Lots and Lots of Rain...

December 24 harvest: 16 Snow White, 2 SunSugar.

Yesterday's harvest: 39 Snow White, 4 SunSugar.

The harvest has been spotty due to a lot of rain over the last week and a half. That and it's too cold when I get up in the morning. Yesterday's Snow White harvest was handled by my wife during the afternoon.

My wife is making preparations for next years crop. She has purchased a plastic enclosure to house the tomato seedlings. I think she'll start the seedlings in a day or so.

There were near torrential rains between the harvest on the 17th and the 24th. Many of the ripe tomatoes were discarded due to severe splitting. Some of the splitting was so severe the tomato nearly turned inside out! I've never seen such behavior before.

The Snow White is showing signs of minor frost damage and is finally looking old.

Harvested Over 1000 Front Yard Snow White Tomatoes!

Today's harvest: 17 Snow White (front yard).

We've now harvested over 1000 front yard Snow White tomatoes! So long as the weather stays temperate (It's actually a got bit warm today, low 80's) this plant will continue to be productive.

I didn't harvest during the week as I was out the door to my consulting job at 6:00 AM. I'll have a normal schedule starting this Tuesday.

There are no back yard tomato plants. All the rest of the plants in the back yard were pulled on Thursday or today.

The only tomato plants left are Snow White (front yard) and SunSugar.

Harvested Over 8000 Tomatoes This Year!

November 30 harvest: 4 Snow White (front yard) and 2 Carmello for a total of 6 tomatoes.

December 4 harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 Sweet 100 and SunSugar for a total of 12 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 8000 tomatoes for the year (8014)! We've also harvested over 4500 tomatoes in the front yard (4513) and over 3500 tomatoes in the back yard (3501).

We harvested 214 tomatoes for the month of November, 181 in the front yard and 33 in the back yard.

The past two to three weeks have been cold in the morning. Twice the temperature has gotten below freezing and many times approached freezing temperatures. This is unusual for November. The spotty harvests are due to the freezing weather in the morning. Usually the coldest times of the day are between 6:00 and 7:00 AM around here and I harvest just after 7:00 AM.

If the gardeners had come today I would have left the Snow White in the front yard and have almost every other tomato plant pulled. My wife did pull Husky Cherry Red today as the plant was black due to the freezing temperatures.

We continue to slowly wind it down...

Getting Cold!

November 15 harvest: 17 Snow White (front yard), Husky Cherry Red, SunSugar and Sweet 100 for a total of 20 tomatoes.

November 17 harvest: 15 Snow White (front yard), 2 Sweet 100, Husky Cherry Red and SunSugar for a total of 19 tomatoes.

November 25 harvest: 7 Snow White (front yard), 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Sweet 100, Plum Tigris, Brown Berry and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 14 tomatoes.

Today's harvest: 8 Snow White, Husky Cherry Red, 2 Topaz, Carmello and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 13 tomatoes.

There was an eight day harvest gap because it was simply too cold to harvest tomatoes in the morning. We've had near freezing weather at sunrise (and in one case, dipped below freezing, hitting 28.8 degrees) during that period.

We're so close to harvesting 8000 tomatoes for the year! We're four tomatoes away from that total. I hope to harvest on the last day of the month to get us over the top.

The freezing weather has harmed some of our crops. Husky Cherry Red needs to be pulled. One of our winter tomato plants needs to be pulled as well. Several of our other crops have sustained mild to severe damage from the cold weather.

Harvested Over 900 Front Yard Snow White Tomatoes!

November 2 harvest: 12 Snow White (front yard), SunSugar and Sweet 100 for a total of 14 tomatoes.

November 4 harvest: 15 Snow White (front yard), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 SunSugar, Topaz, Red Currant(2) and Brown Berry for a total of 25 tomatoes.

November 6 harvest: 17 Snow White (front yard), 3 SunSugar, 2 Husky Cherry Red for a total of 22 tomatoes.

Three more plants were pulled from the back yard today.

November 7 harvest: 6 Snow White (front yard), 2 SunSugar, Husky Cherry Red, Sweet 100 and Brown Berry for a total of 11 tomatoes.

With the help of my wife we propped up the front yard Snow White plant with three thick stakes as well as some twine.

November 8 harvest: 7 Snow White (front yard), Husky Cherry Red and SunSugar for a total of 9 tomatoes.

November 11 harvest: 16 Snow White (front yard), 4 Sweet 100, 2 Brown Berry and Big Pink for a total of 23 tomatoes.

