Four More Plants Pulled

Weekend and today's harvest: Didn't look.

On Saturday, we had four tomato plants removed – Prairie Fire, Cherokee Chocolate, Black Plum Paste and Pierce's Pride.

Old Ivory Egg looks gray and not healthy. The cold weather got to it.

Cherokee Chocolate Is Still Around

Today's haul: Nothing.

It turns out that Cherokee Chocolate did not get pulled by the gardener. I told my wife it could be pulled and I assumed that it was passed to the gardeners. It wasn't and it's still in the ground.

In the evening, our Manchester Terrier was caught by my wife taking one of the tomatoes off of Prairie Fire.

Two More Plants Pulled...

Today's harvest: A winter tomato.

We had Piccolo and what passed for Cherokee Chocolate pulled this morning. Now our oldest tomato plant is Prairie Fire. This is all the more remarkable because it is a container plant and there's a couple of reasonable looking tomatoes on it.

My wife did some more work on the front yard yesterday, putting plants in pots and whatnot.

Our Backyard Fence Is Being Replaced...

Today's harvest: Nothing.

We're finally replacing our fence on the south side of the property. This replacement could take out some or all of the tomatoes along the south side, including Evan's Italian Plum, Aker's Plum, Pierce's Pride, Cherokee Chocolate, Lime Green Salad and Black Cherry.

We'll see what happens. This fence has been a bit of a nightmare (trouble with a recalcitrant neighbor) but it may be over by the end of the week.

I forgot to mention that my wife snipped another branch off of Old Ivory Egg, another branch with growing tomatoes on it. Argh!

Catching Up...

Friday's haul: Nothing.

We had a medical issue to deal with in the morning, which didn't leave time to look for tomatoes in the morning.

My wife watered the front yard.

Saturday's harvest: A winter tomato and Cherokee Chocolate.

The air was very smoky because of the local fires. The gardeners came early, around 8:30 AM but we sent them home. It was simply too unhealthy for them to work in the garden. Therefore, the plants to be pulled will live another week unless my wife pulls them.

I did take a good look at the tomato plants, though. I decided that Evan's Italian Plum should not be pulled, as the new growth (from the recent heat spell) looks really healthy. Black Plum Paste has two or three tomatoes on it. Black Cherry has a tomato on it that's too high for the Manchester Terrier to get at. The Lime Green Salad in the back yard has at least three tomatoes on it. Old Ivory Egg has several tomatoes on it.

Sunday's haul: Prairie Fire.

Again, the air was too smoggy and smoky to go outside for any real length of time. Our two dogs got a bath. Since we were near the plants, I noticed that Pierce's Pride had a second tomato growing and Aker's Plum has at least three tomatoes growing on it (albeit easily picked off by the Manchester Terrier). It looks like we will reach the 4500 mark before the end of the year.

By the way, while the tomatoes aren't as delicious as they were in July, there's still good enough. My wife made a great meat sauce last week using the harvested tomatoes. It was delicious!

Today's haul: Piccolo.

You should see the ash sitting on our tomato plants.

Hey, at least we aren't anywhere near the fires.

Pulled Lime Green Salad

Today's haul: Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday and did more work on the roses. In the process, she took out the Lime Green Salad in the “koi pond”. After trimming it down it didn't do much at all, so it was reasonable to pull it out.

Took My Wife To A Hockey Game

Today's harvest: Nothing.

We do have a maturing winter tomato and a maturing Cherokee Chocolate tomato. The Cherokee Chocolate may be ready tomorrow.

I took my wife and a friend to their first hockey game last night. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Dallas Stars in a shootout. Everyone had fun.

One More Tomato Harvested

Today's harvest: Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife watered the back yard plants yesterday.

Kimberly fell down again and I instructed my wife that she can pull it if she likes.

I'm Back!

Today's harvest includes 2 Piccolos, 2 Evan's Italian Plums (one 7.5 ounces, even this late in the season...), Old Ivory Egg and Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife pulled Thessaloniki on Wednesday only to discover that it had two tomatoes on it! This isn't quite as bad as it sounds. I had kept Thessaloniki around because I swore I saw tomatoes on it but I could never find them. This went on for weeks. The plant was starting to lean again, looking more and more fragile (though green) and so on. So my wife decided to pull it, if for no other reason than it was this big large, lurching, ugly tomato plant in the middle of the front yard surrounded by either bare dirt or recently manicured rose bushes. It's understandable.

Also, we got a tomato from one of the winter plants – I think it was Oregon Spring.

My wife watered the back yard yesterday.

