Today's harvest includes 32 SunGold, 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 11 Snow White(2), 10 Black Cherry(1), 8 Snow White(1), 7 Redfield Beauty, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Creme Brulee, 4 SunSugar, 3 Pink Furry Boar, 3 German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces, 9 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Garden Peach, 3 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Nyagous(1), 2 White Zebra, 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Pineapple Pig (7 ounces), 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (6 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 2 Sweet Baby Girl, 2 Gypsy, 2 Sweet Million, 2 Ella's Pink Plum, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Indigo Rose, Kellogg's Breakfast, Chinese Tea, Pierce's Pride(1), Noire Charbonneuse(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Sweet 100, Red Currant, Brad's Black Heart (14 ounces), Black Krim(2), Black From Tula, Nebraska Wedding (8 ounces), Yellow Furry Boar, Black and Brown Boar(2), Delicious (8 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Amana Orange (12 ounces), Indigo Apple(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Marmara, Ramapo, Red Boar(2) and Green Grape for a total of 162 tomatoes.
This is being written just after the tomato tasting party at Loteria Grill but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.
Yesterday my wife completed watering the back yard. She also made fig jam. However, she said she used the wrong pectin so it's more of a fig sauce/syrup than a jam.
In the evening we tried Aunt Ruby's German Green and it was delicious!
We've now harvested over 7500 tomatoes this year (7576) and we're still going strong. This could be a tremendous year. Also we've harvested over 650 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (657) for the year.
Today's harvest includes 23 SunGold, 18 Black Cherry(1), 10 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Sweet Baby Girl, 6 Snow White(1), 5 Black and Brown Boar(2), 5 Creme Brulee, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Garden Peach, 3 SunSugar, 3 Snow White(2), 3 Black Cherry(2), 3 Pineapple(1) (12 ounces, 17 ounces, 13.5 ounces), 3 Speckled Roman(3) (6 ounces), 3 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 3 Sweet 100, 2 Big Zebra, 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Chinese Tea, 2 Gypsy, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Ramapo, 2 Pineapple Pig (10 ounces), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Redfield Beauty, White Zebra, Vorlon (12 ounces), Black and Brown Boar(1), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Matt's Wild Cherry, Sweet Million, Red Currant, Yellow Perfection, Pink Furry Boar, Nebraska Wedding (9 ounces), Yellow Furry Boar, Purple Dog Creek (8 ounces), Italian Heirloom (6 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Marianna's Peace (6.5 ounces), Indigo Apple(2) and Red Boar(1) for a total of 140 tomatoes.
My wife made 8 jars of tomato jelly yesterday. Also, she watered more of the back yard and pulled out Brown Berry. Here's an image of the tomato jelly jars:
The harvested Pineapple(1) tomatoes look really nice!
At dinner we tried Big Zebra. This was the 19 ounce tomato harvested last week. We both liked it a lot! Beautiful to look at, tasty, tangy and delicious, leaving a slight acid aftertaste.
We've now harvested over 4500 tomatoes in the back yard this year (4600). Also, we've now harvested over 400 Black Cherry(1) tomatoes (407), 150 Red Currant tomatoes, over 100 Sweet Baby Girl tomatoes (105) and over 50 Black and Brown Boar(2) tomatoes (54).
We harvested 6088 tomatoes for July. By all measures it was a very successful month -- an overabundance of large, tasty tomatoes. How does this compare to other years?
2007 -- 6154
2008 -- 1629
2009 -- 4576
2010 -- 4108
2011 -- 3876
2012 -- 6088
So we nearly matched 2007 but with nearly three times the amount of plants. While I romanticize the 2007 year -- and it was an absolutely incredible year -- we did have a higher percentage of cherry tomatoes that year. In 2012 we didn't grow many cherry tomatoes in the ground. In pots, yes, but not in the ground. SunGold, 2 Snow White plants, 2 Black Cherry plants and 2 Husky Cherry Red plants. About 10 percent. Yes, the ones in pots are almost all cherries, but they're also constricted by the very same pots. We grew 2727 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes last year in the ground, this year we've grown 100 so far in a container.
