The Golden Apples of Winter

Laura Avery
Mirror contributing writer

   Pomadoro – golden apple – is the Italian word for tomato. Just why the luscious, tango tomato, which is delicious when fully vine-ripened in the heat of summer and maddeningly bland most other times of the year is referred to as a gilded fruit is probably due more to its palate-worthiness than to its physical resemblance to a tree fruit. Consumers around the world have grown weary of the insipidness of off-season tomatoes, and supermarket chains have heeded their cry, seeking out tomato varieties which have a semblance of flavor and summer zip, and even refusing shipments of really drab tomatoes for the first time ever. Farmers at local farmers’ markets, too, have been experimenting with ways to keep the kiss of summer on their winter tomatoes, which come into season after the many varieties of field tomatoes have gone with the first frost.
   In the early 1970s, Bob Beylik was one of the first farmers in California to grow tomatoes indoors in greenhouses in Ventura County. There was no existing body of knowledge to guide Bob in his early efforts at constructing greenhouses, selecting bedding mixes and tomato varieties, and maintaining proper humidity and temperature controls for optimum production. Bob hoped that his efforts would pay off with higher prices for off-season tomatoes, but the wholesale price did not rise and, after three years of experimentation and depressed prices, he switched his indoor operation to growing cucumbers. By the early ’90s, California’s Certified farmers’ markets had become well-established and Bob discovered that local farmers’ markets were virtually without winter tomatoes. He began growing tomatoes again and now Beylik Farm sells at 16 southern California farmers’ markets.
   On a recent tour of the Beyliks’ tomato greenhouse, I was astonished at the sheer size of the tomato plants, which Bob’s son Scott, who now oversees greenhouse operations, says can grow up to thirty feet long. Robust tomato plants are trained to climb up strings which are suspended from the greenhouse ceiling. Since only the top of the plant produces tomatoes, the long vines are first trained upwards, then when they reach the greenhouse’s ten-foot ceiling, they are laid back down and only the tops are retrained upwards. We saw cluster tomatoes with over a dozen tomatoes per cluster and other healthy plants of the beefsteak, Japanese, plum, yellow, and cherry varieties. Scott explains that he and his dad have taught themselves a lot about tomato production over the years, and are especially proud of the computerized irrigation and feeding system that creates an optimal growing environment for each plant. The Beyliks can grow tomatoes for ten months out of the year and it is a challenge for Scott to manage the variations of production to the demands of his many customers in his markets. When the supply is low, Scott finds that he has to personally supervise how many tomatoes are allocated to each market truck so that everyone gets his fair share.
   Bertha Wong of Desert Hydroponics grows her tomatoes outdoors in a hydroponic system near the Salton Sea. Bertha and her husband Ed grew field tomatoes on Camp Pendleton but gave up their lease when President Nixon moved into San Clemente and their access to the base was closed off for security reasons. Rather than drive all the way down and around through Oceanside to get to their land, the Wongs moved inland where Ed devised a method of growing tomatoes in PVC pipe through which he circulated a nutrient solution. The Salton Sea has ideal tomato-growing weather, with hot days and cool nights. Ed registered two patents for his growing system and continued to experiment with and produce great-tasting winter tomatoes until his death a few years ago. His family continues his work and in peak season — February through June — Wong Hydroponics brings winter tomatoes into over twenty Southern California farmers’ markets. The Wongs’ tomato of choice is the “Shady Lady”— a beefsteak/Roma cross that has the desirable qualities of both varieties. They are grown in one hundred foot rows on five acres of land and can produce five times more than field tomatoes in the same amount of space. It takes five months to produce a crop, from seed to harvest. The Shady Ladies are particularly large this year due to the mild weather and Bertha’s gamble on early planting. In years past, mid-season frosts have wiped out entire plantings, setting the harvest back by a month. With winter tomatoes, timing is everything. You want to get a crop to market when no one else has it, but the always unpredictable weather can bode either well or ill for such ventures.
   Bottom line -– how good are these winter tomatoes? With all the benefits of careful cultivation and near-ideal growing conditions, they taste just like a summer tomato without the added sunshine. Since they are fully ripened before being picked, they have absorbed all the nutrients they possibly can, and have developed a flavorful balance of sugars and acid for a real tomato taste. We can thank the Beyliks and the Wongs for going that extra mile for us on these short winter days and bringing us some wonderful summertime treats.