Saturday, July 19, 2014

Harvested Over 3000 Tomatoes This Year!

Saturday's harvest includes 47 Orange Paruche, 42 Sunchocola, 26 Matt's Wild Cherry, 17 SunGold, 10 Garden Peach(2), 7 Garden Peach(1), 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Husky Cherry Red(2), 6 Jaune Flamme, 4 Bloody Butcher, 4 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 Speckled Roman(2), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Garden Peach(3), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 German Orange Strawberry (9 ounces, 13 ounces), 3 Earliana, 3 Snow White, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Black Cherry, 2 Hungarian Heart (8 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 2 Adriana's Grande, Indigo Apple, Earl of Edgcombe, Berkeley Tie Dye, Pineapple, Odoriko and Golden Rave for a total of 222 tomatoes.

And again, today is the high harvest amounts for both the front and back yards (114 and 108 respectively) so this is the highest harvest amount for the year.

Today's German Orange Strawberry tomatoes look really nice (again).

My wife and her cousin spent most of Friday preparing for our tomato party this afternoon. I helped out a little bit last night. We hope the party goes well but one never knows until it happens... We've prepared cherry tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese, salsa from our tomatoes, pasta with sauce from our tomatoes, someone is bringing gazpacho and other items.

Berkeley Tie Dye and Earliana are ready to be pulled but I'm not sure when we'll get around to it...The harvested tomatoes we're getting from these plants are tiny and unpalatable.

We've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes this year (3146), over 1000 back yard tomatoes in July (1004) and over 200 Matt's Wild Cherry (224) this year!
 

Friday, July 18, 2014

Harvested Blue Gold and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2)!

Today's harvest includes 51 Orange Paruche, 41 Sunchocola, 20 Matt's Wild Cherry, 18 SunGold, 15 Garden Peach(1), 12 Garden Peach(2), 7 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 Sugar Snack, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 Jaune Flamme, 4 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Bloody Butcher, 3 Bread and Salt, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Adriana's Grande (6 ounces), 2 Earliana, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Snow White, 2 Nyagous, 2 Garden Peach(3), Blue Gold (new), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) (new), Hungarian Heart (15 ounces), Pineapple (7 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Volunteer(4), Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), Green Grape, Black Cherry and Michael Pollan for a total of 214 tomatoes.

Today was our largest front yard harvest of the year (barely, yesterday was one tomato less) and our largest back yard harvest of the year...so today was our largest overall harvest this year.

The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) looks nice, though small. Blue Gold wasn't a complete surprise. I had forgotten to mention a tomato was maturing a few days ago, then forgot about it. As I mentioned yesterday I was going to take a longer look harvesting the back yard, and the numbers show it (105 tomatoes).

I'm slightly bewildered where all these mature Garden Peach tomatoes came from. I did a pretty good job of going through the raised beds yesterday. It was the ones in the ground where I slacked off somewhat. Today, bam! 29 mature Garden Peach tomatoes among the three volunteers.

Today's Hungarian Heart is an absolute beauty, but I didn't get an image of it yet. Yesterday's Blue Beauty changed color! The burnt orange turned into a reddish color. That also indicates that I harvested it a day or two early. It's still a beautiful tomato as well.

We've now harvested over 900 Orange Paruche tomatoes (912) and over 600 Sunchocola tomatoes this year! We'll easily hit over 1000 harvested Orange Paruche tomatoes and there's a very good chance we'll get over 1000 Sunchocola tomatoes by the time the year is out.
 

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Harvested Blue Beauty!

Today's harvest includes 52 Sunchocola, 41 Orange Paruche, 16 Matt's Wild Cherry, 12 SunGold, 5 Black Cherry, 4 Bloody Butcher, 4 Garden Peach(2), 4 Garden Peach(3), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Earliana, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 German Orange Strawberry (12.5 ounces), 2 Hungarian Heart, 2 Pineapple (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Snow White, Blue Beauty (new, 11.5 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie Dye, Bread and Salt, Ananas Noire (8 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Garden Peach(1), Husky Cherry Red(1) and Husky Cherry Red(2) for a total of 168 tomatoes.

