Planted 5 Tomato Seedlings; Catching Up (somewhat)...

Yesterday we planted Hungarian Heart, Black Krim, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Blue Beauty in the back yard.

So where have we been for the last few months? Well, we've been around. Silent, but we've been around.

Here's a partial explanation...on October 17, 2014 my wife and I formally adopted our son, Tony. He was two weeks shy of two years old at the time of adoption and as two year old boys are wont to do, he is increasingly active. We've had less time for soil preparation this year (As in, none.). Tony takes first priority.

During the last six or seven weeks we've all been under the weather in one form or another. In fact, Tony has had two febrile seizures during this period. Tony will be fine and will outgrow his febrile seizures, but it has been a somewhat scary time while these occur.

The first occurred in late February on a Thursday while at a restaurant. We called 911 immediately and got him to a hospital. That was quite scary and concerning for us. However, he was released several hours later with no ill effects.

The second febrile seizure during this period was again on a Thursday night in March. In this instance we drove him to the hospital, anticipating the upcoming seizure. He was seizing while he was brought into the hospital. This time, however, he was kept in the hospital for three days. Again, he will be fine but through it all we've learned to be acutely aware of any potential fevers he may have and "get out in front of it" if necessary.

The second seizure was the night before the main TomatoMania Encino event. Because Tony was in the hospital for three days, my wife and I missed the event.

We get a lot of tomato plants from the TomatoMania Encino event, and volunteer to help during the three day extravaganza. But not this year.

I did work the TomatoMania event the next weekend at Descanso Gardens and got a selection at that time, 5 of which were planted as noted above. I had worked Roger's Gardens about a month ago but passed on tomato seedlings because of the upcoming TomatoMania Encino event...but you know the rest of the story.

As a matter of fact we going to visit relatives yesterday but apparently Tony got a touch of food poisoning Saturday night and that scotched our Sunday plans. So we planted some tomatoes.

I did a couple of speaking events, speaking about tomatoes at the San Fernando Iris Society in early February and Sunday afternoon at the Descanso Gardens TomatoMania event. Both went well but I have to watch how I meander from topic to topic...

Speaking of meandering, I lost the "corner office" to my wife's roses and irises. We're not going to grow as many tomatoes as previously because of that and the fact we're starting later than ever. 

Pulled Out 8 More Tomato Plants

Sooooo let's catch up on things...

Friday's harvest includes 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Michael Pollan and Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 8 tomatoes.

Saturday's harvest includes 2 Sunchocola, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Michael Pollan, SunGold, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Cherry, Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 10 tomatoes.

I took the cages off of the tomato plants I wanted to be removed. As I was completing this chore the gardeners arrived. They threw away German Orange Strawberry, Bread and Salt, Speckled Roman(1), Blue Beauty, Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) and Black Cherry.

I gave away a lot of our harvested tomatoes to the hard working gardeners.

Sunday's harvest includes SunGold, Sugar Snack and Michael Pollan for a total of 3 tomatoes.

I pulled out Evan's Purple Pear, missed by the gardeners.

Today's harvest includes Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple and Michael Pollan for a total of 3 tomatoes.

We've now harvested exactly 75 Pineapple tomatoes and exactly 75 Michael Pollan tomatoes!

The real story is how the tomato harvest has essentially died. There's not much left to harvest, though the Sunchocola plant is making a comeback. Whether there will be fruit from this comeback remains to be seen.

The other story is the heat. Wednesday's high (mentioned in a prior post), 99.9. Thursday's high, 100.4. Friday's high, 103.1. Saturday's high, 106.4. Sunday's high, 107.3. Blistering heat.

If Sunchocola had blooms, they would all be sterilized by now. But Sunchocola doesn't have a lot of blooms at this point and may still produce a second wind. 

Harvested Over 300 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 6 German Orange Strawberry, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 SunGold, Sunchocola, Bread and Salt, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Matt's Wild Cherry, Evan's Purple Pear, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Husky Cherry Red(1) and Sugar Snack for a total of 22 tomatoes.

The Bread and Salt tomato and the Sunchocola tomato were pretty good while the rest was unremarkable.

