Saturday's harvest includes 19 Black Cherry, 7 Supersweet 100, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 3 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Jaune Flamme, Gold Medal (new), Black and Brown Boar, SunGold(1), Green Grape, Kellogg's Breakfast (13 ounces), Hungarian Heart (7 ounces), Porkchop, Yellow Perfection, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (11 ounces), Jersey Giant, German Orange Strawberry, Speckled Roman(2), Grande (15 ounces), Garden Peach, Ananas Noire (12 ounces), Cuor de Bue, Kentucky Beefsteak (8.5 ounces), Juliet and Isis Candy for a total of 64 tomatoes.
The gardeners came again today and pulled out Stupice, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Berkeley Tie Dye and Kentucky Beefsteak. The gardeners also removed some of the sunflowers in the front yard. My wife cleaned up the remaining Michael Pollan tomatoes on the ground and tossed them out.
The new Gold Medal tomato is not impressive. Like many other plants this year, the fruit is undersized.
My wife watered the front yard tomatoes.
Sunday's harvest includes 23 Black Cherry, 7 Supersweet 100, 6 Shah/Mikado, 5 Blue Beauty, 5 Garden Peach, 4 Isis Candy, 4 Ananas Noire (8.5 ounces, 10.5 ounces, 13 ounces), 4 Speckled Roman(1), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Black and Brown Boar, 2 Juliet, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple, Hungarian Heart, Porkchop, Yellow Perfection, Pineapple, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Gold Medal, Crynkovic (6 ounces), Japanese Black Trifele, Speckled Roman(2) and "Something Orange" (15 ounces) for a total of 88 tomatoes.
The Ananas Noire tomatoes are beauties! More importantly they taste good. I have not been a fan of Ananas Noire in the past. I didn't get it. When we grew it in the past they were relatively small and not great tasting. These Ananas Noire tomatoes are crisp, juicy and delicious.
There was no harvest on Monday.
Today's harvest includes 29 Black Cherry, 10 Jaune Flamme, 9 Garden Peach, 8 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Indigo Rose, 6 Blue Beauty, 6 Shah/Mikado, 5 Green Grape, 4 Japanese Black Trifele, 4 Supersweet 100, 4 Speckled Roman(1), 4 Jersey Giant, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Isis Candy, 2 Juliet, 2 Sweet 100, 2 SunGold(2), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Grande (17.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Ananas Noire (12.5 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 "Something Orange" (11 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Cuor de Bue, 2 Pineapple Pig (6.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Piement, Porkchop, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Gold Medal, Black and Brown Boar, Kellogg's Breakfast, Crynkovic and Husky Red(1) for a total of 132 tomatoes.
We tried Grande last night. Good looking, meaty interior. My wife absolutely loved it. I was less high on it than my wife was but I wasn't really in a tomato mood and I think I hit a mealy part of the tomato. It looked great and I will definitely give it a second try.
My wife watered most if not all of the back yard tomato plants last night.
"Something Orange" looks like Dr. Wyche's Yellow to me. My wife made a compelling argument that the mystery tomato is Kellogg's Breakfast. But today's tomatoes look like Dr. Wyche's Yellow -- slightly more white and pink compared to Kellogg's Breakfast. We'll try it at some point and the taste will help clarify the situation.
Today's harvest covered a lot of the counter space. The larger tomatoes that are currently being harvested look quite nice.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Harvested Three New Tomatoes and a 30 Ounce Dr. Wyche's Yellow!
Today's harvest includes 18 Black Cherry, 7 Supersweet 100, 6 Indigo Rose, 4 Blue Beauty, 3 Jersey Giant, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Pineapple Pig (13 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Shah/Mikado, SunGold(2) (new), Cuor de Bue (8.5 ounces, new), "Something Orange" (11 ounces, new), Hungarian Heart (6 ounces), Porkchop, Yellow Perfection, Black Krim, Speckled Roman(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (30 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Sweet 100 and Husky Red(1) for a total of 69 tomatoes.
The Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato was a big, big surprise. The tomato was buried in the middle of the plant. I had no idea we had a tomato that big. This ties the 30 ounce Mexico tomato I harvested a few years back.
