Purchased Two Husky Cherry Red Tomatoes!

Okay, let's get caught up on things, shall we?

I harvested a Tumbling Tom on June 1. I tried it and found it a bit mealy but otherwise acceptable.

Last Saturday we harvested an Isis Candy and an Indigo Rose. My wife tried the Indigo Rose and said it wasn't quite ready yet. I don't know what happened with the Isis Candy, but I know the dogs have been picking off some of the mature ones before I can harvest them.

We harvested a Tumbling Tom last Monday. My wife tried it and found it a bit mealy as well.

Over the Memorial Day weekend we purchased two Husky Cherry Red tomato plants! We were surprised to find them. We won't have Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red or Vorlon or SunGold or Orange Paruche but at least we'll have Husky Cherry Red!

I dug holes last weekend but my wife expected me to plant them and I expected her to plant them. One hole is in the "koi pond" and the other hole is where Kellogg's Breakfast was planted. Kellogg's Breakfast did nothing and was starting to wither away.

This year will not be a normal year. We planted late (and are still planting!) due to a number of factors. I have pruned the branches off the ground in the "koi pond" over the Memorial Day weekend, but by last week it needed to be done again. I haven't gotten to the back yard pruning at all.

Normally I'd be "training" the tomato plants every morning, but even that has been temporarily curtailed. If the weather is cool enough and I have the time, I'll do a little bit of tomato work at night. But a vast majority of the work is done over the weekend, weather permitting.

I haven't even started on the on-line spreadsheet this year. There's too much to do around the house.

And as it stands, I may not do daily blog updates when the harvest rolls in. I used to be able to handle this in the early morning, but no longer. If it happens, it will be at night when I have the time to get things posted.

I'm not complaining about it, it's just the way things are.

On the plus side, the growth of Hungarian Heart has been truly amazing. It's already approaching 5 feet tall. By comparison, I don't think any tomato plant in the "koi pond" has reached two feet in height.

Almost all of the plants look quite good but will mature in the middle of the summer heat. 

It's Over for 2014

It's over for 2014.

The tomato plants were pulled last Saturday. They were meant to be pulled the prior Saturday but the gardeners didn't show.

I didn't harvest at all during the week but I did pick off a few tomatoes before the plants were pulled last Saturday. Sunchocola, which looked pretty darn good and strong three weeks ago, got the fungal disease. The top of the plant looked like it had spider webs on it. For what it's worth the Sunchocola plant also had a couple of hornworms on it, though that's not related to the fungal disease.

Our total harvest for the year ended up at 6904 tomatoes. Here are our top ten harvest totals for 2014:

Orange Paruche -- 1250
Sunchocola -- 1015
Matt's Wild Cherry -- 683
SunGold -- 666
Sugar Snack -- 333
Husky Cherry Red(2) -- 332
Husky Cherry Red(1) -- 245
Evan's Purple Pear -- 189
Black Cherry -- 153
Indigo Rose -- 139

We added a lot of compost in preparation for this year. The plants started out strong but more importantly we were very pleased with the taste of this year's crop. However, most of the plants "hit the wall" relatively soon. Why?

Well, one never knows. For instance, it could have been a weak year for seedlings...but barring a few tomato plants that didn't seem to be the issue. The soil was prepped moreso than in other years. But there were two factors overriding everything else: This was the hottest year on record and we got very little rain during the prior winter.

This record's record heat is consistent with how our plants seemed to peak and die about two to three weeks earlier than before. That is clear. But what about fall and winter rains? We're warming to the opinion that the rains in the fall/winter affect next year's crop. We're beginning to believe that rain brings worms up to the top of the soil, depositing worm castings where the tomato plants can later use it.

2013 was our worst harvest year on record. In that year we had little rain the prior fall/winter and I did not prepare the soil like I did in the fall of 2013. And it showed. In 2007 I could find plenty of worms in our front yard. This year I don't think I saw a single worm anywhere in our growing area.

Our plans for 2015 will involve prepping the soil similar to what we did late last year. That means we should acquire compost in the near future. But if we have a low rain amount during the next fall and winter, we may not plant tomatoes for 2015. Or we'll scale back and try to not "fight nature" as much as in prior years. 

