Tomato Sauce

Here's an image of the tomato sauce made yesterday.

Harvested Oaxacan Jewel

This morning's harvest includes 34 Red Currant, 14 Red Grape, 11 Sweet Olive, 9 Yellow Perfection, 9 Snow White, 8 SunSugar, 6 back yard Garden Peach, 6 back yard Paul Robeson (one 6 ounces), 4 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 front yard Garden Peach, 2 Babywine, 2 White Currant, 2 Italian Ice, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Oaxacan Jewel (New! 10 ounces and 12 ounces), Cherokee Purple, Mong (13 ounces), a front yard Paul Robeson, Mexico, Husky Gold, German Orange Strawberry, Speckled Roman (again with blossom end rot), Turkish Striped Monastery and Amazon Chocolate (8 ounces) for a total of 122 tomatoes.

My wife prepared some garlic bread, sliced mozzarella cheese and tomato slices for a light and healthy meal. We had six different tomatoes, ones we hadn't tried before.

Our opinions on the taste of the new tomatoes pretty much matched. Both our favorite in this group was German Orange Strawberry. Overall, this tomato is our second favorite of the season, behind the back yard Paul Robeson tomato.

Next in line was Tiger Paw. The taste of Tiger Paw is a little hard to describe. It certainly doesn't taste like a classic tomato. It tastes “limey”, for lack of a better description. Don't let that turn you off. The skin was very thin. We both liked it a lot.

We agreed that we didn't like Cour de Bue. But the reasons for disliking it were due to the fact it was overripe. We tried another piece this evening, more in the center of the tomato and we both liked it.

We tried Orange Blossom and liked it. Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe was good. We tried Mexico and liked it but we didn't find it memorable, at least as of yet.

At a separate time we tried both Green Grape and Black Cherry and really liked it. We tried Husky Cherry Red and fell in love with the tomato all over again. Husky Cherry Red has a classic tomato taste, no surprises.

My wife worked hard during the afternoon making tomato sauce. An hour of preparatory work and 3.5 hours of simmering to reduce it down. We had this sauce over pasta this evening and it was very very good. I'll post a picture of the sauce shortly.

I worked out for a little over an hour at the gym this afternoon, came home and continued painting the patio cover. I hope to have the first coat of paint finished by tomorrow.

My wife caught our Manchester Terrier with a ripe Yellow Perfection. Fortunately the skin wasn't broken. I'll add it to tomorrow's totals.

We should have an Aunt Ruby's German Green and Black From Tula in tomorrow's harvest.

Our totals may actually head down for a bit because some of the container plants are beginning to look exhausted.

Five New Tomatoes Harvested!

And today's bountiful harvest includes 33 Red Currant, 12 Red Grape, 11 Sweet Olive, 11 SunSugar, 10 Yellow Perfection, 9 back yard Garden Peach, 8 Snow White, 6 White Currant, 4 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Amazon Chocolate (9.5 ounces, 10 ounces, 10 ounces), 3 back yard Paul Robeson (8.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 front yard Paul Robeson, 3 Mong (8 ounces, 10.5 ounces), 3 front yard Husky Cherry Red (new, and a surprise), 3 Babywine (new, and a surprise), 2 Black Zebra (new), 2 Italian Ice, 2 Jeff Davis, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Green Grape (new), a back yard Speckled Roman (more end rot), Plum Tigris, Sweet 100, Black Cherry, a front yard Garden Peach, Tiger Paw and German Orange Strawberry (new) for a total of 139 tomatoes.

My wife started watering the front yard tomato plants on Wednesday and finished yesterday. I picked up some of the watering and was near Husky Cherry Red and surprise, there was a very ripe tomato on it. This morning when I went in to harvest it I took a look at Babywine and hey, there's more!

The harvested Black Zebras do not look good and will probably be thrown away. I don't know what happened to this plant but it certainly wasn't good.

My wife really liked the look of German Orange Strawberry.

Aunt Ruby's German Green looks like there's a tomato or two ripening, but it's a little hard to tell between sunscalding versus actual maturity.