Yesterday's harvest: 27 Snow White (front yard), 4 Sweet 100, 3 SunSugar, 2 Husky Cherry Red and 2 Brown Berry for a total of 38 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 900 front yard Snow White tomatoes (924)! We're also closing in on 8000 harvested tomatoes for the year (7930). It looks more than likely we'll make that plateau before any winter freezes ruin the remaining crop.

And the tomatoes still taste good!

Harvested Over 800 Front Yard Snow White Tomatoes!

October 8 harvest: 2 Snow White (front yard), Brown Berry and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 4 tomatoes.

October 9 harvest: 7 Snow White (front yard), Red Currant(2) and White Currant for a total of 9 tomatoes.

October 11 harvest: 4 Red Grape, 3 Snow White (front yard), Husky Cherry Red, SunSugar, Yellow Pear and White Currant for a total of 11 tomatoes.

October 21 harvest: 38 Snow White (front yard), 2 SunSugar, 2 White Currant, 2 Red Grape and Red Currant(1) for a total of 45 tomatoes.

October 23 harvest: 26 Snow White (front yard), 3 White Currant, 2 SunSugar, Husky Cherry Red, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Big Pink, Yellow Pear and Red Grape for a total of 36 tomatoes.

October 26 harvest: 16 Snow White (front yard), 4 SunSugar, Red Currant(2) and White Currant for a total of 22 tomatoes.

October 27 harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 3 SunSugar and Red Currant(2) for a total of 13 tomatoes.

And today's harvest consisted of 19 Snow White (front yard), 3 SunSugar, 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Snow White (back yard), Sweet 100 and White Currant for a total of 28 tomatoes.

In the last 3 ½ weeks the front yard Snow White plant has gotten a second wind. It got so tall that it's crushed all the supports and has basically fallen to the south. The recently harvested SunSugar tomatoes are the largest on the plant this year, larger than the first initial flush of tomatoes on this plant.

Many plants have been pulled and more could be pulled if I could find the time.

We've now harvested over 800 front yard Snow White tomatoes (824)!

We ended up harvesting 261 tomatoes for the month of October and have harvested 7788 tomatoes this year so far. There's an outside chance that the strength of the front yard Snow White could get us to the 8000 harvest plateau.

My wife and I were away for a week between the 11^th and the 21^st. Her relatives stayed at our house to take care of our dogs.

I've started a new job on October 26. I'm doing full time consulting work for a large bank. I was unexpectedly laid off from my full time job on August 26.

You'd be surprised what a battle it is to keep all the paperwork in order after one gets laid off. COBRA coverage has been an exhausting battle. It's probably taken around 60 – 70 phone calls to various entities to get the coverage reflected by my health insurance carrier. Just yesterday I got a letter in the mail and I'm now technically not enrolled with my primary physician anymore. I hope to straighten that out with one phone call, but that remains to be seen.

I got my 401K moved to a rollover IRA. That took several phone calls, forms, a notarization, more signatures and whatnot but it seemed to go relatively smoothly.

I needed to start up my company again (it was shuttered earlier this year) and get liability insurance in preparation for this new consulting opportunity. I just filed another IRS form yesterday in relation to starting up my company again. There's two more to be filed within 60 days (along with some more money).

I've been getting quotes from health insurance companies to prepare from switching over from COBRA to a company paid health insurance. I didn't get too far with this, but there's more to come.

I filed for unemployment and I'm still trying to get my claims processed for the time I spent unemployed. I've sent out at least 5 certified letters to various agencies, including one yesterday. We'll see how it goes.

I met with my accountant to go over all of this and he helped point me in the right direction with these and plenty of other matters. It was taking me 4 – 5 hours a day just handling phone calls, faxing, copying, sending out snail mail and emails, just trying to push these processes along. It was (is) easily a part time job in and of itself.

This new job will probably not allow the flexibility needed to update this blog as consistently as I have in the past. The issue isn't now (the season is long over except for the few plants that have lasted) but during the spring and summer of next year. Let's hope I can continue to find the time and commitment to continue to post!

Harvested Over 700 Front Yard Snow White Tomatoes This Year!

I'll spare you the numbers, but I have harvested over 700 Snow White (front yard) (704) tomatoes! The front yard Snow White tomato plant is basically the only good plant left.

We've pulled out eight more plants over the past 10 days. There are more to be pulled but there is simply more important things to do.

