Tag Archives: tomatoes

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 14 #10, 4/19/17

What’s been going on!

Thanks to all of you who sent kind words about last week’s newsletter. The pundits are giving HB662 a 50% chance of getting through the Legislature.

Jennie and company have been hard at work this week getting ready for and planting the Big Top tomatoes.  They pushed hard to get the landscape fabric down and half the trellis up by last Friday so the NC State folks could come out and plant their research plots.  For the second year, so they have good replication, all of the Cherokee Purple have been grafted to root stocks that have root systems that take up more water than normal.  Last year’s trials produced some interesting results so it will be good to see if they produce similarly again.

The beginning of this week the rest of the trellis has been erected and the other 12 rows and nearly 800 plants have gone in the ground.  Perfect weather to transplant the last two days with overcast and a bit cooler to better let them get past the shock.  A couple of new varieties this year including one that we brought back from Sicily last fall.  The early tomatoes in the little tunnels are flying along with lots of blooms and growth.  Tomato sandwiches soon!

We are not on the Piedmont Farm Tour again this year but Jennie is suggesting that we do it next year.  It is a great fundraiser for Carolina Farm Stewardship Assoc. and a good way for people to see the farms that they know from farmers markets.

Picture of the Week

P1030391

Some of the research tomatoes with special irrigation set up and soil moisture sensors

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 13 #8, 4/6/16

What’s been going on!

Trying to get the newsletter back on its regular Wednesday schedule and why not do it just in time for the first Wednesday afternoon Farmers’ Market.  Yes today from 3:00 to 6:00, it all starts again.  We will be there with the first lettuces of the season and Betsy’s beautiful flowers.

Cold this morning, 26 degrees, but all the tender crops are tucked under their protective blankets and look fine.  We are definitely getting our March winds and temperature swings only a bit late.  Looks like another serious shot on Saturday night too.

We are steadily working towards the main tomato planting under the Big Tops in two weeks.  The cover crop has been turned under and a layer of compost has been spread on each bed.  Next week we need to pull the plastic over the bows and get the final bed preparations done.  The plants look good in the greenhouse but as usual there is experimentation in the air.

We are once again working with a graduate student from NC State on a grafted tomato trial.  A decade ago, over several seasons, we grew some of the first grafted tomatoes in the US as NC State was beginning to work on the technique.  Just like it sounds and just like more commonly grafted fruit trees, the desirable variety is grafted to the top of a rootstock with the required trait, usually disease resistance but in this year’s trial, drought resistance.

The rootstocks we are looking at this year are capable of taking up more water than other tomatoes, could be important in either very dry areas or as climate change throws more droughts our way too.  All of the Cherokee Purples in the main planting will be in the experiment this year and you all will get to see and eat the results.

Pictures of the Week

P1020269

Frost on the lettuce

P1020271

Early tomatoes warm under their blankets

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 13 #6, 3/25/16

What’s been going on!

Another beautiful and productive week.  Started last Saturday, while Jennie and Betsy were at market I was on the tractor getting the last of the minerals spread on two fields and then disking them in before the rain, got done just as it started to come down.

Monday I had my Advanced Organic Crop Production class out to help move the last two sliding tunnels over the tomato beds and move the last Big Top hoops from one field to the field the main planting of tomatoes will be in this year, it was a tomato planting preparation kind of day.

Midweek saw a lot more cultivation, planting and irrigation set up and watering, just hot and windy enough to both kill weeds and to need to keep crops moving with water.  Yesterday we spent nearly the entire day working on more deer fence, we are now just 300 feet from finishing up what we wanted to get protected for this season.  There is at least another 1000 feet we would like to build but that will have to wait until next winter.

Most exciting is that today we planted the early tomatoes in the sliding tunnels, only two months until we can eat a real tomato!  With the cucumbers already planted and looking good and zinnias going in next week it is hard to believe we are working on warm season crops already.

