A Day Of Seconds

Isn't every day a day of seconds?

Today's harvest includes 33 Red Currant, 33 Snow White, 24 Yellow Perfection, 18 Black Cherry, 12 White Currant, 10 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 6 back yard Green Grape, 6 Japanese Black Trifele (7.5 ounces, 11.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 6 front yard Garden Peach, 6 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 5 Babywine, 5 Tiger Paw, 5 Turkish Striped Monastery, 4 Sweet Olive, 4 Pierce's Pride (13 ounces, 7 ounces, 8 ounces, 7 ounces), 4 back yard Garden Peach(1), 4 back yard Garden Peach(2), 4 Mong, 4 front yard Speckled Roman (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Berkeley Tie Dye (12.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (12 ounces, 12 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Black From Tula (8 ounces, 10 ounces), 2 Red Grape, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Vintage Wine, 2 Silvery Fir Tree, 2 Oaxacan Jewel(1) (6 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2), SunSugar, Amazon Chocolate (8 ounces), a back yard Paul Robeson, Plum Tigris, Cuor de Bue, Super Snow White and a front yard Mexico for a total of 222 tomatoes.

Today was our second largest total harvest number for 2009 (222 tomatoes), the second largest total for the front yard (114 tomatoes) and the second largest for the back yard (108 tomatoes).

Last night the Manchester Terrier got to a ripe Turkish Striped Monastery. However, this is the second time he's grabbed a tomato only after a late dinner. He was fed dinner after 10 PM and may have simply been hungry. It's possible that this dog actually has gotten the idea to leave them alone.

Also last night we tried Big Yellow Zebra. I thought it was overripe (we tried the first one) but my wife didn't like it at all. She even mentioned how much she didn't like it at tonight's dinner. At the time I told her to keep an open mind because this tomato was overripe. She understood.

Today I was the tomato Santa Claus. I brought bags of tomatoes for my mechanic, my brother and his wife and my mother. Everybody was happy to get them.

Also I visited my mother and father in law, took their two dogs and brought back their Green Zebras to sample. Their best harvest day was yesterday as well, harvesting 33 tomatoes. The mother in law does the harvesting and she lined them up for her husband to see.

We took more pictures of the 27.5 ounce Mexico plant. I'll post them later when I have more time.

Images of 27.5 ounce Mexico Tomato

Harvested 257 Tomatoes, One 27.5 Ounces!

Yesterday's harvest was the biggest to date but today's harvest is bigger.

The harvest includes 55 Snow White, 35 Red Currant, 21 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 17 front yard Garden Peach, 17 Black Cherry, 14 White Currant, 14 Yellow Perfection, 9 Tiger Paw, 9 Oaxacan Jewel(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 8 Babywine (one 6 ounces), 7 Oaxacan Jewel(1) (11.5 ounces, 8 ounces, 13 ounces, 10 ounces, 7 ounces, 8 ounces), 5 Berkeley Tie Dye (18.5 ounces, 6 ounces, 10 ounces), 5 Super Snow White, 4 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 4 back yard Green Grape, 3 Orange Blossom (one 6 ounces), 3 Red Grape, 2 Silvery Fir Tree, 2 Vintage Wine, 2 Sweet Olive, 2 back yard Garden Peach(1), 2 Pierce's Pride (8.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Cuor de Bue, 2 Italian Ice, 2 back yard Mexico (New! 27.5 ounces, 20.5 ounces), Black Krim, Big Yellow Zebra (12 ounces), Sweet 100, a back yard Speckled Roman (with end rot), a back yard Garden Peach(2), Turkish Striped Monastery, Japanese Black Trifele, Husky Gold, Paul Robeson, Black From Tula (8 ounces) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow (New! 12 ounces) for a total of 257 tomatoes!

The technique mentioned yesterday – trying to also harvest from the top looking down as opposed to exclusively harvest from the bottom looking up has brought dividends. The high numbers for Snow White, the front yard Garden Peach, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon and even Yellow Perfection are a direct result from this additional technique. Today's total might be artificially bumped up because of this but time will tell.