I use a child's bowl as the receptacle for holding tomatoes. I needed two hands to harvest this tomato so I set the bowl with the Black Cherry and Speckled Roman(1) tomatoes down on the ground. When I pulled off the Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato, the tomato fell out of my hands and caught the lip of the bowl. That put an ugly gash in the Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato and sent the harvested tomatoes in the bowl scattering everywhere. I'm still not sure I found them all.
The new Cuor de Bue tomato looks nice but it still needs a day or two to fully mature.
The "Something Orange" tomato looks nice but we don't know what it is. On the online spreadsheet I labeled it as Orange Paruche?. The tomato is orange, I'll grant you that but it sure isn't Orange Paruche. Orange Paruche is a cherry tomato and this 11 ounce tomato isn't a cherry tomato. My best guess right now is that it's another Kellogg's Breakfast. But for now it's a mystery.
All in all it was a pretty good haul today.
The Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato was a big, big surprise. The tomato was buried in the middle of the plant. I had no idea we had a tomato that big. This ties the 30 ounce Mexico tomato I harvested a few years back.
I use a child's bowl as the receptacle for holding tomatoes. I needed two hands to harvest this tomato so I set the bowl with the Black Cherry and Speckled Roman(1) tomatoes down on the ground. When I pulled off the Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato, the tomato fell out of my hands and caught the lip of the bowl. That put an ugly gash in the Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato and sent the harvested tomatoes in the bowl scattering everywhere. I'm still not sure I found them all.
The new Cuor de Bue tomato looks nice but it still needs a day or two to fully mature.
The "Something Orange" tomato looks nice but we don't know what it is. On the online spreadsheet I labeled it as Orange Paruche?. The tomato is orange, I'll grant you that but it sure isn't Orange Paruche. Orange Paruche is a cherry tomato and this 11 ounce tomato isn't a cherry tomato. My best guess right now is that it's another Kellogg's Breakfast. But for now it's a mystery.
All in all it was a pretty good haul today.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Harvested Kentucky Beefsteak!
Tuesday's harvest includes 13 Black Cherry, 6 Snow White, 5 Sweet 100, 5 Supersweet 100, 3 Husky Red(1), 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Isis Candy, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (14.5 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Piement, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 SunGold(1), 2 Porkchop, Hungarian Heart (7 ounces), Jersey Giant, Missouri Pink Love Apple, Green Grape, Speckled Roman(2), Amos Coli (8 ounces), Ananas Noire (16 ounces) and Juliet for a total of 58 tomatoes.
Most if not all of today's harvest was brought to my in-laws later in the day.
Wednesday's harvest includes 7 Garden Peach, 6 Black Cherry, 4 Shah/Mikado, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Supersweet 100, 3 Blue Beauty, 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 2 Black and Brown Boar, 2 Green Grape, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Crynkovic (7 ounces), 2 Isis Candy, 2 Juliet, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (13 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Stupice, Hungarian Heart, Vorlon, Jersey Giant and Pineapple Pig for a total of 54 tomatoes.
We've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes for July! Some of Wednesday's harvest was brought to a barista in Tarzana.
Today's harvest includes 15 Black Cherry, 8 Shah/Mikado, 6 Sweet 100, 6 Supersweet 100, 5 Isis Candy, 5 Garden Peach, 3 Snow White, 3 Juliet, 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Jaune Flamme, Kentucky Beefsteak (new), SunGold(1), Green Grape, Husky Cherry Red, Hungarian Heart, Porkchop, Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie Dye, Jersey Giant and German Orange Strawberry for a total of 67 tomatoes.
This ends a four day slide in the harvest numbers. But having noted that, it's clear it will not only be a bad year according to the numbers, it may be an atrocious year. Still, I've been pleased with the full sized tomatoes so far. But there's been a lot, and I mean a lot of tomatoes that are miniature-sized versions of their full sized brethren.
Most if not all of today's harvest was brought to my in-laws later in the day.
