For the tomato lover, the produce aisle during summer months is as tempting as the window of a jewelry store. Rows of rainbow-hued globes of all shapes and sizes sparkle and wink from wooden crates. Shades of red, orange, yellow and brown. Tiger-striped green and ghostly white. Large, lumpy and bumpy. Diminutive ones the size of the tip of a finger. An endless variety of mismatched tomatoes, fresh off the vine from nearby farms, tempting the knowing connoisseur with the enviable title of heirloom.
Heirloom Tomato, Courtesy of Oui Chef Cook
Giant Pumpkin
The winning Big Pumpkin at this year’s Iowa State Fair clocked in at 1,323 pounds. It was the first year in the history of the Iowa State Fair that the Big Pumpkin outweighed the Big Boar, which weighed a mere 1,022 pounds. Kaufmann Mercantile got a chance to chat with Dan Carlson, one of the winning pumpkins growers to discuss all things big and pumpkin. Carlson, who joined forces with his growing partner, Marc Petersen, in 2004 (both hail from Clinton, Iowa), has been growing big pumpkins since 1992.
Image by jakob Mosur, Courtesy of Chronicle
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