If there is one crop that farmers in the Garden State of New Jersey and neighboring Pennsylvania are known for it's the summer tomato. This year, however, patrons visiting local farm stands were greeted with near-empty produce bins and high prices for the few tomatoes that were available.
The typical growing season for tomatoes in the region begins in early July and peaks toward the end of July through August. However, due to extreme heat waves and droughts this summer, peak tomato season did not come until the final weeks of October.
Ella Coscia, the Assistant to the Director of Farming at Snipes Farm in Morrisville, PA says, "We had a shortage of field tomatoes, pretty bad until about two weeks ago."
Coscia, continues, "The tomato shortage impacted us greatly. Based on our crop plan, we planned to have a certain amount, and a certain yield coming from our field to fulfill these contracts that we have. And with the heat waves and different issues with irrigation and just the plants just in general not liking the heat, it throws off that whole estimated crop yield."
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