Wednesday's harvest includes 7 Garden Peach, 6 Black Cherry, 4 Shah/Mikado, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Supersweet 100, 3 Blue Beauty, 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 2 Black and Brown Boar, 2 Green Grape, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Crynkovic (7 ounces), 2 Isis Candy, 2 Juliet, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (13 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Stupice, Hungarian Heart, Vorlon, Jersey Giant and Pineapple Pig for a total of 54 tomatoes.
We've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes for July! Some of Wednesday's harvest was brought to a barista in Tarzana.
Today's harvest includes 15 Black Cherry, 8 Shah/Mikado, 6 Sweet 100, 6 Supersweet 100, 5 Isis Candy, 5 Garden Peach, 3 Snow White, 3 Juliet, 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Jaune Flamme, Kentucky Beefsteak (new), SunGold(1), Green Grape, Husky Cherry Red, Hungarian Heart, Porkchop, Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie Dye, Jersey Giant and German Orange Strawberry for a total of 67 tomatoes.
This ends a four day slide in the harvest numbers. But having noted that, it's clear it will not only be a bad year according to the numbers, it may be an atrocious year. Still, I've been pleased with the full sized tomatoes so far. But there's been a lot, and I mean a lot of tomatoes that are miniature-sized versions of their full sized brethren.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Harvested Five New Tomatoes; Pineapple Pig Was Extraordinary!
Saturday's harvest includes 15 Black Cherry, 10 Sweet 100, 9 Supersweet 100, 5 Garden Peach, 5 Isis Candy, 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Juliet, 2 Crynkovic (6 ounces, new), 2 Husky Red(1), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Hungarian Heart, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Snow White, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Jaune Flamme, Pineapple Pig (14 ounces, new), SunGold(1) (new), Green Grape (new), Vorlon, Black Krim (7 ounces), Paul Robeson, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (9 ounces), German Orange Strawberry, Jersey Giant, Missouri Pink Love Apple, Black and Brown Boar, Speckled Roman(2) and Anana's Noire (7 ounces) for a total of 86 tomatoes.
In the morning the gardeners pulled out six dead tomato plants. They were Pierce's Pride, Brad's Black Heart, Black Seaman, Nyaguos, Green Zebra and Michael Pollan. There were about 50 Michael Pollan tomato plants littered on the ground in two spots within the back yard. It's really sad to see Michael Pollan go away because the tomatoes were meaty and tasty.
But we did harvest four new tomatoes today. By far the most spectacular was the beautiful 14 ounce Pineapple Pig tomato. Here's an image of that tomato.
In the afternoon my wife, her parents and I went to a restaurant. We brought along three tomatoes to eat with our meal: Piement, Green Grape and Pineapple Pig. We tried them in that order. Again, Piement had an amazing texture. My wife declared that it was the best tasting tomato skin she's ever tasted, and I can understand that sentiment. Especially so if I want to remain married. In all seriousness I'd have to agree with her about the skin of this tomato.
Green Grape tasted good as usual, though it's hard to divide up such a small tomato into four parts. I think it may have been only cut up in three parts.
Pineapple Pig tasted as good as it looks. Inside it truly looked like a pineapple. It was entirely yellow inside with a slight pink blush in one spot. The tomato tasted as good as it looked. I think we had that 14 ounce tomato eaten among the four of us in about 90 seconds. It was truly delicious.
I now know I harvested last year's Pineapple Pig a little early. I would harvest it when it had a mostly yellow color among green striping. Now I know to wait until the green color is pretty much completely gone. Wow, it was a real pleasure to eat part of this tomato!
Afterward my in-laws left with a bunch of our tomatoes.
Sunday's harvest includes 17 Black Cherry, 10 Green Grape, 9 Sweet 100, 5 Supersweet 100, 5 Garden Peach, 3 Juliet, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Blue Beauty, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Speckled Roman(2) (6 ounces), 2 Snow White, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Stupice, Hungarian Heart, Yellow Perfection, Paul Robeson, Missouri Pink Love Apple, Black and Brown Boar, Jaune Flamme, German Orange Strawberry (9 ounces), Japanese Black Trifele, Isis Candy and Husky Red(1) for a total of 75 tomatoes.
