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david52_gw

cherry tomato stuff

david52 Zone 6
15 years ago

Earlier this year, there was a brief discussion on cherry tomatoes and farmers markets - I thought I'd share our recent experiences. We've grown Sungold now for years, usually put in 4 to 6 plants, and know how well they do. This year, we also planted Black Cherry (seeds from Tomato Growers Supply). They're all getting ripe now, and we've been selling them both in one of the smaller weekly afternoon markets.

We pick every day, and keep them in the fridge in paper lunch sacks. The morning of the market, we put them in those really cheap, pint paper picnic bowls, and heap them up, and tape another inverted bowl on top. They warm up in time for the market, and a warmed up Sungold is about 95% as good as a fresh one. Set out a bowl of samples, and off they go. Yesterday I sold 40 pints at $3.00. Two weeks ago, I was getting $4.00.

The Black Cherry is awesome, but just won't ripen up in enough numbers. The plants are covered in green tomatoes, but maybe, what, 2 pints a plant so far?

Anywho, just wanted to pass along the tip on keeping them in the fridge. They "off gas" an odor that isn't very pleasant, so keep them in something that breathes, like paper bags or just open in a bowl. In years past, I've kept them for at least 10 days and they were fine. Great road food - driving along through the New Mexico desert on the way to Bernalillo, eating cold cherry tomatoes, stopping to buy green chili......

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