Harvested Sweet 100!

Saturday's harvest includes 55 Matt's Wild Cherry, 31 Snow White, 9 Garden Peach, 6 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Orange And Green Zebra, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Haley's Purple Comet, 3 SunSugar, 3 SunGold(1), 3 Large Pink Anna(2), 3 Green Grape, 2 Portuguese Neighbor, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (6 ounces), Sweet 100 (new), Golden Mama, Jaune Flamme, Large Pink Anna(1), Chocolate Stripes(1), Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Pineapple (14 ounces), Kellogg's Breakfast (7.5 ounces), Cassidy's Folly, Oaxacan Jewel(2), Crimson Cushion(2) (7 ounces), Australian Giant Oxheart (9 ounces), Hungarian Heart (11 ounces) and Husky Gold for a total of 144 tomatoes.

I was going to write how Sweet 100 isn't Sweet 100...but the apparently orange tomatoes turned red. These tomatoes are nickel sized. I've never seen Sweet 100 tomatoes this large, but I don't have a better label for them...so Sweet 100 it is!

I added fertilizer to all the container plants.

A few days ago my wife spent all day in the kitchen making tomato chutney. She's trying to keep up with all the harvested tomatoes!

I walked around with my wife and told her about six tomatoes that can be pulled.

Today's harvest includes 46 Matt's Wild Cherry, 28 Snow White, 15 Garden Peach, 5 SunSugar, 5 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Haley's Purple Comet, 3 Orange And Green Zebra, 3 Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), 2 Large Pink Anna(2), 2 Sweet 100, 2 Cassidy's Folly, 2 Persimmon (14 ounces, 10 ounces), Bloody Butcher, SunGold(1), Green Grape, Michael Pollan, Kellogg's Breakfast, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel(2), Paul Robeson(2) (8.5 ounces), Coyote (not Coyote) and Hungarian Heart (7 ounces) for a total of 131 tomatoes.

Today we spent most of the day with a fellow TomatoManiac family. They came over to do some home repairs and to join us for dinner. We had some barbecue chicken as well as Paul Robeson, Hungarian Heart and Persimmon. I can vouch for Persimmon, excellent tomato. My wife continues to love Hungarian Heart, again claiming it is her favorite red tomato.

All in all a very busy weekend. Our dryer was modified to accept a new washing machine. Many of our outlets were fitted with some insulation. And an eight foot window blind was hoisted in front of our garage in the hopes of deflecting some of the intense heat. Our barbecue had some added support. Our screen door on the back door was removed to prepare fixing it.


My wife using a food dehydrator to dehydrate tomatoes. The test isn't complete but our taste tests indicate it will be a success.

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.

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.

Harvested Big White Pink Stripe!

Today's harvest includes 25 Matt's Wild Cherry, 9 Golden Mama, 9 Husky Cherry Red(2), 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Porkchop (13 ounces, 6 ounces), 7 Haley's Purple Comet, 5 Snow White, 5 Black Krim(1), 4 Paul Robeson(2) (12 ounces, 6 ounces, 11 ounces), 4 SunSugar, 4 Southern Night (7 ounces), 4 SunGold(1), 3 Orange And Green Zebra, 3 Garden Peach, 3 German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces, 7 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (11.5 ounces, 12 ounces, 13 ounces), 3 Stupice, 3 Green Grape, 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 2 Cassidy's Folly, 2 Honkin' Big Black Cherry, Big White Pink Stripe (7 ounces) (new), Chocolate Stripes(1), Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), Australian Giant Oxheart (9.5 ounces), Portuguese Neighbor (11 ounces), Persimmon (10 ounces), Black Seaman(1) (6 ounces) and Green Zebra(1) for a total of 125 tomatoes.

There was a good selection of larger tomatoes in today's harvest. I was happy with the variety of different sizes, shapes and colors.

Last night I adjusted some of the numbers in last week's blog postings, matching against the numbers entered into our online tomato spreadsheet. Interested in watching the numbers? Post a message and I'll add you to the list.

Big White Pink Stripe has a faded beige color, unusual for a tomato.

My wife has started to water the back yard tomatoes.

Harvested Chocolate Stripes(1) and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye!

Today's harvest includes 11 SunSugar, 10 Husky Cherry Red(1), 9 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Green Grape, 5 Golden Mama, 5 Stupice, 4 Bloody Butcher, 3 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 3 Black And Brown Boar, 3 Honkin' Big Black Cherry, 3 SunGold(1), 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (11 ounces) (new), 2 Garden Peach, 2 Lime Green Salad, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Vorlon (7 ounces, 13.5 ounces), Chocolate Stripes(1) (new), Paul Robeson(1), Black Cherry, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Orange And Green Zebra, Large Pink Anna(2) for a total of 78 tomatoes.

My wife and I tried Cassidy's Folly as well as Orange And Green Zebra for a dinner taste test. Both were good, but not great.

The ripe Pink Berkeley Tie Dye was a surprise to me. The 11 ounce tomato is a beauty.

Speaking of beautiful, the 13.5 ounce Vorlon is gorgeous!

Harvested Large Pink Anna(2) and Chocolate Stripes(2)!

