Farms › Sabes? › Do you know why a farm's tomatoes do not all come the same?
Do you know why a farm's tomatoes do not all come the same?
The first box you buy at a farm is a surprise: there are big tomatoes, medium ones and odd ones in the same box. That is not carelessness.
A plant does not manufacture clones
On the same plant, the fruit at the bottom, in the middle and at the top get neither the same light nor the same sap, and they do not come out the same. The odd thing is not the mixed box: the odd thing is the box in which every piece weighs the same.
Size is a requirement of the chain, not of flavour
For a vegetable to go through a warehouse, a tray and a shelf, the pieces have to stack the same and count the same. That forces grading by size and leaving out whatever does not fit the mould. It is a logistics problem solved out in the field, and the person who pays for it is the one growing it.
What to do with the mixed box
Use the sizes as they come: the big ones for stuffing and roasting, the medium for salad, the small and the knocked-about for sauce the same day. If you are going to preserve, say so before you go — it is the purchase that suits a farm best and the one that leaves you the best price per kilo.
What we are not going to tell you
Neither when it is at its best nor what it costs. We hold no prices and no calendars: they change every week and a site with old data does more harm than one without. That you ask whoever picks it, and 103 farms on the list publish their phone number.
Carry on here
- Do you know why the potato you buy does not sprout?
- Do you know what happens to a banana before it reaches your fruit bowl?
- Do you know where it comes from and how long it has been in store?
- Do you know why the calçot is called a calçot?
- Do you know exactly what a comarca is?
- Do you know where the word «payés» comes from?
- Do you know the same vegetable changes its name in 30 km?
- Guides
- Produce
This page is also in Castellano