Matt's Wild Cherry Has A Maturing Tomato!

Friday's harvest includes 6 Orange Paruche, 2 Yellow Perfection and Sugar Snack for a total of 9 tomatoes.

We had a friend come over to watch the LA Kings game (They're the Stanley Cup Champions!!!). We tried several tomatoes. All were quite good but all of us were noticing how good Orange Paruche tasted. I think we'll plant this every year if we see it around...

Today's harvest includes 12 Orange Paruche, 2 Stupice, Yellow Perfection, Sunchocola and SunGold for a total of 17 tomatoes.

While training the back yard tomato plants at night, I noticed that a Matt's Wild Cherry tomato is maturing. Also, Paul Robeson and Brad's Black Heart have growing tomatoes. 

Catching Up On Some Back Yard Plantings(2)

Here's the second half of this week's plantings...

Yesterday I dug the holes and my wife planted Neves Azorean Red, Snow White, Matt's Wild Cherry, Pierce's Pride, Black Krim and SunGold. I pulled out about a gallon and 3/4 of rocks and asphalt.

Today's plantings include Black Sea Man, Indigo Rose, Jaune Flamme, Black From Tula and Brad's Black Heart. A lot of dark tomatoes were planted today! I pulled out over 2 gallons of rock and asphalt.

My wife also started pulling out the grass in the area that I said we didn't have enough time to pull it all out. If we want to plant all our tomatoes, we'll need this area. We'll see how it goes...after all, this area didn't get the compost like the rest of the backyard planting area did. Still, it's better than nothing. 

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. 

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. 

Three More Tomatoes Maturing!

Today's harvest includes 6 Yellow Perfection, 4 Black Cherry, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Husky Cherry Red, Hungarian Heart (12 ounces), Black Seaman, Brad's Black Heart, Michael Pollan and Nyagous for a total of 20 tomatoes.

The Michael Pollan was prematurely picked about three or four days ago. It was left to ripen on the kitchen window sill.

The reason Brad's Black Heart tomatoes are maturing is because the plant is dying. This may be a similar story for Nyagous.

The Hungarian Heart tomato looks very nice. And I can tell the Yellow Perfection plant will be a machine, just cranking out tomatoes left and right.

Plants with maturing tomatoes include Speckled Roman, Jaune Flamme and Black Krim. We could be harvesting a good sized Black Krim tomorrow. 

Harvested Eight New Tomatoes!

Wednesday's harvest includes 7 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Stupice, SuperSweet 100 (new) and Yellow Perfection for a total of 14 tomatoes.

Thursday's harvest includes 7 Yellow Perfection, 4 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Shah/Mikado (new) and Porkchop for a total of 17 tomatoes.

Shah/Mikado tomatoes are a milky yellow color and looks interesting.

Friday's harvest includes 4 Yellow Perfection, 2 Michael Pollan (new), 2 Husky Cherry Red, Vorlon (14 ounces), Stupice, Black Cherry, Shah/Mikado and Black and Brown Boar for a total of 13 tomatoes.

The two Michael Pollan tomatoes were the largest Michael Pollan tomatoes I've ever seen. I put them on the scale and they both weighed two ounces. But for those unfamiliar with Michael Pollan tomatoes, that's huge! The Vorlon tomato is a beauty.

Saturday's harvest includes 11 Yellow Perfection, 4 Snow White (new), 2 Nyagous (new), 2 Husky Cherry Red, Black Seaman (new), Brad's Black Heart (new), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Stupice, Pierce's Pride and Black Cherry for a total of 25 tomatoes.

The harvested Brad's Black Heart was tiny and the plant still doesn't look good while the Black Seaman tomato looked okay.

I spent a lot of time catching up on tomato training and cleaning out the underbrush of a lot of the tomato plants -- probably about two and half hours or so. I deep watered about half the tomato plants in the ground in the back yard. While watering I was clearing out the underbrush and found harvestable tomatoes for Nyagous and Snow White! Hey, look what I found! It was a lot of work but the tomato plants look a lot better.