Today was the most harvested number to date (257 tomatoes) and by far the most harvested in the front yard (163 tomatoes) as well as by far the heaviest front yard harvest. It is probably the heaviest in the back yard as well but some hefty tomatoes were picked the night before and added to today's totals.

The back yard Mexico tomato, harvested by my wife last night, is the heaviest tomato we've ever harvested. The 27.5 ounces isn't a misprint (for what it's worth I round to the nearest half an ounce because I'm using a postal scale), we weighed it twice. Two years ago I harvested a 25 ounce Jeff Davis. It makes the other back yard Mexico harvested this morning (20.5 ounces) look downright mundane.

My wife and I harvested some Berkeley Tie Dyes for a sauce she was making using just this tomato. One of the tomatoes had a bit of rot which was broken off before taking it inside. The rest of the tomato weighed 15 ounces so I estimated the weight of the original tomato at 18.5 ounces. I am impressed with this plant!

Another impressive showing was the 16 harvested Oaxacan Jewel tomatoes among the two plants.

About 10 days ago I readjusted my estimate for the month downward from 4000 tomatoes to above 3000 tomatoes. Since then our numbers have rocketed upward. We just passed the 3000 total for the month and the original 4000 tomato estimate is looking to be right on target.

The harvested Dr. Wyche's Yellow is a pale orange color.

My wife sliced up a bunch of Black Cherry tomatoes in half and roasted them overnight. She did the same thing with some of the yellow tomatoes.

Some Early Annie tomatoes are beginning to mature.

Image From Today's Harvest

Here's an image of today's harvest. The image was taken by my wife.

Best Harvest of 2009 So Far!

Today's bountiful harvest includes 43 Snow White, 34 Red Currant, 26 Black Cherry, 12 Yellow Perfection, 10 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 9 White Currant, 7 Tiger Paw, 7 front yard Garden Peach, 6 Babywine, 6 Red Grape, 4 Vintage Wine (7.5 ounces, 6 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 4 Oaxacan Jewel(1) (12 ounces, 14 ounces, 10.5 ounces, 15 ounces), 4 Berkeley Tie Dye (15 ounces, 18.5 ounces, 13 ounces, 14 ounces), 3 Paul Robeson (one 6 ounces), 3 Japanese Black Trifele (8.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Husky Gold, 3 Italian Ice, 3 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 2 Silvery Fir Tree, 2 Black Krim, 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Sweet 100, 2 back yard Garden Peach(1), 2 back yard Green Grape, 2 Orange Blossom (one 6.5 ounces), 2 back yard Garden Peach(2), Plum Tigris, Turkish Striped Monastery, Cuor de Bue (8 ounces), Amazon Chocolate (7 ounces), Sweet Olive, Beaverlodge Plum, a front yard Speckled Roman, Mong (6 ounces), Jaune Flamme and Big Yellow Zebra (new!) for a total of 215 tomatoes from 37 tomato plants!

We have a large back yard Mexico tomato that's maturing and doesn't appear to have any rot. While looking at that I glanced over at Big Yellow Zebra and hey, it has a ripe tomato on it! That was unexpected.

I “harvested” Patio Princess as well but it had terrible end rot. I got rid of two others on the plant with bad end rot.

I'll harvest a Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomorrow.

My wife completed the front yard watering on Tuesday and watered the back yard tomatoes yesterday.

Today is our largest harvest day of the year so far (215 tomatoes) with the largest front yard harvest of the year (118 tomatoes) and from the most plants (37). We're two tomatoes short of harvesting 1500 tomatoes in the back yard for this month.

What a harvest. It would have been Vintage Wine's day, 4 nice tomatoes except the first Oaxacan Jewel plant had 4 beautiful, large tomatoes. It would have been Oaxacan Jewel's day if it weren't for Berkeley Tie Dye and it's 4 huge tomatoes. The 18.5 ounce Berkeley Tie Dye harvested today is the largest of the year.

About three weeks ago I was wondering when Black Cherry and Snow White would come in. Now you know why I was wondering! On a frustrating note, there are mature Snow White tomatoes that I simply cannot reach from any angle.