Picture of the Week

P1020258

The long view from the very top of the farm, green green

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 12 #19, 7/16/15

What’s been going on!

So while our tomato crop is slowly decreasing towards the eventual last pick and our summer break in early August, our weeks and markets still revolve around what tomatoes do we have, do we have enough for the various outlets and who is going to get what.  Sure there are other things going on like trellising peppers, and the first plantings of crops for fall harvest and mowing and mowing and mowing.

For 20 years tomatoes have been one of our obsessions when we discovered that there was a world of possibilities past just a red tomato.  Nothing against a good red tomato but the range of colors, flavors, textures and sizes available has lead us down a trail that at first was overwhelming and now that we have winnowed out many varieties leaves us with trying to describe the ones we grow to all of you who want to pair them with different foods and dishes.  What is best with mozzarella or for sandwiches or in a salsa?  Gives us plenty more to think about for years to come.

To that end, that last tomato event of the summer, for us, is our Southern Season cooking class with our friend and heirloom tomato expert and preserver Craig LeHoullier who has a great new book out Epic Tomatoes.  We have done this class many times in the past where Craig expounds on heirloom tomatoes, their history and stories and I talk about how we grow them and which ones we have found that work best for us.  Always great food prepared by Caitlin Burke from our fruit.  Next Thursday the 23rd, seats still available.

Picture of the Week

IMG_2813

Tomatoes are not the only red thing we grow, amazing crested celosia

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 12 #18, 7/9/15

What’s been going on!

If you haven’t noticed yet, it is all about tomatoes right now.  Peak of the harvest in general (past peak a bit for us) and they are featured everywhere and in every dish, as it should be.  Twenty years ago we all used to think that if you picked a tomato before the 4th of July you were doing really good, now the 4th of July is the beginning of the flood and by August it is really mostly over.  Sure there are tomatoes at market in the fall but they never taste as good as they do in July.

What happened?  Mostly I think we all became much better at growing and managing the crop that resulted in earlier maturing fruit.  Healthier soils, improved irrigation and trellising techniques, better transplants and pruning, high tunnels for protection and more.  Some of it is new varieties that ripen faster and some is certainly climate change with warmer weather in May and June that makes the plants grow vigorously and huge.

Whatever the reason there is an abundance of tomatoes to eat this time of year.  So let’s celebrate while we can!  Our tomatoes are on the menus at Elaine’s on Franklin, Pazzo, Glasshalfull, Oakleaf and ACME.  The folks at ACME are having their 14th annual Tomato Festival Friday to Sunday with the menu all about the summer fruit.  The biggest event is the Carrboro Farmers’ Market’s Tomato Day on Saturday with over 75 varieties to try and buy.  Pick and choose your location but eat up while the eating is good!

Picture of the Week

IMG_2803

After yet another big rain last night, the Big Beefs are still lush and heavy with fruit

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 12 #17, 7/1/15

What’s been going on!

5” of rain in the last 5 days, that’s enough for now thank you, at least the wicked heat wave has broken.  Unfortunately it looks like a good chance of rain every day for the next week.  Mostly it makes it hard to get any kind of outdoor planting done.  The really sad thing is most people’s tomato crops are out in the field and if they get this much rain not only does it make the foliar diseases start to run up the plants but the ripening fruit will split open making them unsellable.  The beauty of the Big Tops is we can avoid most of those problems or at least slow them down, good thing as we are nearing the peak of our tomato harvest.

Let’s talk 4th of July market.  This will be the third time in the 20 years since the market moved to Town Hall that the Saturday market has been on July 4th.  When that happens the market is moved out onto Main Street in front of Town Hall so they can set up for the afternoons holiday celebrations on the Town Commons.  It is quite a festive atmosphere out on Main Street with all the vendors jumbled up in random sequence.  The hours are shortened to 10:30 so we can get out of the way before the parade arrives at the Town Commons.

