Tomato lovers cherish those too few weeks in summer when tomatoes ripen on the vine.
“There’s nothing better than a fresh, home-grown tomato,” said Karen Webb. “Going out to the garden first thing in the morning and picking a tomato, then biting into it and having the juice run down your arm, there’s nothing better. I love tomatoes on everything but chocolate cake or ice cream.”
Area farmers say they’ve been blessed with plenty of sun and not an overabundance of rain, both good for tomatoes.
“They are heat dependent, so they spread quickly when it gets hot and rains every afternoon, which it has been doing,” said Joel Houser, farm manager at Crabtree Farms.
Still, too much heat can be a bad thing. Record-setting temperatures in June, for instance, likely stressed most area tomatoes.