July has arrived on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Hot as Hades! However. Most folks are talking about when they will be able to eat that first red, ripe, local tomato.
Though not as abundant as previously on the Eastern Shore, tomato remains king. King for the gardeners and king for the small truck crop growers and the road side stands.
You have never tasted a real tomato, until you have bitten into a real, homegrown Eastern Shore tomato. Tray a tomato sandwich, just a slice of tomato between two slices of white bread, salt and pepper and mayo. Now that’s eating.
As a youngster, working in one of the three working tomato factories in a small Eastern Shore town, my first job was to keep the tomato unloading conveyor belt unjammed end until the freshly picked tomatoes had gone through the scalding hot water to loosen the skins, before peeling. A salt shaker was always by my side and many ripe tomatoes were consumed on the spot… A hot job, yes, but it had its benefits, including the best ready to eat tomatoes around… that job helped me save up enough money to attend Washington College. Tomato factories, pickle factories, and strawberry plants all contributed significantly to my opportunity to attend America’10th oldest college, just sixty miles from home.
Tomatoes were, for a long period of time, a big component of the Eastern Shore economy. From the 1890’s to approximately the early 1960’s the tomato canning industry was a mainstay of the Eastern Shore culture and economy.
In the good ole summer time, for many Eastern Shore young people, working in the canneries provided monetary compensation, social dynamics, and a place to observe and learn.
The tomato canning industry began in Baltimore and moved to the Eastern Shore in the late 1800’s. In 1889, a Baltimore – published trade directory listed over 40 tomato canneries operating in eight counties on the Eastern Shore.
Today, the fields which once produced tons of tomatoes are planted in corn, wheat and soybeans.; the canning houses demolished; the pickers and workers mostly deceased.
But, the Eastern Shore tomato prevails. Still found in fields, gardens and at roadside stands, they are there waiting for the picking and eating.
This is a poem I recently wrote about the experience of a tomato factory education:
Peeling Tomatoes
Black women, with sharp knives
Whisking the bright red skin from a tomato
Singing hymns reflecting long heldfaith.
Waiting for Saturday and the brown pay envelope
Working in hot summer, waiting for cooler breezes to appear
Nourishing souls and bodies
//essay-writ.org”;.
Jim Scoggins says
I sent this to my 83 yr old mother-in-law in NY who was raised in St. Michaels and loves summer tomatoes. She loved it as did her son that was here last weekend and must have eaten 30 from our garden.
Jim Scoggins says
One addition: The illustration is absolutely phenomenal.