Make sure you come down to market early and enjoy the shady cool of the morning under the trees along Main Street and get all the good food for your afternoon festivities.  Here is information about parking and the hours, it is all very easy.  Make sure to look for us, probably somewhere in the middle of the pack!

Pictures of the Week

IMG_2795

A gray, wet morning but happy tomatoes under the Big Tops

4thJulymkt 034 - Copy

2009 4th of July market on Main Street

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 12 #7, 4/17/15

What’s been going on!

A week of rain, at least that is what it feels like, really just two days this week and just over an inch of precipitation but the psychological effect is the same.  The laser focus this week has been to get the big planting of tomatoes in the ground, by the end of today the job will be done.

Sunday we got the last of the structural components on the Big Tops so that Monday we could get the plastic pulled on before the forecasted rain arrived on Tuesday.  The covering went beautifully with hardly any wind and our crack four person crew worked together like we had done it for years.  Late on Monday I tilled the beds for the final time, ready to be covered with fabric.

Tuesday morning we tested the irrigation, put down the landscape fabric and laid out the 144 metal T-posts for the trellis.  Wednesday Jennie and Lacey did the yeowoman’s task of driving all those T-posts and hanging the 1600 feet of field fence we use for tomato trellis.  Done, ready to plant.  Thursday was so wet and cool that we decided to pause a day and plant this afternoon.

Interwoven into the week we had two classes to teach, Wednesday farmers’ market and two board meetings.  One of the meetings was the Farm to Fork Picnic planning group where the pairings of farms and chefs was done.  This year we are working with our friends from ACME for the first time, it will be a fun time for sure!  Check out the Farm to Fork website for all the details on the expanded 3 day event.  The Picnic itself is still on Sunday June 7th but this year we have added a special dinner on Friday night and the CEFS Sustainable Ag. Lecture on Saturday night with fisheries expert Paul Greenberg and a fish dinner.  You can buy tickets for the whole weekend or pick and choose which event you want to attend.  All for the good cause of raising money to train new farmers.

Picture of the Week

IMG_2651

Another grey day but everything is ready for tomato planting

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 11 #17, 7/2/14

What’s been going on!

Last Friday I woke up in the middle of the night with the realization that this coming Friday was the 4th of July.  It completely slipped up on us.  Not so much from the “Woohoo! It’s a holiday” kind of thing but more from a small business persons perspective of how do we manage the schedule with markets on Wednesday before and Saturday right after.  Everyone’s normal patterns will be upended, restaurants will be closed some days, people going to the beach or mountains, parties going on, oh and now a hurricane will be brushing the coast and bringing rain (hopefully) here on Thursday.

The potential of some real rain is actually much welcomed as the dry conditions are holding us back from both getting the remains of the spring crops turned under and cover crops planted but we also need a good soaking of next year’s tomato field so we can get it covered with the big sheets of clear plastic to cook the fusarium wilt disease out of the soil.  We did not have a chance to solarize this year’s field and we are already losing a lot of plants to the disease especially German Johnsons, Italian Oxhearts and Kellogg’s Breakfast.

Crops don’t know about holidays so we roll on their needs.  Fortunately after this week’s mow down of the last of the spring crops it is all about picking tomatoes and flowers and keeping the rest watered and growing well.  Tomato picking is a Monday and Thursday morning job and believe it or not this may well be the peak week, already.  There is already a thousand pounds in the packing shed from Mondays harvest and maybe as many coming Thursday.  We will act a bit like Friday is a holiday, at least the tomatoes will be in the house and we will take a relaxed approach to getting ready for Saturday market, see you there.

Picture of the Week

???????????????????????????????

Beautiful Lisianthus flanked by soon to be ready Celosia

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 11 #7, 4/25/14

What’s been going on!

Wow, an insanely busy week and just about every muscle we have has been sore at one time or another, a lot of ibuprofen going down!  Tomato Week, started last Friday with covering the four Big Tops that keep our plants happy and dry.  Monday, we did the final tillage on the beds and laid the irrigation lines and landscape fabric.  Wednesday and Thursday Jennie and Liz built the 1600 feet of trellis for the plants to climb up.  Right now they are out planting the 23 varieties on a perfect overcast day for transplanting, hopefully it will just shower and not thundershower this afternoon.