Busy Monday

Today's harvest: Piccolo and Cherokee Chocolate.

No news to report – my wife was busy all day and I had work and our computer user group board meeting in the evening.

I will be posting additional links to the tomato story soon.

Running Out Of Ripe Tomatoes...

Today's haul: 2 Cherokee Chocolates.

My wife continues to work on her roses and reshaping the front yard.

I don't remember any tomatoes ready to be harvested. We may have nothing to pick tomorrow. I was tempted to leave a Cherokee Chocolate on the vine for tomorrow but with my luck, the Manchester Terrier would get it. They were ready, anyway.

Wife Continues Gardening...

Today's harvest: Piccolo, Cherokee Chocolate and Kimberly.

Earlier this morning, I tomato taped three tomato plants in the back yard.

My wife did a ton of gardening work in the front yard – she continues to exert effort into getting the front yard back in shape.

September Tomato Analysis, October Estimate

Today's harvest: Cherokee Chocolate.

My wife watered the back yard yesterday.

We ended up with 204 tomatoes pulled for the month of September 2008. I never got around to posting it, but I had estimated anywhere from 220 to 300 tomatoes for the month.

We've now reached 4435 tomatoes for the year.

As for October 2008, well there aren't that many tomatoes left to harvest. It's hard to make an estimate, but I'll try. 25 – 35 tomatoes for October 2008. In a perfect world, we'll do better than that estimate, as there's probably more than 35 unripe tomatoes on the vines right now. But the Manchester Terrier can get to some of them, etc. We'll see.

Three Plants Pulled

Today's haul includes Piccolo, Thessaloniki, Old Ivory Egg and Cherokee Chocolate.

Yesterday Arkansas Traveler, Golden Jubilee and Stupice were pulled. There was one more to be pulled – it was a last minute decision to pull it – but our green trash can was too full. So it's still in the ground.

At Least Two To Be Pulled This Weekend

Today's harvest includes 2 Piccolos, Salisaw Cafe, a very small Prairie Fire, Cherokee Chocolate and Evan's Italian Plum.

My wife watered the back yard plants yesterday.

It looks like Golden Jubilee and Arkansas Traveler will get pulled this weekend.

New Blooms, Old Plants

Today's haul: 2 Piccolos, Stupice and Cherokee Chocolate.

Piccolo is now firmly in second place in the harvest totals for 2008.

I taped a few tomato plants in the morning – Kellogg's Breakfast, Aker's Plum and Sioux come to mind.

Several plants are getting new blooms after dropping all of their fruit. Aker's Plum actually has a couple of new tomatoes – will any others follow suit?

Three Tomatoes, Two Caterpillars

Today's harvest: Piccolo, Kimberly and Cherokee Chocolate.

I found two caterpillars, a full sized one on Aker's Plum (which showed indications of another caterpillar a few days ago, but I didn't find it until now) and a smaller one on Painted Ukrainian.

Last night my wife completed the watering of the front yard tomatoes. Also, she did a lot of work on her roses.

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.

Back From A Busy Weekend...

Today's harvest includes 3 Old Ivory Eggs, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Piccolos, Italian Market Wonder, Lime Green Salad (back yard), Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces), Aker's Plum and Stupice.

My mother in law watered the front and back yards over the weekend.

I found some indication of a caterpillar on Aker's Plum, and found a full sized one almost immediately.

I'll write more when I can find the time, but I'm still catching up from the weekend...

Seven Tomatoes, Eight Caterpillars

Today's harvest includes 2 Cherokee Chocolates, Salisaw Cafe, Piccolo, Stupice, Evan's Italian Plum (10 ounces) and Italian Market Wonder.

Last night while throwing out the trash I took another look at Kimberly, looking for caterpillars. There's been damage, but I couldn't find anything. But, on the way back to the house, I spotted a large caterpillar. So I went to the south end of the backyard and quickly spotted a caterpillar on Evan's Italian Plum.

So I changed shoes and checked the front and back yards for caterpillars, finding one on Red Yellow Cap.

While harvesting this morning, I found two more large caterpillars on Red Yellow Cap and another one on Evan's Italian Plum.

I noticed clear remains of caterpillars on Thessaloniki last night and today but couldn't find anything. But when I left for work, I spotted a small caterpillar on Thessaloniki. I tossed it, looked again and found an even smaller one. I showed it to my wife who couldn't believe how tiny it was. However, these two caterpillars can't account for all the droppings I see below the plant. Something bigger is munching on the plant.

So I picked seven tomatoes and eight caterpillars.