Green Grape Tomatoes Are Maturing

While preparing the last blog post I was looking at the on line spreadsheet. Looking at the back yard tomato list I decided Green Grape was a possibility for having maturing tomatoes.

I had to go home at lunch to let the cleaning people in. While waiting, I staked and taped a couple of plants. Then I looked at Green Grape. In the center of the plant there appear to be a couple of maturing tomatoes that may be ready for harvest.

Harvested 4 New Tomatoes; Back Yard Paul Robesons Are Fantastic!

And today's harvest includes 34 Red Currant, 11 Red Grape, 11 Sweet Olive, 7 White Currant, 6 Yellow Perfection, 5 back yard Garden Peach, 5 front yard Paul Robeson, 3 Jeff Davis, 3 Black Cherry, 3 back yard Paul Robeson, 3 Black Krim (10.5 ounces, 10 ounces), 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Snow White, 2 Husky Gold, 2 Tiger Paw, 2 SunSugar, 2 Italian Ice, 2 back yard Speckled Roman (more blossom end rot), a front yard Garden Peach, Sweet 100, Plum Tigris, Amazon Chocolate (10.5 ounces), Turkish Striped Monastery, Patio, Cuor de Bue (New! 6 ounces), Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe (New! 8.5 ounces), Mexico (new) and a front yard Speckled Roman (new) for a total of 115 tomatoes.

My wife watered most of the front yard tomatoes yesterday.

Black Krim was leaning again this morning (the watering loosened the stake) so I hammered in another stake for it.

Last night my wife made hamburgers for dinner. For the tomatoes she used Paul Robeson that were picked the day before from the back yard. We don't have ketchup in the house so I was expecting these to be a bit on the dry side. I couldn't have been more wrong. The back yard Paul Robeson tomatoes are fantastic!! It's hard to imagine a better tomato. It's meals like this that remind you why one spends so much time working the soil. Amazing tomatoes.

Three more plants have maturing tomatoes: German Orange Strawberry appears to be the farthest along while Black From Tula and Oaxacan Jewel have a tomato that is just starting to change color.

It's good to see a Black Cherry harvest again! The three that were harvested today were bigger and had a more vibrant color than the previous ones.

Whether it's the dozens of home grown tomatoes I'm eating or the fact I'm trying to cut down on the caffeine intake, I definitely feel healthier and alert for longer periods now versus a few months ago.

Snow White is covering the front yard Green Grape like a mother hen covering her chicks. There's no real room for Green Grape to grow but then again Snow White is providing lots of shade for this plant.

The four new tomatoes were harvested last night and included in today's totals. I took my wife to all the new tomatoes and consulted with her as to whether or not they're ready for harvest. We picked them all. We put together about 10 new tomatoes picked over the last few days and took pictures. I'll put them up in the near future.

Harvested 3 New Tomatoes!

And today's harvest includes 41 Red Currant, 12 White Currant, 8 SunSugar, 7 back yard Garden Peach, 6 Red Grape, 6 Sweet Olive, 6 front yard Paul Robeson, 6 Snow White, 5 Yellow Perfection, 3 front yard Garden Peach, 3 Black Krim (New! One was 12.5 ounces, another 6 ounces), 3 pretty back yard Paul Robeson (New! Two weighed 6 ounces), 2 Italian Ice, 2 Plum Tigris, Mong (nine ounces), Cherokee Purple, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Husky Gold, Patio and Tiger Paw (new!) for a total of 116 tomatoes.

Again we had the highest daily harvest total for 2009 in the front yard (62) and back yard (54).

The Black Krim was a surprise. I was harvesting Red Currants when I looked over to my right and saw a ripening Black Krim. I believe I left that one on the vine but found three others that were ready. They look gorgeous!

I keep checking Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe and the front yard Mexico every day. The Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe is soft, yellow and getting a streak of red. I tried to harvest it but it didn't come off easily so I left it. Also, the picture I have for Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe shows it as fully red. I'll probably harvest this tomorrow. The maturing Mexico still has a way to go. Same story with the maturing Cour de Bue.