Last Thursday I spent the day down at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) for a Board meeting and tour.  Now in its 20th year, it is the largest organic and sustainable research farm in the US.  More than just a farm, they also do work all across North Carolina in both farming practices but also food systems, food access and other parts of a healthy farming and marketing system.  We have been involved from its inception and continue to serve on the advisory board.  On top of all that I taught three classes this week, whew!

One thing we are not participating in this week is the Farm Tour, third year in a row after 16 straight years.  Next year is the 20th anniversary and we will probably jump back on to commemorate the founding and steering of it all those years.  It is a great way to see so many of our local small farms and where your food comes from but with so much going on here, it is just too hard to do both.

Picture of the Week

???????????????????????????????

A beautiful field of lettuce and the tomato Big Tops looming in the distance

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #23, 7/10/13

What’s been going on!

It’s Tomato Week!  Three big tomato centric events this week and near the peak of our harvest.  First up Thursday is our farm dinner at Foster’s Market in Chapel Hill, this year with Flo and Portia from Chapel Hill Creamery, the menu looks great (can you say caprese salad?) and there may still be some spots left but you better call today.

Second on Saturday is the big annual Tomato Day at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market with over 70 varieties to try, a raffle and several dishes to sample including an heirloom tomato gazpacho made by Seth Kingsbury from Pazzo Restaurant from our tomatoes.  Betsy usually dreams up something for us to sample too, maybe a Green Cherokee tomato juice?

Lastly on Sunday is a fun, tasty and educational afternoon at our Heirloom Tomato cooking class at A Southern Season.  This is the fifth year we have worked with Craig LeHoullier, known as NC Tomato Man and the person who introduced Cherokee Purple to the world and personally keeps over 1400 varieties of tomatoes in his collection.  We talk about the different kinds of tomatoes, growing them and of course cooking and eating them.  Still spaces left but hurry.

The rains seem to not want to stop and our thoughts go out to all of our farmer friends who are having increasing problems from too much water.  More flooding for farms in the mountains to diseases and fruit splitting getting worse with every damp day.  This is one of those seasons that you just grit your teeth and work through.  You should savor every tomato that you can this summer and be glad that you don’t grow them for a living.

Picture of the Week

???????????????????????????????

Beautiful Lisianthus

What’s going to be at the market?

The lack of sun is the limiting factor in the flower department but this is what we should have.  It is the peak of the queen of cut flowers, Lisianthus, maybe one of the best looking crops we have had in years, tall with thick stems and lots of colors.  It is still Lilypalooza, lots of long lasting fragrant pink Oriental Lilies and yellow and pink Asiatics too.  Brilliant Zinnias.  Beautiful Bouquets of course.

Maybe the peak of our season?  Plenty of reds with both the sweeter Ultra Sweet and more balanced Big Beefs.  A good amount of Cherokee Purples.  Smaller but fair quantities of of most of the other colors- yellow with Orange Blossom and Kellogg’s Breakfast and the higher acid Azoychka, German Johnson pinks, bi-color Striped Germans, Green Cherokee too.   A good mix of sauce tomatoes with both the Italian Oxhearts and beautiful Romas.  Fair amount of Sungolds, Blushes and SunMix cherries.

Cucumbers.  Sweet Red Onions and the Long Red of Tropea Italian cooking onion.  Basil for the tomatoes!  The first of the pepper crop with Shishitos, Padrons and Serranos this week.

As a reminder if there is anything that you would like for us to hold for you at market just let us know by e-mail, by the evening before, and we will be glad to put it aside for you.

Hope to see you all at the market!

Alex and Betsy

If you know folks who you think would be interested in news of the farm then please feel free to forward this to them and encourage them to sign up at the website.