Harvest Up Due To Saturday "Bump"

Today's harvest includes 14 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 14 Snow White, 11 Black Cherry, 9 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 8 Babywine, 6 Green Zebra(1), 6 White Currant, 6 Super Snow White, 5 front yard Green Grape, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 Sweet 100, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 White Zebra, 2 Husky Gold, 2 back yard Mexico (6 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Red Currant, Vintage Wine, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (10.5 ounces), a front yard Speckled Roman, Orange Blossom, Plum Tigris, Green Zebra(2), SunSugar and Red Grape for a total of 107 tomatoes.

The harvest totals reflect a Saturday “bump”. On Saturday I harvest later in the morning. There's a bit more time for the tomatoes to mature but more importantly, the sun is higher and there are less shadows. I simply see the tomatoes easier in higher light. The higher totals for some of the front yard tomatoes and the back yard Green Zebra(1) are a direct result of simply being able to see better in the higher sun.

The volunteer is in a growth spurt. It's nearly as tall as Marz Round Green. There are no tomatoes on either plant.

We are now ahead of my original harvest estimate for August of 2700 tomatoes (2778).

Harvested Over 7500 Tomatoes For The Year!

Today's harvest includes 21 Snow White, 10 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 8 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 7 Yellow Perfection, 5 Black Cherry, 5 Red Currant, 5 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 5 Super Snow White, 4 Jaune Flamme, 2 Italian Ice, 2 SunSugar, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Green Zebra(2), 2 White Currant, 2 back yard Garden Peach(2), a back yard Green Grape, a front yard Green Grape, a back yard Paul Robeson, Sweet 100, a tiny Red Grape and Babywine for a total of 88 tomatoes.

Last night my wife and I went to the Dodgers game. The last time we went, Russell Martin and Andre Ethier hit home runs. At this game, Russell Martin hit a grand slam and the Dodgers won 7 – 2. I predicted the intentional walk to James Loney to get to Russell Martin, but my wife predicted a grand slam from Russell. We were both right!

We've now reached over 7500 harvested tomatoes for the year (7557).

The cool mornings are retarding the maturity of existing tomatoes but is great for new blooms. It'll take a couple of weeks before the new blooms set fruit so let's hope there's no 100 degree heat wave in the next couple of weeks to wipe out these new blooms.

I don't see any new blooms on Black Cherry, however. The plant is exhausted. Let's hope it has enough strength to get a second wind, like Yellow Perfection.

Cool August Weather

Today's harvest includes 14 Snow White, 13 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 12 Super Snow White, 7 Italian Ice, 6 Black Cherry, 5 Yellow Perfection, 5 White Currant, 5 Red Currant, 4 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Babywine, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 Sweet 100, 2 SunSugar, a back yard Green Grape, German Orange Strawberry, a back yard Garden Peach(2), Green Zebra(1), White Zebra, Japanese Black Trifele, Cherokee Purple, Oaxacan Jewel(2), Red Grape and Husky Gold for a total of 94 tomatoes.

Our last harvest of less than 100 tomatoes occurred on July 12.

The last few days have been cool in the morning and today it was actually a bit damp from the fog. This is unusually cool for an August morning. I guess I didn't feel motivated to root out all of the hidden and maturing Snow White tomatoes.

Due to the temperate weather, I'm seeing new blooms on several of the tomato plants. Whether this results in new tomatoes remains to be seen.

We've harvested over 2500 tomatoes for August (2583). Also, we've reached over 200 harvested tomatoes for the back yard Husky Cherry Red (210).

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants yesterday.

Caprese Salad

All but the cheese is from our garden.

Some Plants Getting A Second Wind

And today's harvest includes 22 Snow White, 12 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 11 Super Snow White, 8 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 7 Black Cherry, 6 Red Currant, 6 White Currant, 5 Jaune Flamme, 5 Italian Ice, 5 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 Sweet 100, 3 Plum Tigris, 2 SunSugar, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Green Zebra(1), 2 Green Zebra(2), 2 Babywine, Red Grape a back yard Paul Robeson, Orange Blossom, White Zebra, a back yard Garden Peach(2) and a back yard Speckled Roman for a total of 114 tomatoes.

Black Cherry has reached 600 harvested tomatoes and the Garden Peach(2) has reached 100 harvested tomatoes.

Turkish Striped Monastery is clearly having a second wind and it appears that Yellow Perfection is having a second wind as well.

Last night we held our computer user group meeting in Westchester (http://www.lafox.org). Our speaker was Jason Gordon and the subject was Drupal. We had a blast at the meeting! Later on my wife joined me at Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina Del Rey. We didn't get home until after 1AM. We slept well.

Seedling Recipient EMail

Here's an email from one of seedling recipients...

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Hello there!

You guys are having a great tomato season! I think this milder summer has helped a bit with the harvest. I've seen a lot of new flowers on our plants lately.

This week my husband and I harvested a few of the tomatoes from the seedlings you gave us!!! They were absolutely */delicious/*.

Quedlinburger Fruhe Liebe was really nice, bright on the palate, nice finish.