I'm a little surprised not seeing any more maturing Black Cherry tomatoes. There's hundreds of tomatoes on the branches. Speak of black tomatoes, Black Zebra isn't doing well. The plant has stopped growing.

Five New Tomatoes Harvested!

And today we harvested 31 Red Currant, 10 White Currant, 7 front yard Paul Robeson, 7 Yellow Perfection, 7 Sweet Olive, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Snow White, 2 Red Grape, Turkish Striped Monastery, back yard Garden Peach, Husky Gold, SunSugar, Jeff Davis and five new tomatoes: Mong, front yard Garden Peach, Japanese Black Trifele, a beautiful 12 ounce Amazon Chocolate and Orange Blossom for a total of 80 tomatoes.

Today was the largest front yard haul to date (46 tomatoes).

This harvest was unusual in that no Sweet Olive tomatoes were harvested.

We have another plant with a maturing tomato. The back yard Paul Robeson has a tomato that has just started to mature.

Marz Round Green has at least one bloom on it.

I needed to reset the stake for Black Krim this morning. The plant was falling into Jaune Flamme.

From Tomatoes To Sauce

Most of the tomatoes are Yellow Perfection picked over the last couple of days.

Three More Plants With Maturing Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 22 Red Currant, 15 Sweet Olive, 9 White Currant, 8 Yellow Perfection, 6 Red Grape, 4 SunSugar, 4 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Italian Ice, 3 Paul Robeson, 2 Snow White, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Jeff Davis, Turkish Striped Monastery, a back yard Garden Peach, Jaune Flamme, Cherokee Purple and Patio for a total of 85 tomatoes.

And we have three more plants with maturing tomatoes: Tiger Paw, Amazon Chocolate and the front yard Garden Peach. Over the next four days we should have harvested tomatoes from ten new plants! That should be the start of the flood...

Black From Tula fell down yesterday. My wife watered the back yard plants. When Black From Tula was watered the stake came loose and the plant fell. Now falling down isn't a good thing at all but it happened because there are a lot of tomatoes on the vines. Fortunately no real damage was done – the main stem didn't break or snap – so we picked it back up, staked it again, taped it up, added another stake and tied the two stakes together. I checked it this morning and the plant seems none the worse for wear.

I took the stake out of the Jeff Davis cage to be used to support another plant.

We bought a tomato press on Saturday and it was put to full use by my wife yesterday. Images to come.

I watered the front yard yesterday.

The 15 Sweet 100 seems like an anomaly. But I was pretty careful today. Sweet Olive and Sweet 100 are in the same container and their branches comingle. Also, Red Grape can look like Sweet Olive. I think Sweet Olive's numbers may have a couple tomatoes that should be either Red Grape or Sweet 100.

We tried Husky Gold yesterday but we found it a bit blah. Adding salt helped it, though.

The front yard Paul Robeson plant looks exhausted.

Harvested Husky Gold; 6 More Plants With Maturing Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 22 Red Currant, 10 Yellow Perfection, 10 White Currant, 10 Sweet Olive, 6 Red Grape, 5 front yard Paul Robeson (one 6.5 ounces), 3 Sweet 100, 2 Cherokee Purple, 2 Husky Gold (new!), 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 back yard Speckled Roman (again, sigh, both with blossom end rot), 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 back yard Garden Peach, 2 SunSugar, Italian Ice, Plum Tigris, Patio and Jeff Davis for a total of 84 tomatoes.

The harvest numbers are shooting up. Last week we were averaging a little over 20 tomatoes...now this. We've harvested one less tomato in July so far (298) than we harvested in all of June (299).

I did more staking and taping yesterday, mostly in the front yard.

And there's at least 6 plants with maturing tomatoes. In the front yard, Mong is the furthest along while Mexico and Speckled Roman have tomatoes that are beginning to mature. In the back yard, Japanese Black Trifele, Orange Blossom and Cour de Bue have tomatoes that are beginning to mature.