He was, "an Italian Milwaukee boy," explains
Christa Barknecht. "His dad owned a Cadillac dealership in Whitefish Bay."
She was, "a zoology major at UW Madison." After graduation Christa worked at
Heights Community Garden and various produce departments around town. "And then I worked at Whole Foods. I met Chris Covelli there and started getting to know the farmers. At that point I knew I wanted to farm."
Chris Covelli started
Tomato Mountain Farm around 15 years ago, with Christa joining the operation around eight years ago.
Tomato Mountain is a 12-acre certified organic farm and processing kitchen located 25 miles south of Madison. The farm concentrates on bringing plants to the market in the spring, tomatoes and strawberries in the summer, and kitchen products year 'round.
"This is actually my favorite time of year," Christa confesses. "I just love exchanging information with customers about the plants. People know what to do with tomatoes, lettuce, and salsas.
But people have a ton of questions about plants."In the early season, Christa says she brings lettuce and some other more hearty plants to the market. "There are certain vegetables that you plant early," she says, "like lettuce and spinach." When to plant tomatoes, she notes, "depends on how much effort you want to put into it.
"If you want to just set your plant in the ground, water it, and wait until it grows I would wait until mid or even late May. There are a lot of people who get gung ho and anxious, wanting to plant early. They want to get the plants out early and really push things.
I would probably be one of those people too, except that I'm a farmer."Whether you want to plant early or late, Tomato Mountain has plenty for you to choose from. "All of our plants are certified organic," she says. "A lot of the varieties of tomatoes we grow for our processed products we sell as plants in the spring, too. We're picking out top notch varieties, not breeds that are meant to be 'producer' disease resistant. We're looking for flavor. That's what sets us apart from the store brands."
Christa plans to offer around 25 varieties of tomato plants this spring, including many heirloom. "We also bring a lot of herbs," she continues. "I do eight varieties of basil."From their processing kitchen Tomato Mountain offers a variety of products. "Salsas are probably our biggest thing," says Christa. They also offer soups, sauces, and mixes along with strawberry, strawberry/raspberry, and sun gold tomato preserves.
"Except for the sugar, salt, and oils, all of the ingredients come from our farm," Christa notes.
If you're thinking about planting tomatoes or other plants this year, Christa would love to talk with you about it. "People tell me how much space they have, what flavors they like, and what they want to do with them," she says. "If they want to put a lot of effort into heirlooms that might have disease issues or not be as productive or if they want super easy hybrid tomatoes, I can help them all."
It seems that Chris and Christa have long ago and quite completely left their non-farming life behind. "Right now," says Christa, "I can't imagine doing anything else."