Today I tried a new technique for harvesting Snow Whites, reaching over the fence and looking down. I found about a dozen that I couldn't find the other way, crawling underneath and looking up.

The steady numbers for both Red Currant and Yellow Perfection are remarkable. Usually a harvest will have a bell curve to it. These two plants have been “steady Eddies”.

At lunch my wife and I tried three tomatoes we hadn't tried this year: Black Krim, Babywine and Berkeley Tie Dye. Black Krim was good, smoother than we remember from previous years. Babywine was quite good and tasty. I think it's good for salads and my wife thinks it's good for sauce. Either way it's good.

Then came Berkeley Tie Dye. Wow, what a complex tomato. It starts off a bit acidic, then mellows out, then gets acidic at the end, more than in the beginning. I like it and so did my wife but I can tell this one is an acquired taste. I would imagine this tomato would be wonderful on a hamburger. The taste of this tomato is as complex as the skin color.

Today was the best harvest of the year so far.

Harvested Pierce's Pride And Berkeley Tie Dye!

Today's harvest includes 33 Red Currant, 26 Snow White, 19 Black Cherry, 10 White Currant, 9 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 8 Yellow Perfection, 7 Babywine, 6 Tiger Paw, 5 front yard Garden Peach, 4 Super Snow White, 4 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Oaxacan Jewel(1) (10 ounces, 6 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Amazon Chocolate (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Sweet Olive, 3 back yard Paul Robeson, 3 back yard Garden Peach(2), 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 3 back yard Green Grape, 3 Orange Blossom (6.5 ounces, 8 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Black From Tula (12.5 ounces, 10 ounces, 10.5 ounces), 2 front yard Mexico (one 7 ounces), 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Black Krim (10.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Red Grape, 2 Italian Ice, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye (New! 10.5 ounces, 16 ounces), 2 Cuor de Bue (9 ounces, 11 ounces), Sweet 100, German Orange Strawberry, SunSugar, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, Silvery Fir Tree, Mong and Pierce's Pride (New! 8.5 ounces) for a total of 182 tomatoes from 36 tomato plants.

Again, today we had the largest front yard harvest for 2009 (96 tomatoes). Yesterday's front yard total was 86 tomatoes, not 81 as posted.

I think the number of tomato plants harvested in a day (36) is the most for 2009.

Based on the feel of the harvest basket, today's harvest was the heaviest to date. There's some beautiful and large tomatoes in today's harvest. Also, there's a good amount of 4 and 5 ounce tomatoes in today's harvest – for instance, Japanese Black Trifele normally weighs that much – that isn't recorded.

We've now harvested over 1400 tomatoes from the back yard this month and over 2500 tomatoes overall for the month of July.

My wife noticed that the Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes were a little of the soft side. She's right. I noticed it when I picked them.

I harvested Pierce's Pride before Berkeley Tie Dye today. But Berkeley Tie Dye started to mature before Pierce's Pride, so I felt the ripening Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes. They probably should have been picked yesterday. I was thrown by the color. I thought it would be more red when mature. It turns out that when mature it's green with reddish striping, not red with green striping.

The one pound Berkeley Tie Dye is our heaviest harvested tomato this year.

I noticed that Black Zebra is gone so I assume it was pulled out by my wife yesterday.

Canning Tomatoes

Here's an image from yesterday's tomato canning session.

Largest Front Yard Harvest For 2009!

Today's totals include 41 Red Currant, 19 Snow White, 12 Tiger Paw, 10 front yard Garden Peach, 9 Yellow Perfection, 9 Black Cherry, 8 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 8 Sweet Olive, 6 White Currant, 5 back yard Green Grape, 5 Red Grape, 4 Turkish Striped Monastery, 4 Sweet 100, 4 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Japanese Black Trifele (one 7 ounces), 2 Amazon Chocolate (one 6.5 ounces), back yard Garden Peach(1), back yard Garden Peach(2), Orange Blossom, back yard Speckled Roman (minimal end rot), front yard Speckled Roman, back yard Paul Robeson, Black From Tula (9 ounces), back yard Husky Cherry Red, front yard Husky Cherry Red, Italian Ice, SunSugar, Vintage Wine, Oaxacan Jewel(1) (11 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel(2) (7 ounces), Babywine, Mexico (6.5 ounces) and Black Krim for a total of 165 tomatoes.