What we thought was a Gardener's Delight turned out to be Garden Peach! I thought it was weird when the tomatoes started turning yellow instead of red, I thought it might be diseased at first. LOL I realized it was Garden Peach when i picked one of the tomatoes and it was fuzzy. My husband and I both liked Garden Peach, that had a really nice flavor.

Our favorite so far (of the tomato plants you gave us) is definitely the Green Grape. OMG that is soooooo good, it has a really nice tomato flavor combined with the flavor of truffles!!! Add a slight drizzle of truffle oil, some goat cheese = heaven.

There are 3 tomatoes that are currently ripening on the Eva Purple Ball, can't wait to eat those.

We know that we'll definitely be planting Green Grape, Big Zac (our tomatoes have been averaging 1 lb, meaty tomatoes with little gel/seeds), Black Krim, Sun Gold, and Julia Child. My cousin gave me some tomato seeds for Black Krim, so I will try starting my own seedlings for next year. If they are successful, I will be sure to drop some off to you guys.

Thank you again for the tomato seedlings, they have turned out such great tasting fruit!

10,000 Harvested Tomatoes A Possibility For 2009

Today's harvest includes 48 Snow White, 18 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 18 Black Cherry, 10 Red Currant, 9 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 6 Jaune Flamme, 6 Super Snow White, 6 White Currant, 5 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 5 SunSugar, 5 Yellow Perfection, 4 Sweet 100, 3 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 3 Babywine, 2 Green Zebra(1), 2 Green Zebra(2), 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, Husky Gold, White Zebra, Plum Tigris, Oaxacan Jewel(2) and Vintage Wine for a total of 160 tomatoes.

These harvest numbers are elevated because I didn't harvest yesterday. They'll stay elevated for a couple of days before settling back down to the appropriate level.

I received a good question from a Facebook friend (I'm at http://www.facebook.com/billand88 – if you would like to “friend” me, just add a note) – will I reach 10,000 tomatoes this year?

Two years ago I changed out the dirt in the front yard and replaced it with compost, dirt and mulch from the city and ended up with 11,000 harvested tomatoes. I have many more plants this year, could I challenge those numbers?

10,000 seems doable (not likely, mind you, but doable) while 11,000 seems too far away.

The high point of the harvest in 2007 was around July 8 while this year it was around July 24^th or so. In July 2007 we harvested 6154 tomatoes while in 2009 we harvested 4576 tomatoes. In August 2007 we harvested 2806 tomatoes while in 2009 we've already harvested 2375 tomatoes. August 2009 will clearly beat the August 2007 totals. That's another reflection of this year's later harvest apogee.

In September 2007 we harvested 647 tomatoes, October 2007 only 26 tomatoes and I stopped counting because of the three week honeymoon starting in early October.

The prior two years experienced a dramatic slide in harvested tomatoes in September.

So....let's round up this month's estimate to 3500 tomatoes, estimate September to be, oh, say, 800 tomatoes. That would put us at 9200 harvested tomatoes at the end of September. October through December shouldn't generate another 800 tomatoes to reach the magic five figure mark. But if we harvested, say, 1200 tomatoes in September, 10,000 tomatoes is definitely a possibility.

Last night we met some good friends found through correspondence with this blog. They had twins a couple of months ago and they invited us over to see their twins. I was still showing the effects of sleeping for only 20 minutes the night before and was pretty subdued the whole evening. Going in, my wife and I probably expected to visit for, oh, say, 45 minutes or so but we were still going strong three hours later. Okay, I was getting wobbly. Though I did get in a strong late afternoon nap I needed to sleep some more. We talked tomatoes (naturally), compost, babies, babies, neighbors and more babies. It was a blast!

At lunch my wife and I met with our neighbor across the street and their child who is nearing three years of age. She's a smart cookie, that one.

Oh yeah, back to the tomatoes. The total front yard harvest has now passed the total back yard harvest for 2009 (3633 versus 3628). The second Oaxacan Jewel has reached 100 harvested tomatoes and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon has reached over 300 harvested tomatoes (301).

No Harvest This Morning

There were no tomatoes harvested this morning. I couldn't sleep so I came to work early.

There's a possibility I'll harvest in the afternoon

Harvested Over 7000 Tomatoes For 2009!

Today's harvest includes 31 Snow White, 15 Black Cherry, 8 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 8 Super Snow White, 7 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 6 Jaune Flamme, 5 Red Currant, 5 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 4 SunSugar, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Plum Tigris, 3 White Currant, 3 Sweet 100, 3 Red Grape, 3 Babywine, 2 Cherokee Purple, 2 back yard Green Grape, a back yard Garden Peach(2), Turkish Striped Monastery, Tiger Paw, Green Zebra(1), White Zebra, Japanese Black Trifele, Italian Ice, Husky Gold, Silvery Fir Tree, a front yard Speckled Roman and Black Krim for a total of 122 tomatoes.

As expected, we reached over 7000 harvested tomatoes for the year (7101) and over 1000 harvested tomatoes in the back yard for August (1024).

I hadn't harvested Cherokee Purple in over a month but I'm iffy on the two harvested today.

I staked and caged the volunteer tomato plant yesterday.

As I type my wife is watering the front yard.