A Tapestry of Tomatoes

and a growing season of heirloom goodness

The Genuine Faux Farm has been known since its early years for the wide range of heirloom tomatoes we grow every season. Like the melon varieties I featured earlier in the week, we pushed hard early in our existence to identify heirloom, heritage and open-pollinated tomatoes that liked our farm. Unlike the melons, where we might grow seven or eight varieties, we found ourselves growing as many as thirty-six different types some years!

I suppose you could say it was a little bit of a sickness on our part and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. But the reality was that we were noticing that each variety featured different characteristics that merited inclusion. We were hedging our bets by growing varieties that liked wet seasons and varieties that liked dry seasons. We grew some that preferred hotter years and others that managed just fine in cooler years. We selected varieties that matured early and others that matured late.

And, of course, we made choices for a range of taste and texture varieties. After all, we knew that people have different taste experiences and we wanted to provide opportunities for more people to enjoy what we grew.

---

Speckled Roman tomatoes

The Genuine Faux Farm tapestry is simpler these days

Our 2024 season finds the Genuine Faux farmers growing many fewer varieties than they used to grow. Part of the reason, of course, is that we no longer offer farm shares (Community Support Agriculture) and we haven’t done farmers’ markets for many years now. We happily sell what we can through our egg/produce email, process what we have time to process, and donate the rest.

Of course there are other reasons. One of them is the simple fact that we’ve moved all of our tomato production into our high tunnels (Valhalla and Eden). Ever since the 2016/17 decision by the EPA to allow applications of dicamba on soybeans, we have been unable to have the same success with our tomatoes that we had prior to that time. Now that dicamba is no longer allowed for that application, we might be able to grow them outside once again. But, for this year, they were all inside.

Of course, the space inside of these hoop buildings is limited. Unless we wanted to grow ONLY tomatoes (we don’t) we can’t have the same number of plants we used to have. Therefore, we have to reduce the number of varieties we grow. Also, some tomatoes seem to dislike being in the high tunnels - so of course we won’t force that situation on them either.

And, yes, we grew some varieties because our customers loved them - even if we did not.

We have, in a sense, gone back to our roots and are allowing our own preferences to win. That doesn’t mean we’ve reverted back to only varieties we grew in our first few years at the farm. It just means we’re growing the cultivars we want to grow with less considerations for other factors. If someone else likes them too and wants to buy some - great! If we like them but know they aren’t going to have the highest production - that’s fine! And we’ve gotten no complaints from the food bank when we bring them either.

Nebraska Wedding tomatoes

This year’s tomato variety report

I used to write and share a blog that was our “Veggie Variety Winners” at the end of each season and many people enjoyed those blogs. Once we downsized the operation, I just couldn’t get the motivation to keep at it. I am sure some it was a “grieving process” for lack of a better description. Why take the time to analyze and discuss our growing season when it was no longer so much a focus of our lives? It’s kind of like we went from playing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in a short period of time. While it certainly isn’t as drastic, it IS hard to make valid comparisons.

The other reason? This was simply a case of burn-out. I’d put my all into many years of growing and sharing about how we grew. It was time to step back a little.

While I don’t intend to go back to the variety winners lists, I do still like paying attention to what we grow and how the different cultivars perform. And, apparently, I still like to write. So, I thought I could share a little about our 2024 tomato growing season (which is still going strong!).

A few varieties we started with, back in our early years (2004-2007) are still with us. A couple of German Pink tomatoes have done pretty well for us this year, even though they are not particularly fond of the high tunnels (hoop buildings). I just find it very hard NOT to grow a couple of them and a couple of Italian Heirlooms, even if there are other varieties we want to focus on more right now.

Believe it or not, Speckled Roman (first image) have regained some prominence at the farm this year. This variety was long a favorite as the base for our tomato sauces that we would freeze or can each year. These are a very nice paste tomato (not very juicy) and can be quite productive (fifty on one healthy plant). Our Speckleds struggled mightily with wet weather and dicamba issues - and they didn’t do well in the high tunnels the first time we tried it. So, it fell out of favor for a while.

But, in the last couple of years, we allowed ourselves to try a few things that we used to like. Among them were the Speckled Romans. And much to our surprise, they did pretty well in the hoop buildings. Not great, but good enough to make us happy. Then this year came along and we hit the timing (and everything else) perfectly. I don’t think I’ve seen Speckled Romans look this good… ever.

Gold Medal tomato

Black Krim continues to be the foundation of our tomato crops. The history of this variety on our farm is actually quite interesting. We worked very hard to identify the best black/purple tomato varieties for our farm to grow. We tried Cherokee Purple and Black from Tula. There was a time when Nyagous and Black Sea Man graced our fields. Japanese Black Trifele made an appearance for a few years and we even gave Indigo Rose a trial (and quickly rejected it). In the end, we found that Black Krim and Paul Robeson were the best for our farm and they held down this slot for years. Other varieties would come and go as we gave them a chance, but none pushed into the lineup as regularly as Black Krim.