Later on we drove down to San Juan Capistrano to visit my in-laws and other relatives. We brought down all these tomatoes and more. Most of the relatives came away with tomatoes. We gave them all away. We had a great time!

Today's harvest includes 6 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie Dye (new), Stupice, Vorlon (9 ounces), Black Cherry and Nyagous for a total of 17 tomatoes.

I deep watered the rest of the back yard tomatoes in the ground and five tomato containers. I spent some more time clearing out tomato underbrush while watering.

The Berkeley Tie Dye is tiny, only one or two ounces.

There will be a good sized Hungarian Heart harvested tomorrow. The maturing tomatoes include Missouri Pink Love Apple though I'm sure there are others.

Green Zebra is for all intents and purposes dead. It's just a matter of time before we pull it out. 

Harvested Stupice!

Today's harvest: 5 Stupice (new), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Husky Cherry Red and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1) for a total of 10 tomatoes.

I did some minor tomato training last night while moving some plants in place. The plants were moved originally because our house's exterior was painted. Yesterday, some rain gutters were added.

An incomplete list of tomato plants with growing tomatoes include Gold Medal (mentioned in the last blog post), Grande, Amos Coli, Kentucky Beefsteak, Cuor de Bue, Orange Paruche and Juliet.

I make sure Pineapple got a good soaking last night. Brad's Black Heart has tomatoes but the plant looks terrible. But the grafted plants in the "south garden" look terrific.

Out of the tomatoes we taste tested during yesterday's dinner, Pierce's Pride was the most memorable. 

Finished Planting the Front Yard

Yesterday afternoon my wife planted Paul Robeson, Black Seaman, Berkeley Tie Dye, Brad's Black Heart, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Speckled Roman in the front yard "koi pond". I assisted with the last couple of holes but my wife did a vast majority of the work.

In theory our front yard is now finished, though we may add one more in a shaded area of the "corner office".

Tonight I started my first hole in the back yard. I pulled out enough rocks and stuff (there was at least one shard of glass) to fill a one gallon container. But there was a huge rock to the east of the hole that I simply could not get out of the hole. I'll try again in the morning before I head out to work. I hope the soil around the rock dries out and I can dislodge it. If I can't get it out my wife will plant something just to the west of this rock. 

2012 Tomato Analysis

We ended up with 12,199 harvested tomatoes for the year, our highest ever. To be fair, we had our highest number of tomato plants at 93. However, we tilted the extra tomatoes toward larger ones. Our ratio of small/medium/large was skewed away from the smaller tomatoes.

Here's the totals for prior years.

2007 -- 10,990
2008 -- 4,503
2009 -- 11,155
2010 -- 8,092
2011 -- 9,178

So all in all a very good year. The only disappointments were our Pineapple Pig tomatoes were just okay (they absolutely knocked our socks off in 2011) and we only got one Italian Tree tomato.

Our top ten tomato harvests for 2012 were:

SunGold -- 3911
Husky Cherry Red(1) -- 1006
Husky Cherry Red(2) -- 789
Black Cherry(1) -- 786
Snow White(1) -- 416
Snow White(2) -- 407
Yellow Perfection -- 246
SunSugar -- 244
Red Currant -- 219
Black Cherry(2) -- 183

Note: In all of 2008 we harvested 4500 tomatoes. We harvested 3900 tomatoes off of one plant this year. This year's SunGold was simply amazing.

Highlights: Indigo Rose was both unique in color (think blueberry) and the taste reminded me of a plum. We will grow this again. Indigo Apple was similar. Persimmon was beautiful. I don't think there were tomatoes that absolutely knocked our socks off but we had plenty of really really good ones. It's hard to think of a tomato that we didn't like this year. Looking it over...the 3 Green Zebras weren't good because the plant was diseased. But I can list at least 60 that I'd grow again (for instance, Brad's Black Heart).

I believe what's happening is we're slowly improving the garden year by year, especially the back yard. We pull out rocks and fill every year (and this year, even bricks!). In February we brought in a lot of compost, which helped. We may do it again this year.