Here's an image of the harvested Blue Beauty next to a quarter...


I'm not sure this image does this tomato justice. The burnt orange color on the underside is more vibrant than shown. The contrast with the blue streaking at the shoulders is striking.

We had our largest front yard total today (108). The Thursday sprinklers went off as planned but I didn't try to beat them this time. I harvested the front yard first, leaving the wet back yard for last. I'm sure I didn't hunt for tomatoes as diligently as I normally do (note the lack of Evan's Purple Pear today) as everything was wet.

A Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) is maturing.

We've now harvested over 2000 tomatoes in July (2055)!
 

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Harvested Black Icicle!

Today's harvest includes 48 Orange Paruche, 36 Sunchocola, 20 SunGold, 16 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Garden Peach(2), 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Black Cherry, 6 Sugar Snack, 4 Earliana, 4 Nyagous, 4 Garden Peach(3), 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 Black Icicle (new), 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Indigo Apple, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Adriana's Grande (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 Pineapple (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Indigo Rose, Berkeley Tie Dye, German Orange Strawberry, Ananas Noire (10.5 ounces), Snow White, Evan's Purple Pear, Green Grape and Michael Pollan for a total of 185 tomatoes.

We have a couple of nice Black Icicle tomatoes today. These were a surprise. Not that I didn't have mature Black Icicle tomatoes, it's just that these tomatoes didn't have blossom end rot. I've probably thrown away 20 of these tomatoes before getting these two flawless tomatoes.

Today's harvest is our highest this year so far. The front yard amount (98) ties the July 3 front yard harvest amount, while the back yard amount (87) is the largest amount so far this year. 10 days ago we harvested 21 from the back yard, today 87. That's where the higher numbers are coming from.

I watered the back yard tomato plants in the ground. My wife indicated that she gets to the ones in the raised bed and in the container plants. I added fertilizer to them last night and they'll be watered in some time in the future.

Ananas Noire and Adriana's Grande continue to impress.

A Blue Beauty is maturing. And true to the name, it's a beauty. I may supply an image once I harvest it.

We've now harvested over 2500 tomatoes for the year (2542), over 800 Orange Paruche tomatoes for the year (820), over 500 Sunchocola tomatoes for the year (535) and over 100 Sugar Snack tomatoes for the year (102)!
 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Harvested Speckled Roman(1)!

Today's harvest includes 47 Orange Paruche, 33 Sunchocola, 19 Matt's Wild Cherry, 17 SunGold, 11 Sugar Snack, 7 Garden Peach(2), 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Adriana's Grande (11 ounces, 12.5 ounces), 2 Pineapple, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Black Cherry, 2 Garden Peach(1), Speckled Roman(1) (new), Bloody Butcher, Earl of Edgecombe, German Orange Strawberry (6 ounces), Earliana, Bread and Salt (6 ounces), Hungarian Heart, Snow White, Persimmon(1), Husky Cherry Red(1) and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 167 tomatoes.

I figured it was time for Speckled Roman(1) to have a growing tomato so I knelt down next to it. As I knelt I saw a maturing tomato. When I touched the tomato it fell right off into my hands. Sightwise it didn't seem quite ready but all other indicators said it was. So we have another new tomato harvested!

During the harvest I was telling myself that yesterday will probably be the high water mark for the year. But when I put in the numbers I was very surprised to see we had the same total as yesterday (167). Yesterday had larger tomatoes, however.

Afterwards, I pulled out Pierce's Pride and Brad's Black Heart. I noticed some SunGolds I should have harvested, but left them on the vine. So today's total could have been bigger than yesterday.

Scott: Here's the Green Zebra tag...