Harvested 1250 Orange Paruche Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 6 SunGold, 4 Sunchcola, 4 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Michael Pollan, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Garden Peach(1), 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Orange Paruche, Speckled Roman(2), Volunteer(4), Indigo Rose, Beauty King and Green Grape for a total of 40 tomatoes.

There really wasn't much of anything to today's harvest.

It looks like there may be a lot of tomato plants pulled tomorrow. I think I'll not only be pulling out the ones with no more tomatoes left, I'll also pull out the ones that have just a few left. Also on the target list are ones like Ananas Noire, Snow White, Jaune Flamme, Indigo Rose and Garden Peach(1) in the back yard. The plants for Hungarian Heart and Earl of Edgecombe are okay but I don't remember any fruit on them. If there are none I may pull them.

We've now harvested exactly 1250 Orange Paruche tomatoes this year! And that may be it for Orange Paruche... 

Harvested 150 Husky Cherry Red(1) Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 6 Matt's Wild Cherry, 5 SunGold, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Sunchocola, 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Indian Stripe, 2 Volunteer(4), 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Porkchop(1), 2 Garden Peach(1), Speckled Roman(1), Orange Paruche, Bread and Salt, Speckled Roman(2), Black Icicle, Solar Flare, Purple Bumble Bee, Husky Cherry Red(1), Sugar Snack and Michael Pollan for a total of 47 tomatoes.

After I harvested the front yard I pulled out Adriana's Grande and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2). Yellow Perfection and Orange Paruche aren't that far behind. I don't want to pull out Orange Paruche, but it is showing no sign of a second wind whatsoever. At this pace Orange Paruche may be gone by the end of the week.

Outside of the Indian Stripe tomatoes, there wasn't much to today's harvest. The two Indian Stripe tomatoes looked pretty good.

We've now harvested exactly 150 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes this year! 

Harvested Over 1000 Tomatoes in August!

Sunday's harvest includes 17 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Orange Paruche, 6 SunGold, 5 Evan's Purple Pear, 5 Black Cherry, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Jaune Flamme, 4 Garden Peach(1), 3 Volunteer(4), 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Sunchocola, 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (6 ounces), 2 Green Grape, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Sugar Snack, 2 Michael Pollan, Indigo Apple, Bread and Salt, Blue Gold, Speckled Roman(2), Neves Azorean Red, Snow White, Solar Flare and Beauty King for a total of 83 tomatoes.

My wife whipped together a couple of quesadillas with cheese and tomato slices. One had Great White and another had Aunt Ruby's German Green. They were delicious! You can't get away from it, our tomatoes are quite good tasting.

We've now harvested over 5500 tomatoes this year (5567) and over 1000 tomatoes in August (1028)! 

A Little Butter in the Tomato Sauce Rocks!!

Today's harvest includes 17 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Orange Paruche, 8 SunGold, 8 Sugar Snack, 7 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 7 Sunchocola, 5 Jaune Flamme, 5 Black Cherry, 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Stupice, 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Blue Gold, 2 Nyagous, 2 Purple Bumble Bee, 2 Garden Peach(1), Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple, Adriana's Grande, Earl of Edgecombe, German Orange Strawberry, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Green Grape and Michael Pollan for a total of 99 tomatoes.

Today's harvest was nice, but nothing really outstanding. I needed to make up some time at work so I didn't pull any plants.

However, last night's pasta sauce was worth crowing about. My wife tried making sauce in a slightly different fashion. She didn't peel the tomatoes before boiling. Instead, she took out the skins as they separated during the boiling process. I don't think that made much of a difference with the final product, it was just faster to do it that way. More importantly, she added a little butter (and probably other things as well). That gave the sause a fuller texture...and it was wonderful.

We've now harvested over 550 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (554), exactly 125 Evan's Purple Pear tomatoes and exactly 50 Green Grape tomatoes. 