Sunday was the first (annual?) Popsiclelooza held in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. This was a neighborhood event and roughly 40 - 50 people attended. The popsicles were made by my wife's maid of honor. Everyone had a good time. We brought more tomatoes to give away.
Today's harvest includes 9 Shah/Mikado, 9 Sweet 100, 7 Black Cherry, 6 Snow White, 5 Juliet, 4 Blue Beauty, 4 Green Grape, 3 Supersweet 100, 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 Piement (6 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Stupice, 2 Jersey Giant, 2 Garden Peach, Amos Coli (new), Vorlon, Speckled Roman(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Missouri Pink Love Apple, Crynkovic and Speckled Roman(2) for a total of 74 tomatoes.
Here's a troubling sign: The harvest numbers are dropping and some of the producing tomato plants look spent. We may be on a pace for some terrible numbers this year.
Amos Coli looks like a cross between Speckled Roman (hand grenade shape) and Piement (color).
In the morning the gardeners pulled out six dead tomato plants. They were Pierce's Pride, Brad's Black Heart, Black Seaman, Nyaguos, Green Zebra and Michael Pollan. There were about 50 Michael Pollan tomato plants littered on the ground in two spots within the back yard. It's really sad to see Michael Pollan go away because the tomatoes were meaty and tasty.
But we did harvest four new tomatoes today. By far the most spectacular was the beautiful 14 ounce Pineapple Pig tomato. Here's an image of that tomato.
In the afternoon my wife, her parents and I went to a restaurant. We brought along three tomatoes to eat with our meal: Piement, Green Grape and Pineapple Pig. We tried them in that order. Again, Piement had an amazing texture. My wife declared that it was the best tasting tomato skin she's ever tasted, and I can understand that sentiment. Especially so if I want to remain married. In all seriousness I'd have to agree with her about the skin of this tomato.
Green Grape tasted good as usual, though it's hard to divide up such a small tomato into four parts. I think it may have been only cut up in three parts.
Pineapple Pig tasted as good as it looks. Inside it truly looked like a pineapple. It was entirely yellow inside with a slight pink blush in one spot. The tomato tasted as good as it looked. I think we had that 14 ounce tomato eaten among the four of us in about 90 seconds. It was truly delicious.
I now know I harvested last year's Pineapple Pig a little early. I would harvest it when it had a mostly yellow color among green striping. Now I know to wait until the green color is pretty much completely gone. Wow, it was a real pleasure to eat part of this tomato!
Afterward my in-laws left with a bunch of our tomatoes.
Sunday's harvest includes 17 Black Cherry, 10 Green Grape, 9 Sweet 100, 5 Supersweet 100, 5 Garden Peach, 3 Juliet, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Blue Beauty, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Speckled Roman(2) (6 ounces), 2 Snow White, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Stupice, Hungarian Heart, Yellow Perfection, Paul Robeson, Missouri Pink Love Apple, Black and Brown Boar, Jaune Flamme, German Orange Strawberry (9 ounces), Japanese Black Trifele, Isis Candy and Husky Red(1) for a total of 75 tomatoes.
Sunday was the first (annual?) Popsiclelooza held in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. This was a neighborhood event and roughly 40 - 50 people attended. The popsicles were made by my wife's maid of honor. Everyone had a good time. We brought more tomatoes to give away.
Today's harvest includes 9 Shah/Mikado, 9 Sweet 100, 7 Black Cherry, 6 Snow White, 5 Juliet, 4 Blue Beauty, 4 Green Grape, 3 Supersweet 100, 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 Piement (6 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Stupice, 2 Jersey Giant, 2 Garden Peach, Amos Coli (new), Vorlon, Speckled Roman(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Missouri Pink Love Apple, Crynkovic and Speckled Roman(2) for a total of 74 tomatoes.
Here's a troubling sign: The harvest numbers are dropping and some of the producing tomato plants look spent. We may be on a pace for some terrible numbers this year.
Amos Coli looks like a cross between Speckled Roman (hand grenade shape) and Piement (color).
