It's Over For 2008

It's over. All the spring tomatoes are pulled.

The gardener pulled all of the tomatoes except one, a winter tomato. It should have been pulled as well but the gardeners overlooked it.

We've had three nights where it has gotten below freezing. It may happen tonight as well. This morning, it got down to 28.1 degrees at Pierce College.

Even if the tomatoes somehow mature, I don't think we'd enjoy them. So I had them all pulled.

Our 2008 spring tomato total came to 4503 tomatoes.

As I prepare for the 2009 plantings, I'll be posting again. Until then, I'll be quiet until then.

Four More Plants Pulled

Weekend and today's harvest: Didn't look.

On Saturday, we had four tomato plants removed – Prairie Fire, Cherokee Chocolate, Black Plum Paste and Pierce's Pride.

Old Ivory Egg looks gray and not healthy. The cold weather got to it.

Very Frosty And Still Cold

Today's haul: Nothing, didn't try.

While it felt a couple of degrees warmer, there was thicker frost everywhere – on grass, on our cars, everywhere.

Again, this can't be good for the plants.

Very Cold In SoCal!

Today's harvest: Nothing.

It was so cold this morning I didn't look for tomatoes.

There was a light frost on both our cars. There was snow in the mountains to the north. And from what I understand it will stay cold for a while.

Now that I look, nearby Pierce College shows temperatures below freezing last night (low 30.6 F). The high was at 7:20 AM – 46.1F.

Looking further, I see a 29.4 Fahrenheit reading at 7:20 AM on the 14^th.

This is not typical Southern California weather!!

This won't be good for the tomato plants...

Cold and Windy

Yesterday's haul: Nothing.

Today's haul: Prairie Fire.

Yesterday it rained in the morning but stopped midway through the day. Last night it got colder and very windy. As my wife indicated, we're happy we got up our new fence in time!

Will our remaining tomato plants hold out? We'll see.

It's Pouring Today

Saturday's haul: Nothing.

Sunday's haul: 2 winter tomatoes.

Today's haul: Nothing.

Because my wife and I were busy on Saturday morning, none of the back yard tomatoes got pulled by the gardeners.

Our Manchester Terrier picked off the last tomato on Pierce's Pride and appeared to have picked one off of Black Plum Paste.

It's been pouring today...

That Manchester Terrier...

Yesterday's haul: Nothing. Today's haul: A good sized Aker's Plum.

Our Manchester Terrier took down (and I assume ate) the maturing Pierce's Pride as well as the one next to it. Now this plant has only one more tomato on it but it's not worth saving. Rats!!! So I harvested the Aker's Plum to keep it away from the Manchester Terrier, as well as the fact that it should be cold over the weekend. This tomato will probably ripen a bit quicker in the house.

My wife watered the pots in the back yard as well as all of the front yard.

There's a light rain falling as I type...

Google Maps Shows Our Front Yard Tomato Plants

Today's harvest: Nothing.

Some time last weekend my wife did get the back yard watered.

On a funny note – if you know our home address, you can see the tomato plants in our front yard on Google Maps. It looks like the picture was taken in early June.

The two tomatoes mentioned yesterday are definitely maturing.

Some Tomatoes Starting To Mature

Yesterday's and today's haul: Nothing.

I have noticed a Pierce's Pride and an Aker's Plum just starting to mature. They may be ready by the weekend.

Cherokee Chocolate Is Still Around

Today's haul: Nothing.

It turns out that Cherokee Chocolate did not get pulled by the gardener. I told my wife it could be pulled and I assumed that it was passed to the gardeners. It wasn't and it's still in the ground.

In the evening, our Manchester Terrier was caught by my wife taking one of the tomatoes off of Prairie Fire.

Two More Plants Pulled...

Today's harvest: A winter tomato.

We had Piccolo and what passed for Cherokee Chocolate pulled this morning. Now our oldest tomato plant is Prairie Fire. This is all the more remarkable because it is a container plant and there's a couple of reasonable looking tomatoes on it.

My wife did some more work on the front yard yesterday, putting plants in pots and whatnot.

Not Much Happening, Tomato-Wise...

Today's harvest: A small Aker's Plum.

Not much else to say or report. Things are happening, but it's just not related to our tomato harvesting...

Reached 4500 Harvested Tomatoes!

Today's haul: 2 Old Ivory Eggs.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday. Also, she used the existing tomatoes, cut them up and made a vegetarian pasta dish for dinner that was quite a treat.

