Saturday, September 20, 2008

Seattle Times Picks Up Tomato Story


The Seattle Times picked up on the Los Angeles Times tomato article. The Seattle Times on line article can be found here.

Can anyone verify if it made the newspaper? If so, can I get a copy?

Pulled Five Tomato Plants


Today's harvest includes 2 Piccolos, 2 Old Ivory Eggs and Evan's Italian Plum.

My wife noted last night that our Manchester Terrier has gotten thinner. I've noticed how a lot of the smaller tomatoes are disappearing, such as Stupice, Salisaw Cafe and Italian Market Wonder. I remember tomatoes on all of these plants and suddenly there are few or none.

I also found three caterpillars, one on Pierce's Pride, one on Salisaw Cafe and one on Green Grape. None were full sized.

We also had several tomato plants pulled this morning. Gone are Jaune Flamme, Yellow Brandywine – Platfoot Strain (which means we got zero tomatoes from this plant), Black From Tula, Zhezha (back yard) and the Zhezha in the container.


Friday, September 19, 2008

The 11000 Pounds Meme Spreads...


Here's three more links to the incorrect 11,000 pounds of tomatoes story...

WebIndia123

CreanWorld

Vern Beachy


Reached 4400 Harvested Tomatoes!


And today's haul includes 2 Piccolos, Green Grape, Black Plum Paste and Black Krim (back yard).

I found a full sized caterpillar on Pierce's Pride. It had done some pretty good damage, leaving bare stems behind it.

My wife made a sauce with the tomatoes last night. I took a couple of pictures of the blanched tomatoes. I'll get an image on this blog some time next week.

I waterd the back yard and taped up Kellogg's Breakfast, which has a bad lean.

We reached over 4400 harvested tomatoes for this year!


Thursday, September 18, 2008

Fading Away...


Today's harvest: Piccolo, Evan's Italian Plum and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken.

Not much to report, as you can see. But this is typical for this time of year, given that the valley is so hot.

It looks like I'll have Black From Tula pulled this weekend.


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

A Dwindling Harvest...


And today's haul includes 3 Piccolos, Salisaw Cafe, Sioux, Black Krim (back yard) and Black Cherry.

I forgot to mention that my mother in law took the skin off and blanched all the harvested tomatoes over the weekend. My wife was thrilled when she found out.

My mother in law took the Pacific Surfliner (Amtrak) up from San Juan Capistrano to Chatsworth on Friday. It was the first time she tried this train and she absolutely loved it. However, about a half hour later the devastating train crash occurred just north of the Chatsworth station.

The Chatsworth station was to reopen on Monday afternoon, but was later delayed. So on Monday afternoon I took her to Union Station to catch the train back to San Juan Capistrano.

I think I may have Jaune Flamme pulled this weekend. It was getting new growth and a couple blooms but I think the recent heat wave burned out the blooms.


UPI Makes A Gaffe...


The United Press International picked up on the Los Angeles Times tomato article. Trouble is, they changed one fact, giving the whole story a different meaning.

Instead of stating I had grown 11,000 tomatoes in 2007, UPI changed it so that I had grown 11,000 pounds of tomatoes in 2007, filing it in the category of “Odd News”

<http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/09/16/Tomato_mania_takes_over_yard/UPI-45631221621610/>

Then the Times of The Internet copied the story. <http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/4119.html>

Nope, not 11,000 pounds of tomatoes.



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Front Page Story!


The Los Angeles Times published a front page article on our tomato growing. The article can be found here:

<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tomato16-2008sep16,0,3274445.story>

Pictures can be found here:

<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tomato16-pg,0,1648752.photogallery?1>

Hope you readers enjoy the article!!



Dinner At Castaways...


Today's weak harvest included 3 Piccolos, an Evan's Italian Plum and Stupice.

I found two caterpillars this morning, one on Aker's Plum and another on Thessaloniki.

Yesterday my wife and I had an anniversary dinner at Castaways Restaurant in Burbank (our wedding venue), getting home late. This morning I was expecting to harvest a Carbon tomato...but it wasn't around. I'm sure the Manchester Terrier got to it as we weren't able to feed them dinner until around 11PM. I can't blame the dog, he was hungry...

My mother in law indicated that she found some caterpillars over the weekend.

By the way, now is a good time to check for caterpillars. It's hot outside (it got up to 101 in the valley) and caterpillars will hide. Wait for a few hours after sunset and go out with a flashlight. The critters will be hungry and will be eating voraciously.


Monday, September 15, 2008

Back From A Busy Weekend...


Today's harvest includes 3 Old Ivory Eggs, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Piccolos, Italian Market Wonder, Lime Green Salad (back yard), Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces), Aker's Plum and Stupice.

My mother in law watered the front and back yards over the weekend.

I found some indication of a caterpillar on Aker's Plum, and found a full sized one almost immediately.

I'll write more when I can find the time, but I'm still catching up from the weekend...