My wife has planted a bunch of winter vegetables, including two tomato plants.

Our September totals include 458 front yard tomatoes and 259 back yard tomatoes for a total of 717 harvested tomatoes for the month. My estimate of 650 harvested tomatoes was a good one.

Currently our totals for 2010 are 4185 front yard tomatoes harvested, 3435 back yard tomatoes harvested for a total of 7620 tomatoes harvested this year.

Harvested Over 7500 Tomatoes This Year!

Wednesday's harvest: 4 Snow White (front yard), Babywine, Large Pink Anna, SunSugar, Thessaloniki and Red Grape for a total of 9 tomatoes.

Violet Jasper was removed by my wife during the day. This plant was removed in preparation for laying down winter crops.

Thursday's harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 Sara Black, Husky Cherry Red, Large Pink Anna and Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe for a total of 14 tomatoes.

Friday's harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 Topaz, Husky Cherry Red, Babywine and Marianna's Peace for a total of 14 tomatoes.

Saturday's harvest: 8 Snow White (front yard), Babywine and White Currant for a total of 10 tomatoes.

Plenty of back yard tomatoes were removed: Green Zebra, Weeping Charlie, Red Boar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Pierce's Pride, Marianna's Peace, Black From Tula, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart and Thessaloniki.

All of these plants started to get a cobweb like formation at the top. It looks like some sort of fungus. I would have kept a couple more of these plants around if it weren't for this fungus.

Sunday's harvest: 6 Snow White (front yard), Aunt Ruby's German Green (back yard) and White Currant for a total of 8 tomatoes.

Today's harvest: 4 Snow White (front yard), 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Red Currant(2), Babywine and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 10 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 7500 tomatoes for the year (7505)! But we're harvesting in dribs and drabs so we won't get near 8000 this year.

Yesterday got up to 105.0 at Pierce College. Today it got up to 110.0.

Updates to this blog will continue to be spotty until the end of the year.

Harvested 600 Front Yard Snow White Tomaotes!

Yesterday's harvest includes 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 White Currant, Violet Jasper, SunSugar, Marianna's Peace, Snow White (back yard) and Thessaloniki for a total of 16 tomatoes.

Today's harvest includes 13 Snow White (front yard), 2 Violet Jasper, 2 White Currant, Husky Cherry Red, Large Pink Anna, Sweet 100, Sara Black, Marianna's Peace and Black Oxheart (7 ounces) for a total of 23 tomatoes.

We've now harvested exactly 600 Snow White (front yard) tomatoes! The plant is showing some wear and tear but the plant has plenty of blooms and ripening tomatoes.

I haven't harvested a Sweet 100 tomato in over six weeks.

Pulled Out Three More Tomato Plants...

Today's harvest includes 15 Snow White (front yard), 2 Large Pink Anna, 2 White Currant, Marianna's Peace, Stupice, Red Currant(2) and Carmello for a total of 23 tomaotes.

I pulled out three more tomato plants yesterday: SunGold, Stupice and Aunt Ruby's German Green(1). There was one more ripening tomato on Stupice and that's why it's in today's harvest total.

I haven't harvested White Currants in a month. Last harvest for White Currant was 8/19.

Harvested Over 4000 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Tuesday's harvest: 8 SunGold, 3 Snow White (front yard), 3 Babywine, 3 Green Grape, 2 Stupice, 2 Violet Jasper, 2 SunSugar, 2 Carmelo, 2 Green Zebra, 2 Paul Robeson, Husky Cherry Red, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Marianna's Peace and Gajo de Melon for a total of 34 tomatoes.

Wednesday's harvest: 5 Snow White (front yard), 2 SunGold, 2 SunSugar, 2 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 2 Green Grape, 2 Green Zebra, 2 Snow White (back yard), Stupice, Violet Jasper, Large Pink Anna, Topaz, Big Pink and Weeping Charlie for a total of 23 tomatoes.

Wednesday was our third wedding anniversary!!!

Thursday's harvest: 4 Snow White (front yard), 3 Violet Jasper, 2 SunGold, 2 Large Pink Anna, Red Currant(2), Sara Black, Green Zebra, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Snow White (back yard) and Enchantment for a total of 17 tomatoes.

Friday's harvest: 8 Snow White (front yard), 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Azoychka/not Azoychka, Babywine, SunGold, SunSugar and Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart for a total of 18 tomatoes.

I took out six tomato plants in the back yard: Paul Robeson, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Enchantment, Gajo de Melon and Pineapple.