With today's tomatoes, we reached 4500 harvested tomatoes from the ones planted in the spring! 3067 from the front yard, 1433 from the back yard. Still, this pales in comparison with last year's 10,990 counted tomatoes and over 11,000 harvested overall.

A Couple Unusable Winter Tomatoes

Yesterday's and today's harvest: Nothing.

I did pick a winter tomato yesterday but it was unusable. Same the day before that – one winter tomato was good and one was no good.

Somehow, my wife and the gardeners completely filled the green trash can with yard waste.

An Old Ivory Egg is slowly maturing...

More Weekend Chores...

Today's haul: A winter tomato and Piccolo.

I noticed a pretty large (for this time of the year) tomato on Aker's Plum. Also, I found the “missing” tomato on Evan's Italian Plum, and spotted another growing tomato on Black Plum Paste.

We spent most of the day doing projects in the back yard. I brought in 800 pounds of ready-mix concrete from the front driveway to the back yard. We both worked on shoring up the new fence by placing bricks and cinder blocks at the bottom of the fence to prevent the dogs from digging. Turns out there were already two holes being dug. Also, we cleaned up any of the other remains – tomato cages, trash, etc. left from the fence repair.

My wife watered the container plants in the back yard.

November Tomato Analysis

Yesterday's haul: A winter tomato and Old Ivory Egg.

Today's haul: Nothing.

We ended up harvesting 19 tomatoes for the month of November for a total of 4497 harvested tomatoes from the spring tomato plants.

We haven't had to water the plants in some time – in fact, the ground still looks saturated.

Good Tomato Harvest For Late November

Today's harvest: 2 winter tomatoes (one Jetsetter), Piccolo, Evan's Italian Plum and Black Plum Paste.

I looked for the new Evan's Italian Plum that I reported a couple days back. I couldn't find it. But I looked all over the plant and hey, there's a full and ripe Evan's Italian Plum ready for picking!

I picked the Black Plum Paste a little early because it's low to the ground and risks being picked off by our Manchester Terrier.

That reminds me...my wife and I went to Murrieta for Thanksgiving and had a real fun time. We got our Manchester Terrier back!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today's haul: Nothing.

The fence was completed and looks fantastic. There's still some work for my wife and I to do – we need to lay some brick at the bottom of the fence so the dogs can't dig their way out – but the fence is up and looks great.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Half The Fence Is Up

Today's harvest: One winter tomato and Old Ivory Egg.

We are having our first rain since the fires. At least in our area and as of now, the rain isn't strong.

The fence isn't completed yet but what's done looks beautiful. About half of the planks are up.

Old Fence Taken Down

Today's haul: Two winter tomatoes.

One of the winter tomato plants is in harvest mode. It's either Glacier or Siberian but we don't know which. This is the same plant that I harvested three other tomatoes a few days back.

An Old Ivory Egg is maturing, as well as a Black Plum Paste.

The old fence was taken out, and wooden posts set in concrete were put in place. Those posts were a ton of work.

Our Backyard Fence Is Being Replaced...

Today's harvest: Nothing.

We're finally replacing our fence on the south side of the property. This replacement could take out some or all of the tomatoes along the south side, including Evan's Italian Plum, Aker's Plum, Pierce's Pride, Cherokee Chocolate, Lime Green Salad and Black Cherry.

We'll see what happens. This fence has been a bit of a nightmare (trouble with a recalcitrant neighbor) but it may be over by the end of the week.

I forgot to mention that my wife snipped another branch off of Old Ivory Egg, another branch with growing tomatoes on it. Argh!

Four More Tomato Plants Pulled

Saturday's haul: Nothing.

The gardeners pulled Sioux, Salisaw Cafe, Black Krim (back yard) and Kellogg's Breakfast.

Today's harvest: Three winter tomatoes.

We did notice a new tomato on Evan's Italian Plum! My wife noticed it yesterday.

Superwoman!

Yesterday: Didn't look for tomatoes, didn't feel well all day.

Today's harvest: A winter tomato and Piccolo.

However, the winter tomato had damage on it and had to be discarded.

My wife watered the back yard, moved a couple roses in the front yard, watered “Alongi Row” and started working on our second bedroom!

The second bedroom became the catch-all room when we moved in together. Boxes were floor to ceiling in this room when I first moved in. Since then, I broke down all the boxes, put up my bookcases, hooked up a computer and two printers and organized things to a degree. Trouble was, there simply isn't enough room for all our things, even after reorganizing the garage. Bags and containers are littered on the floor. When people would visit we would invariably close the door to this room.

