Archive for April, 2009

Tomato Watch Week 5 – Joe Goes Behind the Camera

Joe catching some air

Joe catching some air

Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Produce has taken Tomato Watch into his own hands!  We had intended to cover the details of dry farming this week, but on Tuesday we received an email  from Joe and shortly after that a video he shot himself of his tomatoes being planted.  How cool is it to see the process of farming through a farmer’s eyes?

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Mr. Espresso

mr_espresso_poster

We’ve updated our profile of Mr. Espresso to include a short video of the roasting process as it happens at their warehouse in Oakland.

Mr. Espresso has been in business for over thirty years & they still manage to produce exceptional coffee on a daily basis.  We’re big fans of Mr. Espresso coffee and we’re even bigger fans of the Di Ruocco family, who bring personality and warmth into the restaurant every day.  Watch the Mr. Espresso video

Tomato Watch Week 4 – Lucero Update

ben-smallerLast week, the Luceros were busy getting their tomato seedlings out of the greenhouse and into the ground. It was perfect timing apparently, as temperatures this week have surged. Ben Lucero wrote us this quick update yesterday letting us know what’s going on in Lodi and what to expect over the next few months:

“The temperature outside surpassed 90 degrees today. Tomatoes love the heat. The plants are doing well.

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Tomato Watch Week 3

First wave of plantings at Lucero Farm, Full Belly Farm and Riverdog Farm.
tomato_watch_w3_threenewvideos

Watch the videos

We’re at the beginning of planting season for Bay Area farms.
As asparagus and artichokes abound, Lucero, Full Belly and Riverdog Farms are also dodging spring frosts and making their plans for restricted water use.

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Dirty Girl Produce – Tomato Watch Week 2

For this installment of Tomato Watch we took a trip down to Watsonville for a visit with Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Produce. We got some cool tractor footage, a crash course in dry farming, and learned all about capillarity!

Dry farming tomatoes can only work when there is coastal fog, making it unique to certain areas.   We’ll hear more from Joe about this technique in the following weeks.

Water is going to be another huge issue for all our farmers this year, and there will be more discussion about how they are handling that as the season progresses.