Community-supported agriculture an investment with gourmet dividends
By Kate Jonuska

You haven’t lived, says Susan Gordon, until you’ve eaten a ripe tomato fresh off the vine, an authentic, unadulterated tomato that bursts vibrant and sweet in your mouth.

“It’s a pretty eye-opening experience,” says the director of Venetucci Farm on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, a friendly woman with muddy boots and a green thumb who farms and lives on the historic 200-acre property with her family.

A Venetucci tomato won’t be perfectly round or perfectly red; some of the heirloom varieties are tinted orange, yellow or green. It won’t be doused in chemicals or transported across oceans. But the difference in flavor and quality will be phenomenal, Gordon assures — and the experts agree.

“It tastes like a tomato, which is a wonderful thing. For one month out of the year, they taste so great, you don’t need a thing on them,” says Eric Viedt chef and co-owner of The Margarita at Pine Creek restaurant, which has used Venetucci as a local supplier for several years. “We love using their products.”

Gordon, who is known for pulling produce out of the ground to slice samples for school kids, explains that store-bought produce has been heavily manipulated. “Things are bred now to be able to be shipped long distances and to have a longer shelf life. The trade off with that, of course, is freshness and taste.”

CLICK HERE to read the full text of this article, which published in the March/April edition of Colorado Springs Style.