Today's harvest: 12 Snow White (front yard), 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 SunGold, 2 Azoychka/not Azoychka, Stupice, Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Carmelo and Babywine for a total of 22 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 500 tomatoes for the month (568) and have also harvested over 4000 front yard tomatoes for the year (4010)!

Earlier in the week (I don't remember the day) I dug out the passive compost pile. I moved it to another area, then moved it back into the wire cage in the same location. The whole process took about three hours. The size of the pile clearly dropped and continued to drop over the last couple of days. I found a couple of spoons in the pile (oops!) and a large squash that didn't degrade whatsoever. I cut it into three pieces with the shovel.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants.

I turned some dirt in the back yard and my wife planted some winter crops in this turned area near our south fence.

I'm still having some computer troubles but I haven't noticed it today, thus this catch-up update.

Computer Problems

Due to my computer troubles over the last week, my updates will be spotty to non-existent until they're solved.

Thanks for your understanding!

The Tide Is Slowly Retreating...

No harvest done yesterday.

Today's harvest includes 11 Snow White (front yard) 8 Babywine, 5 SunGold, 2 Stupice, 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Large Pink Anna, 2 Topaz, 2 Green Grape, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Paul Robeson, Snow White (back yard), Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Black From Tula, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Weeping Charlie, Green Zebra, Brown Berry, Red Currant(1), Plum Tigris, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye and SunSugar for a total of 49 tomatoes.

My wife watered the back yard tomatoes and I added fertilizer to the container plants. Other than that not much is happening.

Pulled Out Five More Tomato Plants...

Thursday's harvest includes 8 Violet Jasper, 5 Marianna's Peace, 4 SunGold, 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Babywine, 2 Snow White (front yard), 2 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Snow White (back yard), Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Weeping Charlie, Red Currant(1) and Topaz for a total of 32 tomatoes.

Friday's harvest includes 4 SunGold, 2 Snow White (front yard), 2 Stupice, 2 Violet Jasper, 2 SunSugar, 2 Marianna's Peace, 2 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, 2 Gajo de Melon, Red Grape, Enchantment, Pierce's Pride, Sweet Tangerine, Topaz, Large Pink Anna, Persimmon, Babywine and Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) for a total of 27 tomatoes.

Today's harvest includes 8 Snow White (front yard), 6 SunGold, 3 Carmello(!), 3 Stupice, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Violet Jasper, Babywine, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Red Currant(2), Yellow Pear, Pierce's Pride, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Red Grape, Azoychka/not Azoychka and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 34 tomatoes.

Yesterday I pulled out five more tomato plants: Black, Patio, German Orange Strawberry, Gypsy and Sweet Tangerine.

I watered the front yard yesterday.

It looks like I may lose the “corner office” next year. My wife has asked for the area in order to put plants in the space. She is currently working for a landscape designer and wants to show off this area to her landscaping talents. If she is still in the field come spring I'm sure this area will be hers.

Temperatures Have Dropped Dramatically...

Today's harvest includes 8 Violet Jasper, 6 SunGold, 4 Marianna's Peace, 3 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, 3 Stupice, 3 Babywine, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Red Grape, 2 Gypsy, Snow White (front yard), Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Large Pink Anna, Topaz, Red Currant(2) and Enchantment for a total of 39 tomatoes.

What a difference a week makes! Here are the high temperatures over the last week. 9/1 – 99.3, 9/2 – 103.9, 9/3 – 103.8, 9/4 – 104.8 9/5 – 97.2. Yesterday's high: 66.6 degrees. A dramatic drop in temperature!!

Harvested Over 400 Violet Jasper Tomatoes!

And today's harvest includes 8 Violet Jasper, 5 SunGold, 4 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, 3 Stupice, 2 Sweet Tangerine, 2 Dr. Wyches's Yellow(2), 2 Marianna's Peace, 2 Enchantment, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Red Grape, Babywine, Persimmon, Brown Berry, Yellow Pear, Weeping Charlie, Pineapple, Black From Tula, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart and Sara Black (7 ounces) for a total of 41 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 400 Violet Jasper tomatoes (403)! Today's Violet Jasper tomatoes are about half the size (or smaller) compared to the ones harvested two months ago but the plant still has a fair amount of growing tomatoes.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants yesterday and the front yard tomato plants the day before.

I pulled out three more tomato plants, all in the front yard: Michael Pollan, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge and Black Krim.