My wife, bless her heart, started dusting this room yesterday afternoon in an effort to begin reorganizing what's left in this room.

Come to think of it, my wife went with our neighbor to buy wood for our replacement fence.

What didn't she do yesterday?

Closing In On 4500 Tomatoes For The Year...

Today's haul: A winter tomato and Piccolo.

My wife watered the front yard early in the day.

Slowly but surely we're closing in on 4500 tomatoes for the year. I'm not counting the winter tomatoes in this total.

Cleaning Up

Today's harvest: Nothing.

Not much to report regarding the tomatoes...a couple of Piccolos are maturing. Aker's Plum, which is sprawling on the concrete walkway, is getting marked by the Manchester Terrier.

My wife spent a lot of time in and out of the house getting rid of the ashes from the fires. It took all day.

Catching Up...

Friday's haul: Nothing.

We had a medical issue to deal with in the morning, which didn't leave time to look for tomatoes in the morning.

My wife watered the front yard.

Saturday's harvest: A winter tomato and Cherokee Chocolate.

The air was very smoky because of the local fires. The gardeners came early, around 8:30 AM but we sent them home. It was simply too unhealthy for them to work in the garden. Therefore, the plants to be pulled will live another week unless my wife pulls them.

I did take a good look at the tomato plants, though. I decided that Evan's Italian Plum should not be pulled, as the new growth (from the recent heat spell) looks really healthy. Black Plum Paste has two or three tomatoes on it. Black Cherry has a tomato on it that's too high for the Manchester Terrier to get at. The Lime Green Salad in the back yard has at least three tomatoes on it. Old Ivory Egg has several tomatoes on it.

Sunday's haul: Prairie Fire.

Again, the air was too smoggy and smoky to go outside for any real length of time. Our two dogs got a bath. Since we were near the plants, I noticed that Pierce's Pride had a second tomato growing and Aker's Plum has at least three tomatoes growing on it (albeit easily picked off by the Manchester Terrier). It looks like we will reach the 4500 mark before the end of the year.

By the way, while the tomatoes aren't as delicious as they were in July, there's still good enough. My wife made a great meat sauce last week using the harvested tomatoes. It was delicious!

Today's haul: Piccolo.

You should see the ash sitting on our tomato plants.

Hey, at least we aren't anywhere near the fires.

Pulled Lime Green Salad

Today's haul: Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday and did more work on the roses. In the process, she took out the Lime Green Salad in the “koi pond”. After trimming it down it didn't do much at all, so it was reasonable to pull it out.

Took My Wife To A Hockey Game

Today's harvest: Nothing.

We do have a maturing winter tomato and a maturing Cherokee Chocolate tomato. The Cherokee Chocolate may be ready tomorrow.

I took my wife and a friend to their first hockey game last night. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Dallas Stars in a shootout. Everyone had fun.

More Tomato Plants Can Be Pulled...

Today's haul: Old Ivory Egg.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday.

There appear to be several more tomato plants that can be pulled. One of the good producers over the last few weeks, Evan's Italian Plum, appears to be done.

I noticed that Pierce's Pride has another tomato growing on it.

Back From Vacation

Today's harvest: Nothing.

On Saturday, however, I did get to harvest 2 Aker's Plums, 2 Piccolos and Evan's Italian Plum.

On Sunday, I harvested Prairie Fire and Evan's Italian Plum.

Yesterday, my wife took out Kimberly and Polish Pastel. Unfortunately, while cleaning up the roses in the front yard she also decided to cut a wayward branch on Old Ivory Egg. Trouble was, this branch had a half dozen tomatoes on it.

On Vacation!

Today's harvest: One winter tomato.

My wife and I will be on vacation starting tomorrow morning. There won't be any updates to this blog until a week from Sunday at the earliest.

So our October tomato totals (for our summer plants) totals 43 tomatoes. That's slightly higher than my estimate for the month.

We're closing in on the 4500 estimate for the year but still have a ways to go.

Two More Evan's Italian Plums Harvested

Today's haul: 2 Evan's Italian Plums.

One of the tomatoes really wasn't fit for human consumption (very leathery skin), so I gave it to our Manchester Terrier.

My wife watered the front yard.

One More Tomato Harvested

Today's harvest: Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife watered the back yard plants yesterday.

Kimberly fell down again and I instructed my wife that she can pull it if she likes.

More Of The Same...

