Catching Up...

Catching up...

On Saturday I picked Piccolo. Also, we picked our first winter tomato, but I'm a bit embarrassed to say I'm not sure which plant it is. It's either Siberian or Glacier but I'm not sure which.

My wife watered the front yard.

The gardeners pulled five tomato plants in the morning: Red Yellow Cap, Carbon, Italian Market Wonder, Painted Ukrainian, Kellogg's Breakfast and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken.

In the evening the Manchester Terrier knocked off our Pierce's Pride tomato. It wasn't nearly ripe enough to be salvageable.

On Sunday, I picked Piccolo and Evan's Italian Plum. My birthday was on Sunday. There was a Saturday night dinner at a Korean restaurant and Sunday brunch with relatives.

Because I got up late today I didn't check for tomatoes. The air was very dry, it was windy, and several fires were going in the hills.

3 Tomatoes, One More Caterpillar

Today's haul includes 2 Old Ivory Eggs and Piccolo.

I got rid of a full sized caterpillar on Painted Ukrainian.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday.

It looks like I'll have the misnamed Stupice tomato plant (we don't know what it is, just that it's not Stupice) pulled by the gardeners today, as well as the other two mentioned previously.

Three Tomatoes, Two Caterpillars

Today's harvest: Piccolo, Kimberly and Cherokee Chocolate.

I found two caterpillars, a full sized one on Aker's Plum (which showed indications of another caterpillar a few days ago, but I didn't find it until now) and a smaller one on Painted Ukrainian.

Last night my wife completed the watering of the front yard tomatoes. Also, she did a lot of work on her roses.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Today's haul included 6 Piccolos, 4 Stupices, Polish Pastel, Painted Ukrainian (6 ounces), Carbon, Black Plum Paste, Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces), Cherokee Chocolate, Pierce's Pride (8.5 ounces), Italian Market Wonder and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken.

Yesterday we pulled out Blue Fruit to make more room for the winter tomatoes.

I turned the dirt in the “Corner Office”, mixed in some planting mix and turned again. My wife and I planned on planting four tomatoes here, but only planted two. It simply got too hot to do more gardening. The ones planted were Glacier and Patio.

On Saturday, my wife did a lot of gardening. Included in the gardening was moving some of the tomato container plants in the back yard. She watered the front yard and when I came back from my appointments, I watered the back yard. Yesterday I moved to last two containers into the back yard.

This morning I got up early and planted a third tomato plant in the “Corner Office”, Siberia. Another cold weather tomato planted on a day that will get over 100 degrees (yesterday got up to 104 here).

I took off the blooms on Siberia and Glacier to encourage root growth. However, Glacier already had two tomatoes on it! I discussed this with my wife and we decided to leave the tomatoes on the vine.

As predicted earlier, today was the first day I only picked Piccolo for the front yard tomatoes. I still consider the containers moved to the back yard to be front yard tomatoes. Also, I picked off a full sized caterpillar on Thessaloniki.

Yesterday we spent most of the afternoon and evening celebrating my wife's birthday at Downtown Disney, at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen. We've never been disappointed going there and had another fun time with family and friends.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Manchester Terrier Eats Pierce's Pride

Today's harvest includes 3 Piccolos, 2 Stupices, 2 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Italian Market Wonders, Salisaw Cafe, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken and Prairie Fire.

Unfortunately, I would have liked to have added a half pound Pierce's Pride, but it appears the Manchester Terrier got it. Yesterday morning, there were two Pierce's Pride ripening. By yesterday evening there was only one. Even my wife remembers seeing it. And this morning, the Manchester Terrier didn't eat his breakfast. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr........

I did some tomato taping last night.

I noticed a tomato on Green Grape, so there's at least one tomato in the “Corner Office”.

We reached the 4100 mark for harvested tomatoes this year.

My wife and I tried Painted Ukrainian again two nights ago. My wife loved it, I liked it but didn't find it as amazing as my wife did. Nevertheless, I'm more than happy to grow this one again.

Piccolo Getting a Second Wind

And today's haul includes 10 Piccolos, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Stupices, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, Kellogg's Breakfast, Polish Pastel, Micro Tom, Evan's Italian Plum (8.5 ounces), Painted Ukrainian (9 ounces), Blue Fruit and Jaune Flamme.

Both Piccolo and to a lesser degree Micro Tom are getting a second wind. Before yesterday, the prior harvest day for Micro Tom was July 2.

The Manchester Terrier picked off another tomato of unknown origin.

My wife found a caterpillar on Blue Fruit.

It looks like a half dozen tomato plants will be pulled in the front yard next Saturday.

Reached 4000 Tomatoes Today!

And our harvest today includes 5 Piccolos, 4 Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Black Plum Pastes, Stupice, Evan's Italian Plum, Green Grape, Micro Tom, Polish Pastel (6 ounces), Italian Market Wonder, Jaune Flamme, Black Krim, Gregori's Altai, and a gorgeous Painted Ukrainian (16.5 ounces).

Today we reached 4000 tomatoes for the year! This pales compared to last year's numbers but we trudge on nonetheless.

We visited a farm in Fillmore that had an open house. This farm grows tomatoes for the Encino Farmer's Market (and other Farmer's Markets). Wow, what an education! They had a very scientific method to their watering and growing of their tomatoes. I'm not joking when I say that some of the tomato vines were 20 and 30 feet long. Again, no joke. Playing on an old joke, they've forgotten more about tomatoes than I'm ever going to know. We came away with a lot of good ideas for next year's tomatoes!

Our Manchester Terrier knocked off a good sized Kellogg's Breakfast and an Evan's Italian Plum, ruining them both.

Here Come The Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes!

