Harvested Over 200 Front Yard Snow White Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 22 SunGold, 8 Yellow Perfection, 8 Snow White (front yard), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Babywine, 3 Brown Berry, 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Miss Elliotte Black, 2 Violet Jasper, Stupice, Japanese Black Trifele, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Garden Peach, Black Krim, SunSugar, Topaz, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Red Currant(1), Red Boar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Snow White (back yard), T. C. Jones, Enchantment, Nyagous, Gypsy, Michael Pollan, Azoychka/not Azoychka and Pineapple (7 ounces) for a total of 83 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 200 front yard Snow White tomatoes (206)! And the tomatoes from this plant are still excellent, at least twice the size of the tomatoes harvested from the back yard Snow White plant. This plant does not look like a typical volunteer – it's lush, strong and still a vibrant green.

Also we've harvested over 100 Gajo de Melon tomatoes (101). We plan on bringing some of the Gajo de Melon tomatoes to the Culver City tomato tasting this Saturday at Surfas.

Harvested Aunt Ruby's German Green(2)!

Today's harvest includes 30 SunGold, 7 Snow White (front yard), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 White Currant, 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Jaune Flamme(2), 3 Violet Jasper, 2 Michael Pollan, 2 Babywine, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Sweetie, 2 Nyagous, 2 Red Grape, Thessaloniki, Gypsy, Taxi, T. C. Jones, Enchantment, Snow White (back yard), Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1) (7.5 ounces), Sweet Tangerine, Principe Borghese, Carmello, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Japanese Black Trifele, Garden Peach, Miss Elliotte Black, Persimmon and Aunt Ruby's German Green(2) (new) for a total of 86 tomatoes.

It's good to see the second Aunt Ruby's German Green tomato plant finally get a ripe tomato! At one point the plant was a good four and a half feet tall, green, healthy...with no tomatoes. Finally it got a tomato but it seemed to be maturing very slowly, so slowly that I stopped looking at the plant. At some point this tomato took off and was harvested today, coming in at just under six ounces. There are more tomatoes growing on this plant.

Harvested Over 1100 SunGold Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 24 SunGold, 7 Snow White (front yard), 6 Garden Peach, 5 Violet Jasper, 5 Husky Cherry Red, 5 Snow White (back yard), 5 Yellow Perfection, 3 White Currant, 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Topaz, 3 Michael Pollan, 2 Stupice, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 2 Babywine, 2 Black Krim (6 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), Gypsy, Thessaloniki, Black, Enchantment, T. C. Jones, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Weeping Charlie, Sweet Tangerine, Red Currant(2) and Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge for a total of 93 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 1100 SunGold tomatoes! While the latest SunGold tomatoes are smaller than the ones harvested last month, they still taste good. The harvest numbers for SunGold have been quite steady for August – 28/21/21/28/20/21/21/27/24/24. I'll expect these numbers to drop as the month proceeds.

Our local newscast put up a graphic that stated in June had 24 days below normal temperatures, July had 24 days below normal temperatures and all eight days of August below normal temperatures for the month. That's why our tomato plants are relatively small this year!

This is the fifth day in a row in which we've increased our harvest numbers.

By comparison to 2009, though, this will be a low harvest. In August 2009, our first day below 100 harvested tomatoes was August 20, 2009. This year we haven't had one day above 100 harvested tomatoes for August.

Harvested Over 300 Violet Jasper Tomatoes This Year!

And today's harvest includes 24 SunGold, 7 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Snow White (front yard), 5 Babywine, 4 Principe Borghese, 4 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Jaune Flamme(2), 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Violet Jasper, 3 Large Pink Anna (16.5 ounces, 14 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 2 Michael Pollan, 2 Sweetie, 2 Red Currant(2), 2 T. C. Jones, 2 Gypsy, 2 White Currant, Thessaloniki, Black, Sweet Tangerine, Black Oxheart, Red Currant(1), Carmello, Sweet 100, Japanese Black Trifele, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) and Miss Elliotte Black for a total of 91 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 300 Violet Jasper tomatoes (302)! This tomato plant really took off in early July and then tapered off. Now it seems to be getting a second wind.

Also, we've harvested over 2500 back yard tomatoes this year.

The harvested Large Pink Anna tomatoes are beautiful.

We tried the Black tomato. I liked it, my wife really liked it.

My wife and I took a water safety and CPR class yesterday as part of our ongoing education. We had a good speaker that made it interesting.

This is the fourth day in a row the harvest numbers have increased.

Harvested Over 5000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 21 SunGold, 8 Snow White (front yard), 5 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Red Grape, 3 White Currant, 3 T. C. Jones, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, 2 Babywine, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Brown Berry, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Enchantment, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Azoychka/not Azoychka, Jaune Flamme(2), Snow White (back yard), Red Currant(2), Principe Borghese, Michael Pollan, Black Krim and Large Pink Anna (13.5 ounces) for a total of 69 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 5000 tomatoes for the year (5033)! However, our pace has slowed down significantly. For instance, we have around 57 tomato plants in the back yard and we only harvested 26 tomatoes from the back yard today. Our tomatoes have tasted great this year and both my wife and I think this year has been a real success...but it appears that the numbers won't tell the whole story. As it stands right now, we stand little chance of reaching last year's harvest totals even though there are 20 more plants in the ground.