All in all a very good year with an incredible SunGold plant. 

Fourteen Plants Pulled...

Today's harvest includes 10 Snow White(1), 3 Amana Orange, 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Snow White(2), 2 Carmello, 2 Delicious (6 ounces), Husky Cherry Red(1), Thessaloniki, Nebraska Wedding, Japanese Black Trifele, Pierce's Pride(1), Porkchop(1), SunGold, Ella's Pink Plum, Big Bite (6 ounces), Brad's Black Heart, Italian Heirloom, Marianna's Peace (6 ounces) and Marmara for a total of 35 tomatoes.

The gardeners did come and pull tomatoes. A lot of them, all in the back yard. The list includes Black Cherry(1), Brad's Black Heart, Black From Tula, Japanese Black Trifele, Black Cherry(2), Marianna's Peace, Noire Charbonneuse(2), Indigo Apple(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Gypsy, Marmara, Red Boar(1), Indigo Rose and Red Boar(2)...14 plants in all. And the ones I listed yesterday need to be removed as well.

Having noted that, I wasn't expecting either Black Cherry to be pulled. But it's done. The raised bed is now cleared out with the removal of Indigo Rose and Red Boar(2). The ground will be prepared for winter crops.

Some of the pulled plants had salvageable tomatoes, which were added to today's totals.

Will we break our all time record? Perhaps, but the removal of the two Black Cherry plants puts it in some doubt.

On a bookkeeping note, Garden Peach was pulled a while ago. I guessed the date as August 22. 

More Plants Going Soon...

Today's harvest includes 9 Black Cherry(1), 6 Snow White(1), 5 Indigo Apple(2), 4 Amana Orange, 4 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 4 SunGold, 3 Brad's Black Heart (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Marmara, 2 Snow White(2), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Carmello, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Pierce's Pride(1), Black Krim(1), Oaxacan Jewel, Big Bite, Yellow Perfection, Thessaloniki, German Orange Strawberry, Japanese Black Trifele and Speckled Roman(3) for a total of 61 tomatoes.

The gardeners will come by again and pull out some tomato plants. The "fungusy" ones are likely to go with other random ones as well. In the front yard, Black Krim(1), Jaune Flamme(1) and Oaxacan Jewel can be pulled. The back yard has a few "fungusy" ones that can go.

Today's harvest was a little aggressive in anticipation of some of these plants being pulled.

No milestones were hit today unless you count 25 Brad's Black Heart tomatoes. 

Harvested Over 10,000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 7 SunGold, 6 Indigo Rose, 5 Snow White(1), 4 Black Cherry(2), 4 Carmello, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Snow White(2), 2 Big Bite (7 ounces), 2 Gypsy, 2 Black Cherry(1), 2 Red Currant, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Redfield Beauty, Indigo Apple(1), Brad's Black Heart (12.5 ounces), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Sweet Million, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Thessaloniki, Husky Cherry Red(1), Japanese Black Trifele, Watermelon (7 ounces) and SunSugar for a total of 53 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 10,000 tomatoes for the year (10046)!! Also, we've harvested over 6500 tomatoes in the back yard (6539) and over 3500 tomatoes in the front yard (3507). It's been a great year so far!

The Brad's Black Heart is a late beauty!

We are now within 100 SunGold tomatoes of our all time harvest for one plant per year (Matt's Wild Cherry, 2727 tomatoes) with 2628 harvested tomatoes so far this year.

It got up to 99 yesterday with as low as 10 percent humidity. It should be even warmer today.

My wife should be pulling out some tomato plants today.

I added fertilizer to the container plants this morning.

We've now harvested over 200 Red Currant tomatoes (201), over 50 Big Bite tomatoes (51) and 50 Thessaloniki tomatoes. 