Friday, July 12, 2013
Harvested A Mini Japanese Black Trifele
Yesterday's harvest includes 15 Black Cherry, 8 Sweet 100, 6 Vorlon (8 ounces, 6 ounces, 10 ounces), 5 Garden Peach, 4 Juliet, 4 Supersweet 100, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Blue Beauty, 3 German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces), 3 Shah/Mikado, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Michael Pollan, 2 Hungarian Heart, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8.5 ounces, 12 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Stupice, Yellow Perfection, Black Krim (8 ounces), Snow White, Anana's Noire (18 ounces) and Husky Red(1) for a total of 73 tomatoes.
Today's harvest includes 17 Black Cherry, 10 Sweet 100, 6 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Blue Beauty, 4 Garden Peach, 3 Vorlon, 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Juliet, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Black Krim (8.5 ounces, 10 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Supersweet 100, 2 German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces), 2 Piement, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Pineapple, Japanese Black Trifele (new), Porkchop, Black Seaman, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Speckled Roman(2) and Snow White for a total of 80 tomatoes.
The Michael Pollan plant is basically dead. I don't want any more tomatoes off of this plant. This is somewhat amazing because three weeks ago I could argue that it's the strongest plant I had. Maybe a cutworm got it, maybe it couldn't handle the heat...but I won't harvest from this plant again. There are a few unripened ones sitting on our sill that I may count toward the final total...but the plant is dead. Pierce's Pride, Nyagous, Green Zebra, Black Seaman are functionally dead as well. Green Zebra has been dead for two weeks but we've had no time to pull it.
Piement has an amazing texture! The tomato is unique. It looks like a pepper. Take a chili from the Chile's Restaurant logo and straighten it out -- that's the look of Piement. And it tastes good, too. I don't think I've ever had a tomato with such a pleasant texture. Blue Beauty was good, Shah/Mikado was good but Piement was really good.
While Japanese Black Trifele is a new tomato, it is very small. This falls in line with some of our other plants like Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Black Seaman, Berkeley Tie Dye, Pineapple, Pierce's Pride and maybe others.
I think this will be a bad year by comparison to other years. There are lots of "too small" tomatoes, weak/dying tomato plants and more blossom end rot than most years. I think the tomato seedlings were not as strong as prior years.
Today's harvest includes 17 Black Cherry, 10 Sweet 100, 6 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Blue Beauty, 4 Garden Peach, 3 Vorlon, 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Juliet, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Black Krim (8.5 ounces, 10 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Supersweet 100, 2 German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces), 2 Piement, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Pineapple, Japanese Black Trifele (new), Porkchop, Black Seaman, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Speckled Roman(2) and Snow White for a total of 80 tomatoes.
The Michael Pollan plant is basically dead. I don't want any more tomatoes off of this plant. This is somewhat amazing because three weeks ago I could argue that it's the strongest plant I had. Maybe a cutworm got it, maybe it couldn't handle the heat...but I won't harvest from this plant again. There are a few unripened ones sitting on our sill that I may count toward the final total...but the plant is dead. Pierce's Pride, Nyagous, Green Zebra, Black Seaman are functionally dead as well. Green Zebra has been dead for two weeks but we've had no time to pull it.
Piement has an amazing texture! The tomato is unique. It looks like a pepper. Take a chili from the Chile's Restaurant logo and straighten it out -- that's the look of Piement. And it tastes good, too. I don't think I've ever had a tomato with such a pleasant texture. Blue Beauty was good, Shah/Mikado was good but Piement was really good.
While Japanese Black Trifele is a new tomato, it is very small. This falls in line with some of our other plants like Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1), Black Seaman, Berkeley Tie Dye, Pineapple, Pierce's Pride and maybe others.
I think this will be a bad year by comparison to other years. There are lots of "too small" tomatoes, weak/dying tomato plants and more blossom end rot than most years. I think the tomato seedlings were not as strong as prior years.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Harvested Grande!
Today's harvest includes 12 Black Cherry, 9 Sweet 100, 7 Yellow Perfection, 5 German Orange Strawberry (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 5 Shah/Mikado, 4 Juliet, 4 Garden Peach, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Vorlon (8.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 3 Michael Pollan, 2 Snow White, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Missouri Pink Love Apple (6 ounces), Grande (17 ounces, new), Speckled Roman(1), Speckled Roman(2), Piement, Pineapple, Stupice, Paul Robeson, Isis Candy and Husky Red(1) for a total of 74 tomatoes.
