Surfas Was Fun But I'm Jealous!

Today's harvest includes 19 Snow White (front yard), 16 SunGold, 9 Yellow Perfection, 4 Snow White (back yard), 4 SunSugar, 3 Michael Pollan, 3 Thessaloniki, 2 Babywine, 2 Violet Jasper, Husky Cherry Red, Stupice, Japanese Black Trifele, Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Jaune Flamme(1), Green Grape, Red Boar, Marianna's Peace, Zapotec Pleated, Black Zebra, Jaune Flamme(2), Gajo de Melon, Black, Gypsy and Azoychka/not Azoychka for a total of 77 tomatoes.

July 17 was the last time the SunGold tomato wasn't the highest number harvested for the day – a 28 day run.

The tomato test taste trial at Surfas in Culver City was fun! Scott Daigre had asked me to bring as many cherry tomatoes as I could to make sure there were enough for everyone. I brought some great looking Snow White tomatoes as well as SunGold, Gajo de Melon and Brown Berry.

Scott brought enough tomatoes to feed an army. We had way too many tomatoes. He made my tomatoes look sad. He brought huge salad bowls of many types of tomatoes. His cherry tomatoes were the size of golf balls.

There's a number of factors for that – he's growing in Ojai and apparently the high harvest season is right about now for Ojai. That and he's a better grower. With more land. With more time. In Ojai. Damn, I'm jealous!

I had put my good looking Snow White tomatoes in one of the large salad bowls. This was followed by Scott's Snow White tomatoes. Out came around 400 Snow White tomatoes into the bowl, completely overwhelming and burying the tomatoes I brought. Almost all were bigger than the ones I brought. By the end of the cooking presentation a small dent had been made in the Snow White salad bowl, my tomatoes still on the bottom.

All the Brown Berry tomatoes were gone by the end of the day...but I only brought three of them. There were around 20 to start the day.

Scott had asked me to bring some Gajo de Melon tomatoes for him to taste. He thought they were good tasting, with a thick skin. I'd agree with that. The recently harvested Gajo de Melon tomatoes were the second wind for this plant and usually the second wind isn't as strong, big or as tasty as the first wind (harvest).

In the evening my wife and I enjoyed a Harry Connick Jr. concert at the Hollywood Bowl. He's entertaining and talented and we had an excellent time.

Thanks Liz and Ricardo!