Today's harvest includes 10 Husky Cherry Red(2), 8 SunSugar, 7 Chocolate Stripes(2) (9.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces) (new), 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Stupice, 3 SunGold(1), 3 Black and Brown Boar, 3 Green Grape, 3 Creme Brulee, 2 Indian Stripe, 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Paul Robeson(1), 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, Large Pink Anna(2) (6 ounces) (new), Black Cherry, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon and Volunteer(1) for a total of 69 tomatoes.

I spent a long time this morning fishing out all the maturing tomatoes from the middle of the two Husky Cherry Red plants. It's surprising how dense these plants can get! I got all the mature ones out after about 10 minutes or so.

My wife has been using cloth to cover some of our tomatoes. She told me that SunGold(2) was wilting, but a protective cloth and some water and the plant was fine. After today's harvest I asked her to put a cover over Chocolate Stripes(2) as the tomatoes were getting scalded. She came back with seven of the tomatoes! I was quite surprised. She stated that they were ready for harvest. She was right, they were soft. Too soft. My wife will use these tomatoes for sauce.

Yesterday it got up to 101 at Pierce College. Today it was only a few tenths of a degree cooler for the high temperature.

Being that we picked three plants pretty clean of maturing tomatoes, I don't expect tomorrow's total to be as high as today.

Maturing tomatoes include Cassidy's Folly, Kellogg's Breakfast and Green Zebra(2). Except Green Zebra(2) isn't Green Zebra(2) -- the maturing tomato is red!

Harvested Paul Robeson(1) and Indian Stripe!

Today's harvest: 6 Stupice, 5 Creme Brulee, 3 SunSugar, 3 Black Cherry, 2 Volunteer(1), Paul Robeson(1) (new), Indian Stripe (new), SunGold(1), Green Grape, Matt's Wild Cherry and Bloody Butcher for a total of 25 tomatoes.

My wife and I had a bit of a tomato tasting last night as well. We liked all the tomatoes except Golden Mama. The flavor for Golden Mama is contained with the skin...which tells you all you need to know about that tomato. The interior was near tasteless. All the others were very good, Black Krim being the best.

Both the newly harvested Indian Stripe and Paul Robeson look good.

You can add Chocolate Stripes(2) to the list of maturing tomatoes.

Training Plants Every Morning; 5 More Plants With Tomatoes

This week I've been getting up earlier in the morning in order to train the tomato plants.

Yesterday I noticed Husky Gold and Oaxacan Jewel(1) have tomatoes.

Today, Nyagous, Snow White and I believe Chocolate Stripes(1) (in a container on the patio) have tomatoes.

It takes about a half hour to fix all the new and growing branches every morning.

Thirteen More Plants With Tomatoes

The front yard plants with new tomatoes include Porkchop, German Orange Strawberry and Paul Robeson(1). The back yard plants with new tomatoes include Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green (2), Oaxacan Jewel (2), Paul Robeson (2), Green Zebra (2), Large Pink Anna (1), Chocolate Stripes (2), Sweet Carneros Pink, Green Doctor's Kiwi (2) and Big Zebra.

Around 75 percent of our plants have at least one tomato on them.

The back yard was deep watered over the weekend.

All the plants had the "underbrush" cut away. I'm defining the "underbrush" as the stems that reach or potentially reach the ground. These branches could carry diseases from the soil up into the plant. It's a good idea to cut away this "underbrush" and forces the plant to concentrate the energy into more productive branches.

We put a bigger cage on Hungarian Heart and moved Green Doctor's Kiwi (2) to be with the rest of the containers on the backyard patio.

For the most part things are looking great!

Taped, Watered, Made Tomato Sauce

And today's harvest includes 14 Stupices, 4 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Blue Fruit, 2 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Black Krims (back yard, 9 ounces), 2 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Snow Whites, Piccolo, Sioux, Jaune Flamme, Italian Market Wonder, Chocolate Stripes, Black Krim (front yard, 10 ounces), Black Plum Paste and Black From Tula.

Last night I did a lot of tomato taping and watered most of the back yard. I'll be doing both again tonight, and I hope to stake a few plants as well.

My wife bought a couple of tomato plants for fall and winter tomatoes. That triggered a memory – Green Thumb had new tomato plants. We may buy a few there as well.

My wife used most of the tomatoes picked over the last three days, took the seeds out and make tomato sauce. She really worked hard.

A lot of our harvested Blue Fruit tomatoes have terrible cracking. Not just cracking all around the tomato, but deep cracking to the point where the insides of the tomato are exposed.

Husky Cherry Red showed telltale signs of a caterpillar. After about 15 seconds – hey, there it is! I took it off the plant.

Several Kellogg's Breakfast, Painted Ukrainian and Polish Pastel tomatoes are maturing.

Tomato Tasting A Rousing Success!

And this morning we harvested 15 Salisaw Cafes, 11 Stupice, 5 Old Ivory Eggs, 4 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Blue Fruit (one 6 ounces), 3 Black Krims (11 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 10 ounces, back yard), 2 Aker's Plums, 2 Jaune Flammes, 2 Lime Green Salads (back yard), Arkansas Traveler, Red Yellow Cap (8 ounces), Piccolo, Italian Market Wonder, White Bush, Husky Cherry Red, Black Krim (13.5 ounces, front yard), Pierce's Pride, Chocolate Stripes (6 ounces), Aunt Ruby's German Green and Green Grape.