Yesterday I gave some tomatoes to our local barrista. My wife had me give some tomatoes to a neighborhood friend of hers.
She made gazpacho for dinner and it tasted both delicious and healthy!
The new Grande tomato is our largest tomato this year so far.
Yesterday I gave some tomatoes to our local barrista. My wife had me give some tomatoes to a neighborhood friend of hers.
She made gazpacho for dinner and it tasted both delicious and healthy!
The new Grande tomato is our largest tomato this year so far.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Catching up...
Today's harvest includes 7 Sweet 100, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Shah/Mikado, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Juliet, 2 Vorlon (7 ounces), 2 Supersweet 100, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Garden Peach, 2 Black Krim (8 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Blue Beauty, Kellogg's Breakfast (8 ounces, new), Anana's Noire (10.5 ounces, new), Isis Candy (new), Porkchop, Black Cherry, Paul Robeson (8 ounces), Jersey Giant, Missouri Pink Love Apple (7 ounces), Jaune Flamme, Indigo Rose and Snow White for a total of 46 tomatoes.
Our harvest total starting at June 27 are as follows: 22/29/38/26/26/43/35/58/54/53/53/62 followed by today's harvest of 46 tomatoes.
As noted previously, a dear friend passed away.
About six or eight weeks ago, our dear friends we told they had to move out of their rented house. The owners were going through a divorce. This caused a lot of heartache -- it's one thing to be forced to abandon their vegetable garden, but what about their animals? Where will they go? Things were grim.
But lo and behold, a place to rent was found in the Antelope Valley. It was nearly an acre in size and could be worked as farmland. The commute to work for the husband was nearly the same and the rent was cheaper. Great! One door closes and another one opens. A chicken coop was ordered along with some ducks and a goose in anticipation of a small working farm. The wife could quit her retail job to manage the small farm because of the significant rent savings. Boxes were packed. My wife made plans to visit the new place once a week.
I was recruited to help drive up some of their larger items in a van on July 4 and July 6 in front of a July 10 deadline for the old place.
Then in the late morning on June 27 my wife received the call: Her husband is dead. Heart attack.
We met in early April of 2004. I was brought in to an entertainment payroll company as a software developer and consultant on a "rescue mission" -- a project had gone haywire and supposedly I'm just the man to fix it. The team involved one developer and a project manager. The goal was to get rid of the current project manager, take over and see to it that the developed software is brought out to the commercial market.
I got in and took stock of the situation. My evaluation was this: Down was up and up was down. The project manager was a bit of a misfit for the position (or in Hollywood terms, was "slightly miscast") but was leading the project as best he could. The software developer was atrocious. And the manager above the project manager but between us and the client was in la-la land...but also the recruiter for the consultants. No time for analysis or determining project requirements. We're being billed out as hot shot, experienced consultants but in practice we were glorified typists! The recruiter designated himself as the project lead across multiple projects and the one person to report to the company. Not only does that violate labor laws, he was woefully inadequate for the task.
I wasn't going to fire the project manager. I needed him around to deal with management nonsense while I try to get my arms around this monstrosity.
And thus began our friendship.
But soon thereafter I got rear-ended in an auto accident and lost a few weeks due to some whiplash and soft tissue injuries. I could only work full time after a couple of months. By that time, panic had set in and there was no time to get my arms around it. But I admired our project manager for the ability to take "bullets" for things he had little or no control over. He was the designated punching bag.
I had double-jaw surgery in late March of 2005. We met at a bookstore 19 days after the surgery and he immediately gasped (There was *lots* of swelling). I think he took pity on me a bit.
At the time I was in my early 40's, still single, unattached and basically divorced from my family (I'm the designated punching bag -- sound familiar?). The project manager would invite me over for dinners during holidays and just because he could. Later on I got a girlfriend and the four of us would get together for things. But they moved to Miami.
We got married on September 15, 2007. The project manager flew out from Miami for our wedding.