Today we had the largest front yard harvest for 2009 (81 tomatoes).

We've now harvested over 1000 front yard tomatoes for the month.

My wife spent most of the afternoon canning tomatoes with our friend Liz. They did tremendous work together and from what I understand, they had a lot of fun together. Happy Birthday Liz!

My wife also watered the “corner office” last night.

It was slightly cooler yesterday, “only” getting up to 101.

It's Hot! More Tomatoes Are Maturing

Today's harvest includes 24 Red Currant, 23 Snow White, 13 White Currant, 10 Italian Ice, 9 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 8 Black Cherry, 8 Tiger Paw, 6 front yard Garden Peach, 6 Red Grape, 5 Yellow Perfection, 4 Aunt Ruby's German Green (one 6 ounces), 3 back yard Garden Peach(1), 3 back yard Green Grape, 3 Sweet Olive, 3 Sweet 100, 3 Black Krim (11 ounces, 14.5 ounces, 12 ounces), 3 front yard Mexico (9 ounces, 9 ounces), 3 Babywine, 2 back yard Paul Robeson, 2 Orange Blossom (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 SunSugar, Vintage Wine (8 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel(2), Oaxacan Jewel(1) (11 ounces), Black From Tula (12 ounces), Amazon Chocolate (9 ounces), and a back yard Speckled Roman (no end rot!) for a total of 153 tomatoes.

I actually had another harvested Amazon Chocolate but it looks like a bird pecked out part of it so I tossed it and didn't count it in the totals.

Yesterday it got up to 105.5 at Pierce College.

As you can imagine, based on the heat of the day nothing much happened with the tomatoes. I did a little bit of taping as I was harvesting in the morning.

Berkeley Tie Dye continues to mature. A Pierce's Pride is maturing. A Patio Princess is already maturing but it has a bad case of blossom end rot and will be tossed.

Harvested Super Snow White; Largest Harvest For 2009

Today's bountiful harvest includes 36 Red Currant, 21 White Currant, 21 Snow White, 16 Yellow Perfection, 14 Black Cherry, 9 back yard Green Grape, 8 back yard Garden Peach(1), 7 Tiger Paw, 6 Red Grape, 5 Italian Ice, 5 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 4 Black Krim (one 7. 5 ounces), 4 Babywine, 3 Sweet Olive, 3 Sweet 100, 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 back yard Garden Peach(2), 2 Japanese Black Trifele (one 6 ounces), 2 back yard Paul Robeson, 2 SunSugar, 2 Mong (one 8 ounces), 2 back yard Speckled Roman, 2 front yard Garden Peach, 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (one 8 ounces), 2 Super Snow White (New!), Silvery Fir Tree, Plum Tigris, Amazon Chocolate (12.5 ounces), German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces), Cuor de Bue, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, a back yard Husky Cherry Red and a front yard Speckled Roman for a total of 193 tomatoes from 34 different tomato plants!

Today was our largest harvest total of the year (193), largest front yard total (80) and largest back yard total (113). We've now harvested over 2000 tomatoes for the month of July.

If we continue at this pace for the rest of the month, we will hit the estimate of 4000 harvested tomatoes.

So much for our totals leveling off.

I "harvested" a big back yard Mexico but it had too much rot so I discarded it and didn't count it.

Actually, the container plants mentioned are leveling off. But the other tomato plants that were still reaching their peak harvest were pushed forward by the hot weather over the last couple days. Yesterday it got up to 104 at Pierce College, about a mile away from us. And that's why plants like Black Cherry, Snow White, (the container plant) White Currant and Green Grape had a lot of tomatoes suddenly become ripe.

My wife made a lot of tomato sauce last night. She even made a green sauce from all the Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes. We're out of room in our freezer. We'll be bringing some frozen tomato sauce to store in the freezer of our “seed lady”.