DIGGING RUSHTON FARM

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At Rushton Farm there is always great anticipation for the first tomato of the season.  When that beautiful green orb flames to a brilliant red you know summer has officially arrived.   Three weeks ago we saw the first blush that seemed to indicate summer was upon us.  Those tomatoes that were showing the slightest blush a few weeks ago will be harvested this week and the rest of the tomatoes are quickly turning.  As is the case with many of our crops we will have limited amounts to start but quantities will steadily increase as the season progresses.

 A farm market tomato is very different than your run-of-the-mill supermarket tomato.  Commercial tomato varieties have been bred to pack easily, hold up for long transport and last for a week or more.  They have been picked green or pink before their flavor has had a chance to develop.  Their taste reflects this.  Farm market tomatoes are often "heirloom" varieties that have long been cultivated for their flavor and texture.  They are allowed to ripen on the vine before they are picked and are often sold to the consumer within days, if not hours, of harvest.  Because of the time and care needed to grow these exceptional varieties they are typically only grown by small farms, like Rushton.

At Rushton Farm we will have a wide variety of tomatoes to select from throughout the season.  Our first tomatoes are Early Girl, Cosmonaut Volkov and the Black Krim varieties.  Later in the summer we will feature many more varieties including Blue Beech, San Marzano, Pineapple, the ever colorful Striped German and the granddaddy of them all, Brandywine.   Each variety is unique in both taste and appearance and we urge you to try them all and let us know your favorites. 

Rushton Farm will be having a Tomato Celebration featuring a tomato tasting and potluck at the farm on August 6th from 5 to 7, where many of the varieties grown on the farm will be sampled.  Look for the invitation to be emailed soon and until then, enjoy the summer harvest.
 

*a note on tomato storage

 -Fred 

  This week I have been thinking about what a good job Rushton Farm does of minimizing waste.  We harvest, you pick up your vegetables, and then we either sell or donate the excess to different organizations and get to take some home ourselves to enjoy.  Even if for some reason we are unable to find a good home for our damaged or excess produce, we can compost it and create a valuable source of nutrition for our soil and future crops.  

I am encouraged by being able to enjoy the fruit of the fields and then also being able to take something that may have been unwanted and to create a wonderful source of fertility - there is no real waste in this system, but instead a take and give.  Take from the soil and then give back to it so we can again grow delicious things.  If you keep on taking from the soil without giving back to it, eventually the soil will have nothing left to give.  There are so many life lessons to be learned from farming the soil.

In the fields at Rushton we have been able to start getting on top of our weed situation since the season of planting is finally coming to a close for a short while.  We finished planting our winter squash field and planted some fall broccoli seeds in trays under our shade structure to be transplanted into the field later in the season.  We have been slowly working on hilling and weeding the potatoes and are looking forward to tomatoes, peppers, and then eggplants to begin fruiting.  We will also dig our garlic this week and begin the curing process so it will be dry and ready for distribution in two weeks or so.

Like Ashley mentioned last week, the rain continues to evade us and so irrigation has been a top priority.  Maybe on Thursday we can look forward to some refreshing rain, unless you all do a rain dance and speed up the process.  

- Joanna