Polegreen Produce and Cat-Face Tomatoes — Donna Hopkins

*Cat-Face Tomatoes, Polegreen Produce, Mechanisville, Virginia, August 2025*

We bought fresh Lima beans and homemade vegetable soup. And Hanover tomatoes. I had to ask, just exactly, what is a cat-face tomato?

Sometimes deep crevices and scar tissue will appear on the blossom end of the tomatoes. At first glance, the bottom side of such a tomato might resemble the face of a cat. This is a surprisingly common disorder found in vegetable gardens, but little scientific research has been done to definitively determine the cause of these misshapen tomatoes. The tomatoes are still perfectly fine to eat, just not quite as pretty as the grocery store variety.