The Story Behind the Tomato Farm

Do you want the long version or the short version 🙂  It all started back in college……..that’s the long version, but I will summarize to say we had friends who came from farming families and loved the dynamic we saw.  I (Susan) had a grandfather who was a backyard farmer, he loved growing all things and I have very fond memories of being in his garden picking and eating tomatoes, I have always loved tomatoes.

When we got married we had dreams of someday growing something.

Jerry worked at Coldwater Creek for 10 years while I stay-home-mommed it.  Life was good.  In 2002 we birthed our third child, Spencer.  That’s when the world crashed down around us, and God got our attention in a powerful way.  Spencer had Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which is a genetic disorder.  He lived 6 months.  God used his life to redirect ours.  We desired a lifestyle that was more family friendly, more like what we had seen in the farming families of our friends.  So in 2005, Jerry left Coldwater Creek and we dove deep

into the tomato farming life.  Jerry had been doing research, asking produce managers and such, that, and my love of tomatoes are the reasons we went full tomato.  We bought a “package greenhouse deal” complete with marketing (which we never used) and an on call horticulturalist, who we called a LOT those first few years.

We grew a hybrid red beefsteak style tomato that first year, and we had them piled up high, gave them to everyone we knew, fed peoples pigs etc. we had so many.  Then we were approached by Alan, from the Rocket Market in Spokane, and he asked us if we’d ever considered growing heirlooms, so we tried one bed as an experiment.  They were definitely more challenging, however we were hooked!!!!  Each year the heirloom population grew and the hybrid population shrank.   The hybrid’s do have a following, though so we continue to grow them (they are tasty, too)

We thought we were on our way, then in 2008 we had the surprise of our 4th child, Andrew.  Tragically, he also had SMA.  We had the privilege of parenting him for 2 years.  His care took most of my time and energy, so Jerry stepped in (along with an amazing community of people) to care for & shuttle our 2 children, Harrison and Patricia, manage the household, oh and carry on the farming…….the greenhouse received the  least attention, even with the help of friends it suffered, so that when Andrew went to be with the Lord we were facing bankruptcy.

However, this God also used!  We learned about these guys named Dave Ramsey and Howard Dayton, money management people, and we started listening to podcasts taking in as much information as possible to relearn money and business management skills.  Jerry got a job at North 40 (back then called Big R) in 2012 and once again an amazing community of people stepped in and we slowly worked our way out of debt, Yay God!

Last April, Jerry came back to FULL TOMATO, leaving his job at North 40.

We’ve learned so much and feel we still have so much to learn, it’s hard work, long days, but so worth it when we hear person after person tell us how much they enjoyed their tomato!!!

Our first growing season was 2007, this is our 11th year

Our children are grown; our son got married last week (which is why we weren’t at market!).  Our daughter is in college, she works with us part time.

Jerry’s Favorite Tomato:Jerry’s favorite is the San Marzano, no contest.  The San Marzano is  sweet,

tender, no core, thin skin.  He’ll eat it straight and loves them on sandwiches etc.  I love to cook them and make pasta sauce and salsa out of them.  That is the fun and beauty of heirloom tomatoes – they are so unique in color, shape and flavor (like people!)

Susan’s Favorite Tomato:  My favorite is the Mortgage Lifter, it has just the perfect sweet/acid balance, I like a tangier tomato, Jerry sweeter.  I’ve also come to prefer the black varieties, Black from Tula, Cherokee Purple, Black Prince with their complex, rich, smokey flavors.