July 22nd, 2026
Cherry Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Shishito Peppers
Head Lettuce
Carrots
Zucchini or Cucumbers
Parsley
Tomato season is here! And surprisingly - cucumber, too! This is the veggie time of year we Wisconsinites live for. It’s juicy, cool, crisp, and SHORT-LIVED. We all know that a tomato harvested right off the vine has an incomparable taste to the ones ripened in a truck using ethylene gas. Over the next few weeks, you’ll get lots of tomatoes - this is the beginning of the flush. Enjoy the cucumbers and tomatoes while they’re here; in this climate, such sensitive crops can change overnight with unpredictable weather.
Tomatoes are our fussiest crop, requiring an early start, warm temps, and pruning every week throughout the season. They require lots of nutrients, water, and hours of sunlight. They are prone to disease and like warm weather, but not too hot or their skins and flowers burn. We grow them in our high tunnels, using the tall infrastructure to trellis the plants as we prune them to one vine, training them to climb vertically instead of bushing out and becoming a wild mess.
Table setting from this weekend’s Farm Dinner. For being our first time, it was a success. We made lots of new friends and enjoyed the company of long time friends and family. We learned lots about what we’d do again and what we’d change. It’s fun to try new things and take chances! Thank you so much to those of you who came - we hope to share it with anyone else who wants to join next time. Our hearts are full.
We seed tomatoes in our propagation house during the last week of March. They grow fast once they germinate, so we move them into bigger cells every two weeks, until they are ready to go into little pots, which they remain in until they get planted in the field during the first week of May. Being able to close the high tunnel walls and doors at night helps to conserve the warmth from the sun and keep the nightly temperature at least five degrees warmer than outside, which can mean the difference between frost or no frost (which tomatoes cannot endure). From May through the end of July, no fruits are borne, but they require weekly maintenance. We prune the plants to one vine - in the past we’ve done two vines, but we’ve gotten smaller tomatoes and we like big ones - and wrap them vertically around twine that is hung on the cross braces of the high tunnel. Pruning tomatoes is sticky, sweaty, and technical.
Snap Pea and Burrata Salad with Pistachio Vinaigrette. Best Dressing Ever plus the first cucumbers of the year. I made up the dressing drecipe and couldn’t find one online so here’s what I did(ish):
¼ c crushed pistachios
½ c EVOO
¼ c white balsamic vinegar
1/8 c dijon mustard
1/8 c maple syrup
1 tiny red onion
¼ c parsley leaves (no stem)
salt and pepper to taste
Blend everything with an immersion blender.
Finally, in the middle of July, we start seeing the first blush. The crew always gets the first tomatoes and it’s always cause for a minor celebration. Then comes the madness. Tomatoes are extremely perishable and they don’t want to be stored colder than 50 degrees, so we never put them in our walk-in cooler. Because we don’t have an in-between cooler (ideally 55-65 degrees), we need to be very careful about how we store the tomatoes, or fruit flies become rampant. I have created the “ABC” rule for myself during tomato season. “Always Be Canning” is a real thing. We also have several die hard ABC-ers among our members who buy “seconds” from us annually. If you’d like to become one of them, just let us know! We preserve anything that has a cosmetic blemish, because we don’t want to give any of you tomatoes that are cracked, squishy, or juicy. Y’all only see the beautiful side of tomatoes, but I have mild trauma that comes along with them. If you’ve ever dug into a crate of tomatoes and accidentally poked your finger into a soggy, moldy tomato, you’ll know what I mean. Being able to move tomatoes or preserve them is an around the clock job that only adds to the mayhem of August.
We hope you enjoy the tomatoes! There’s only a couple months in Wisconsin to get local tomatoes, and there’s nothing like it, so enjoy it while they’re here.
recipes to try
Anchovy Gazpacho (anchovies not necessary but provide some umami)
Tomato, Peach, and Buratta Salad
Bruschetta (perfect for cherry tomatoes)