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Without workers, the juicy beefsteak tomatoes that are ripening and must be hand-harvested will rot on the vines.

Nor is it a juicy hunk of a beefsteak tomato or a pleasantly plump eggplant.

"For me, a beefsteak really shines as a slicing tomato," Botta says.

For tomatoes, I like a bunch of different varieties — mostly the famous San Marzano tomatoes for sauce and canning, plus beefsteak, red and yellow cherry tomatoes for eating fresh.

I hope that his customers followed this advice, otherwise instead of juicy beefsteak tomatoes in August, they would have dead plants in May.