Still Below Normal Weather For July...

Today's harvest includes 57 SunGold, 19 White Currant, 12 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 9 Gajo de Melon, 8 Snow White (front yard), 5 Babywine, 5 Snow White (back yard), 5 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 4 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 3 Garden Peach, 3 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (6 ounces, 10 ounces), 3 Persimmon (7 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Red Currant(1), 3 T. C. Jones, 2 Nyagous, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Large Pink Anna (17 ounces, 22.5 ounces), 2 SunSugar, Stupice, Miss Elliotte Black, Sweetie, Taxi, Principe Borghese, Red Currant(2), Weeping Charlie, Green Zebra, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Ananas Noire and Red Grape for a total of 165 tomatoes.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants yesterday evening.

Two of the Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge tomatoes had a bit of a dark smudge on them!

The 22.5 ounce Large Pink Anna tomato is our heaviest tomato for 2010.

It only got up to 83 degrees yesterday. The low this morning was 51.6 degrees. Still more strangely cooler than normal July weather.

Harvested Paul Robeson!

Today's harvest includes 84 SunGold, 31 White Currant, 15 Garden Peach, 11 Husky Cherry Red, 7 Snow White (front yard), 7 Babywine, 5 Nyagous, 5 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 4 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (one 7 ounces), 3 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 3 Japanese Black Trifele (7 ounces), 3 Persimmon (8 ounces), 2 Red Grape, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 T. C. Jones, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Marianna's Peace (6 ounces), 2 Green Zebra, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Paul Robeson (new), Stupice, Black Krim, SunSugar, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Red Currant(2), Black Oxheart (11 ounces), Red Boar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Pineapple (14.5 ounces), Ananas Noire, Zapotec Pleated, Snow White (back yard), Gajo de Melon and Thessaloniki for a total of 212 tomatoes.

My wife came out with me in the morning and watched me pick some of the front yard tomatoes. She helped out by picking some more SunGold tomatoes after I had pretty much stopped harvesting that plant. That's why the SunGold harvest is so high today.

The harvest numbers for White Currant have been very steady lately -- 32/31/31/31.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants yesterday evening.

Fantastic Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 68 SunGold, 31 White Currant, 22 Garden Peach, 11 Babywine, 11 Husky Cherry Red, 8 Snow White (front yard), 8 Japanese Black Trifele, 7 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 7 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (6 ounces, 9 ounces, 6 ounces), 6 Black From Tula, 6 Snow White (back yard), 5 Gajo de Melon, 5 Red Currant(1), 5 Red Currant(2), 3 Marianna's Peace, 3 Nyagous, 3 Black Oxheart (11 ounces, 10.5 ounces, 14 ounces), 3 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, 3 Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) (6 ounces, 8 ounces, 13.5 ounces), 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Miss Elliotte Black, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Red Boar, 2 Gypsy, Red Grape, Azoychka/not Azoychka, Jaune Flamme(2), T. C. Jones, Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Ananas Noire, Sweet Tangerine, Emerald Evergreen, Green Zebra, Green Grape, Thessaloniki, Carmello, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Principe Borghese, Black Krim, Persimmon (6 ounces) and SunSugar for a total of 243 tomatoes.

Yesterday's haul came in at 12 pounds, 6 ounces and today's haul came in at 13 pounds, one ounce.

It looks like the Red Grape plant got some damage. Several branches on the south side were broken.

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes yesterday evening.

We tried four large tomatoes with our takeout chicken last night. They were nothing short of fabulous. First we tried a large orange tomato – it was either Dr. Wyche's Yellow or Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge. The texture was excellent and it held together nicely when you bit into it. The flavor was clean and delicious. Really good. Then we tried the Black Oxheart. It was just as good, similar characteristics but with a smokier flavor and a slightly more tomato taste. A winner. Now we'd grow this plant again in a heartbeat. Then we tried Aunt Ruby's German Green and we were on the moon! Our other Aunt Ruby's German Green had more of a tomatoey flavor than I'm used to. Not this tomato. This tomato reminded me of Aunt Ruby's German Green from prior years. Smooth and mouthwatering, like the other two tomatoes. None of these tomatoes really reminded you of tomatoes. They were sweet and juicy, almost like watermelon but with enough “meat” to hold together when tasting.

Then we tried Emerald Evergreen. Oddly, the two green tomatoes had turned a bright yellow with a greenish tinge since we picked them the day before. The taste was just as mouthwatering, though unusual.

Gradewise, I give three A's and an A-.

I don't think we'll do better this year. These tomatoes were fabulous!

Finally, Some Heat!