Today's haul: Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces).

Not much else to say, short of we're harvesting some good sized Evan's Italian Plums...I did notice another new tomato on Old Ivory Egg this morning.

Harvested More Evan's Italian Plums...

Saturday's harvest: Evan's Italian Plum.

My wife watered the front yard on Friday which included the tomato plants.

Sunday's harvest: Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces).

The gardeners did a lot of trimming in the garden on Saturday, filling up the green trash can again.

My wife and I went out to the garden in the evening. We noticed three new tomatoes on Old Ivory Egg!

No More Black Cherry Tomatoes

Today's and yesterday's harvest: Nothing.

I propped up Kimberly this morning.

Before I went out of state, Black Cherry had seven tomatoes on it. However, they were only a couple inches off of the ground. And they couldn't be moved from that position.

When I came back there were three tomatoes on it. Today, there are none. The dogs got to them!

Kimberly Knocked Over...

Today's harvest: Evan's Italian Plum.

The tomato was mature, but too leathery for human consumption. So I gave it to our Manchester Terrier.

While I was outside, the Santa Ana winds knocked the Kimberly tomato plant over. I didn't have time to fix it, that's for tonight. But it doesn't look damaged by the fall.

Getting the Gardens In Order...

Today's haul: Sioux.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday.

Also, she's done tons of work trying to get the garden in shape, especially the front yard. For the last four weeks, our green trash can garden recyclables has been overflowing.

I'm Back!

Today's harvest includes 2 Piccolos, 2 Evan's Italian Plums (one 7.5 ounces, even this late in the season...), Old Ivory Egg and Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife pulled Thessaloniki on Wednesday only to discover that it had two tomatoes on it! This isn't quite as bad as it sounds. I had kept Thessaloniki around because I swore I saw tomatoes on it but I could never find them. This went on for weeks. The plant was starting to lean again, looking more and more fragile (though green) and so on. So my wife decided to pull it, if for no other reason than it was this big large, lurching, ugly tomato plant in the middle of the front yard surrounded by either bare dirt or recently manicured rose bushes. It's understandable.

Also, we got a tomato from one of the winter plants – I think it was Oregon Spring.

My wife watered the back yard yesterday.

Going Out Of Town...

And today's harvest includes: 3 Evan's Italian Plums, 2 Prairie Fires, Piccolo and a nice ripe Aker's Plum.

In regards to pulling Kellogg's Breakfast on Monday, I was wrong. That's still in the ground.

My wife and I replaced one of the cages for one of the winter tomatoes.

There won't be any updates from me from now until Monday. I'll be out of town until Sunday night.

Catching Up...

Catching up...

On Saturday I picked Piccolo. Also, we picked our first winter tomato, but I'm a bit embarrassed to say I'm not sure which plant it is. It's either Siberian or Glacier but I'm not sure which.

My wife watered the front yard.

The gardeners pulled five tomato plants in the morning: Red Yellow Cap, Carbon, Italian Market Wonder, Painted Ukrainian, Kellogg's Breakfast and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken.

In the evening the Manchester Terrier knocked off our Pierce's Pride tomato. It wasn't nearly ripe enough to be salvageable.

On Sunday, I picked Piccolo and Evan's Italian Plum. My birthday was on Sunday. There was a Saturday night dinner at a Korean restaurant and Sunday brunch with relatives.

Because I got up late today I didn't check for tomatoes. The air was very dry, it was windy, and several fires were going in the hills.

Had I Been More Observant...

Today's harvest: 2 Evan's Italian Plums.

Had I been more observant, I could have picked at least one of these tomatoes, keeping the harvest streak alive. At least one and perhaps both could have been considered mature yesterday.

My wife completed the back yard watering yesterday.

It looks like I will get rid of a lot of old tomato plants this weekend. Stay tuned.

Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing

Today's harvest...nothing!

We had nothing available to harvest today. The last day where we didn't harvest a tomato was May 23.

My wife watered the north side of the back yard yesterday.

Yesterday I was expecting to pick a ripe Kimberly but never found it. In the evening, my wife found our Manchester Terrier with, you guessed it, that tomato.

Not Much To Say...

Today's haul: A small Prairie Fire.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday.

The 11000 Pounds Meme Continues To Spread...

The incorrect 11,000 pounds of tomatoes story continues to spread. Other links can be found here...

ArcaMax

MarketWatch (The Wall Street Journal!)

