The LA Times Story Reaches Italy!

The tomato story has reached the Italian newspaper La Stampa. The on line article can be found here.

Can anyone translate?

One More Tomato

Today's haul: Piccolo.

Again, that's it. Sigh.

I watered part of the front yard, but I had to stop because dozens of wasps appeared to be coming out of a plant. I hit it with wasp spray. Then breakfast was served and I never got back to complete the watering.

The winter tomato plants are looking good. My wife got on me because I haven't been paying much attention to them. Oh, I've been watering them and such but as I told her, they're a bit of an afterthought for me. She would like me to track them more seriously. Maybe I'll get my wife to post to the blog more often. We'll see.

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Los Angeles County Fair. Again, we didn't get back home until after 11 PM.

One Tomato, One Caterpillar

Today's harvest: Cherokee Chocolate.

That's it!

This was the first day in which I haven't harvested a front yard tomato since May 23.

Yesterday, our seed lady threw a end of summer/first anniversary party for us and others. Needless to say, a good time was had by all – we had more food than could be eaten even though several dozen people showed up.

I did find a large caterpillar on Sioux. My guess is that this caterpillar crossed over from Salisaw Cafe – the Sioux tomato plant leans into Salisaw Cafe.

Seattle Times Picks Up Tomato Story

The Seattle Times picked up on the Los Angeles Times tomato article. The Seattle Times on line article can be found here.

Can anyone verify if it made the newspaper? If so, can I get a copy?

Pulled Five Tomato Plants

Today's harvest includes 2 Piccolos, 2 Old Ivory Eggs and Evan's Italian Plum.

My wife noted last night that our Manchester Terrier has gotten thinner. I've noticed how a lot of the smaller tomatoes are disappearing, such as Stupice, Salisaw Cafe and Italian Market Wonder. I remember tomatoes on all of these plants and suddenly there are few or none.

I also found three caterpillars, one on Pierce's Pride, one on Salisaw Cafe and one on Green Grape. None were full sized.

We also had several tomato plants pulled this morning. Gone are Jaune Flamme, Yellow Brandywine – Platfoot Strain (which means we got zero tomatoes from this plant), Black From Tula, Zhezha (back yard) and the Zhezha in the container.

The 11000 Pounds Meme Spreads...

Here's three more links to the incorrect 11,000 pounds of tomatoes story...

WebIndia123

CreanWorld

Vern Beachy

Reached 4400 Harvested Tomatoes!

And today's haul includes 2 Piccolos, Green Grape, Black Plum Paste and Black Krim (back yard).

I found a full sized caterpillar on Pierce's Pride. It had done some pretty good damage, leaving bare stems behind it.

My wife made a sauce with the tomatoes last night. I took a couple of pictures of the blanched tomatoes. I'll get an image on this blog some time next week.

I waterd the back yard and taped up Kellogg's Breakfast, which has a bad lean.

We reached over 4400 harvested tomatoes for this year!

Fading Away...

Today's harvest: Piccolo, Evan's Italian Plum and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken.

Not much to report, as you can see. But this is typical for this time of year, given that the valley is so hot.

It looks like I'll have Black From Tula pulled this weekend.

A Dwindling Harvest...

And today's haul includes 3 Piccolos, Salisaw Cafe, Sioux, Black Krim (back yard) and Black Cherry.

I forgot to mention that my mother in law took the skin off and blanched all the harvested tomatoes over the weekend. My wife was thrilled when she found out.

My mother in law took the Pacific Surfliner (Amtrak) up from San Juan Capistrano to Chatsworth on Friday. It was the first time she tried this train and she absolutely loved it. However, about a half hour later the devastating train crash occurred just north of the Chatsworth station.

The Chatsworth station was to reopen on Monday afternoon, but was later delayed. So on Monday afternoon I took her to Union Station to catch the train back to San Juan Capistrano.

I think I may have Jaune Flamme pulled this weekend. It was getting new growth and a couple blooms but I think the recent heat wave burned out the blooms.

UPI Makes A Gaffe...

The United Press International picked up on the Los Angeles Times tomato article. Trouble is, they changed one fact, giving the whole story a different meaning.

Instead of stating I had grown 11,000 tomatoes in 2007, UPI changed it so that I had grown 11,000 pounds of tomatoes in 2007, filing it in the category of “Odd News”

<http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/09/16/Tomato_mania_takes_over_yard/UPI-45631221621610/>

Then the Times of The Internet copied the story. <http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/4119.html>

Nope, not 11,000 pounds of tomatoes.