Recent rains don’t steal ruby treasures
BY LARA WARREN
PRODUCE FARMER MADELINE COURTNEY IS WORRIED about the heavy rains recently dumped across the state by Hurricane Danny.
“Too much water is bad for them,” the Verbena, Ala., farmer said. “It busts them right open.” She pointed to the tiny cracks circling the top of the tomato she held in her palm. “It just makes you sick.”
While the rains have caused her to lose much of her crop, Courtney said the quality of the tomatoes she has left has not been affected. The baskets of lush, ruby tomatoes displayed in her booth at the Montgomery Curb Market support her case.
That’s good news for Southerners who can’t get enough of ripe summer tomatoes, in season from mid-June to early October.
Vine-ripe tomatoes in this region are used in a variety of ways. Sliced tomatoes, salted and peppered, are tasty additions to any meal. Green tomatoes are great for slicing, battering and frying to make the regional favorite fried green tomatoes. Then there is the ever-popular tomato sandwich—white bread, mayonnaise and a firm, ripe tomato—and its many variations. Still other tomatoes are picked in their prime or purchased at roadside stands to be canned and added to soups or casseroles later.
Tomatoes provide substantial nutrition as well. On medium tomato provides 40 percent of the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin C, 20 percent of your vitamin A needs and is a good source of fiber, carbohydrates and potassium. They are also rich in antioxidants—vitamin C and carotenoid—which can help ward off a plethora of ailments and diseases.
Believe it or not, tomatoes are actually fruits—technically, a berry—rather than vegetables. In 1893 the tomato was ruled to be a vegetable by the U.S. Supreme Court, however, due to the fact that it was eaten with the main part of the meal rather than at the end. That meant tomatoes were subject to the same tariffs as other vegetables when imported.
Joe Kemble, and extension horticulturist at Auburn University’s Department of Horticulture, sadi that tomatoes are the most valuable crop for the state of Alabama. The state ranks 11th in the nation for fresh market tomato production.
“Tomatoes aren’t the largest as far as acreage, but as far as their market value they are,” Kemble said. The yearly acreage for tomatoes fluctuates between 3,800 and 4,100 acres. With an average wholesale value of $1,200 an acre, the gross value of the state’s tomato industry is an estimated $5,400,000.
Despite conditions that have been harmful to this year’s tomato crop, Kemble remains optimistic.
“The recent rains and late frost certainly have hampered things, but not significantly,” he said. “We’re hoping the weather will straighten out. Right now all we can do is wait and see.”
Kemble noted that ht average consumer might see a slight rise in tomato prices at farmers markets before grocery stores.
“You always pay a little more for vine-ripened, home-grown tomatoes like those you get at farmers markets—the quality is better,” he said.
Many tomato farmers are uncertain as to what the final result of this year’s tomato crop will be.
Marlene Smitherman, a farmer from Clanton, sells her home-grown tomatoes every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the Montgomery Curb market on Madison Avenue. She said that her tomato crop has done well despite the rains.
“So far my crop has been good,” she said. “If I lose plants from the rains, I only loose a few because my farm isn’t large. It’s the big farmers can lose thousands of dollars over rain.”
Johnnie Mae Brown from Autauga County said that this year hasn’t been the best for her tomato crop.
“They’re waterlogged from all the rain,” she said. “There’s just too much water. And it’s too late to replant.”
Brown, who has been selling her produce at the Alabama State Farmers Market for 11 years, said that the quality of her tomatoes hasn’t been hurt by the water…yet.
“The quality of the tomatoes is excellent—for what few tomatoes we’ve got,” she said.
Brown’s niece, Lenora Folks, helps her grow and sell the produce at the farmers market each week. She said they have had other crops suffer this year as well.
“The watermelons are busting open, and our peas are slimy and moldy from the extra water,” she said. “We’ve all lost money this year.”
Montgomery Advertiser, July 1997