Speaking of which, there's a better than 50 percent chance that SunGold beats our high harvest number of 2727. There's a chance that SunGold could reach 3000. The harvest will slow down to a trickle for a couple of weeks. The plant will recover a bit during those two weeks and get a second wind. If the plant is still strong enough for a good second wind, that should be good enough to pass 2727 and beyond.
That back yard harvest has been rock solid. All that digging in April has paid off.
The tomato plants in the raised bed have been a mild disappointment, except Indigo Rose. Could there be more bricks underneath the raised bed?
The south half of the "koi pond" has been disappointing. We've already pulled Paul Robeson. Black Krim(1), Vorlon and White Zebra have been sleepy. If I can I need to work the "koi pond" next year.
Still it's been a great month. The tomatoes have been tasty and plentiful -- what more can you ask?
I never got around to posting a June recap but in my mind I was predicting 5000 tomatoes for the month.
I predict a harvest of around 2400 tomatoes for the month of August.
Today's harvest includes 24 SunGold, 17 Black Cherry(1), 11 Snow White(1), 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Redfield Beauty, 5 Snow White(2), 4 Black and Brown Boar(2), 4 Yellow Perfection, 3 Garden Peach, 3 White Zebra, 3 Green Grape, 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Oaxacan Pink (8 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Sweet Baby Girl, 3 Indigo Apple(2), 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 SunSugar, 2 Gypsy, 2 German Orange Strawberry (9 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Black Krim(2), 2 Yellow Furry Boar, 2 Black From Tula (12 ounces), 2 Nyagous(1), Jaune Flamme(1), Black and Brown Boar(1), Sweet Million, Ella's Pink Plum, Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), Big Bite (6 ounces), Thessaloniki, Nebraska Wedding (9 ounces), Creme Brulee, Persimmon (10 ounces), Italian Heirloom, Amazon Chocolate (7 ounces), Amana Orange (7 ounces), Red Boar(1), Noire Charbonneuse(2), Ramapo (7 ounces) and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red for a total of 141 tomatoes.
Imagine a day when SunGold isn't the high harvest amount for the day. It could happen soon...
Not a lot happening...my wife watered more of the back yard tomatoes as well as using the dehydrator to process some of the tomatoes. The harvested German Orange Strawberry tomatoes look nice, taking on their traditional oxheart shape.
We've now harvested 150 Snow White(1) tomatoes.
Today's harvest includes 33 SunGold, 20 Black Cherry(1), 13 Husky Cherry Red(2), 10 Sweet Baby Girl, 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Snow White(2), 5 Snow White(1), 5 Garden Peach, 5 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 4 Porkchop(1), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 SunSugar, 4 Pink Furry Boar, 4 Black Cherry(2), 4 Black and Brown Boar(2), 3 Black Krim(2) (6 ounces), 3 Gypsy, 3 Ella's Pink Plum, 2 Red Currant, 2 Carmello, 2 Big Zebra (6 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Ramapo, 2 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Yellow Furry Boar, 2 Indigo Apple(2), 2 Black and Brown Boar(1), 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Purple Dog Creek (10 ounces, 11 ounces), 2 Berkeley Tie Dye (6 ounces), 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Jaune Flamme(1), Nyagous(1), Pierce's Pride(1), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Sweet Million, Marianna's Peace (12 ounces), Big Bite, Yellow Perfection, Marmara (6.5 ounces), Creme Brulee, Delicious (6 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Earl of Edgecombe, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Green Grape for a total of 181 tomatoes.
On Monday my wife watered the front yard tomatoes. Yesterday she got to some of the back yard tomatoes and pulled out Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2).