Harvested Over 5000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 27 Matt's Wild Cherry, 21 Sunchocola, 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 10 Orange Paruche, 10 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 6 Indigo Rose, 6 SunGold, 5 Bloody Butcher, 5 Black Cherry, 5 Garden Peach(2), 5 Green Grape, 4 Bread and Salt (6 ounces, 9 ounces, 8.5 ounces, 10 ounces), 4 Volunteer(4), 4 Snow White, 4 Sugar Snack, 4 Michael Pollan, 3 German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces), 3 Black Krim, 3 Nyagous, 3 Garden Peach(1), 2 Earl of Edgecombe, 2 Great White (7.5 ounces), 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Jaune Flamme, Porkchop(1), Yellow Perfection, Hungarian Heart (14 ounces), Blue Gold, Blue Beauty (8 ounces), Pineapple, Ananas Noire (6 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Neves Azorean Red (12 ounces), Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Solar Flare, Stupice, Porkchop(2), Cherokee Purple and "Green Zebra" (not Green Zebra) for a total of 187 tomatoes.

Today's harvest numbers were goosed by the fact that there was no harvest yesterday.

The harvested Neves Azorean Red and Hungarian Heart tomatoes were beauties. And I continue to be impressed with the size and production of Bread and Salt.

After the harvest I pulled out Garden Peach(2). There were no more tomatoes to be harvested and the plant could have doubled for tumbleweed. There are a couple more to be pulled but we'll see if I find the time to pull them...

We've now harvested over 5000 tomatoes this year (5108)! Also, we've harvested over 2500 back yard tomatoes this year (2528), over 1200 Orange Paruche tomatoes this year (1207), over 500 tomatoes in August (569) and over 500 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes this year (512)! 

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. 

July 2014 Tomato Analysis

First, let's compare our July tomato totals against other years...

2014 -- 3884 tomatoes
2013 -- 1970 tomatoes
2012 -- 6068 tomatoes
2011 -- 3876 tomatoes
2010 -- 4108 tomatoes
2009 -- 4576 tomatoes
2008 -- 1629 tomatoes
2007 -- 6154 tomatoes

Four years were higher, three were lower. However, 2011 was only lower by 8 tomatoes.

My estimate of harvesting 5250 tomatoes in July was sufficiently off the mark to consider it a bad guess.

The standouts were obvious -- Sunchocola and Orange Paruche were nothing short of spectacular. And not just production, but taste as well. We are extremely pleased with these two varieties. We will grow them again and again. Other standouts include Adriana's Grande and the old standby German Orange Strawberry. Blue Beauty was a pleasant surprise that matured later in the month.

Several people have told us that this year's tomatoes have tasted better than in prior years. I believe that is directly tied to the compost added in November of last year as well as clearing out our passive compost bin in the back yard.

The downsides include the "corner office" and a majority of the back yard growing area. I added a good amount of purchased compost and a liberal amount of our "compost paella" to the "corner office". All the tomatoes from this growing area are on the small side. Some of this is related to the hedge on the south side, blocking a fair amount of the sun. But it appears that the soil is still exhausted from years of planting.

That's the similar story for the back yard tomatoes. We added lots of compost but most of the tomatoes are on the small side. The exceptions are the four plants closest to our back door. This is a new tomato growing area, but also the sprinklers were still hitting this area. It is possible that we're not watering the back yard tomatoes enough. We've floated the idea of a drip system before but never followed through...

It's been reported that 2014 has been the hottest first six months of the year in recorded history. Some of our tomato plants are already burned out. For me, it's not the highs that are so bad, it's the fact that the atmosphere isn't cooling off sufficiently at night. Our tomato plants have no time to rest.

My estimate for the August harvest is 1650 tomatoes. My adjusted estimate for the year is around 7500 tomatoes. 

Harvested Over 4000 Tomatoes This Year

Saturday: No harvest

Sunday's harvest includes 22 Matt's Wild Cherry, 22 Sunchocola, 14 SunGold, 13 Orange Paruche, 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Green Grape, 7 Garden Peach(1), 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Garden Peach(2), 5 Michael Pollan, 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Pineapple (6 ounces), 3 Stupice, 2 Adriana's Grande, 2 Hungarian Heart (6 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Blue Beauty (6 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Jaune Flamme, Bloody Butcher, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces), Volunteer(4), Yellow Perfection, Black Krim, Paul Robeson and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 156 tomatoes.

We were too busy all of Saturday to get a harvest. Friday night, my wife watered the tomatoes in the "koi pond". Late Saturday evening she got to the back yard tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 4000 tomatoes this year (4079) as well as over 1500 back yard tomatoes in July (1559)! 

Harvested Great White!

