Harvesting Tomatoes

---

Hopefully most of you have been picking some of the very first tomatoes of the season. We just started picking our tomatoes here at River Road Farm last week. I wanted to go over a few harvesting and packing pointers for you.

Once tomatoes start to ripen it will become an exponential process. Our first harvest was 20lbs, our second over 40lbs, our third was close to 100lbs, and by the height of the harvest bell curve we will be pulling out 300lbs or more every two days. Granted, the school high tunnels have only half the amount of tomato plants in each high tunnel. The point is, you will need to be ready to pick every two to three days and have somewhere to go with those maters each time.

When picking the individual fruit be sure to gently twist and/or bend while pulling in a way that will not knock the other fruit of the truss. If you will be selling at farmers market or a retail store where presentation is a factor, make sure to use a bypass pruners and cut the tomatoes off the truss in order to leave the top on the fruit. Place the tomatoes into a shallow container no more than three layers deep depending on the size and weight of the fruit. Tomatoes are soft and crush easily and will lose their shape under pressure. Try picking them just before they are totally red-ripe so that they have a little bit of firmness. Do not let them get over ripe or they will be mushy! When adding a second layer into the harvest container watch out for the pointy tops of the first layer so they do not poke into the bottom the second layer. I usually pick right into the box they will be sold from in order to minimize handling.

Happy picking and good luck keeping up!

-Todd

---