Farmers' market opens Darren Vollmar weighs vine-ripened tomatoes from Ledgeview Gardens for Murrie Donovan of Green Bay on the opening day of the Green Bay Farmers Market (photo by Tina Gohr). By Tina M. Gohr News-Chronicle While most gardeners this time of year are just beginning to marvel at the blossoms on their tomato plants, Ledgeview Gardens was selling the plump fruit at the Green Bay Farmers Market on Saturday morning. And selling them fast - more than 600 pounds. "This has been one of the best opening days I've seen so far,'' said tomato vendor Joe Vollmar of Ledgeview. "Beautiful weather. People are ready to get out.'' So how are the Vollmars able to sell beefsteaks the size of softballs two months ahead of time? They planted their seeds in mid-January before shifting the 3-week-old seeds into greenhouses. The fruits of their labor? Ledgeview Farms workers are picking one-and-a-half tons of hydroponic tomatoes a week. The tomatoes are so deep red and portly sweet that they're ready to burst their skins. "Not only are we able to control the temperature but also what the tomatoes get fed in the system," said Vollmar. "It's all computer controlled. What you find in the supermarkets now are tomatoes that are picked green and shipped to brokerage houses, where they are naturally gassed with ethylene that turns them red,'' he explained. The Ledgeview tomatoes stay on the vine until maturity. A vine-ripened tomato turns red from the inside out. A store-brought tomato doesn't have this opportunity to develop. The tomatoes may have taken the spotlight Saturday, but there were plenty of cool-weather crops such as spinach, leaf lettuces, mustard greens, baby beets and tops, green onions, cilantro, Swiss chard, snow peas and tops, radishes, asparagus, dill, kohlrabi, and strawberries. Not limited to vegetables, vendors were offering bison, emu, choice beef, smoked turkey and lamb. The market runs 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays between Cherry and Pine streets in downtown Green Bay until Oct. 25.