Our Favorite Time of Year: Tomato Season!

If you've spent any time around Quabbin Hill Farms during the late summer, you know one thing for certain: tomatoes are, without a doubt, our absolute favorite crop.

There is a specific kind of magic that happens this time of year. Walking through the greenhouse, brushing past the towering vines we’ve spent months carefully lowering and leaning on their roller hooks, the earthy, peppery smell of tomato leaves fills the air. From the tiny, gem-like cherry tomatoes to the massive, deeply ridged heirlooms that require two hands to hold, we simply can never get enough.

Growing tomatoes is not without its hurdles. It can be challenging work — managing the pruning, keeping the climate balanced, and racing to harvest at the exact right moment of ripeness. But despite the long hours and heavy lifting, it is a labor of profound love. We will never not grow them. There is just nothing quite like pulling a sun-warmed tomato off the vine that you started from a tiny seed months prior.

This season has been especially meaningful for our family farm. Watching our daughters discover their very first heirloom tomatoes has been one of the greatest joys of the summer. Seeing their tiny hands reach for a brightly orange sungolds and plopping it right into their little mouths with pure joy makes all the hard work worth it tenfold.

Right now, tomatoes are the undisputed stars of our kitchen. We are eating them fresh at every opportunity, tossing them into vibrant summer salads, and making them the star of our afternoon sandwiches. It is also our busiest preservation window! We send hundreds of pounds off to the Western MA Processing Facility in Greenfield to process our yearly batches of whole crushed tomatoes and sauce jars. It is a lot of work right now, but cracking open a jar of our own crushed tomatoes in the dead of a New England winter brings the taste of August right back to the table.

While we love a classic tomato sandwich, our absolute favorite way to highlight our heirloom harvest this year has been a simple, rustic Tomato Tart. It feels elevated but is east to make! All you need is our tomatoes, a cast iron pan, and love (okay, a few more ingredients). Find our recipe here and enjoy the rest of tomato season!