Many people ask us…. "How do you get such good, tasty, full-sized tomatoes so early in the season?"
We farmers are a simple folk, but that doesn't mean we don't know a thing or two about technology!
To get some of the tomato crop ahead of the curve, we grow some of our tomatoes in something called a high tunnel.
Otherwise known as a polytunnel, or a hoop house, the high tunnel is a semi-open cover that allows us to plant the tomato seedlings in the ground early, while shielding them from the intense weather that so often happens in the springtime.
Here is how Wikipedia describes them, "Polytunnels can be used to provide a higher temperature and/or humidity than that which is available in the environment but can also protect crops from intense heat, bright sunlight, strong winds, hailstones and cold waves. This allows fruits and vegetables to be grown at times usually considered off season. Every factor influencing a crop can be controlled in a polytunnel."
We are especially lucky that they were sheltered from that hail a few weeks ago!
Anyways - when you come to the stand in late June, and wonder, how exactly did they grow these so quickly??
Good old fashioned high tunnels!
And now you know :)
No comments:
Post a Comment