Tomatoes Arrive At Hey! Hot Dog In Joliet, Elsewhere

JOLIET, IL — And now for the rest of the story. In addition to selling home-grown sweetcorn, Hey! Hot Dog is now selling fresh red tomatoes as well as cantaloupes and eggplant. Thursday marked the first time this summer that Hey! Hot Dog had the tomatoes available for purchase.

The tomatoes are grown by Hey! Hot Dog employee Lauren Turk, who farms in the Plainfield area. And she wants everyone to know about her fruit and vegetable wagon that is available Monday through Saturday at the Plainfield Park District's Eaton Preserve on 135th Street.

She has employees who staff it for her, she said Friday.

In Joliet, shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday, the Hey! Hot Dog produce wagon on Joliet's Ruby Street still had plenty of sweet corn to sell, but the freshly picked tomatoes were practically sold out.

Hey! Hot Dog has been selling sweet corn the past two weeks and owner B.J. Uedelhofen also has a produce stand in Shorewood, along Black Road.

After two days of selling tomatoes, Uedenholfen had this to say to Joliet Patch on Friday:

"We're selling out real quick. That's all Lauren. I just grow the sweet corn."

Turk said her farm produce wagon in Plainfield on 135th Street opens around 10:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday and stays open "until we sell out."

For the past two days, Hey! Hot Dog has been selling "about five bushels a day. And that's all that's been available to pick so far," Uedelhofen explained. "They're just not ripe to pick yet. There's a ton of them out in the field."

"This year has been kind of crazy in a good way with tomatoes," Turk explained. "Last year, I would pick about six per plant. This year, 40, which is insane, which I'm very, very happy about."

As for next week, Turk expects she will have "five to seven bushels" available per day at the Hey! Hot Dog vegetable stand.

"I just pick them when they're ripe," she said. "And I pick every other day."

Joliet Patch asked Uedelhofen to name the other fruits and vegetables still growing in the field and when customers can expect to buy them.

"Watermelons are still about three weeks out," he predicted. "Peppers are about the same, three weeks out."

The Hey! Hot Dog produce stand will continue to stay open until early October. It opens Monday through Saturday around 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and stays open until the produce is gone.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

Hey! Hot Dog Sweet Corn Stand Opens: Fruits, Veggies On Way