It looks like my inital estimate for this month's tomato harvest of 550 will be too high. A better guess now that we're 10 days into the month is a harvest of 400 tomatoes.

It looks like we'll have a heat wave kicking in this weekend.

We've now harvested over 300 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes this year (302)! Both Husky Cherry Red plants keep chugging along. 

Harvested Over 625 SunGold Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 8 SunGold, 6 German Orange Strawberry, 4 Sugar Snack, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Bread and Salt (8 ounces), Blue Beauty, Speckled Roman(2), Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 30 tomatoes.

Today's Bread and Salt was the star of the show while the rest was rather ordinary.

I got started a little early today and may have missed some Sunchocola tomatoes to harvest. I was going to pull out Speckled Roman(1) but the trash pickup came too soon. So I left it in the ground.

This morning's air had a crisp fall feel to it. It was refreshing!

We've now harvested over 625 SunGold tomatoes this year (631)! SunGold is about to pass Matt's Wild Cherry in total harvest for the year. This should happen later this week. 

Rain!

No harvest Saturday.

Sunday's harvest includes 11 German Orange Strawberry, 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 SunGold, 3 Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, Pineapple, Speckled Roman(2), Black Icicle, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Solar Flare, Black Cherry and Beauty King for a total of 45 tomatoes.

After the harvest I pulled out 4 back yard tomatoes -- Solar Flare, Beauty King, Neves Azorean Red and Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon). Later on in the day I determined that Speckled Roman(1) can go but it hasn't been pulled yet.

No harvest today. But there's an explanation...

My alarm went off at 6:15AM. I got up and heard a noise I was unfamiliar with. Can that be rain?!?! So I looked out the front door...and it was pouring rain! After 10 minutes the rain had basically stopped but it was too wet to harvest. In taking a look at the nearby Pierce College Weather web site, they got .06 inches of rain between 6:10 AM and 6:20 AM. Not much, of course but for a 10 minute span that's not bad. And in Southern California, we'll take anything. And our Monday sprinklers went off at 6:22 while the rain was still occurring.

Anyway, this "storm" only dropped .07 of an inch so far, but WE WILL TAKE IT, THANK YOU!

To give you an idea how surprised we were about this rain, we had a couple pieces of clothing on a clothesline outside drying overnight... 

Harvested Over 250 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes This Year!

Sunday's harvest includes 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 SunGold, 5 Sugar Snack, 4 Sunchocola, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Blue Gold, 2 Black Cherry, German Orange Strawberry, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple, Volunteer(4), Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon) for a total of 50 tomatoes.

The mass of Husky Cherry Red tomatoes was nice. Blue Gold was also nice while the rest was rather mundane.

We've now harvested over 250 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes this year (252)! Also, we've harvested exactly 50 Pineapple tomatoes this year. 

Harvested Over 200 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Sugar Snack, 5 SunGold, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Sunchocola, 3 Green Grape, 2 Pineapple, 2 Michael Pollan, Matt's Wild Cherry, Evan's Purple Pear, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 39 tomatoes.

The harvested Pineapple tomaotes looked all right but the rest was unremarkable. Well, Husky Cherry Red is unremarkable at best but that's why we like it. It's just a normal, productive tomato plant.

Now there are at least three tomato plants to be pulled. We're in pulling mode...

We've now harvested over 200 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (204) this year! The Husky Cherry Red(2) plant is producing more than Husky Cherry Red(1) due to the fact that the leaves of Husky Cherry Red(2) are draping over Husky Cherry Red(1). Husky Cherry Red(2) is blocking the sun from Husky Cherry Red(1).

Also, we've harvested over 250 Sugar Snack tomatoes (255) this year. 

Harvested Over 1000 Back Yard Tomatoes In August!

No harvest Sunday.

Today's harvest includes 17 Sugar Snack, 10 SunGold, 7 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Green Grape, 6 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Sunchocola, 3 Volunteer(4), 3 Michael Pollan, 2 Blue Gold, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Porkchop(2), 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Ananas Noire, Purple Bumble Bee and Golden Rave for a total of 72 tomatoes.