In the evening we tried a taste test between Brad's Black Heart and German Orange Strawberry. Going in we thought German Orange Strawberry would win because Brad's Black Heart was a little soft. Turns out the opposite occurred -- Brad's Black Heart was the clear winner. Brad's Black Heart was delicious, with a deep, complex, juicy and a bit winey tasting tomato. German Orange Strawberry wasn't quite ripe enough. And it "suffered" from a problem that sometimes occurs with larger heirlooms -- the maturity level varied within the tomato. Parts of the tomato were ready to eat and parts of it weren't quite there. We're big fans of German Orange Strawberry. It's just that parts of this particular tomato wasn't quite ready.
Here's a picture of the two tomatoes, with some crackers and round mozzarella cheese slices. The glare on the German Orange Strawberry slices makes it look a bit like egg yolks, but it's all tomato slices.
We've now harvested over 2100 SunGold tomatoes (2114) and over 7000 tomatoes (7133) this year!
Today's harvest includes 40 SunGold, 19 Black Cherry(1), 17 Husky Cherry Red(2), 10 Snow White(1), 6 Snow White(2), 5 Garden Peach, 5 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 4 Black and Brown Boar(2), 4 Sweet Baby Girl, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 3 Redfield Beauty, 3 Indigo Rose, 3 Jaune Flamme(2), 3 Earl of Edgecombe (6 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Black Cherry(2), 2 Green Grape, 2 German Orange Strawberry (8.5 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(3) (6 ounces), 2 Carmello, 2 Gypsy, 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Indigo Apple(2), Berkeley Tie Dye, Sweet Million, Red Currant, Pineapple(1) (10 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (6.5 ounces), Pink Furry Boar, Oaxacan Pink (7.5 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Big Bite, Pineapple Pig, Japanese Black Trifele (6 ounces), Italian Heirloom (10 ounces), Creme Brulee, Yellow Furry Boar, Purple Dog Creek (9 ounces), Amana Orange (10 ounces), Delicious (9 ounces), Red Boar(2), Amazon Chocolate, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Taxi, Porkchop(2) and SunSugar for a total of 172 tomatoes.
We've now harvested over 6000 tomatoes for the month of July (6088)! This is a sign of a tremendous month. If time permits, I'll do a comparison with prior years (I didn't have time at the end of June to go across years). But I can state -- our tomatoes have been quite tasty (truly the only thing that matters), large and plentiful. Everything else is just noise.
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) and Brown Berry need to be pulled.
Today's harvest includes 106 SunGold, 33 Husky Cherry Red(1), 25 Black Cherry(1), 18 Husky Cherry Red(2), 15 Snow White(1), 13 Garden Peach, 8 Black and Brown Boar(2), 7 Indigo Rose, 6 Black Cherry(2), 6 Marmara, 5 Berkeley Tie Dye (7.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 5 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 4 Delicious (7 ounces, 14 ounces), 4 Pink Furry Boar (6 ounces), 4 Big Bite (6 ounces, 7 ounces, 7 ounces, 7 ounces), 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 4 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg (6.5 ounces), 3 Snow White(2), 3 Sweet Baby Girl, 3 Black Krim(1) (9 ounces, 9 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Indigo Apple(2), 3 Creme Brulee (8 ounces), 3 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Jaune Flamme(1), 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Ramapo (8.5 ounces), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Crimson Cushion, 2 Yellow Furry Boar, 2 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Gypsy, 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2) (6 ounces), 2 Purple Dog Creek (12.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Omar's Lebanese (10.5 ounces, 20 ounces), 2 Amazon Chocolate (6 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (11.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Black Krim(2) (11.5 ounces), 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Brad's Black Heart (9.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, 2 Chinese Tea, Nyagous(1), Pierce's Pride(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Speckled Roman(2), Sweet Million, Sweet 100, Red Currant, Green Grape, Yellow Perfection, Big Zebra, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2), Pineapple(1) (7.5 ounces), Marianna's Peace (6 ounces), Persimmon (13.5 ounces), Earl of Edgecombe and SunSugar for a total of 340 tomatoes.