In general, I have better luck with the yellow tagged tomato seedlings at Tomatomania events. The seedlings from other growers act as if they've been more exposed to the elements. They tend to not grow has high nor flourish as much. For instance, I don't think I have a non-yellow tag this year whose plant five feet tall or more.

While I have several yellow tagged tomato plants over six feet tall, I've had some poor luck with yellow tagged brown heirloom tomatoes this year. Vorlon, Brad's Black Heart, Pierce's Pride and Black Seaman have all died early. And come to think of it, in general, I can't think of the last brown heirloom tomato that has gone bonkers in several years. Perhaps Black Krim or Black From Tula from a few years ago. Sunchocola has gone absolutely bonkers this year but that's a hybrid.

We've now grown over 1500 front yard tomatoes for the year (1524), over 1000 front yard tomatoes in July (1058) and over 200 SunGold tomatoes (211) this year!
 

Monday, July 14, 2014

Harvested Over 1500 Tomatoes This Month

Today's harvest includes 47 Orange Paruche, 32 Sunchocola, 13 SunGold, 11 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Sugar Snack, 5 Snow White, 4 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Garden Peach(3), 3 Bread and Salt (6 ounces, 10.5 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Adriana's Grande (7.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 2 Garden Peach(1), 2 Garden Peach(2), 2 Earl of Edgecombe (7 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (10 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Nyagous, 2 Earliana, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, Yellow Perfection, Ananas Noire (12.5 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Black Krim, Persimmon(2) and Green Grape for a total of 167 tomatoes.

I got started a little earlier today than I did on Thursday, trying to beat the sprinklers. But today's back yard harvest is the highest so far this year (70) and I got caught -- they turned on before I completed the back yard harvest.

Our kitchen counter is filling up...this is our largest harvest total this year.

The Clint Eastwood Rowdy Red tomatoes aren't as large as we've seen in prior years but they sure look nice with their deep red coloring. The German Orange Strawberry tomatoes look fabulous.

Today's harvest can be summed up as "more good stuff"!

We've now harvested over 1500 tomatoes this month (1535) and over 700 Orange Paruche tomatoes (725) this year! It looks like will end up over 1000 harvested Orange Paruche tomatoes harvested for the year, perhaps even before the end of the month.
 

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Harvested 4 New Tomatoes!

Sunday's harvest includes 55 Orange Paruche, 20 Sunchocola, 14 SunGold, 10 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Garden Peach(1), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Ananas Noire (7 ounces, 8.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Indian Stripe (new), 2 "Green Zebra" (new, not Green Zebra), 2 Indigo Apple, 2 Adriana's Grande (7.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Bread and Salt (6.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Green Grape, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Garden Peach(3), Golden Rave (new), Aunt Ruby's German Green (new), Solar Flare, Black Cherry, Odoriko, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Perfection, Earl of Edgecombe (6 ounces), German Orange Strawberry (9 ounces), Pineapple, Jaune Flamme, Nyagous and Michael Pollan for a total of 150 tomatoes.

Today's total matches our high harvest amount for the year, matching Friday's total (two days ago).

Golden Rave looks nice, though that may be the only good tomato we get off of that plant. "Green Zebra" has no stripes and is red. Let's just say you can't be farther away from Green Zebra unless it's cauliflower. Indian Stripe was a bit of a surprise.

The harvested Aunt Ruby's German Green made me do a double take -- could the beautiful Ananas Noires I've been harvesting be another Aunt Ruby's German Green? My wife has convinced me it is not and I agree with her but they are awfully close. The Ananas Noire tomatoes have a very tiny streak of darkness that today's Aunt Ruby's German Green doesn't have. Ananas Noire are greenish brown tomatoes but these tomatoes are heavily on the green side.

Remember last week when I thought Orange Paruche was done with the first wave? Ignore that. This isn't a second wave, it's still part of the first wave.

I continue to be impressed with output of Bread and Salt. Just a lot of nice good sized tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 500 tomatoes in the back yard in July (501)!