The new volunteer tomato plant died in last week's heat wave. And the caterpillar has disappeared as well.

Pulled Out Six More Tomato Plants

Today's harvest includes 5 Snow White (front yard), 4 Violet Jasper, 4 Marianna's Peace, 3 Stupice, 2 Babywine, 2 SunGold, SunSugar, Patio, Michael Pollan, Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, Topaz, German Orange Strawberry, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Black Zebra, Toni's Round, Gajo de Melon, Azoychka/not Azoychka and Red Grape for a total of 33 tomatoes.

On Saturday I pulled out 6 more tomato plants: Jaune Flamme(2), Red Cherry, White Cherry, Sweetie, Principe Borghese and Chile Verde.

I woke up late on Sunday so I didn't harvest.

The recent heat was has turned our tomato plants into something that looks like tumbleweed. It looks like more tomato plants will be pulled shortly.

Harvested Over 7000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 5 Marianna's Peace, 4 SunGold, 3 Stupice, 3 Violet Jasper, 3 Snow White (front yard), Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Persimmon, Black Krim, SunSugar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Pineapple, Enchantment and Gajo de Melon for a total of 26 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 7000 tomatoes for the year (7009)! I'm a bit surprised at how soon we reached this figure (I figured mid-September). As of yesterday the harvest numbers didn't fall significantly.

That is, until today. Today's total is less than half of yesterday's total of 54 harvested tomatoes. The current heat wave we're in matured the tomatoes on the vine but now there's simply not much left (Yesterday's high was 103.8).

Also, we've harvested over 500 front yard Snow White tomatoes (502) and over 100 Marianna's Peace tomatoes (102)!

Harvested Over 1400 SunGold Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 14 SunGold, 7 Snow White (front yard), 6 Stupice, 4 Violet Jasper, 4 Marianna's Peace, 2 Topaz, 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Snow White (back yard), Babywine, Principe Borghese, Red Currant(1), Green Zebra, Sweet Tangerine, Pierce's Pride, Black From Tula, Enchantment, Jaune Flamme(2), Thessaloniki and Pineapple (6 ounces) for a total of 54 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 1400 SunGold tomatoes (1403)! We've also harvested 200 Red Currant(1) tomatoes. SunGold looks like it will slow down while Red Currant(1) has already slowed down to a trickle.

Yesterday's high was 103.9 so it's getting quite hot again.

Took Out Two More Plants...

Today's harvest includes 18 SunGold, 9 Violet Jasper, 5 Stupice, 5 Red Currant(2), 4 Snow White (front yard), 3 Marianna's Peace, 2 Red Grape, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, 2 Black Krim, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Principe Borghese, Sweetie, Pierce's Pride, Black From Tula, Gajo de Melon, Azoychka/not Azoychka and Large Pink Anna (6 ounces) for a total of 60 tomatoes.

Well, two more tomato plants did get pulled – by my wife. Emerald Evergreen and Zapotec Pleated were removed yesterday afternoon.

We're slowly preparing to lay down a second raised bed. My wife would like to raise winter crops in the two raised beds. That means Jaune Flamme(2) will not be around much longer.

Harvested Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe!

And today's harvest includes 12 SunGold, 11 Snow White (front yard), 6 Violet Jasper, 4 Stupice, 4 Gajo de Melon, 2 Marianna's Peace, 2 Persimmon, Husky Cherry Red, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Black Krim, Large Pink Anna (6.5 ounces), Principe Borghese, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Sweetie, Red Currant(2), Emerald Evergreen, Sweet Tangerine, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Black From Tula, Black Zebra, Snow White (back yard), Jaune Flamme(2), Thessaloniki, a beautiful looking Black Oxheart (8.5 ounces) and Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe (new) for a total of 59 tomatoes.

The harvested Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe isn't very big. It's late in the season and I think there's too much competition for resources in the large pot it's in.

My wife watered all of the back yard tomato plants.

There's a couple more tomato plants that can be pulled from the ground – let's see if I can get to them.

Pulled Out Nine Tomato Plants

Today's harvest includes 16 SunGold, 8 Snow White (front yard), 8 Violet Jasper, 5 Marianna's Peace, 3 Black From Tula, 3 Snow White (back yard), 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Stupice, 2 Black Krim, 2 Babywine, 2 Sweetie, 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 2 Pierce's Pride, 2 Zapotec Pleated, 2 Enchantment, Paul Robeson, Azoychka/not Azoychka, Thessaloniki, Jaune Flamme(2), Black Zebra, Weeping Charlie, Green Zebra, Persimmon (6 ounces), Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea and Pineapple (6 ounces) for a total of 78 tomatoes.