ChristianHumor

Moldova

The Money Times

Platinum Lounge

The San Francisco Chronicle Picks Up LA Times Tomato Story!

The San Francisco Chronicle picked up the Los Angeles Times tomato story. The story printed in the Chronicle on September 25, page B-8. The on line link can be found here.

The Ashland Daily Tidings Picks Up LA Times Tomato Story!

The Ashland Daily Tidings in Oregon picked up the Los Angeles Times tomato story. It appears that the article was printed in this newspaper on September 19. The link to the story can be found here.

The title of the article is “Man grows almost 11,000 tomatoes in backyard”. Uh, no, that's not true. Most of the ripe tomatoes are picked from the front yard.

Busy Monday

Today's harvest: Piccolo and Cherokee Chocolate.

No news to report – my wife was busy all day and I had work and our computer user group board meeting in the evening.

I will be posting additional links to the tomato story soon.

Running Out Of Ripe Tomatoes...

Today's haul: 2 Cherokee Chocolates.

My wife continues to work on her roses and reshaping the front yard.

I don't remember any tomatoes ready to be harvested. We may have nothing to pick tomorrow. I was tempted to leave a Cherokee Chocolate on the vine for tomorrow but with my luck, the Manchester Terrier would get it. They were ready, anyway.

Two More Plants Pulled...

Today's harvest: Piccolo and Evan's Italian Plum.

Green Grape and Black Krim (front yard) were removed by the gardeners yesterday. Now the “corner office” has no spring tomato plants. We took the two cages from these pulled plants and placed them on the last two winter tomatoes.

Wife Continues Gardening...

Today's harvest: Piccolo, Cherokee Chocolate and Kimberly.

Earlier this morning, I tomato taped three tomato plants in the back yard.

My wife did a ton of gardening work in the front yard – she continues to exert effort into getting the front yard back in shape.

More Plants To Be Pulled This Weekend

Today's harvest: 2 Evan's Italian Plums, Aker's Plum.

It looks like my wife watered most of the front yard again.

My guess is will pull three or four more tomato plants this weekend. On the potential chopping block are Red Yellow Cap, Black Krim (front yard), Green Grape and Italian Market Wonder.

The Manchester Terrier Gets A Caterpillar!

Today's harvest: Evan's Italian Plum, Lime Green Salad (back yard) and Kimberly.

I watered the winter tomatoes this morning.

My wife continues to do yard work in the front and back yards. She's getting our garden back in shape!

I've begun working out again (I stopped for about a month or so) and will try to get the ironing caught up again...

My wife caught our Manchester Terrier with a caterpillar. What's notable about this is he got it himself off of the vine!

One Tomato, One Caterpillar

Today's haul: Evan's Italian Plum.

Also, I found a full sized caterpillar on Evan's Italian Plum.

Yesterday my wife watered the front yard.

This morning I hammered in a few large stakes for the plants that were leaning.

September Tomato Analysis, October Estimate

Today's harvest: Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife watered the back yard yesterday.

We ended up with 204 tomatoes pulled for the month of September 2008. I never got around to posting it, but I had estimated anywhere from 220 to 300 tomatoes for the month.

We've now reached 4435 tomatoes for the year.

As for October 2008, well there aren't that many tomatoes left to harvest. It's hard to make an estimate, but I'll try. 25 – 35 tomatoes for October 2008. In a perfect world, we'll do better than that estimate, as there's probably more than 35 unripe tomatoes on the vines right now. But the Manchester Terrier can get to some of them, etc. We'll see.

Get Better!

Today's harvest: 3 Piccolos, Evan's Italian Plum.

There isn't a lot to say, short of the fact my wife isn't feeling well. Get better soon!!

Three Plants Pulled

Today's haul includes Piccolo, Thessaloniki, Old Ivory Egg and Cherokee Chocolate.

Yesterday Arkansas Traveler, Golden Jubilee and Stupice were pulled. There was one more to be pulled – it was a last minute decision to pull it – but our green trash can was too full. So it's still in the ground.

3 Tomatoes, One More Caterpillar

Today's haul includes 2 Old Ivory Eggs and Piccolo.

I got rid of a full sized caterpillar on Painted Ukrainian.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday.

It looks like I'll have the misnamed Stupice tomato plant (we don't know what it is, just that it's not Stupice) pulled by the gardeners today, as well as the other two mentioned previously.

Blanched Tomatoes Image

A while back I promised to post an image of our blanched tomatoes. It looked very appealing and made for a terrific sauce. Here's the image:

Yum!