Today's harvest includes 18 SunGold, 15 White Currant, 14 Violet Jasper, 6 Marianna's Peace (one 6 ounces), 6 Garden Peach, 5 Red Grape, 5 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Yellow Perfection, 3 Zapotec Pleated, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Taxi, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Green Grape, 2 Green Zebra, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 2 Snow White (back yard), 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), Gypsy, Black, Toni's Round, T. C. Jones, Ananas Noire, German Orange Strawberry, Speckled Roman, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Black Krim, SunSugar, Stupice, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge and Poma Amoris Minora Lutea for a total of 111 tomatoes.

Our weather is finally warming up! It got up to 95 degrees yesterday. This will help mature the tomatoes on the vine. It also sterilizes some of the flowers so they never become tomatoes so it's both good and bad. Today should be just as warm if not warmer.

The back yard Aunt Ruby's German Green finally has a tomato growing on it! There are two in the front yard. Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) has some good sized tomatoes growing on the vines. Aunt Ruby's German Green(2) is the same height (roughly 5 feet) and has one very small tomato growing in slow motion, if at all.

My wife watered some of the back yard tomatoes.

I need to stake several of the tomato plants.

Harvested Japanese Black Trifele and T. C. Jones!

Today's harvest includes 12 White Currant, 9 SunGold, 8 Violet Jasper, 8 Principe Borghese, 5 Red Grape, 4 Snow White (back yard), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Gypsy, 3 Speckled Roman, 3 Stupice, 3 Red Currant(1), 3 Brown Berry, 3 Yellow Perfection, 2 Patio, 2 Ananas Noire (one 7 ounces), 2 Zapotec Pleated, Taxi, Snow White (front yard), German Orange Strawberry, Sweet Tangerine (6 ounces), Marianna's Peace, Gajo de Melon, Black Cherry, Japanese Black Trifele (new) and T. C. Jones (new) for a total of 84 tomatoes weighing 4 pounds, 15 ounces.

My wife and I went to a pool party in the afternoon. We brought along a bunch of the smaller tomatoes and had a lot of fun splashing in the pool.

As of today, White Currant is our biggest producer.

The numbers have been steady over the past couple of days. The weather has been unseasonably cool for July. Right now it's completely overcast. This is really unusual.

Four years ago I moved in with my then girlfriend/now wife in July 2006. This month was notable because there was a run of 22 days over 100 degrees, including a 119.2 degree day on July 22. Between June 27 and July 27, 2006, the lowest high temperature was 99 degrees on July 3 and July 5.

Don't hold me to this, but I think our high so far this year has been around 93 degrees. Yesterday's high was 80.6 degrees. The day before, 80.9.

This is why our production has been delayed a bit. But look out, this is also great fruit-setting weather. If it heats up, look out, we'll have some very large harvest numbers.

Seven More Plants With New Tomatoes

The new tomatoes are coming fast and furious.

Last night I noticed that Zapotec Pleated, Green Grape and Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge have tomatoes. And these new tomatoes had been around for more than a day or two. I had been looking at Zapotec Pleated nearly every day, moving branches around and whatnot, finding nothing. This tomato plant is already “thick”, lots of branches being sent up the cage. But last night – oh, there's a tomato that's nearly an inch in width! It sounds silly but on some tomatoes you gotta know where to look.

This morning I cut away the undergrowth on all the tomato plants. By definition I got a closer look at all the tomato plants. I noticed new tomatoes on SunSugar, T. C. Jones, Japanese Black Trifele and Topaz. Now these tomatoes aren't even the size of a small button. In a couple of cases, even much smaller.

Next projects -- Remake the “moats” (or at least the “catch basins”) and send out notifications for my 2010 on line documents.

Planted Tomatoes In Our Raised Bed

Last night my wife and I had a goal to plant the raised bed before sundown. We just made it.

But first, we had to prepare the raised bed. My wife had put the alfalfa and bedding straw in a month or two ago. We were worried because our instructions were to include blood and bone meal to start decomposition of the materials – and they weren't included when the straw was placed.

We lifted an area with our pitchfork and were pleasantly surprised at the apparent decomposition that's occurring underneath. While I lifted, my wife made a bit of a hole and added the blood meal and the bone meal, then two shovelfuls of compost. We did this for three holes.

We stapled chicken wire over the straw in the raised bed. Next, we cut out three holes over the compost. My wife planted them, I stepped around the plants to give the plants something dense to grow through and added tomato fertilizer. My wife watered them. I added tomato cages. My wife placed bricks around the tomato plants as the sun was nearly set.

All the extra work was done to hopefully keep out the animals from attacking the blood and bone meal concoction. The decomposable materials in the raised bed look real good – it almost acts like an 8 inch thick “turf” that you can lift.

Oh yeah, we planted Jaune Flamme, Nyagous and T. C. Jones.

I checked them this morning and they're doing just fine. The Japanese Black Trifele in the “koi pond” looks excellent.