Today's harvest includes 17 Orange Paruche, 13 Sunchocola, 12 Matt's Wild Cherry, 7 SunGold, 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Indigo Rose, 5 Snow White, 4 Garden Peach(3), 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Blue Beauty (6 ounces), 2 Stupice, 2 Beauty King, Great White (new, 13 ounces), Bloody Butcher, Indian Stripe, German Orange Strawberry (11.5 ounces), Blue Gold, Pineapple, Speckled Roman(2), Volunteer(4), Black Krim, Green Grape and Sugar Snack for a total of 97 tomatoes.

The Great White tomato was both a surprise and a beauty. Here's an image of it.

The harvested German Orange Strawberry tomato is another beauty.

For those not in our area, we are in the middle of a pretty big heat wave. Two days ago it got up to 101; yesterday it got up to 105.

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes last night. I gave another light spritzing of the back yard tomatoes in the ground this morning.

I started to pull out the cage around Garden Peach(3) in order to pull out the plant. But in so doing I saw one more immature tomato on the vine. When that matures this plant will be pulled.

We've now harvested exactly 350 SunGold tomatoes this year and exactly 300 SunGold tomatoes this July! 

Harvested Beauty King!

Today's harvest includes 23 Matt's Wild Cherry, 16 Sunchocola, 15 Orange Paruche, 11 SunGold, 5 Indigo Rose, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Pineapple, 3 Garden Peach(1), 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Garden Peach(3), 2 Beauty King (new), 2 Stupice, 2 Garden Peach(2), 2 Michael Pollan, Bloody Butcher, Yellow Perfection, German Orange Strawberry, Bread and Salt, Snow White, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) and Black Cherry for a total of 108 tomatoes.

As mentioned yesterday, the harvested Beauty King tomatoes appear undersized. We grew these from seeds and our seeds are old...

After the harvest I pulled out Earliana and Berkeley Tie Dye. I added stakes to Hungarian Heart, Sunchocola and German Orange Strawberry. They were only partially successful as I didn't have enough tomato tape. I changed the cage for Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, but in the process I lost about two dozen unripe tomatoes. Looking back on it I should have used three wooden stakes to prop up the cage, but what's done is done. The cage was too small, not secured and was hindering the plant...but losing two dozen tomatoes in the process is too much.

I can't think of the last time when the high harvest total for the day wasn't led by Orange Paruche or Sunchocola. Today the high harvest amount was led by Matt's Wild Cherry.

We've now harvested exactly 1100 Orange Paruche tomatoes and over 300 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (313) this year! 

Harvested Over 3000 Tomatoes In July!

Today's harvest includes 24 Orange Paruche, 15 Matt's Wild Cherry, 14 Sunchocola, 11 SunGold, 10 Sugar Snack, 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Evan's Purple Pear, 4 Stupice, 3 Pineapple (6 ounces), 3 Black Cherry, 3 Garden Peach(1), 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 German Orange Strawberry (7.5 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Snow White, 2 Garden Peach(2), Bloody Butcher, Adriana's Grande, Earl of Edgecombe, Hungarian Heart (10 ounces), Blue Beauty (6 ounces), Paul Robeson and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 132 tomatoes.

I was very close to harvesting an undersized Beauty King. It was completely ready by sight, but by feel it wasn't there yet. I'll probably harvest one or two tomorrow.

After harvesting the back yard I did a five second plant watering of each tomato in the ground. We have a heat wave coming and I wanted to give the plants a little drink.

We've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes for July (3058)! It looks like we'll harvest a little less than 4000 tomatoes this month, less than the estimated 5250 at the beginning of the month. Also, we've harvested over 1500 tomatoes in the back yard for this year (1503). 

Harvested Paul Robeson, Porkchop(2) and Japanese Black Trifele!

Today's harvest includes 30 Orange Paruche, 18 SunGold, 17 Matt's Wild Cherry, 15 Sunchocola, 6 Garden Peach(1), 5 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Jaune Flamme, 4 Green Grape, 3 Bloody Butcher, 3 Indigo Rose, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Garden Peach(3), 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Paul Robeson (new), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Snow White, 2 Stupice, 2 Michael Pollan, Porkchop(2) (new), Japanese Black Trifele (new), Indigo Apple, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Yellow Perfection, Hungarian Heart (7.5 ounces), Blue Beauty, Ananas Noire (7 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) and Garden Peach(2) for a total of 140 tomatoes.