About a year later they moved back to Southern California and took a job with a solar startup company in Burbank. Yay! And as time went on we slowly grew closer and closer, going out to dinner, sharing tomatoes, vegetables, canning recipes, you name it. They were good friends. It wasn't forced, it just happened. It was easy, it was natural.
They were packing for a new life in the Antelope Valley. The wife will have a new life but it won't be in the Antelope Valley. The day after her husband's death she was firm in that she was moving back to the east coast to be with her parents. And there was no flexibility in the exit date, she had to be out by July 10. So there's been a mad scramble the last 10 days to make that happen for them.
My wife and I took her and her son to LAX last night.
So tomatoes just haven't been much of a priority. The plants are beat up in the heat and I've stopped training them. My wife waters when she can but we're all too busy.
We're caught up for moment. However, I may be taking another break soon.
Our harvest total starting at June 27 are as follows: 22/29/38/26/26/43/35/58/54/53/53/62 followed by today's harvest of 46 tomatoes.
As noted previously, a dear friend passed away.
About six or eight weeks ago, our dear friends we told they had to move out of their rented house. The owners were going through a divorce. This caused a lot of heartache -- it's one thing to be forced to abandon their vegetable garden, but what about their animals? Where will they go? Things were grim.
But lo and behold, a place to rent was found in the Antelope Valley. It was nearly an acre in size and could be worked as farmland. The commute to work for the husband was nearly the same and the rent was cheaper. Great! One door closes and another one opens. A chicken coop was ordered along with some ducks and a goose in anticipation of a small working farm. The wife could quit her retail job to manage the small farm because of the significant rent savings. Boxes were packed. My wife made plans to visit the new place once a week.
I was recruited to help drive up some of their larger items in a van on July 4 and July 6 in front of a July 10 deadline for the old place.
Then in the late morning on June 27 my wife received the call: Her husband is dead. Heart attack.
We met in early April of 2004. I was brought in to an entertainment payroll company as a software developer and consultant on a "rescue mission" -- a project had gone haywire and supposedly I'm just the man to fix it. The team involved one developer and a project manager. The goal was to get rid of the current project manager, take over and see to it that the developed software is brought out to the commercial market.
I got in and took stock of the situation. My evaluation was this: Down was up and up was down. The project manager was a bit of a misfit for the position (or in Hollywood terms, was "slightly miscast") but was leading the project as best he could. The software developer was atrocious. And the manager above the project manager but between us and the client was in la-la land...but also the recruiter for the consultants. No time for analysis or determining project requirements. We're being billed out as hot shot, experienced consultants but in practice we were glorified typists! The recruiter designated himself as the project lead across multiple projects and the one person to report to the company. Not only does that violate labor laws, he was woefully inadequate for the task.
I wasn't going to fire the project manager. I needed him around to deal with management nonsense while I try to get my arms around this monstrosity.
And thus began our friendship.
But soon thereafter I got rear-ended in an auto accident and lost a few weeks due to some whiplash and soft tissue injuries. I could only work full time after a couple of months. By that time, panic had set in and there was no time to get my arms around it. But I admired our project manager for the ability to take "bullets" for things he had little or no control over. He was the designated punching bag.
I had double-jaw surgery in late March of 2005. We met at a bookstore 19 days after the surgery and he immediately gasped (There was *lots* of swelling). I think he took pity on me a bit.
At the time I was in my early 40's, still single, unattached and basically divorced from my family (I'm the designated punching bag -- sound familiar?). The project manager would invite me over for dinners during holidays and just because he could. Later on I got a girlfriend and the four of us would get together for things. But they moved to Miami.
We got married on September 15, 2007. The project manager flew out from Miami for our wedding.
About a year later they moved back to Southern California and took a job with a solar startup company in Burbank. Yay! And as time went on we slowly grew closer and closer, going out to dinner, sharing tomatoes, vegetables, canning recipes, you name it. They were good friends. It wasn't forced, it just happened. It was easy, it was natural.
They were packing for a new life in the Antelope Valley. The wife will have a new life but it won't be in the Antelope Valley. The day after her husband's death she was firm in that she was moving back to the east coast to be with her parents. And there was no flexibility in the exit date, she had to be out by July 10. So there's been a mad scramble the last 10 days to make that happen for them.
