Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:
Question: I live in Horse Shoe, and every day I pass two tomato fields where recently all the stakes have been pulled out and all the plants are lying on the ground. There are literally thousands of tomatoes just lying there. I am amazed that no one has harvested them. It seems like they could at the very least been picked for tomato sauce or juice. Seems awful wasteful. This happens every year. What is up with that?
My answer: Or we could just divide up into political teams and have a massive rotten tomato fight in the field to work out all of our pent-up angst. Just a suggestion...
Real answer: Having lived in Edneyville when I first moved here and now living in Fletcher, I've noticed this phenomenon every year for a couple of decades, both with apples and tomatoes.
More: Answer Man: Wettest August on record? Absentee ballot question?
It's seems to make no sense, but as with most mysteries in life, it does have an explanation. On this one, I reached out to Karen Blaedow, a North Carolina Extension Service horticulture agent in Henderson County who specializes in commercial vegetables and small fruit.
I suggested all the torrential rain we've had this year may have played a role in making the 'maters unworthy of picking.
"You're exactly right — often after we have challenging weather conditions, such as all the rain in August and September, the tomato crop suffers from several physiological disorders such as cracking, uneven ripening, and rain check (another type of cracking)," Blaedow said. "These disorders cause the crop to be rejected by buyers or unfit for storage or shipping to grocery stores."
The fruit remaining in the fields comes down to simple economics.
"If the farmer can't sell these tomatoes to their usual buyers, they cannot afford to pay labor to pick them, so that is why you see tomatoes left unpicked in the field toward the end of the tomato season or following heavy rain/storm events," Blaedow said.
Some organizations in the mountain have "gleaning" operations, where they utilize the fruit.
"Some local farms work with organizations like the Society of Saint Andrews or Bounty & Soul to glean the unsold/unharvested tomatoes, but there are still several tomatoes left after gleaning that are either cracking or have started rotting, and those of course get left in the field," Blaedow said.
They would be ideal for a good old-fashioned tomato fight, though, I bet. But let's move on.
Blaedow brought up another good reason tomatoes will be left in the field, one I hadn't considered.
"In addition, when a tomato crop is damaged due to weather or environmental conditions and the farmer has crop insurance, they have to leave the tomatoes unharvested in the field in order to receive an insurance payment," Blaedow said.
Question: Could we get an update on the Sweeten Creek Road widening? First it was delayed, then COVID delayed any updates, and now there is the Busbee development coming on Sweeten Creek. When will we know?
My answer: It's safe to say this may happen before the 2020 election wraps up, and by that I mean sometime before 2050.
Real answer: I did indeed write about this in October 2019, noting the project was going to be delayed.
I also mentioned it this week in a story about the aforementioned Busbee development. The Buncombe County Board of Adjustment approved the 852-unit apartment complex on Sweeten Creek Road at its Nov. 5 meeting, and the project involved some discussion about Sweeten Creek widening.
The road in the area — just south of the Blue Ridge Parkway and across the street from the Carolina Day School athletic fields — is two lanes. Sweeten Creek is notorious for backups, especially in the Mills Gap Road intersection vicinity.
The developer will put two entryways for the Busbee development off Sweeten Creek, and the one by the athletic fields will get a new traffic light.
The Asheville office of the N.C. DOT said Nov. 5 it does still plan to widen Sweeten Creek, with right of way acquisition to begin in July 2023 and construction contracts going out in September 2028.
Statewide financial troubles have resulted in numerous DOT projects being delayed.
Plans still call for widening Sweeten Creek Road from Rock Hill Road to Hendersonville Road.
This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com.
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The Link LonkNovember 09, 2020 at 05:06PM
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Answer Man: Tomatoes left to rot in fields? Sweeten Creek widening? - Citizen Times
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