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One of the things that I've noticed about the heirloom tomatoes over the past 30 years
really is that they're becoming more popular and the demand for them has risen and the
price for them has risen over that time. They're a better quality tomato, they taste
better and they sell for a whole lot more money.
This is the traditional way of growing tomatoes, at least these days. So what we're trying
to do here is see if growing them in that high tunnel over there is worth the expense
of the high tunnel in the sense that you get a higher quality plant even though you may
not get the yield. What we've got here are seven different varieties
that we're trying to look at. What we're trying to do here is figure out
how much is yield reduced by growing them under this canopy but then how much better
are the tomatoes. Basically, what a high tunnel does is it increases
that growing season and so it gives you an opportunity to bring crops in earlier, when
they're more profitable. I'm an economist by training and I like to
see farmers do well and I like to work on issues that might help farmers do a little
bit better.