Ugh...That Manchester Terrier...

Today's numbers are: 13 Red Currants, 10 Salisaw Cafes, 8 Cherokee Chocolates, 5 Kimberlys, 2 Gregori's Altai, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Piccolos, Stupice, Sioux, Black Plum Paste, Black Cherry, Red Robin, Zhezha, Thessaloniki, Black From Tula (6 ounces) and Red Yellow Cap (one pound, or 16 ounces).

We picked more back yard tomatoes today than front yard tomatoes, 27 to 24.

Our Manchester Terrier picked off a large tomato last night. It looked like a Black Krim. But as I was picking the back yard tomatoes, I noticed a maturing Carbon was missing. I checked the organic waste bin and yes, there was a maturing dark tomato with three bite marks in it. It was about seven ounces in weight. From memory it was about a foot off the ground.

Later on I noticed the ground around the Carbon tomato plant had been dug up. The paper mulch was scattered everywhere. I had noticed a similar situation around the Lime Green Salad in the back yard and I think he picked one off there as well in the past.

The Harvest Numbers Are Dwindling...

Today's harvest includes 9 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Cherokee Chocolates, 6 Red Currants, 2 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Piccolos, 2 Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifters (one six ounces), 2 Paul Robesons (9.5 ounces and 7 ounces), Kimberly, Zhezha (front yard), Big Rainbow (6 ounces), Thessaloniki, Black From Tula, Lime Green Salad (from the “koi pond”), Husky Cherry Red and Gregori's Altai.

Last night I watered the front and back yards.

My wife said that our Manchester Terrier picked off another tomato, probably another unripe Arkansas Traveler.

The harvest numbers have started to fall again. Here are the last five day's numbers: 73-51-57-43-37.

My wife made a tomato sauce from most of the tomatoes harvested over the past few days. She said he used around six pounds of tomatoes. The sauce tastes great! We'll try it tonight over pasta.

Scott Daigre of Tomatomania! Stops By...

And today's haul includes 12 Red Currants, 9 Stupice tomatoes, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 3 White Bush, 2 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Paul Robesons (10 ounces and six ounces), 2 Thessalonikis, Piccolo, Husky Cherry Red, Sioux, Italian Market Wonder, Cherokee Chocolate, Prairie Fire, Black From Tula, Jaune Flamme and Zhezha (front yard).

Scott Daigre came by and visited us last evening. Scott runs the Tomatomania events and we were very happy he stopped by.

Of course, I showed him all of our tomato plants. He was surprised by the size of our 15 ounce Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter that we picked on the 12^th of the month (and is now overripe). He verified that our Cherokee Chocolate wasn't that – as he put it, it's “obviously wrong” -- but also identified another mislabel – Stupice. He instantly identified that this plant isn't Stupice. Here's an image of a Stupice tomato and he's right – what I'm picking isn't Stupice. I'll do some research and see if I can identify it.

Scott couldn't believe how tiny our Red Currants are, but this is due to an exhausted plant. The plant is almost totally brown now, but I think it will come back a little bit.

Scott is also having a late harvest this year. Scott also thought that our best harvest is yet to come.

There was a ripe Arkansas Traveler ready to be picked when I showed Scott the plant last night. By the morning it was gone. The Manchester Terrier got another one...

What's funny is that not only will we not pick as many tomatoes in July 2008 compared to July 2007, we're on a pace not to pick as many as last month's totals. So far we've harvested 844 tomatoes this month, last month, 1538 tomatoes were harvested.

Scott has a lot of ideas for expanding Tomatomania. Good luck, we wish you well!

Aunt Ruby's German Green -- "Phenomenal"

And this morning's harvest includes 22 Red Currants, 6 Stupice, 5 Piccolos, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Sioux (including a six ounce and seven ounce tomato), 3 Paul Robesons (including a six ounce and seven ounce tomato), 2 Kimberlys, 2 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Black Cherries, 2 Green Grapes, an Italian Market Wonder, Golden Jubilee, Arkansas Traveler, Garden Peach and a 6.5 ounce Gregori's Altai.