Ananas Noire, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Blue Gold and Porkchop(2) were relatively interesting tomatoes while most of the rest were unremarkable.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants over the weekend. The back yard tomato plants are still to be watered.

Two more plants can be pulled. We'll see if I can get to them tonight.

We've now harvested over 1000 back yard tomatoes in August (1046)! Our back yard harvest still hums along. Also, we've harvested over 950 Sunchocola tomatoes (951) this year. 

Harvested Over 2500 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Sunday's harvest includes 16 Matt's Wild Cherry, 12 Sunchocola, 12 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 Volunteer(4), 7 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Orange Paruche, 6 SunGold, 5 Pineapple, 5 Michael Pollan, 4 Bread and Salt (9 ounces, 6 ounces), 4 Speckled Roman(2), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Green Grape, 3 Bloody Butcher, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Garden Peach(2), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Black Krim, 2 Nyagous, Speckled Roman(1), Blue Gold, Ananas Noire, Neves Azorean Red, Black Icicle, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Odoriko, Sugar Snack and Golden Rave for a total of 134 tomatoes.

I harvested in three sections on Sunday, as I commonly do. First, the front yard is harvested. This haul is brought in and a count is done. Second, the raised beds and the containers are harvested, brought in and counted. And third is the back yard tomatoes planted in the ground. When I brought in the third round, my wife had taken all the cherry tomatoes from the first two rounds and made a morning tomato salad for breakfast.

Before I brought in the third round I had added fertilizer to the container plants, the tomato plants in the raised bed area, Sunchocola and Orange Paruche. I pulled out the Odoriko tomato plant.

The tomato salad was excellent! We also had some of our "tomato chips", which are sliced tomatoes placed in the dehydrator and "cooked" for a couple of days. They were quite good as well.

Pierce College reported measurable rain last night, one hundredth of an inch. We had some trace amounts of rain a couple of times Sunday afternoon and evening. The muggy weather existed for another day.

No harvest done on Monday.

We've now harvested over 2500 tomatoes in the front yard this year (2526)! Also, we've harvested over 100 Indigo Rose toamtoes this year (101) and exactly 100 Garden Peach(2) tomatoes this year. 

Harvested Porkchop(1) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow!

Today's harvest includes 22 Matt's Wild Cherry, 14 Sunchocola, 10 SunGold, 10 Orange Paruche, 7 Sugar Snack, 6 Black Cherry, 6 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Indigo Rose, 5 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Porkchop(1) (new, 6 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Adriana's Grande, 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Garden Peach(1), 2 Green Grape, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (new), Earl of Edgecombe, Volunteer(4), Snow White, Paul Robeson, Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), Beauty King and Cherokee Purple for a total of 105 tomatoes.

Both Porkchop(1) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow were surprises. Dr. Wyche's Yellow is undersized, which seems to be consistent with a lot of the back yard tomatoes in the ground. But this is a seedling, not from seed.

We've now harvested from every plant in the front yard, though the Vorlon tomatoes could just as easily been tossed away without counting them. It appears there was something wrong with the Vorlon seedlings this year. Someone at our tomato party planted Vorlon and it was a complete dud for them, though other tomato plants in the same area went bonkers.

The tomato plants are starting to look old and ugly due to the hot weather.

It looks like Purple Bumble Bee tomatoes are maturing.

I pulled out Pineapple Pig last night.

We've now harvested over 3500 tomatoes in July (3524) and over 800 Sunchocola tomatoes (812) this year! 

Harvested Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red!

Today's harvest includes 14 Orange Paruche, 7 SunGold, 6 Sunchocola, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red (new), Yellow Perfection and Sugar Snack for a total of 30 tomatoes.

I did a little bit of tomato taping in the front yard during the harvest.

On the down side, I noticed a Jaune Flamme that got whacked (again, sigh) because our netting wasn't as tight as it could be. Also, the maturing Matt's Wild Cherry seemed to be completely gone. The SunGold tomatoes are difficult to harvest because the netting has been put on very well. But it makes it hard for my hand to get inside the netting to the mature tomatoes. And in the evening my wife found a partially eaten Sugar Snack in one of the raised beds.

