Abundance

Our baskets are running over with the bounty of the farm. It's harvest time!

Cucumbers, tomatoes, potatos, green beans, eggs, watermelons--so much it won't all fit in the picture!

Green tomatoes!

Green tomatoes on the vine

It is not yet officially summer and the early tomatoes are already bearing green fruit! Our plants in the upper garden are doing really well and a few of them are rather large! We may be inundated with tomatoes this summer! How exciting!

Large tomato plants in the garden

We are growing 15 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in a variety of sizes, types and colors.  Look for the first green ones of one of the early varieties at the Wings of Dawn booth at the Burlington Downtown Farmer's Market this Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon.

Tomatoes in the Ground

It has been a warm spring, so our tomato plants went into the ground a little earlier than what might have been recommended with more normal weather. The temperatures have been ranging from the 40s (Fahrenheit) to the 80s as early as March and April. We hit 90 degrees on the second day of May!

Dew on the tomato plant

Morning beads of dew on the tomato plant

We did have a few troublesome situations early on though.

Shortly after getting the tomatoes in the ground we had a frost warning. The previous frost/freeze warning we had resulted in 31 degree temperatures in our greenhouse and a neighboring farm, Emmaus Farm, lost many of their tomato plants in their greenhouse to freezing. With this thought in mind, we frantically gathered as many buckets and covers as we could in order to get everything sheltered for the night. Luckily, this second frost/freeze warning did not result in really low temperatures. A few of our early varieties of tomatoes already have blooms, too, so we may have some big, red tomatoes by early summer!

We've been so busy planting that this post is a little late getting posted.  The tomatoes are so big now we'd never be able to cover them!  We now have green tomatoes on many plants--that post is coming.

Full House of Tomatoes!

Greenhouse full of plants & overloaded with 400+ tomato plants

Starting seeds indoors before planting in the soil is important for crops such as tomatoes and peppers that need warm conditions for germination. We have had a more successful germination rate this year than we anticipated and we now have a full house!

All of the tomato plants are heirloom varieties. We are growing 15 heirloom varieties with names such as Sophie's Choice, Brandywine Yellow, Pink Brimmer, San Marzano, Vinson Watts, Principe Borghese, Amy's Apricot and German Johnson.  Each has its own unique characteristics and we expect all to be flavorful.  Fortunately, in the greenhouse, they have all survived the two nights of frost we had earlier this week.

Heirloom tomato plants as well as herbs and marigolds are available at our farm store. Please stop by and pick up plants you may need for your garden!

Reaching for sunlight!

Rows and rows of plants in the greenhouse