Today is the highest back yard harvest total for this year: 23 tomatoes.

My wife spent a lot of time in the garden last night. She pulled out the Taxi and Patio tomato plants. She was concerned over my reaction to this but the plants have been non-productive for some time. I could have pulled them a week ago.

Gregori's Altai looks a lot like last year's Gargantua. Could they be the same?

I brought some of our smaller tomatoes to our computer user group, LA Fox. Almost all of them were taken. One person couldn't stop raving about the Aunt Ruby's German Green that I brought to our LA Fox board meeting, calling it “phenomenal”. I'm afraid that someone may have picked off a few of the unripe Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes in the past. I remember some of these tomatoes having a good size and now I simply don't see them.

Another Day...

Today's haul includes 23 Red Currants, 4 Thessalonikis, 3 Piccolos, 3 Paul Robesons (one 7 ounces), 3 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Black From Tulas (both 6.5 ounces), 2 Stupice, 2 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Sioux, a Cherokee Chocolate, Kimberly, Arkansas Traveler, Prairie Fire, Zhezha, Jaune Flamme and Husky Cherry Red tomatoes.

Sunday night I did a tiny bit of watering in the back yard and last night I completed the rest of the watering in the back yard.

I did a little bit of tomato taping as well.

Red Yellow Cap Image. Three Tomatoes In One!

This is an image of our large Red Yellow Cap. This tomato weighed 23.5 ounces. It's three tomatoes fused as one, similar to Siamese Twins.

Odd. Tasty, but odd.

It isn't Cherokee Chocolate....

This is an image of a ripe tomato that was labeled Cherokee Chocolate. It clearly isn't that tomato.

The measurement from the top to the bottom of the tomato, not counting the stem attachment, is almost exactly one inch.

Does anyone have an idea what this tomato is?

Harvested Three New Tomatoes Today!

Today's harvest includes 39 Red Currants, 5 Cherokee Chocolates, 4 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Piccolos, 2 Green Grapes, 2 Gregori's Altai (one 6.5 ounces), 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Zhezhas (front yard), 2 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Italian Market Wonders, Stupice, Kimberly, Black From Tula, Paul Robeson (8.5 ounces), Jaune Flamme and three new ones: 3 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Snow White Cherries and a Lime Green Salad from the “koi pond”!

We have three Lime Green Salad plants, two in the front yard and one in the back. We've now harvested from the two front yard plants. The one in the back had a tomato that was near the ground and should have been ripe about now, but I think our Manchester Terrier picked it off. Speaking of which, last evening he stood guard over a ripening Cherokee Chocolate that he had just picked.

The Snow White tomatoes don't look like the Snow White tomatoes that we're used to. There appears to be something wrong with the plant. It's grown to about three, maybe three and a half feet and has simply stopped growing. Last year's Snow White plant grew to seven feet tall and was tremendously prodigious.

Harvested Gregori's Altai Tomato!

Sunday's haul included 27 Red Currants, 9 Salisaw Cafes, 5 Piccolos, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Black From Tulas (including one at 7 ounces), 2 Paul Robesons (one 9 ounces), 2 Jaune Flammes, 2 front yard Zhezhas, 2 Stupices, 2 Black Cherries, a Lime Green Salad, Green Grape and a new one: 2 Gregori's Altai tomatoes (one 8 ounces)!

My wife went cut up some of our tomatoes for a party she attended on Saturday night. All the tomatoes were eaten. That's a good sign – they must taste good!

Also, she asked other people at the party about their tomato plants. Apparently, three other people were growing tomatoes as well, and all three of them reported that they weren't doing as well as last year. In terms of sheer quantity and bulk, that matches our experience this year.

On Saturday night I watered the front yard.

I keep meaning to post that my wife and I tried one of our Lime Green Salad tomatoes. In a word, it tastes refreshing. We also tried Salisaw Cafe and really liked it.