Decades ago the smell of catsup hung in the air around Medford the way a fresh-sawdust smell wafts through open car windows when we drive past a mill today. [An updated note in 2020: or the strong smell of marijuana when you drive past one of the Applegate's many large hemp farms, these days.] When I moved to the Applegate in the early seventies, tomatoes had just toppled as king crop of the Rogue Valley. Messinger's Farm in Provolt was still a big tomato farm. One summer, not for a lark but out of financial necessity, I joined a friend to pick tomatoes at Messinger's. We enjoyed gardening, the work was close to home, and we could take our children to work, so, we thought, why not? And our employees thought, "If Mexicans, why not hippies?"
At first it was fine. The two children played hide-and-seek or hopscotch in the fields or hunted for grasshoppers and potato bugs while Lyn and I stooped from plant to plant picking tomatoes, discarding those with bottom rot, and setting the others carefully into our buckets. The shiny red tomatoes lay plump as pregnant spiders along the stems and under the leaves of the plants. They fell smooth and warm into my palm as I plucked them from their vines. A tart, green smell lingered after their broken stems. The early morning sun pleasantly warmed the back of my neck, and from time to time I glanced up at the blue mountains above green fields picturesquely dotted with Mexican workers.
Before long the sun became furnace-hot. My hands itched from the prickly stems. My eyes stung with sweat. My nostrils plugged with dust. My hair escaped my hat, stuck to my face, tickled my chin. The sun hung motionless, obliterating the hours. My back ached. I gave up stooping and leaned on my knees, but tiny rocks cut into my flesh, and getting to my feet to move to the next plant slowed me down. My back hurt. I tried squatting, but my thighs ached. I half-waddled from plant to plant, stooping, kneeling, squatting, stumbling, wiping the sweat out of my eyes, trying to pick faster. The sooner I filled my bucket, the sooner I could stand upright and walk to the edge of the field to empty my tomatoes into the bin, counting: one more bucket, two more dollars.
The Mexican workers slid down the rows like picking machines, their hands moving with rhythmic regularity and quickness. Each Mexican emptied three buckets for every one of mine. I thought about slaves in the cotton fields, became the black woman in her bonnet standing for a moment to arch her back before stooping again to fill her bag with cotton bolls. I cursed the tomato that stuck to the vine, jerking it free and flinging it into the bucket, where it lay, split and useless. Meanwhile, the Mexican in the next row had picked ten tomatoes.
I lasted two days. Then, to no one's regret, I went home to hoe my own garden and pick its tomatoes at my own pace. I didn't know how I was going to make my land payment that month, but I knew one thing: it would not be by picking tomatoes.
Next week: "A Thief in My Apple Tree"
Recipes from this post:
Gazpacho
Tomato-avocado soup with corn
Green tomato or pear relish
Tomato apricot chutney
Stuffed tomatoes
GAZPACHO
serves 8
Ingredients
5-6 cups cold tomato juice
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
1 cup green pepper
1 cucumber
2 scallions
1/2 lemon
1 lime
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon basil
dash of ground cinnamon
dash of tabasco sauce
dash of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
yogurt (optional)
Preparation
Mince the onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Dice the tomatoes and cucumber. Chop the scallions and the parsley. Juice the half lemon and the lime.
To make
Combine all the ingredients. Chill well for at least 2 hours. Add a dollop of yogurt atop each bowl of soup.
TOMATO AVOCADO SOUP WITH CORN
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2 ears fresh corn (or frozen, if you must)
4 cups tomato juice
1 cucumber
2 ripe avocados
4 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice
1 large clove garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (optional)
salt
chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Preparation
Peel and cube the cucumber. Cook the corn and cut off the kernels. You should have about 2 cups. Juice the lemon or lime. Mince or press the garlic. Peel, pit, and cube the avocados.
To make
Combine all ingredients and chill till very cold.
(My mother's recipe—also works with hard pears)
yield 10-12 pints
Ingredients
1 peck green tomatoes (12-15 tomatoes)
1 cup salt
6 green peppers
5 red peppers
6 medium onions
3 quarts vinegar
8 cups sugar
2 tablespoons celery seeds
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
1 tablespoon whole cloves
Preparation
Grind the green tomatoes with the salt. Drain in a cloth bag overnight. Chop the peppers and onions.
To make
Combine the vinegar and the sugar with the celery seeds, mustard seeds, and cloves. Add the drained green tomatoes and the chopped peppers and onions. Cook about 15 minutes. Seal in hot sterilized jars.
TOMATO APRICOT CHUTNEY
yield: 2 cups
Ingredients
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup chopped dried apricots
3-5 firm, ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preparation
Mince the garlic. Peel and grate the ginger. Chop the dried apricots. Chop the tomatoes to yield 2 cups.
To make
Sauté the garlic, ginger root, and other spices for about 1 minute in the oil, stirring. Add other ingredients and simmer uncovered on low heat until apricots are soft and the mixture is thick, about 30 minutes. If the chutney tastes like it needs more honey or more vinegar (it depends on the sweetness of your apricots and the tartness of your tomatoes), add more honey or vinegar. Chill.
STUFFED TOMATOES
This is a summer recipe only if you are as picky about good tomatoes as I am. Bland, out-of-season tomatoes gain no flavor by being baked. Most of the time we don't know the variety of supermarket tomatoes we pluck off the shelf into our baskets, but if you have a choice, either the brandywine or Ponderosa tomato does well being stuffed and baked because both are fleshy and tasty and hold their shapes well. This recipe can be made with peppers instead of tomatoes, unless you're allergic to peppers, too, in which case you'll be glad to know that it's better with tomatoes, anyway.
Ingredients
10 ounces fresh spinach (Don't substitute frozen spinach. It is greatly inferior in both taste and texture.)
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts
1/2 cup minced scallions
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped pecans (walnuts also work well)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
Set out cream cheese to soften. Drain and chop the artichoke hearts. Wash and stem the spinach. Mince the scallions, grate the cheese, and toast and chop the pecans. Preheat oven to 350º.
To make
Steam the spinach in the water that adheres from the rinsing, then drain it well. Chop it, then mix it together with the cream cheese. The warm spinach helps the cream cheese soften, though you should begin with the cheese at room temperature. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
Assemblage and baking
Ingredients
4 medium firm, ripe, summer tomatoes
The prepared stuffing
Preparation
Butter a baking dish. Core the tomatoes and scoop out the pulp, leaving a shell.
To make
Stuff the tomatoes with the filling and put them into the prepared baking dish. Pour 1/2 inch of water into the bottom of the dish to help steam the vegetables. Bake, covered, at 350º for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the filling is firm. Uncover the dish and bake a few minutes more to brown the top. Serve in a shallow bowl or a rimmed plate to catch the juices.
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