David Hunsaker and Barbara Hollingsworth: Village Garden tomatoes

The world's best tomatoes come from Hanover County, Virginia. And
some of Hanover's best tomatoes are grown at Village Garden Farm.


"Amazing soil here," founding farmer David Hunsaker said about
his Hanover farm tucked away on 10 acres near Kersey Creek. "We
are east of the fall line in Hanover County. There's plenty of
Hanover County that really does not have our soil. If you're west
of I-95, you're on the other side of the fall line. And you don't
have this glorious, coastal plain soil that we have."


It is that soil, Hunsaker and his partner Barbara Hollingsworth,
said, that helps keep Hanover tomatoes consistently great.


"You eat with your eyes as much as your tongue. So if you've got
these beautiful fruits there and the textures are perfect, and
the colors are beautiful. That's certainly going to amplify it,"
Hunsaker said. "I don't know that you'd really be able to sit
down on a blind tasting and have a clue [whether or not a tomato
was from Hanover]. But if you found tomatoes that didn't taste as
good. They're probably not a Hanover tomato."


A recent write-up on Food and Wine went into great detail about
the soil that helps Hanover produce "the best heirloom tomatoes."


Over the last decade or so, Village Garden has grown from a
farmer's market mainstay to one of the most sought-after
providers of tomatoes for Central Virginia chefs.


"It's really hard to keep up," Hunsaker said. "We continually
have new people who hit us up. And depending upon the harvest
time, it's like, well, we may have some for you in a few weeks."


The garden recently teamed up with several Virginia restaurants
to pair their Hanover tomatoes with Barboursville Vineyards wine
in a series of Supper, Summer, and Somm dinners.


Village Garden tomatoes are also featured in several of Duke's
Mayo #HotTomatoSummer dishes available this week at participating
Richmond restaurants.


Learn about all the events, the tomatoes, and David and Barbara
on this week's episode of Eat It, Virginia!


This week's episode is sponsored by Duke's.


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