Harvested 100 Carmello Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 15 SunGold, 10 Carmello, 9 Snow White(2), 7 Black Cherry(1), 6 Red Currant, 3 Oaxacan Pink, 3 Indigo Rose, 3 Big Bite, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Oaxacan Jewel (7 ounces), 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Thessaloniki, Indigo Apple(1), Pineapple(1) (8.5 ounces), Nyagous(1), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Brad's Black Heart (6.5 ounces), Pink Furry Boar, Snow White(1), Black and Brown Boar(2), Purple Dog Creek, Delicious, Black Cherry(2), Amana Orange, Noire Charbonneuse(2) and Tolstoi for a total of 86 tomatoes.

My wife pulled Pineapple Pig, Yellow Furry Boar, Red Boar(2) and Porkchop(2). My wife spotted the tomato on Yellow Furry Boar but declared it as not worth saving and pulled the plant.

If you'll notice, all four tomatoes were developed at Wild Boar Farms. Wild Boar Farms has some tremendous varieties and we will always grow tomatoes developed there, but the plants simply do not last in the heat of the San Fernando Valley.

Carmello is going through a second wind, as well as Red Currant to a lesser degree.

Also, my wife watered all of the back yard tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 700 Black Cherry(1) tomatoes (706) and 100 Carmello tomatoes this year. 

Harvested Over 9000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 34 Black Cherry(1), 18 SunGold, 15 Husky Cherry Red(2), 14 Snow White(2), 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Snow White(1), 4 Carmello, 4 Red Boar(1), 4 Indigo Apple(2), 4 Yellow Furry Boar, 3 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 3 Redfield Beauty, 2 Vorlon, 2 SunSugar, 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Nyagous(1), Speckled Roman(1), Black and Brown Boar(1), Ella's Pink Plum, Pineapple Pig, Brad's Black Heart (7 ounces), Oaxacan Pink (6 ounces), Black and Brown Boar(2), Italian Heirloom, Amazon Chocolate, Black Cherry(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Watermelon (7 ounces), Pineapple(2) (19 ounces) and Indigo Rose for a total of 142 tomatoes.

Yesterday's high: 99.7 degrees. There's something wrong when 100 degrees feels like a relief...

My wife took out Persimmon, Ramapo and Omar's Lebanese. We harvested 16 Persimmon and 7 Omar's Lebanese but both were successful plants. It's not just numbers, but the quality and size of the harvested tomatoes.

My wife also completed the front yard watering and most of the back yard tomatoes as well. There's more to remove but I need to look them over before deciding which ones go. She also made more sauce from our tomatoes.

Last night I tried Yellow Furry Boar again as part of dinner. There was no fur on any of our Yellow Furry Boars this year but it tasted smooth, juicy and quite good. Our August tomatoes still have it...

Today's harvest was definitely heftier than it has been in a while. The Pineapple(2) looks beautiful!

We've now harvested over 9000 tomatoes for the year (9104)! Also, we've harvested over 1500 back yard tomatoes this month (1568).

We've harvested over 600 Black Cherry(1) tomatoes (611) and over 50 Indigo Apple(2) tomatoes (57) this year.

And on a personal note, this is my 1000th blog post! 

Harvested Pineapple(2) Tomato!

Today's harvest includes 24 SunGold, 13 Snow White(1), 8 Black Cherry(2), 7 Sweet Baby Girl, 6 Snow White(2), 5 Sweet Million, 5 Crimson Cushion, 4 Sweet 100, 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 SunSugar, 3 Redfield Beauty, 3 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Black Cherry(1), 2 Big Zebra (12.5 ounces), 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 2 Indigo Apple(2), 2 Black and Brown Boar(2), 2 Neves Azorean Red, 2 Amazon Chocolate, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Earl of Edgecombe, 2 German Orange Strawberry, Pineapple(2) (14 ounces) (new), Speckled Roman(1), White Zebra, Black and Brown Boar(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Pineapple(1) (8 ounces), Brad's Black Heart (6 ounces), Pink Furry Boar, Oaxacan Pink, Husky Cherry Red(1), Nebraska Wedding (8 ounces), Garden Peach, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Marmara, Taxi, Indigo Rose, Jaune Flamme(2) and Porkchop(2) for a total of 125 tomatoes.

