To Market, to Market!: Ridinp Shotgun with the Tomato Man

摘要

It was a little after four in the morning when the tractor-trailer careened over into our lane. Tim Stark and I were in his pickup truck on 1-78, about an hour and a half east of our destination, the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City. In the back we had five hundred pounds of vine-ripened tomatoes. Somewhere ahead of us in the darkness Stark's other, larger box truck lumbered along carrying an additional 3,500 pounds, along with chilies and okra. With any luck, a good portion of those tomatoes would be sold that day to customers at Greenmarket as well as at a couple dozen of Manhattan's top restaurants. But first we had to survive the journey into the city from Stark's farm in rural eastern Pennsylvania. "You always have to watch out for theswerving trucks at this time of the morning," Stark said matter-of-factly as the truck that had nearly cut us off veered back into its own lane and then swayed onto the shoulder. Seizing the moment. Stark gunned his engine, saying, "You want to pass them as fast as you can and pray."