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Old August 2, 2012   #9
habitat_gardener
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: California Central Valley
Posts: 2,540
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I haven't grown currant tomatoes, but I have grown lots of cherry tomatoes. I pick them with a little bit of stem attached, because otherwise it's hard to pick without injuring the tomato. So I'd try to sell the restaurant on the idea that they'll get fresher currant tomatoes in better condition if they are delivered as trusses. It's analogous to the way grapes are sold. You don't want to buy single grapes, because they go bad too fast. You buy the whole "truss," and then carefully pick the individual fruits as they are needed. (Or you can provide individually picked tomatoes, but charge a premium.)

And rather than providing them in pint containers, I'd find a flatter container, so you could put one or maybe two layers of trusses. If you know the restaurant is buying a lot, you could use something like berry boxes (the ones that hold 6 or 12 pints), with the tomatoes placed directly in the box. You can stack these boxes, but you have to do it carefully. If you don't need to stack them, you could even use cut-down boxes. I get a lot of these and use them to dry tomato seeds (can stack them by offsetting) and herbs, as well as to organize tomatoes I've picked. Here's a photo of one from a couple weeks ago.
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