Southern Indiana roadside farm stands and stores selling locally grown produce have an overabundance of tomatoes right now, with all sorts of varieties — yellow and red, hybrid and heirloom, cherry and Roma — overflowing from cardboard boxes at rural stands.

Why So Many Tomatoes?

According to Bobbi Boos, who oversees stock at Bloomington’s Farm Stop Collective, it’s a good tomato year due to the hot summer temperatures and ample rain. Chester Lehman, a farmer at Olde Lane Orchard in Daviess County, agrees, stating that the key to big-scale success is a hot summer, periodic rains, and planting hybrid tomato varieties that are heat-tolerant and able to withstand dry spells.

Lehman is harvesting tomatoes from 600 plants and has two kinds of hybrid tomatoes: BHN 589, a high-yield flavorful beefsteak that resists cracking, and BHN 871, an orange low-acid slicing tomato that sometimes weighs close to a pound. Heirloom varieties, on the other hand, are harder to grow and are not faring as well this summer.

Prices for tomatoes vary depending on where you shop, ranging from $1 per tomato to $4 per pound. Roadside stands often have the best prices and selection, with many having honor cash boxes and taking cash app payments.

Tomato Tips

To keep tomatoes fresh, store them on the counter, stem side down, as refrigeration can make them mushy and rob them of flavor. Tomatoes are botanically a fruit, but are often considered a vegetable due to their savory use in dishes.

A simple recipe to enjoy the abundance of tomatoes is a tomato pie. To make one, bake a pie shell, fill it with juiceless tomatoes, basil, and onions, and top with a mixture of mayo, sour cream, and cheese.

Original reporting: Mirror Indy — read the source article.