Harvested Over 2500 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Sunday's harvest includes 16 Matt's Wild Cherry, 12 Sunchocola, 12 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 Volunteer(4), 7 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Orange Paruche, 6 SunGold, 5 Pineapple, 5 Michael Pollan, 4 Bread and Salt (9 ounces, 6 ounces), 4 Speckled Roman(2), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Green Grape, 3 Bloody Butcher, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Garden Peach(2), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Black Krim, 2 Nyagous, Speckled Roman(1), Blue Gold, Ananas Noire, Neves Azorean Red, Black Icicle, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Odoriko, Sugar Snack and Golden Rave for a total of 134 tomatoes.

I harvested in three sections on Sunday, as I commonly do. First, the front yard is harvested. This haul is brought in and a count is done. Second, the raised beds and the containers are harvested, brought in and counted. And third is the back yard tomatoes planted in the ground. When I brought in the third round, my wife had taken all the cherry tomatoes from the first two rounds and made a morning tomato salad for breakfast.

Before I brought in the third round I had added fertilizer to the container plants, the tomato plants in the raised bed area, Sunchocola and Orange Paruche. I pulled out the Odoriko tomato plant.

The tomato salad was excellent! We also had some of our "tomato chips", which are sliced tomatoes placed in the dehydrator and "cooked" for a couple of days. They were quite good as well.

Pierce College reported measurable rain last night, one hundredth of an inch. We had some trace amounts of rain a couple of times Sunday afternoon and evening. The muggy weather existed for another day.

No harvest done on Monday.

We've now harvested over 2500 tomatoes in the front yard this year (2526)! Also, we've harvested over 100 Indigo Rose toamtoes this year (101) and exactly 100 Garden Peach(2) tomatoes this year. 

Harvested Over 2000 Back Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 20 Matt's Wild Cherry, 14 Sunchocola, 14 SunGold, 9 Orange Paruche, 9 Indigo Rose, 9 Evan's Purple Pear, 5 Garden Peach(2), 5 Sugar Snack, 4 Speckled Roman(2), 4 Black Cherry, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Pineapple (7 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 3 Garden Peach(1), 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Blue Beauty (6.5 ounces), 2 Nyagous, 2 Cherokee Purple, 2 Green Grape, 2 Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), 2 Michael Pollan, Speckled Roman(1), Indigo Apple, German Orange Strawberry (9 ounces), Bread and Salt, Blue Gold, Volunteer(4), Jaune Flamme, Black Krim, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2), Purple Bumble Bee and Odoriko for a total of 132 tomatoes.

My wife made stuffed tomatoes yesterday -- took her all afternoon -- and they were worth it. She found them a bit bland but I didn't. They were stuffed with meat, cheese and other items.

Wow, Evan's Purple Pear must be in "high season". I harvested 12 yesterday. The Pineapple tomatoes aren't as large as prior years but we're consistently getting a lot of 5-7 ounce tomatoes from this plant.

A Neves Azorean Red tomato is maturing.

We've now harvested over 2000 tomatoes in the back yard this year (2023)! And the back yard total is rapidly catching up with the front yard total -- they only differ by about 400 tomatoes. Also, we've harvested over 400 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (407) and exactly 100 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes. 

Harvested Purple Bumble Bee!

Today's harvest includes 18 Matt's Wild Cherry, 13 Orange Paruche, 12 Sunchocola, 12 Evan's Purple Pear, 11 SunGold, 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Indigo Rose, 7 Husky Cherry Red(2), 6 Sugar Snack, 4 Garden Peach(2), 4 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Speckled Roman(2), 3 Volunteer(4), 2 Purple Bumble Bee (new), 2 Earl of Edgecombe, 2 Bread and Salt (7.5 ounces), 2 Pineapple, 2 Garden Peach(1), Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Porkchop(1), Adriana's Grande, German Orange Strawberry, Hungarian Heart, Blue Gold, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Blue Beauty, Paul Robeson, Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), Black Cherry, Stupice, Odoriko and Michael Pollan for a total of 134 tomatoes.

The Purple Bumble Bee tomatoes are pretty cute. They look just like the image in this link, though the red isn't quite as pronounced. It's possible I picked a day early. We'll see...

I spent more time with the back yard harvest today. I didn't get chased out by the sprinklers. I harvested 12 Evan's Purple Pear today, none yesterday. It's a safe bet that some of today's harvest should have been picked yesterday.

