Friday, July 29, 2011

Where'd All The Tomatoes Come From?

Today's harvest includes 62 Matt's Wild Cherry, 24 Snow White, 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 12 Garden Peach, 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Haley's Purple Comet, 7 Sweet Carneros Pink, 7 Southern Night, 6 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 6 Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), 5 Portuguese Neighbor (6 ounces, 11 ounces, 10 ounces), 5 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (10 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 4 Orange And Green Zebra, 4 Jaune Flamme, 4 Coyote (not Coyote), 4 Cassidy's Folly, 4 SunGold(1), 3 German Orange Strawberry, 3 Golden Mama, 3 Green Grape, 3 Porkchop (10 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Black Krim (9 ounces, 16 ounces), 2 SunSugar, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green(3) (14 ounces, 12.5 ounces), 2 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 2 Paul Robeson(2) (9 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (12 ounces), Kellogg's Breakfast, Australian Giant Oxheart (7.5 ounces), Hungarian Heart (11.5 ounces), Lime Green Salad, Chocolate Stripes(1), Stupice, Vorlon, Neves Azorean Red (13.5 ounces), Green Zebra(1), Bloody Butcher for a total of 217 tomatoes.

Wow, where'd all these tomatoes come from? Snow White had topped out and several plants are "old" after producing a lot of fruit. This morning I kept pulling good sized tomato after good sized tomato after good sized tomato...

My wife has been working her butt off all week preparing various tomato dishes and distributing our harvest. She's taking a day off today from tomatoes.

There's still a lot of Matt's Wild Cherry to harvest...

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Neves Azorean Red -- A Very Good Tomato!

Today's harvest includes 48 Matt's Wild Cherry, 16 Snow White, 12 Garden Peach, 9 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 Golden Mama, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Coyote (not Coyote), 4 Haley's Purple Comet, 4 Southern Night (6 ounces), 3 Orange And Green Zebra, 3 SunGold(1), 3 Stupice, 3 Sweet Carneros Pink, 3 Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), 3 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (15 ounces, 14 ounces, 10 ounces), 2 SunSugar, 2 Portuguese Neighbor (9 ounces, 11 ounces), 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Cassidy's Folly, 2 Green Grape, 2 Australian Giant Oxheart (9 ounces, 11.5 ounces), Green Zebra(1), Vorlon, Big White Pink Stripe (10.5 ounces), Kellogg's Breakfast (9 ounces), Black Krim(1), Jaune Flamme, Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, Chocolate Stripes(1), Patio and Big Zebra (7 ounces) for a total of 152 tomatoes.

Well, it looks like Snow White has had it's first run. The plant should be strong enough to have a second and perhaps a third wind.

Both my wife and I tried Neves Azorean Red atop of mozzarella cheese sitting on a bagel for dinner last night. It's a keeper, we both really enjoyed this tomato.

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes yesterday.

A Pineapple tomato is maturing.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Harvested Coyote (not Coyote)!

Today's harvest includes 54 Snow White, 53 Matt's Wild Cherry, 12 Garden Peach, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Haley's Purple Comet, 6 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (11 ounces), 5 SunGold(1), 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Golden Mama, 3 Coyote (not Coyote) (new), 3 Oaxacan Jewel (11.5 ounces), 3 Black Krim(1) (6 ounces), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red (6.5 ounces), 2 Sweet Carneros Pink, 2 Cassidy's Folly, 2 Portuguese Neighbor (12.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Big White Pink Stripe (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Big Zebra, 2 Stupice, 2 Orange And Green Zebra, 2 SunSugar, Southern Night, Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), Kellogg's Breakfast (11.5 ounces), Paul Robeson(2), Large Pink Anna(2), Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, Green Doctor's Kiwi(1) (not Green Doctor's Kiwi), Chocolate Stripes(1), Green Grape, Honkin' Big Black Cherry, Michael Pollan, Hungarian Heart (22.5 ounces), Porkchop and Persimmon (11.5 ounces) for a total of 198 tomatoes.

The real Coyote tomato is a yellow cherry that weighs less than one ounce. These harvested tomatoes with the Coyote label are red and weigh around 3 - 4 ounces.

The harvested Hungarian Heart is the size of a softball. It's the heaviest harvested tomato this year.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

It's Raining Snow White Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 66 Snow White, 43 Matt's Wild Cherry, 14 Garden Peach, 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 Black Krim (10.5 ounces), 6 Orange and Green Zebra, 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Green Grape, 5 Golden Mama, 5 Haley's Purple Comet, 4 Cassidy's Folly, 4 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 3 SunSugar, 2 Yellow Brandywine (14.5 ounces, 15 ounces), 2 Southern Night, 2 Sweet Carneros Pink, 2 Neves Azorean Red (12.5 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Green Doctor's Kiwi(1) (not Green Doctor's Kiwi), 2 Porkchop (6 ounces), 2 SunGold(1), Portuguese Neighbor (14 ounces), Big White Pink Stripe (14 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (9 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Kellogg's Breakfast (18 ounces), Paul Robeson (9 ounces), Aunt Ruby's German Green (12 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), Large Pink Anna(2), Jaune Flamme, Stupice, Chocolate Stripes(1), Green Zebra(1) and Bloody Butcher for a total of 205 tomatoes.