My wife and I took her and her son to LAX last night.
So tomatoes just haven't been much of a priority. The plants are beat up in the heat and I've stopped training them. My wife waters when she can but we're all too busy.
We're caught up for moment. However, I may be taking another break soon.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Taking a Break For Now...
A close and dear family friend suddenly passed away on Thursday morning. We are stricken with grief. Yes I'm still harvesting in the morning and posting the numbers in my on line spreadsheet when I can...but frankly, I don't care. Not now, anyway.
We've spent the past few days trying to help out the family sort through the affairs. We're still doing that and will continue to do so. This morning a large tree limb from our ponderosa pine fell in the neighbor's yard, adding to our list of responsibilities.
I'll continue to post about tomatoes some time in the future. But not now.
We've spent the past few days trying to help out the family sort through the affairs. We're still doing that and will continue to do so. This morning a large tree limb from our ponderosa pine fell in the neighbor's yard, adding to our list of responsibilities.
I'll continue to post about tomatoes some time in the future. But not now.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Harvested Pineapple, Speckled Roman(1) and Jaune Flamme!
Today's harvest includes 7 Yellow Perfection, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Stupice, 2 Sweet 100, Pineapple (new), Jaune Flamme (new), Speckled Roman(1) (new), Pierce's Pride, Hungarian Heart (7 ounces), Porkchop, Black Krim (9 ounces), SuperSweet 100 and Brad's Black Heart for a total of 26 tomatoes.
The heat has started. It got up to 96 today. My wife did water some of the front yard tomatoes yesterday and today.
We had a tomato salad tonight with some of the new tomatoes. Speckled Roman was good but uneven, Hungarian Heart was excellent while Black Krim was "wicked good" per my wife. My wife had a Porkchop in the salad and rated that better than Black Krim. A friend came over and thought the Porkchop was best. I didn't have one in my salad. So from best to worst: Porkchop/Black Krim/Hungarian Heart/Speckled Roman.
The heat has started. It got up to 96 today. My wife did water some of the front yard tomatoes yesterday and today.
We had a tomato salad tonight with some of the new tomatoes. Speckled Roman was good but uneven, Hungarian Heart was excellent while Black Krim was "wicked good" per my wife. My wife had a Porkchop in the salad and rated that better than Black Krim. A friend came over and thought the Porkchop was best. I didn't have one in my salad. So from best to worst: Porkchop/Black Krim/Hungarian Heart/Speckled Roman.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Harvested Black Krim and Missouri Pink Love Apple!
Today's harvest includes 9 Yellow Perfection, 6 Black Cherry, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Sweet 100, Black Krim (new) (11 ounces), Missouri Pink Love Apple (new) (6 ounces), Stupice, Pierce's Pride, Porkchop, Brad's Black Heart, Berkeley Tie Dye and Nyagous for a total of 27 tomatoes.
Last night we tried the Michael Pollan tomato. I liked it and my wife really liked it. We got a good report from her mother just the other day and this Michael Pollan didn't disappoint.
Missouri Pink Love Apple looks cute and the new Black Krim will be delicious, you see...
Update: We tried Missouri Pink Love Apple and Black Cherry tonight in a salad. Black Cherry was solidly good. But Missouri Pink Love Apple was downright delicious. Light, smooth, juicy, consistent with a slight watermelon flavor underneath the juicy tomato deliciousness. This specific tomato is highly recommended. Too bad there's no more to share.
Last night we tried the Michael Pollan tomato. I liked it and my wife really liked it. We got a good report from her mother just the other day and this Michael Pollan didn't disappoint.
Missouri Pink Love Apple looks cute and the new Black Krim will be delicious, you see...
Update: We tried Missouri Pink Love Apple and Black Cherry tonight in a salad. Black Cherry was solidly good. But Missouri Pink Love Apple was downright delicious. Light, smooth, juicy, consistent with a slight watermelon flavor underneath the juicy tomato deliciousness. This specific tomato is highly recommended. Too bad there's no more to share.
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