We went to a tomato tasting at a restaurant in Hollywood later in the morning. We brought Evan's Italian Plum, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken and Pierce's Pride to the tomato tasting.

I was expecting to have an enjoyable time but wow, this was really fun! There were all sorts of tomatoes to be sampled. Someone had already brought Pierce's Pride but no one else brought Evan's Italian Plum (we brought the three we've harvested) and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken (we brought one). We tried a lot of tomatoes and we really liked several of them. Some of the memorable ones for us included Nyagous, Siberian, Jetsetter, Napa Grape but the most striking tomato was called Vintage Wine. Not so much the taste (only okay by me) but the striping was very memorable. We'll be on the lookout for these and other tomatoes next year.

The Polish Pastel on display looked different than what we're harvesting. Another mislabel?

We met several nice people at this event and exchanged business cards with a couple of them. An interesting point made by a participant: “That's the first party were I never asked anyone what was their occupation. We just talked tomatoes!”

People were very happy with the taste of Olga's Round Yellow Chicken – the tomato was nearly gone by the end of the party. Scott Daigre (of Tomatomania!) said that the 9 ounce Evan's Italian Plum is about twice the normal size for this tomato.

Now we wish we brought Black Krim, Salisaw Cafe and Old Ivory Egg, for example. Maybe next year.

We had the Red Currant pulled by the gardeners. What a great plant!!

Tried Polish Pastel -- Quite Enjoyable!

Today's haul includes 6 Paul Robesons (one 9 ounces), 6 Stupice, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 4 Salisaw Cafes, a very nice looking Black Krim (8.5 ounces, front yard), Kimberly, Chocolate Stripes, Cherokee Chocolate, Piccolo and Green Grape.

The tomato totals dropped off dramatically today, only 26.

A Painted Ukrainian continues to mature. Right now it looks a bit like Red Yellow Cap – quite yellowish with some faint reddish markings – but the mature tomato should be pinkish. Fortunately, it's in a position on the plant that is impossible for our Manchester Terrier to pick off.

We tried Polish Pastel last night and liked it a lot. It has a complex taste, but quite enjoyable.

Looking For Houses...

Saturday's haul included 20 Piccolos, 9 Stupice, 5 Paul Robesons, 3 Kimberly, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Old Ivory Eggs, 3 Husky Cherry Reds, 3 Red Currants, 2 Chocolate Stripes (one 6 ounces), Green Grape, Aker's Plum, Golden Jubilee, Arkansas Traveler, Black Krim (8 ounces, front yard), Black From Tula (7 ounces) and Red Robin.

I had to put in a support for Old Ivory Egg, as it was getting too big for the cage. Also, I added support to Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter.

My wife and I spent most of the day in Oxnard, Santa Paula and Fillmore, looking at houses for her parents.

While driving around, I got a call from our friend from Florida that moved back to SoCal. They're back in town and would like to meet us next weekend. We'll make it work!

However, a close friend that was in the wedding party is moving from SoCal to – you guessed it – Florida! Oh well...

Like a broken record, the Manchester Terrier picked off another Aker's Plum. This one wasn't salvageable...

Harvested Chocolate Stripes and Pierce's Pride!

And today's haul includes 13 Piccolos, 11 Salisaw Cafes, 10 Red Currants, 8 Black Plum Pastes, 7 Cherokee Chocolates, 5 Green Grapes, 4 back yard Black Krims (11.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 7 ounces, 10 ounces), 3 Gregori's Altai, 2 Stupice, Zhezha, Jaune Flamme, Kimberly, Sioux and two new tomatoes – a 10 ounce Pierce's Pride and a 7.5 ounce Chocolate Stripes!

Yesterday I put a thick stake into Black Krim but the plant still leaned. It needed more support. With the help of my wife we used two pieces of twine tied to the large stake and metal posts into the ground. This should keep it supported.

Other tomato plants were supported and staked such as Aker's Plum.

Today's totals might be a bit high as I harvested at 2 PM. The totals for tomorrow may be a bit low.

Chocolate Stripes looked great...until I turned it around. Darn it, the birds got it! I weighed it and my wife cut away a generous portion. The tomato looks beautiful on the inside. The birds got to one of the mature Black Plum Pastes as well.

I'm really happy with the harvested Black Krims, Pierce's Pride and the remaining Chocolate Stripes. They're great looking dark tomatoes!

A Polish Pastel may be maturing, but it appears to be maturing unevenly.

Chocolate Stripes, Pierce's Pride Have Tomatoes!

It was a warm day today, getting into the upper 90's. In the evening I picked 50 Red Currants, a Husky Cherry Red and a Patio tomato. A Prairie Fire tomato is turning red, and another Garden Peach is close to being picked.

Chocolate Stripes has a tomato and Pierce's Pride has at least three tomatoes on it. I believe there is only one tomato plant in the front yard without a tomato – Blue Fruit.