The harvested Pineapple(2) is a beauty! This is a grafted tomato, a birthday gift from our friend Allison.

Copper River has a growing tomato! I was looking for possible tomato plants to pull and I'll be darned it has a growing tomato!

I hope it can survive the heat. Yesterday it got up to 108.1 degrees at Pierce College!

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes in the morning after pulling out Chile Verde.

We've now harvested 800 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes and over 100 Black Cherry(2) tomatoes (107). 

Harvested Over 150 Garden Peach Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 28 SunGold, 12 Snow White(2), 7 Sweet 100, 6 Garden Peach, 6 Black Cherry(1), 5 Black Cherry(2), 4 Sweet Baby Girl, 4 SunSugar, 4 Redfield Beauty, 4 Snow White(1), 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Big Zebra (9.5 ounces), 3 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Gypsy, 2 Delicious (7.5 ounces), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Big Bite (6 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Porkchop(2), 2 Yellow Furry Boar, 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Brad's Black Heart (7 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Red Currant, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces, 7 ounces), Nyagous(1), Jaune Flamme(1), Black and Brown Boar(1), Ella's Pink Plum, Pineapple(1), Pineapple Pig (13 ounces), Green Grape, Black From Tula (6 ounces), Nebraska Wedding (7 ounces), Japanese Black Trifele, Purple Dog Creek (7 ounces), Italian Heirloom, Amazon Chocolate (6 ounces), Marianna's Peace (10.5 ounces), Indigo Apple(2) and Earl of Edgecombe(8.5 ounces) for a total of 129 tomatoes.

I placed fertilizer in the container plants and my wife dutifully watered it in later in the day.

My wife made a tomato salad, using tomatoes from nearly every color in the rainbow. The salad colors were enticing by itself. We visited the "seed lady" in the afternoon and enjoyed dinner with her company. The salad was a hit.

We harvested over 150 Garden Peach tomatoes this year (154)! However, most of the recent Garden Peach tomatoes are close to inedible. They're small and desiccated. This plant may get pulled sooner rather than later. 

Harvested Over 7500 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 32 SunGold, 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 11 Snow White(2), 10 Black Cherry(1), 8 Snow White(1), 7 Redfield Beauty, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Creme Brulee, 4 SunSugar, 3 Pink Furry Boar, 3 German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces, 9 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Garden Peach, 3 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Nyagous(1), 2 White Zebra, 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Pineapple Pig (7 ounces), 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (6 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 2 Sweet Baby Girl, 2 Gypsy, 2 Sweet Million, 2 Ella's Pink Plum, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Indigo Rose, Kellogg's Breakfast, Chinese Tea, Pierce's Pride(1), Noire Charbonneuse(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Sweet 100, Red Currant, Brad's Black Heart (14 ounces), Black Krim(2), Black From Tula, Nebraska Wedding (8 ounces), Yellow Furry Boar, Black and Brown Boar(2), Delicious (8 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Amana Orange (12 ounces), Indigo Apple(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Marmara, Ramapo, Red Boar(2) and Green Grape for a total of 162 tomatoes.

This is being written just after the tomato tasting party at Loteria Grill but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.

Yesterday my wife completed watering the back yard. She also made fig jam. However, she said she used the wrong pectin so it's more of a fig sauce/syrup than a jam.

In the evening we tried Aunt Ruby's German Green and it was delicious!

We've now harvested over 7500 tomatoes this year (7576) and we're still going strong. This could be a tremendous year. Also we've harvested over 650 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (657) for the year. 