We've now harvested over 100 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes (103)! 

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! 

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)! 

Harvested Speckled Roman(2), Solar Flare and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1)!

Saturday's harvest includes 38 Orange Paruche, 16 SunGold, 16 Sunchocola, 13 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Garden Peach(1), 4 Garden Peach(3), 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Garden Peach(2), 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Adriana's Grande (6.5 ounces, 14.5 ounces), 2 Earl of Edgecombe (7 ounces), 2 Earliana, 2 Bread and Salt (10.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Snow White, 2 Stupice, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (new, 10.5 ounces), Speckled Roman(2) (new), Solar Flare (new), Indigo Apple, Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie Dye, Hungarian Heart (10.5 ounces), Black Cherry, Odoriko and Husky Cherry Red(2) for a total of 135 tomatoes.

Speckled Roman(2) wasn't a surprise and neither was Solar Flare (I had forgotten to mention it previously as a maturing tomato). However, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) was a surprise to me. The tomato harvested today was a beautiful tomato. Solar Flare appears undersized but I believe this is another one we grew from seed.

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes the previous night.

We had a tiny run on Garden Peach tomatoes, harvesting 13 from our volunteers.

We've now harvested over 600 Orange Paruche tomatoes (623), 400 Sunchocola tomatoes (414) and over 100 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (106) this year! 

Harvested German Orange Strawberry and Black Krim!

Today's harvest includes 29 Sunchocola, 20 Orange Paruche, 14 SunGold, 11 Sugar Snack, 9 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Adriana's Grande (7.5 ounces, 11 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 3 Earl of Edgecombe (6 ounces), 3 Earliana, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Garden Peach(3), 2 Indigo Apple, 2 Bloody Butcher, German Orange Strawberry (new, 13.5 ounces), Black Krim (new), Bread and Salt (7.5 ounces), Nyagous, Odoriko, Garden Peach(1), Green Grape, Husky Cherry Red(1), Berkeley Tie Dye and Michael Pollan for a total of 112 tomatoes.

Today is the largest harvest number so far, barely surpassing the 110 tomato harvest on July 3. The back yard tomatoes are coming in larger numbers. The back yard harvest for the last four days has been 21/29/42/47. The back yard harvest on July 3 was 12.

Today's harvest was pretty. We're getting larger tomatoes as we get later in to the season. The German Orange Strawberry was both a surprise and an absolute beauty. But don't disregard the three Adriana's Grande (the three larger red tomatoes in the image below) and the three Earl of Edgecombe (bright orange tomatoes in front that look yellowish in the image). Odoriko is the tomato to the right with the slight purplish tinge. Black Krim is the brown tomato in the back.

Last night we taste tested Earl of Edgecombe, Michael Pollan, Bread and Salt and Berkeley Tie Dye. All were quite good. Last night's Bread and Salt was the best one I've tasted of that variety. This indicates to me I may have been harvesting Bread and Salt a day too late. This Bread and Salt was firmer than others and that made a positive difference. Berkeley Tie Dye was delicious with a bit of acid at the end. The Michael Pollan tomato was the best tasting of that variety that she has ever had. Earl of Edgecombe was quite good as well.

Green Zebra and Golden Rave have maturing tomatoes. But it is clear that Green Zebra is a mislabel. There are no stripes in the tomato...

We've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes in the front yard (1022) this year! 

Harvested Two Volunteers!

Saturday's harvest includes 17 Orange Paruche, 13 Sunchocola, 4 SunGold, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Earliana, 3 Bread and Salt (8 ounces, 12.5 ounces), 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, 2 Garden Peach(1) (new), 2 Garden Peach(2), Garden Peach(3) (new), Stupice, Odoriko, Husky Cherry Red(1), Husky Cherry Red(2) and Sugar Snack for a total of 56 tomatoes.

I noticed Volunteer(1) had tomatoes ready to harvest in the morning and obviously picked a couple of them. They looked and felt exactly like Volunteer(2) (which was renamed Garden Peach). I took note that Volunteer(3) had maturing tomatoes that were yellow and could be another Garden Peach tomato plant.

In the evening I told my wife the good news that we have a second and potentially a third Garden Peach plant. She verified that the two harvested tomatoes were Garden Peach tomatoes. I took her out Volunteer(3) and showed her the maturing tomato. She said it was ready so we harvested it. It felt and looked like another Garden Peach!