Wow, it's raining Snow White tomatoes! I thought I wouldn't harvest more than 42 Snow White tomatoes two days ago, but yesterday I harvested 55. Same scenario, different day...and I harvest 66 tomatoes today.

On July 19 we harvested 112 tomatoes. A week later we harvest 109 tomatoes off of two plants.

And I shouldn't forget, there's plenty of good sized tomatoes in today's harvest, including a 18 ounce Kellogg's Breakfast, a 14.5 ounce Yellow Brandywine and two 14 ounce tomatoes, Big White Pink Stripe and Portuguese Neighbor.

Great stuff!


I stepped on a Garden Peach while harvesting this morning, scattering seeds everywhere. I counted it in our totals.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Harvest, Last Two Days

This is an image of the tomato harvest over the last two days. Note the bowl of Snow White tomatoes in the lower right.

 

Last Week's Harvest

This is an image of a harvest from last week.

Tomato Jelly

This is an image of tomato jelly. My wife made this a week or two ago. In a word, it's delicious!

 

The Tide Came Back;Harvested Over 3000 Tomatoes This Year

Today's harvest includes 55 Snow White, 40 Matt's Wild Cherry, 17 Golden Mama, 12 Garden Peach, 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Haley's Purple Comet, 4 Green Grape, 4 Jaune Flamme, 4 Sweet Carneros Pink, 4 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (6.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 3 Big White Pink Stripe (11.5 ounces, 13 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Stupice, 3 SunSugar, 3 Orange And Green Zebra, 3 Black Seaman(2), 3 Porkchop (6 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Oaxacan Jewel, 2 Cassidy's Folly, 2 Michael Pollan, 2 Southern Night, 2 Lime Green Salad, SunGold(1), Red Zebra, Portuguese Neighbor (10.5 ounces), Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), Honkin' Big Black Cherry, Kellogg's Breakfast (12.5 ounces), Big Zebra (6 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Paul Robeson(2), Hungarian Heart (13 ounces) and Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe for a total of 201 tomatoes.

The previous high harvest total for this year was on July 13, 200 tomatoes. Usually these harvests roughly follow a bell curve. Once the original high is established, well, that's the high! Here we are, 10 days later with a new high after dropping to a "low" of 112 tomatoes on July 19. I've not experienced this before. I attribute this partially to the weather and more to all the maturing Snow White tomatoes.

Actually I had expected the "high" to be around this time of the year, based on our late planting.

We've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes this year!

Last night we ate another Porkchop. It wasn't as heavenly as the ones we ate Saturday. I recommend eating Porkchop when the tomato is soft, but not too soft.

The maturing Coyote tomato doesn't look like a Coyote tomato. It's something else.

A Mexico tomato is maturing.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

What Was Life Before Porkchop?

Today's harvest includes 42 Snow White, 30 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Porkchop (9.5 ounces, 6 ounces, 7 ounces, 6 ounces, 8 ounces), 6 Garden Peach, 4 SunSugar, 4 Southern Night (6.5 ounces), 4 Golden Mama, 4 SunGold(1), 4 German Orange Strawberry (6 ounces), 3 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 3 Haley's Purple Comet, 3 Orange And Green Zebra, 3 Black Seaman(2), 3 Sweet Carneros Pink, 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 2 Portuguese Neighbor (9.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 2 Paul Robeson(2), 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Big White Pink Stripe, 2 Green Grape, Bloody Butcher, Patio, Aunt Ruby's German Green(3), Honkin' Big Black Cherry, Green Doctors Kiwi(2), Lime Green Salad, Hungarian Heart, Large Pink Anna(2), Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), Cassidy's Folly, Australian Giant Oxheart (6.5 ounces) and Yellow Brandywine (12 ounces) for a total of 159 tomatoes.

We invited our friends Elizabeth and Ricardo over to our house for a little barbeque. We had just purchased a new gas barbeque last week and invited them over to hook it up and try it out. Everything worked fine. We'll be barbequing as it stays hot in the valley.

We had a taste test with several of our tomatoes, including Black Krim, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Yellow Brandywine, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Porkchop and Orange And Green Zebra. Everybody's least favorite was Orange And Green Zebra, by far. It's not a bad tomato but I don't find it that attractive a tomato, either. Black Krim was tasty and juicy. Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red was just as good as I remember it -- perhaps this tomato was a bit more mellow than the last one. Aunt Ruby's German Green was very nice.

But, oh my God, everyone's favorite, including me, was Porkchop. These tomatoes weren't the Porkchop I had tried before, these were stupendously good. Wow, just wow. There's life before Porkchop and life after Porkchop and life after Porkchop is heaven. Okay, I'm being melodramatic but yesterday's Porkchop tomatoes were the best tomatoes I've had in a couple of years. This goes on our "must have" list. Now I get it!

Matt's Wild Cherry has reached over 500 harvested tomatoes.

A Coyote tomato is maturing.

My wife told me that she processed enough tomatoes to make 23 cups of tomato puree!