Harvested Over 4500 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 72 SunGold, 23 Husky Cherry Red(1), 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 12 Black Cherry(1), 9 Garden Peach, 7 Snow White(1), 5 Yellow Perfection, 4 Carmello (6 ounces), 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 4 SunSugar, 4 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 4 Black From Tula (9 ounces, 8 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 3 Speckled Roman(3) (7 ounces), 3 Yellow Furry Boar (6.5 ounces), 3 Pink Furry Boar (6 ounces), 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Brown Berry, 2 Black and Brown Boar(2), 2 Delicious (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Red Currant, 2 Yellow Currant, 2 Black and Brown Boar(1), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 Crimson Cushion (8 ounces), 2 Green Grape, 2 Snow White(2), 2 Brad's Black Heart (12 ounces), 2 Japanese Black Trifele (8 ounces), 2 Creme Brulee (7 ounces), 2 Jaune Flamme(1), 2 Watermelon (8.5 ounces, 10.5 ounces), Noire Charbonneuse(1), Noire Charbonneuse(2), Berkeley Tie Dye, Vorlon (10 ounces), Speckled Roman(2) (6 ounces), Pineapple Pig (17 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (12.5 ounces), Gypsy, Marmara (6 ounces), Black Krim(1) (9.5 ounces), Black Krim(2), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) (7.5 ounces), Persimmon (14 ounces), Italian Heirloom (9 ounces), Taxi and Marianna's Peace (9 ounces) for a total of 228 tomatoes.

My wife will appreciate fewer harvested tomatoes today. Yesterday she completed the watering of the back yard tomatoes but otherwise spent the whole day processing and giving away tomatoes. It was an all day job and understandably she was a bit overwhelmed by the end of the day.

This morning we taste tested Yellow Furry Boar and Creme Brulee. Yellow Furry Boar was a nice, smooth tasting milky yellow tomato. But our collective socks were knocked off by Creme Brulee. The taste really can't be condensed down into a simple description. I find it to be a great combination between both a red tomato (tomato taste) with a brown tomato (smooth, smoky undertones). Both flavors are there but neither dominates. Both tomatoes worked but Creme Brulee was just outstanding.

A Red Boar(2) is maturing.

We've now harvested over 1400 SunGold tomatoes for the year (1446). Also, we've now harvested over 2000 back yard tomatoes in July (2065), over 3500 overall for the month (3674) and over 4500 for the year (4538). 

Harvested Ramapo and Kellogg's Breakfast!

Today's harvest includes 80 SunGold, 29 Husky Cherry Red(1), 23 Husky Cherry Red(2), 13 Jaune Flamme(1), 9 Black Cherry(1), 9 SunSugar, 7 Indigo Rose, 7 Garden Peach, 6 Black and Brown Boar(1), 6 Pink Furry Boar (9.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 5 Yellow Perfection, 5 Snow White(1), 5 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (8.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 5 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) (6 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 8 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 5 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (19 ounces, 12 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 4 Green Grape, 4 Yellow Currant, 4 Red Currant, 4 Redfield Beauty, 3 Black Krim(2) (10.5 ounces, 8 ounces, 10.5 ounces), 3 Carmello (6 ounces), 3 Indigo Apple(1), 3 Marmara, 3 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Black and Brown Boar(2), 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Speckled Roman(2) (7 ounces, 12 ounces), 2 Oaxacan Pink (14 ounces), 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Crimson Cushion (6.5 ounces), 2 Persimmon (12 ounces, 24.5 ounces), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Big Bite (10.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Chinese Tea, 2 Purple Dog Creek (9.5 ounces, 13 ounces), 2 Delicious (7 ounces), 2 Thessaloniki (6 ounces), Kellogg's Breakfast (new) (7 ounces), Ramapo (new) (6 ounces), White Zebra, Pierce's Pride(1) (9 ounces), Porkchop(1) (6 ounces), Creme Brulee (8 ounces), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg (9.5 ounces), Porkchop(2), Noire Charbonneuse(1), Sweet 100, Black From Tula, Sweet Million, Pierce's Pride(2), Brown Berry, Amazon Chocolate (13.5 ounces), Brad's Black Heart (11.5 ounces), Speckled Roman(3), Amana Orange, Indigo Apple(2) and Gypsy for a total of 295 tomatoes.

