2026 has been a goofy year for farming, and it has thrown us so many curveballs it’s hard to keep track of them all. On a couple of them, though, we took wild swings and hit home runs. The hot, dry weather in March provided us with just about the perfect conditions for our first plantings of Tomatoes and Sweet Corn, which took off growing almost instantly and — unlike the humans on the farm — actually loved it.
Of all the summer crops we grow, tomatoes are the most tolerant of cold, wet conditions while young. That doesn’t mean they like being wet and cold, but they can handle a few weeks of typical March weather after being planted. That’s why they are always the first summer crop we plant every Spring. We do have to protect them from freezing, using sprinklers to raise the air temperature if necessary. But we always plant the first ones out every year between March 7th and March 20th — we just need a couple of dry days.
This year we planted the tomatoes on March 3rd — the second earliest planting date ever for us. It was warm and sunny, like every other day in March this year. We had to irrigate the tomatoes several times, not to prevent frost damage, but because it didn’t rain for a month. They grew more during that first month than I have ever seen them grow. By the time it started to rain in April, they were already almost 2 feet tall.
While tomatoes don’t mind rain early on, once they begin to set fruit, it does begin to cause problems with fungal diseases. And of course ripening tomatoes can’t handle even a small amount of rain. So we lucked out in April, as the plants had not yet begun to fruit. By all appearances, they seemed to actually enjoy the cool, wet weather, growing big and lush. Just about the time they started to set fruit, the rain stopped and the weather turned warm and dry.
Sweet Corn is another summer crop that we normally start planting in March. But it is planted directly from seed, and the seeds are very sensitive to soil temperature and rainfall. If the ground is too cold and wet, the seed simply rots (Note that conventionally grown corn uses seeds that are treated with fungicides. Organic sweet corn is not treated). And if a heavy rain falls before the seed has sprouted, the seeds will drown. So we essentially need a two-week window of dry weather to have success.: one week before planting and another week after. Most years we only get one planting that survives.
This year? We were able to plant our first Corn on March 3rd — the earliest ever. It literally jumped out the soil in just over a week, so we did another round. That one, too, sprouted and emerged quickly. So we did a third. By the end of March, we had four plantings of Sweet Corn in the ground — a new farm record. And thanks to the overall nice growing conditions, they all look beautiful. We expect to harvest the first ears in early June, which will also be a record-early date for corn harvest.
We picked the first few ripe Tomatoes last week and sent them to Large box subscribers. This week, they are in the M and L boxes. That’s about a week earlier than usual. As always, our first tomatoes are cherry tomatoes that we grow specifically because of how early they mature. They are not the best tasting tomatoes you’ll ever eat, but they are the best-tasting locally grown “To-May-toes” you are likely to eat. By the time our regular tomatoes begin to ripen, these will likely have finished producing. Think of them as the warm-up band for the big tomato concert that starts in a few weeks.
Thanks,