So I've adjusted the names of these plants on the online spreadsheet. Volunteer(1) becomes Garden Peach(1), Volunteer(2) became Garden Peach and is now Garden Peach(2) and Volunteer(3) becomes Garden Peach(3).

All of these Garden Peach tomatoes appear to be undersized, though healthy and "unstressed". For the most part their size is around nickel to quarter size. Garden Peach tomatoes are usually (at least for us) golf ball sized or larger. My guess is that these plants are doing great with the soil in the raised bed but once the roots hit the dirt below, the roots begin to struggle finding both nutrition and places to expand. In other words, the dirt below the raised bed isn't all that great.

I noted that Bloody Butcher had maturing tomatoes. 

Harvested Odoriko!

Today's harvest includes 11 Sunchocola, 5 Orange Paruche, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 SunGold, 4 Garden Peach, 3 Odoriko (new), Adriana's Grande (8 ounces), Bread and Salt (8.5 ounces), Jaune Flamme, Husky Cherry Red(2) and Sugar Snack for a total of 36 tomatoes.

The new tomatoes are getting slightly larger as time goes on. First the cherry tomatoes, then the 3 to 4 ounce tomatoes, etc. We're in the 3 to 4 ounce phase. Today was Odoriko but Earliana and the smallish Cherokee Purple fit this profile.

Speaking of Cherokee Purple, my wife tried it and absolutely loved it! She hasn't been much of a fan of it in the past. I haven't been a fan of growing Cherokee Purple as a tomato plant. I've had no luck with it except in 2007. The plants have been undersized (again, sans 2007) and the tomatoes were blah. But I had memories of 2007...I tried it and absolutely loved it as well.

I had a small problem with the Yellow Perfection count. One of the tomatoes was a "Siamese Twin". I counted it as one. 

Harvested Earliana and Cherokee Purple!

Monday's harvest includes 14 Orange Paruche, 3 Earliana (new), 3 Sunchocola, 3 Stupice, 2 Yellow Perfection, Adriana's Grande and SunGold for a total of 27 tomatoes.

Monday evening my wife and I tried Earliana. It's a nice looking firm tomato when cut. The taste was good but not great. The taste was definitely improved with salt. However, these are the first tomatoes of the bunch and taste tends to improve as the first harvest wave comes in.

Today's harvest includes 14 Orange Paruche, 6 Sunchocola, 4 Stupice, 3 Yellow Perfection, 2 Cherokee Purple (new) and SunGold for a total of 30 tomatoes.

The harvested Cherokee Purples are a little on the small side but that's okay.

I noticed that Odoriko, Evan's Purple Pear and Pierce's Pride have growing tomatoes. The tide is slowly coming in... 

Another Heat Wave; Four More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

Yesterday my wife watered the back yard tomato plants and this morning I watered the front yard tomato plants in preparation of this record breaking heat wave. I also got in some tomato training.

I found four more plants with tomatoes. These are Janet's Jacinthe Jewel, Cherokee Purple, Odoriko and Husky Cherry Red(2). I am particularly happy with Cherokee Purple having a tomato. A few weeks ago this plant looked like we could lose it. Now it has a growing tomato and appears healthy.

We did lose Black From Tula. It's dead. We haven't had the time to transfer the latest tomato volunteer into the hole because we were out of town over the weekend and now it's simply too hot and windy. Also, Red Pear Piriform is whiter than before, has some leaf curl and looks stiff. Not good. 

Catching Up On Some Back Yard Plantings(1)...

So let's catch up on some of the back yard plantings...

On Tuesday my wife replaced the back yard Berkeley Tie Dye (from seed) with Odoriko, replaced Evan's Purple Pear (grown from seed) with Cherokee Purple and replaced the now non-existent Pineapple Pig(2) with Red Pear Piriform.

On Wednesday I dug the holes and my wife planted Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Icicle, Paul Robeson, Nyagous and Evan's Purple Pear. I pulled out about a gallon and half of rocks and asphalt.

The dirt for the back yard and "koi pond" tomatoes looks great. After I dig out the dirt I've been adding some kelp meal, a handful of worm castings and a handful of tomato fertilizer, then mix it all together. This is on top of all the compost we added a few months back.