Yesterday I pulled out nine tomato plants: Black Cherry, Japanese Black Trifele, Miss Elliotte Black, Aunt Ruby's German Green(2), Speckled Roman, Ananas Noire, Yellow Perfection, T. C. Jones and Nyagous. The season will start to wind down...

I watered the front yard tomato plants this morning.

We tried some of yesterday's harvest in our evening salad. The tomatoes didn't taste as “bright” as they did a month ago but they still taste very good.

My wife noticed our first caterpillar on Sunday. I hadn't noticed it until she pointed it out earlier today. It's a full sized caterpillar. My wife wants to keep it around. We'll see...

We've now harvested exactly 200 back yard Snow White tomatoes.

We ended up harvesting 2165 tomatoes for August, a little over half of July's total of 4108 tomatoes. I'd estimate September's haul at around 650 tomatoes or so.

Harvested Over 2000 Tomatoes For August!

Today's harvest includes 40 Snow White (front yard), 31 SunGold, 10 Violet Jasper, 9 Marianna's Peace, 8 Stupice, 7 Red Currant(2), 4 Black Zebra, 4 Gajo de Melon, 4 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Green Zebra, 3 Pineapple, 3 Black From Tula, 3 Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, 3 Yellow Perfection, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), 2 Sweetie, 2 Topaz, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), 2 Sweet Tangerine, 2 Snow White (back yard), 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Paul Robeson, Patio, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Babywine, Persimmon, Black Krim, Principe Borghese, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Red Currant(1), Brown Berry, Sara Black, Pierce's Pride, Enchantment, Jaune Flamme(2) and Large Pink Anna (9 ounces) for a total of 165 tomatoes.

My wife went out of town Tuesday evening and I joined her Thursday evening. We had no harvest for three days – that's why today's harvest numbers are artificially high.

We've now harvested over 2000 tomatoes for August (2087)! We've had a reasonable harvest total for August in relation to the prior month.

We returned from our mini-vacation on Sunday afternoon. My wife did a bunch of watering in the front and back yards. She also noted that our compost pile dropped significantly.

Both my wife and I had a good time during our vacation but we're happy to be back. Time and circumstances permitting, I'll provide more details.

Harvested Back Yard Aunt Ruby's German Green Today!

Today's harvest includes 15 Snow White (front yard), 9 Principe Borghese, 6 SunGold, 4 Violet Jasper, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Pierce's Pride (one 7.5 ounces), 2 Black From Tula, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (back yard) (new), Japanese Black Trifele, Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Aunt Ruby's German Green(2), Babywine, Black Krim, SunSugar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Weeping Charlie, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Black Zebra, Snow White (back yard), Thessaloniki and Toni's Round for a total of 59 tomatoes.

Almost for certain this will be the only day this year in which we harvest from all three Aunt Ruby's German Green tomato plants.

We've now harvested over 3500 tomato plants from the front yard (3520).

I've been soaking our compost pile over the last couple of days. It's working – I see the pile has fallen a few inches.

I watered the front yard tomato plants this morning. I watered the back yard tomato plants and fertilized the container plants a couple days ago.

Oooh, I forgot to mention that when I watered the back yard, I discovered another tomato volunteer!

There won't be another update for a few days as I will be out of town until Sunday.

Harvested Over 6500 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 17 Snow White (front yard), 9 Principe Borghese, 3 Violet Jasper, 3 SunGold, 3 Yellow Perfection, 2 Black From Tula, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Black Krim (8.5 ounces), Patio, SunSugar, Miss Elliotte Black, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Japanese Black Trifele, Red Currant(1), Big Pink, Green Zebra, Weeping Charlie, Black Oxheart, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Marianna's Peace, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Jaune Flamme(2), Thessaloniki, Azoychka/not Azoychka and Paul Robeson for a total of 58 tomatoes.

Several milestones were reached today. We've now harvested over 6500 tomatoes for the year (6508). And we've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes in the back yard (3021). And we've harvested over 400 front yard Snow White tomatoes (414).

But if you live in SoCal you know what what made yesterday memorable. It was hot! At Pierce College it got up to 109.6 degrees at 3:20 PM. It was over 109 at 2:30 in the afternoon, over 100 at noon. Need I say more?

And let me wish a happy birthday to my wonderful wife. Enjoy!