It turns out that growing these varieties is not quite as simple as the red or yellow tomatoes. The first problem is learning WHEN to harvest the fruit. It is very easy to leave them on the vine too long, inviting splitting and breaches by pests. Next thing you know, you have various issues that are invited by the rotting fruit and you’ve lost the battle.

Once we figured out that they really LOVED to be grown in the hoop buildings, Black Krim showed us it could actually be our main tomato crop. Because we really do love their flavor, we’re okay with that. Krims are a short enough season tomato that we can actually manage two peak harvest cycles, along with additional tomatoes around those peaks. While they may not keep up with the production of certain hybrids developed for high tunnels, I’ll stack up Black Krim’s market value with them any day of the week.

Yes, we do grow some red tomatoes. At present, Trucker’s Favorite and Halladay’s Mortgage Lifter are doing pretty well for us. And there are some Italian Heirlooms as well. The Italians have been a long time farm favorite, but we always liked them better in the field. They don’t tend to have much foliage, which means they are susceptible to sun scald in the high tunnel. We can fend that off by alternating some larger tomato varieties with them, but our need to grow them isn’t what it was and it is okay if we don’t grow many of them now.

I don’t know how we got the seeds this year, but we have a single Wisconsin Chief plant and it has done well enough. I grew some in honor of the Wisconsin 55s that used to produce so well for us in the field. I remember that I took particular delight in harvesting muliples of 55 of these tomatoes for each CSA delivery…

Just because I could.

I doubt Wisconsin Chief will be back next season. Again, it’s not that it did poorly. It’s more that we have that slot covered and we don’t need it. And for nostalgia’s sake, I’d probably grow the 55s before these anyway.

I need to show myself I can still count as high as “55” just to show that I’ve still got it! Whatever “it” is.

Our main yellow slicer has been Nebraska Wedding for a very long time. When we were at our peak, we would grow equal numbers of Golden Sunray, Moonglow and Nebraska Wedding. Then, Golden Sunray disappeared and we struggled to find an alternative. Our solution was to grow twice as many Nebraskas. Then, the Moonglows started to get a little less reliable. And Nebraska Wedding just kept plugging on with beautiful fruit weighing in at 1/2 to 2/3 pounds. Sometimes a plant is extremely happy and pumps out 3/4 pound fruit.

The great thing about Nebraska Wedding is that the fruit rarely have much for blemishes. The skin is a little bit tougher than many heirlooms, which makes them easier to ship and they store longer. Happily, they don’t give up anything for taste either - which makes them a winner in our books.

And, finally, we still grow Gold Medal.

I was going to say that we only grew a couple of these plants this year, but then I realized we’ve never grown too many of them. While these are some of the sweetest tasting tomatoes you will ever find, they can be difficult to sell because they get very big. People typically want more than one tomato when they order one (or two) pounds. I can’t remember exactly, but I seem to recall a couple of tomatoes over three pounds in prior years.

Since we also no longer host workers for lunches at the farm, the need for these bigger tomatoes is less than what it was. Times have changed. But, I still enjoy pulling these beauties off the vine.

I just don’t need to pull lots of them off the vine.

Black Krim tomatoes

2024 - A good tomato year at the Genuine Faux Farm

I no longer keep the super detailed records that I used to when this was my full-time (and only) employment. But I still have years of experience and can easily weigh out a tray of tomatoes within a couple of pounds by just lifting it. I still test myself occasionally with an actual scale and can say that my estimates are accurate enough for the records I need at this time.

This has been one of the best tomato crops at our farm in recent memory. I can attribute it to getting the plants in the ground at an optimal time for the daylight hours, temperatures and the age of the plants in their pots. And we’ve maintained a good watering schedule, letting them get drier as the tomatoes ripen.

We also used a nice healthy shovel of aged compost from our farm in each planting hole this year. This is something we can do with sixty plants that was a huge (and not likely profitable) project when we raised four hundred to six hundred plants. In that case, it was more efficient to spread manure in the late Fall or early Winter. There is no doubt our current direct application is more effective. But, you have to weigh benefits and costs carefully.

Labor is a very heavy weight on a small-scale, diversified farm.

Another odd thought about this year’s excellent tomato crop. I wonder if even our high tunnel tomatoes have had some negative impacts from dicamba in years prior to this one. This year’s crop is more like what we got prior to the introduction of dicamba and soybeans. The cover provided by the high tunnel was effective, but I doubt it excluded all of that growth-regulating herbicide.

Whatever the reasons - weather, timing, compost or less herbicide - it has been a very good tomato year at the Genuine Faux Farm. It’s been a tapestry worth writing about.