'normal' year we start harvesting at the end of June, now we are at the end of July. The crop looks great, it has put on a large framework which means the crop will be on the heavier side.
I am asked at the market how come Bill Crepps has tomatoes and he is only 5 miles away from you? It has to do with the night time temperatures. We enjoy the cool Delta breeze in the evening, it is what defines the great flavor of Eatwell Farm tomatoes. The plants need a rest from the heat of the day to respire. If it continues hot at night then the plants keep on growing. Over the years tasting my way around different farms cool nights are about the best indicator that flavor will be good, take the dry farmed coastal tomatoes as an example. So Bill has nice warm nights compared to us because of the Delta breeze, it moves up the valley and turns around Marysville and heads back down the West side. All the time the air warms so by the time it gets down to Winters it is much warmer than the air that passes over our farm. I hope this makes sense. The warm nights have allowed Bill's tomatoes to catch up on the lost growth from the cold spring.
For us this means that all our plantings will arrive at once an we will be buried in the most fabulous tasting tomatoes in August... are you ready?