Wow, another great harvest! It took a couple of hours to get them all. Highlights include Persimmon, Amazon Chocolate, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Noire Charbonneuse(2) with beautiful tomatoes.

My wife watered portions of the back yard. One of the plants watered was Black Cherry(1), which promptly fell into Brad's Black Heart again. I resupported it again this morning. Also, I added fertilizer to the back yard containers. Speaking of back yard containers, I asked my wife to pull Yellow Currant.

Kellogg's Breakfast was not a surprise, I forgot to mention it in the maturing tomatoes list. Now add Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red to that list.

Last night my wife and I taste tested Noire Charbonneuse(2) and Chile Verde. Noire Charbonneuse was my favorite tomato in 2007 and I hadn't seen it again until this year. Now my wife knows why I like it so much. The taste was "cleaner" than I remember but you could still taste the buttery undertones and the good flavor. Chile Verde was excellent as well. A green tomato that was "cool" and mellow was quite surprising to me, better tasting than when we grew it before. My wife definitely preferred Noire Charbonneuse(2), as did I, but were quite pleasantly surprised by Chile Verde.

The 12 ounce Speckled Roman(2) is an anomaly. It's a "fat" tomato not unlike Brad's Black Heart. And as you know, Speckled Roman is a long tomato like a classic Roma tomato. I've asked my wife to save the seeds from that tomato. Maybe we'll get an image of it at some point...

We've now harvested over 1300 SunGold tomatoes this year (1374) and over 500 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes (518). Also, we've now harvested over 1500 tomatoes in the front yard for July (1525) and over 2500 tomatoes in the back yard for this year (2517). 

Harvested Nebraska Wedding!

Today's harvest includes 95 SunGold, 27 Husky Cherry Red(1), 22 Husky Cherry Red(2), 10 Garden Peach, 8 Black Cherry(1), 7 Red Currant, 7 Yellow Perfection, 6 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Black and Brown Boar(1), 6 Chinese Tea, 5 Jaune Flamme(1), 5 Green Grape, 5 Japanese Black Trifele (6 ounces), 4 Pineapple Pig (6.5 ounces, 11.5 ounces, 16 ounces, 14 ounces) 4 Snow White(2), 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 4 SunSugar, 4 Crimson Cushion (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 4 Noire Charbonneuse(1), 3 Redfield Beauty, 3 Black Cherry(2), 3 Indigo Rose, 3 Black From Tula (11 ounces, 10 ounces, 12 ounces), 3 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, 3 Yellow Currant, 2 White Zebra, 2 Black Krim(2) (7 ounces), 2 Pink Furry Boar, 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Brad's Black Heart (9.5 ounces, 13 ounces), 2 Brown Berry, Nebraska Wedding (new) (6 ounces), Thessaloniki, Indigo Apple(1), Speckled Roman(2) (8 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (8.5 ounces), Sweet 100, Italian Heirloom (19 ounces), Big Bite (9.5 ounces), Sweet Million, Taxi, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Ella's Pink Plum, Carmello, Speckled Roman(3) (6.5 ounces), Snow White(1), Noire Charbonneuse(2), Watermelon (7.5 ounces), Tolstoi and Indigo Apple(2) for a total of 283 tomatoes.

Well, there's good news: I think I figured out what's eating some of our tomatoes. There's bad news: I think I figured out what's eating some of our tomatoes. While harvesting in the back yard, a rat was walking across our north cinder block wall.

Technically I didn't complete the harvest. I left the last row of the back yard in the interest of time.

My wife spent almost all day processing tomatoes in various forms. This morning she took all the smaller tomatoes, added oil and began to roast them in the oven.

Maturing tomatoes include Paul Robeson and Omar's Lebanese. I know there are others.

Is Nyagous(2) another Speckled Roman? There are similarities...

Today's Pineapple Pig harvest looks great.

We've now harvested 100 SunSugar tomatoes this year. Also, we've now harvested over 2000 back yard tomatoes this year (2031) and over 2500 tomatoes for July (2582)