As mentioned previously, this number is artificially inflated due to the lack of a harvest yesterday. I still consider the high harvest number to be 303 for this year.
Outstanding tomatoes in this harvest include Persimmon (as always), German Orange Strawberry and Omar's Lebanese.
Again, I want to thank all that came to our tomato party on Saturday. We had a great time and hope you did as well. Thank you Irina and Bob for coming all the way from San Jose to join us!
We've now harvested over 2000 SunGold tomatoes (2041), over 600 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (617) and 100 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes. Also, we've now harvested over 3500 back yard tomatoes in July (3538) and over 4000 tomatoes in the back yard this year (4136).
Saturday's harvest includes 52 SunGold, 25 Black Cherry(1), 16 Husky Cherry Red(1), 14 Snow White(1), 13 Husky Cherry Red(2), 12 Black Cherry(2), 7 Indigo Rose, 6 Yellow Perfection, 6 Snow White(2), 6 Garden Peach, 5 SunSugar, 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 4 Black and Brown Boar(2), 3 Indigo Apple(1), 3 Speckled Roman(2), 3 Indigo Apple(2), 3 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 3 Delicious, 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (new) (14 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Green Grape, 2 Gypsy, 2 Marmara, 2 Amazon Chocolate (7 ounces), 2 Persimmon (13 ounces, 14 ounces), 2 Black Krim(2) (7 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Black and Brown Boar(1), 2 Marianna's Peace (9 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Pink Furry Boar, 2 Speckled Roman(3) (6 ounces), 2 Oaxacan Pink (6 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Jaune Flamme(1), 2 Noire Charbonneuse(1), 2 Chinese Tea, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, Neves Azorean Red (new) (17.5 ounces), Big Bite (7 ounces), Ramapo (10 ounces), Amana Orange (12 ounces), Speckled Roman(1), Black From Tula, Vorlon (9 ounces), Watermelon (9.5 ounces), Porkchop(1) (10.5 ounces), Redfield Beauty, Yellow Furry Boar, Taxi, Carmello, Crimson Cushion, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Sweet Million, Big Zebra (9 ounces), Pineapple(1) (18 ounces), Thessaloniki, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Creme Brulee (6 ounces), Noire Charbonneuse(2), Red Boar(2) and Earl of Edgecombe for a total of 245 tomatoes.
Today's harvest: Nothing, I didn't harvest.
Saturday we invited family and friends over for a tomato party! However, there was a death in the family on my wife's side so none of her relatives made it -- totally understandable. We're truly sorry about uncle Raymond's untimely passing.
We ended up with about 25 people or so at the party. My wife had started preparing for this party starting on Wednesday and continued to put in a tremendous effort right through the party. Best we can tell, everybody had a great time.
Everyone gravitated toward the Indigo Rose tomato. Coincidentally, there was a story in the Saturday Los Angeles Times about the Indigo Rose tomato. A Persimmon was cut and shared and a couple people just adored the meaty taste.
The people that made it to the party was a good cross-section of Los Angeles, people from all walks of life. It makes me proud that people from disparate backgrounds can come together, mingle and have a great time. My wife deserves tremendous kudos for putting it all together. She's the best!
For those that visited, thanks so much for coming!
My wife started cleaning after the party -- I helped but she did a majority of the cleanup -- but we weren't able to clear the counter of plates, pans and such. We were both utterly exhausted this morning, let alone when we went to bed.
This evening we tried one of the Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes. My wife really liked it, I liked it less so, but I clearly liked it. Two thumbs up!
We've now harvested over 1900 SunGold tomatoes (1935), over 700 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes (707), over 300 Black Cherry(1) tomatoes (308) and over 100 Snow White(1) tomatoes (109).
We've now harvested over 2500 tomatoes in the front yard (2512) and over 5500 tomatoes in July (5571).
Monday's total should be artificially high, assuming I complete it.
