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(Picture Above:  Tomatoes at our Sunday CSA farm stand)

My second day back home and what a day it was. The morning began with us loading the truck at 5am in  the dark cool rain.  After the truck was filled we both took to the rows to harvest the chard and kale.  At 6am we were barely able to make out the outlines of the leaves.  (We strive to always harvest our greens the day we sell them and as close to that time as possible).  At 7am we headed out and I made a drop in the truck at our local Poulsbo farmers market to get Sara set for her market.  On the road again I headed out to the near by Bainbridge Island market were I had to pull double duty today as I had to host the Tomato Taste Off as well as setup our usual market booth which Sara’s mom thankful took watch of.  We knew since the start of the season that our “job” for the market was going to be to host the Tomato Taste Off but we defiantly found it a bit odd that no one with the market had contacted us regarding this “job”.  No directions or guidance until three weeks to the last day where holding a Tomato Taste Off competition would of even been possible.  We received an email from the market asking what the date of the taste off was going to be…  That was the first time it became clear that we were hosting, holding, and totally responsible for everything regarding the Tomato Taste off, including the date, apparently.  A shock indeed, but I did the best I could do and  received some great help from the gentleman who had been hosting the event for the past two years.  The weather for the event today was wet, very wet.  We haven’t had the best weather around lately for growing tomatoes as it has been cool and rainy, so entries early in the day were very sparse.  It seemed like no one from the community was arriving with their tomatoes.  With only my tomatoes in the contest I went booth to booth and asked for our farmers to enter their tomatoes.  For the most part the farmers all entered.  I got everyone but two of them and on the second round I got all but one farm to enter.  Most of the tomato entries into the contest came from farmers with just a few community member contestants.

Here’s the results that the three judges arrived at!

BAINBRIDGE FARMERS MARKET

TOMATO TASTE OFF 2009 Winners

28 Entries

Best of Show:  Suki Clark “Ananas Noire”

Salad Tomato

1st:  Hand Sown Homegrown “Belyj Naliv”

2nd:  Suki Clark “Nyagous”

3rd:  Butler Green “Stupice”

Slicing Tomato

1st:  Butler Green “Rose”

2nd:  Terra Bella Farms “Black Krim”

3rd:  Rob Clark “Brandywine”

Cherry Tomato

1st:  Butler Green “Sweet Olive”

2nd:  Suki Clark “Chocolate Cherry”

3rd:  Hollie Clark “Sungold”

Weird Tomato (?)

1st:  Suki Clark “Ananas Noire”

2nd:  Persephone Farm “Cuor di Bue

3rd:  Leap Frog “Orange Blossom”
Congratulations to everyone who placed!

Is that I’m leaving for another tour on Friday.  The weeds are spreading.  I’ll be gone two weeks.  My wife needs a break.  My body, mostly my knees, hurt.  I’m frustrated by not having enough time/labor to tend to the farm properly.  Bummed cause we’re not selling as much as last year at our markets.  Feel like we’re madly behind on fall/winter plantings.  We need to get away for a bit.  Sara needs this to happen.  We’re thinking about beach camping… Read the rest of this article »

sara here! sorry for not blogging sooner. Jared Has been out on tour for almost 3 weeks now, and I’ve been going it alone. It’s funny how you think that you’ll have sooo much time, I mean, 3 weeks, right? well, best laid plans… the first week was rainy, it rained, POURED for 3 out of the first 5 days, and then the winds came. They blew out the rain, but also everything else. One of our canopies is now out of commission, both of our chicken houses were damaged, and the plastic… Read the rest of this article »

There’s been a lot of action around here this week due to the short break in the weather.  Good days of dry sunny weather are very few and far between here in the cool spring of the Pacific Northwest, so when you get a dry spell you work as much as you possibly can.  More about what we’ve accomplished in the sun later(hello Flip Video!), but for right now I’d like to introduce you to our Heirloom Tomato Operation! This year marks our second year growing and selling Heirloom tomatoes… Read the rest of this article »

Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world now, having acquired Seminis in 2005.  Monsanto not only sells more Biotech (GMO) seeds than any other business, but now (with the acquisition on Seminis) sells more garden variety (non GMO) seeds than any other company; and it is a multi-billion dollar business for them. Popular Monsanto Seeds include Big Beef Tomato, Gold Rush Zucchini, Beefmaster Tomato, Ambrosia Melon…the list really does go on and on and on. These seeds produce great… Read the rest of this article »