And today's haul includes 6 Piccolos, 6 Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes (7 ounces, 6 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Polish Pastels, Salisaw Cafe, Stupice, Sioux, Aker's Plum, Evan's Italian Plum, Gregori's Altai, Snow White and Painted Ukrainian (8 ounces).

I finished watering the front yard and completely watered the back yard last night.

We found a new spot where the Manchester Terrier dropped his picked tomato. On his bed in the bedroom. It looked like an Aker's Plum.

I did a little tomato taping this morning.

My wife tried Painted Ukrainian. She found it good, but saltier than other tomatoes.

Also, I did find a few unripe tomatoes on the Kimberly tomato plant.

My wife is currently making tomato sauce, some from today's tomatoes. Yum!!!

Behind On Watering...

And today's harvest has 5 Stupices, 4 Piccolos, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Kellogg's Breakfast, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Evan's Italian Plums, 3 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Jaune Flammes, 2 Olga's Round Yellow Chickens, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 more beautiful Painted Ukrainians (7 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Black Plum Pastes, Blue Fruit, Gregori's Altai, Black Krim (front yard, 6 ounces), Pierce's Pride (6 ounces) and Polish Pastel.

I didn't get to any more watering. We're behind, simple as that.

I forgot to mention that we finally tried Big Rainbow. We didn't like it.

The Kimberly plant is a bit odd...the plant is as green as ever, very little or no browning of leaves but there are simply no tomatoes on it that I see, let alone ripe ones.

The Manchester Terrier picked off another tiny Evan's Italian Plum.

Harvested Kellogg's Breakfast Today!

Today's harvest includes 7 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Stupices, 3 Jaune Flammes, 2 beautiful Painted Ukrainians (6.5 ounces and 14 ounces), Aker's Plum, Green Grape, Italian Market Wonder, Cherokee Chocolate, Polish Pastel, Piccolo, Blue Fruit, Black Plum Paste, Carbon, Sioux, Zhezha (back yard), Arkansas Traveler, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken and a new one: Kellogg's Breakfast! (8 ounces)

I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but there was a Painted Ukrainian at the recent tomato tasting. It looked like our Painted Ukrainians and similar to Mr. Stripey.

I watered part of the front yard yesterday but missed almost all the tomato plants.

At lunch, I bought four tomato plants for winter harvesting. From memory they were Oregon Spring, Jetsetter, Siberia and I forget the fourth. They and the other two tomato plants received a slight watering but they all need to be planted somewhere.

We picked only six tomatoes in the front yard today.

Our Manchester Terrier picked off an Evan's Italian Plum but didn't do any visible damage to it.

The Harvest Is Dwindling...

And today's harvest includes 8 Stupice, 4 Blue Fruit, 4 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Painted Ukrainians (8 ounces, 11 ounces), 3 Polish Pastels, 2 Evan's Italian Plums, 2 Black Krims (front yard, 11 ounces), 2 Piccolos, Cherokee Chocolate, Arkansas Traveler, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Green Grape, Black From Tula, Jaune Flamme, Carbon and Sioux.

I completed the watering in the back yard, staked several plants and taped a lot of them. I'm pretty much caught up with the tomato maintenance but it's time to water again.

Forgot to mention, we passed the 1000 mark in harvested back yard tomatoes yesterday.

Our harvest totals are dwindling and that's to be expected. I expect that to continue as I've picked the last tomato for several plants. The harvest numbers for the last five days are 58-58-46-39-36.

Earlier, I had predicted to harvest 900 tomatoes in August. We're now at 653 for the month. It looks like will do better than 900 for the month, but the original number looks like a very good estimate. We'll see.

Harvested Painted Ukrainian Today!

Today's harvest includes 8 Salisaw Cafes, 8 Stupice, 6 Black Plum Pastes, 4 Kimberlys, 3 Green Grapes, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Old Ivory Eggs, 2 Paul Robesons, Piccolo, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Garden Peach, Snow White, Lime Green Salad (from the “koi pond”), Lime Green Salad (back yard), Black From Tula, Zhezha (back yard), Cherokee Chocolate, White Bush, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken, Arkansas Traveler and a new one: a beautiful 13 ounce Painted Ukrainian!

While picking in the front yard, I looked over some of the damage. There was a Red Yellow Cap tomato left, but it too was damaged beyond repair. A couple of Snow White tomatoes had broken, too.

Our Manchester Terrier had picked off two tomatoes of unknown origin. A different tomato that he picked off last week is ripening...but we can't tell what plant it came from.

It looks like we lost between 11 and 12 pounds of tomatoes yesterday.

My wife took a look at the Painted Ukrainian and said “It looks like Mr. Stripey!”. Later on I looked at it and I'll be – it really does look like Mr. Stripey. Do we have another mislabeling?

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.

Cherokee Chocolate, Paul Robeson Harvested!

Tonight: 34 Red Currants, 19 Husky Cherry Reds, 3 Salisaw Cafe tomatoes, 3 Cherokee Chocolates (which I'm beginning to think may be something else) a Garden Peach, White Bush, Prairie Fire and a six ounce Paul Robeson!

Blue Fruit has a tomato on it that looks about a week old! Kellogg's Breakfast now has a small tomato and Painted Ukrainian has a tomato on it that has to be at least two weeks old – it's about an inch in diameter!

There are several tomato plants that have tomatoes maturing on the vines.

I kind of “held my fire” with the Red Currants. There are plenty of maturing tomatoes on the vine and felt that I could pick more. There should be a good load of these over the next couple of days.

I left a maturing Cherokee Chocolate on the plant, hoping that our Manchester Terrier would leave it. I looked around, saw the new backyard tomatoes and then picked some Salisaw Cafe tomatoes. By that time, he had already picked it off the plant. Ugh. Because I didn't see him do it there wasn't anything I could really do.

We tried the Paul Robeson. Another winner!