Tomato flavor this year is not the best ever. They are fine and perfectly good tomatoes. Small fruit, as usual, is least affected and I'd say the small fruit taste great. After 10 years of growing in our hoop houses, where there is no rain of course, mineral balance is difficult to maintain. The leaching and cleansing of the soil by natural outdoor precipitation keeps excesses of certain minerals from building up, and keeps nutrient/salt levels in a good range. In the hoop houses, we have to irrigate with groundwater, which has in it quite a lot of minerals. Over time these minerals can build up and create imbalances in the soil. This can adversely affect plant growth. We monitor these minerals levels with lots of soil testing, and we grow a variety of crops throughout the year, as different crops have different needs and use more or less of certain minerals/nutrients. We've also been watering a little more often this year as consistent moisture is a good way to keep plants healthy.

Sometimes, stress actually helps produce or fruit flavor. That is the case in particular with moisture stress--up to a point. Grapes, strawberries, tomatoes, and watermelons, to name a few, taste better, generally, when the plants "dry out." We've always sacrificed volume to get the best flavor possible by watering a little less than is optimal for tomatoes. The problem is that plant health can suffer and reduce yields too much. This year we've watered a little more than usual, and along with the fertility we applied to correct mineral imbalances, the plants seem almost a little too lush and healthy, and the fruit is a little bland compared to what it could be. No, the answer isn't going back to our old ways of underwatering and planned plant stress. We need to continue to fine tune our mineral balancing program while finding the balance with watering frequency and amounts. We're doing ok, and the tomatoes will be plentiful.

The scariest thing is that I think we have "late blight." This debilitating disease takes down tomato crops as fast as anything I've seen, and may be lurking in the field. The wet weather we've had this year is perfect for its development, and I know another farmer who got it bad, nearly losing his whole tomato crop already. The hoop house tomatoes are nearly late blight-proof, as it is moisture and dew that spreads the disease, and the hoops stay dry at night. Outdoor (field) tomatoes, on the other hand, are susceptible, and may be in the line of fire right now. Keep your fingers crossed. If we do lose our outdoor tomatoes, we'd mostly lose lots of roma tomatoes we use for whole roasted tomatoes, a staple of our winter share. We'll make sure that every roma/plum tomato we harvest goes into our whole roasted tomatoes as keeping our winter share well stocked is one of our highest priorities.

Otherwise, everything is looking good, crops are coming in fast, and fall crops are right around the corner! In a couple weeks, you'll be seeing more things like the chard in the box this week. We try to keep tomatoes in the winter by giving you jarred tomatoes, and we try to keep cool weather greens going most of the year as well. Unlike in the spring where they predominate, in fall they'll provide a backdrop for lots of other crops--broccoli, onions, winter squash, beets, turnips, carrots, and more.

                                                                        -- Chris