The Japanese Black Trifele was no surprise, neither was Paul Robeson (not sure if I mentioned this tomato as maturing) but Porkchop(2) was a bit of a surprise. However, the Paul Robesons and Porkchop(2) are undersized. Japanese Black Trifele, in a container, isn't undersized.

I had a screw up in yesterday's blog post. I originally posted it as 39 Sunchocola/15 Orange Paruche. These totals were switched; it was 39 Orange Paruche/15 Sunchocola. The blog post was fixed as well as the Orange Paruche total for the year at the bottom of the post. Exciting news to read, I'm sure...

Today marks a significant event: It's the first date in July where the back yard total is larger than the front yard total. And it wasn't close (88 back yard, 52 front yard). There were three or four dates where the harvest numbers were close, but not until today did it cross over. The three new tomatoes are all from the back yard.

The first wave from the front yard is over. Sunchocola numbers are down significantly and Orange Paruche numbers will fall soon. This does not mean there won't be a second wave for these two tomato plants -- in fact I expect it -- but the numbers for the next several weeks will be weak. Meanwhile, the back yard is still in the first wave.

Last night we tried some Blue Beauty tomatoes in a salad. Blue Beauty tomatoes taste good but the taste is not nearly as memorable as the tomato's exterior (which is near spectacular, I think).

I found the tomato dehydrator in our garage this morning. We may have dehydrated tomato chips in the very near future...

We've now harvested over 3500 tomatoes for the year (3581)! We've also harvested over 800 Orange Paruche tomatoes in July (804) and over 600 Sunchocola tomatoes in July (603)! 

Harvested Over 1000 Orange Paruche Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 39 Orange Paruche, 15 Matt's Wild Cherry, 15 Sunchocola, 9 SunGold, 3 Earl of Edgecombe, 3 Speckled Roman(2), 3 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Indigo Apple, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Adriana's Grande, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Nyagous, 2 Persimmon (not Persimmon), 2 Sugar Snack, Yellow Perfection, Earliana, Berkeley Tie Dye, Blue Beauty (11.5 ounces), Volunteer(4), Snow White, Evan's Purple Pear, Garden Peach(2) and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 118 tomatoes.

Well, today's harvest is nearly half of the harvest of two days ago. The tide is going out...

I tried to beat the Monday back yard sprinklers by harvesting the back yard first...but couldn't do it. I got wet.

Blue Beauty continues to impress.

A Japanese Black Trifele is near maturity.

We've now harvested over 1000 delicious Orange Paruche tomatoes (1031) and over 300 SunGold tomatoes (303) this year! 

A Successful Party!

Sunday's harvest includes 33 Sunchocola, 33 Orange Paruche, 19 Matt's Wild Cherry, 16 SunGold, 8 Garden Peach(1), 7 Yellow Perfection, 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Sugar Snack, 5 Earliana, 4 Bloody Butcher, 4 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 4 Blue Beauty (10.5 ounces, 8 ounces, 8 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Adriana's Grande (6 ounces), 3 Snow White, 3 Garden Peach(2), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Nyagous, 2 Stupice, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Indigo Apple, Bread and Salt, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (7 ounces), Green Grape and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 177 tomatoes.

The party was quite a success. I've been told that everyone had a good time though the participation was lighter than in years past. The weather was fabulous. It's almost guaranteed to be the coolest party in July, temperature-wise. I think it got up to 83 degrees. One of the parties had highs of 104 degrees. Let's say most of that party was indoors. That year we had window air conditioners which couldn't keep everything temperate (now we have an HVAC installed).

The dishes we put out were loved by just about everyone. A green chili salsa was brought by my mother in law and a caprese salad showed up, both simply great. A cheesecake showed up, people brought wine and whatnot. We're immensely grateful. My wife and cousin are deserving of all the accolades. I just stand around and look pretty.

The Blue Beauty tomatoes are just that, absolutely beautiful tomatoes. They are the highlight of today's harvest.

We've now harvested over 2500 tomatoes in July (2668), over 1500 front yard tomatoes in July (1579) and over 700 Sunchocola tomatoes this year! 

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 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. 

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)! 

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)!