To be assigned the job of harvesting cherry tomatoes is to be given a charitable gift. Especially if you are hungry, and here's why. Ripe cherry tomatoes are small, delicate, succulent little guys. They can't withstand the usual levels of abuse that the larger fruits of the farm can, like being dropped into a bucket, dumped into a crate, poured together on a scale, etc. As such, they are useless in a purely economical sense. They are like ice cream in the sun: meant to be eaten immediately.
The solution then, is for the farmer to select near-ripe fruit for the store. The yellow-orange ones are firm enough to hold their own, and by the time they reach a shelf will be red and sweet and perfect in a salad.
Picking half-ripe tomatoes is easy. A little monotonous, but then most jobs are on even the smallest farms. You get the benefit of working in a nice warm greenhouse too, but that's not the reason why this job is so choice. There are many near ripe, and far from ripe tomatoes to be sorted through on the vines, but there are also bright red balls of flavor that need to be dealt with too. They can't just be abandoned alone out there to grow old and sag into little sacks of liquified pulp. Can't be forgotten and left to rot. You can see where this is going. They must be consumed!
After working on the cherries for the last hour before lunch yesterday, I was a little worried I'd overdone it. After Andrea told me `yes of course´ I could have a few while I worked, `eat as many as you can!´ I put away many many tomatoes. I was almost not hungry for lunch (but not quite). But here I am today, eating more.
The solution then, is for the farmer to select near-ripe fruit for the store. The yellow-orange ones are firm enough to hold their own, and by the time they reach a shelf will be red and sweet and perfect in a salad.
Picking half-ripe tomatoes is easy. A little monotonous, but then most jobs are on even the smallest farms. You get the benefit of working in a nice warm greenhouse too, but that's not the reason why this job is so choice. There are many near ripe, and far from ripe tomatoes to be sorted through on the vines, but there are also bright red balls of flavor that need to be dealt with too. They can't just be abandoned alone out there to grow old and sag into little sacks of liquified pulp. Can't be forgotten and left to rot. You can see where this is going. They must be consumed!
After working on the cherries for the last hour before lunch yesterday, I was a little worried I'd overdone it. After Andrea told me `yes of course´ I could have a few while I worked, `eat as many as you can!´ I put away many many tomatoes. I was almost not hungry for lunch (but not quite). But here I am today, eating more.
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