On the upside, my wife told me about a ripe tomato in the front yard that I hadn't noticed. It was perfectly ready. After a brief description of where it was located, I realized it was Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red. Yum! That was a happy surprise.

In the evening my wife tightened the netting around Jaune Flamme. We added netting to Matt's Wild Cherry and Ananas Noire.

I discovered that Pierce's Pride, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) have growing tomatoes!

Janet's Jacinthe Jewel has a maturing tomato. However, this tomato appears to be maturing because the plant is distressed.

We gave away today's harvest except Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red to a neighbor of ours. 

Catching Up On Some Back Yard Plantings(1)...

So let's catch up on some of the back yard plantings...

On Tuesday my wife replaced the back yard Berkeley Tie Dye (from seed) with Odoriko, replaced Evan's Purple Pear (grown from seed) with Cherokee Purple and replaced the now non-existent Pineapple Pig(2) with Red Pear Piriform.

On Wednesday I dug the holes and my wife planted Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Icicle, Paul Robeson, Nyagous and Evan's Purple Pear. I pulled out about a gallon and half of rocks and asphalt.

The dirt for the back yard and "koi pond" tomatoes looks great. After I dig out the dirt I've been adding some kelp meal, a handful of worm castings and a handful of tomato fertilizer, then mix it all together. This is on top of all the compost we added a few months back. 

It's Over For 2013

September 7 harvest includes 28 Black Cherry, 11 Sweet 100, 5 SunGold(1), 4 Pineapple, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Vorlon, 3 Juliet, 3 Piement, 3 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Ananas Noire, 2 "Something Orange" (Dr. Wyche's Yellow), Shah/Mikado, Kellogg's Breakfast, German Orange Strawberry, Snow White, Supersweet 100 and Husky Red(1) for a total of 75 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 650 Black Cherry tomatoes (664), over 100 Juliet tomatoes (101) and exactly 100 Isis Candy tomatoes.

While harvesting I partially pulled out the cages of the plants I wanted pulled, leaving them at an odd angles. I had business to attend to later that day and I wasn't going to be around when the gardeners arrived.

My wife had the gardeners pull out all the container plants as well. There were several container plants that were still producing so while I was surprised I guess I was okay with it.

But I later found out the gardeners had also pulled out Black Cherry, with neither of us wanted to happen. Ugh. They still didn't pull out Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2), which was supposed to be pulled the last time they were here.

For the record, here's what got pulled: Husky Cherry Red, Vorlon, Black Cherry, Shah/Mikado, Kellogg's Breakfast, Blue Beauty, German Orange Strawberry, Piement, Crynkovic, Speckled Roman(2), Amos Coli, Ananas Noire, "Something Orange", Juliet, Sweet 100, "Rosella Purple", Supersweet 100, Isis Candy, Husky Red(1) and Husky Red(2).

After Black Cherry was pulled...our heart wasn't in it anymore.

September 8 harvest includes 2 SunGold(1), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Snow White and Pineapple for a total of 7 tomatoes.

September 12 harvest includes 7 SunGold(2), 3 SunGold(1) and 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 12 tomatoes.

September 14 harvest includes 4 SunGold(2), Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Snow White for a total of 6 tomatoes.

And the rest of the tomato plants were pulled by the gardeners. They included Pineapple, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, SunGold(1), SunGold(2), Snow White and (finally) Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2).

A lot of these tomatoes were given away to friends and family.

So for the year we ended up harvesting 3811 tomatoes. This is our worst yearly harvest total so far.

The only good news is now we have the time and space to prepare the soil for next year. 

Harvested Over 600 Black Cherry Tomatoes This Year!

There was no harvest on Thursday or Friday. I needed to be at work early and left the house before 7AM. The same will be true next week.

Today's harvest includes 45 Black Cherry, 25 Sweet 100, 5 Blue Beauty, 5 German Orange Strawberry, 4 SunGold(2), 3 SunGold(1), 3 Supersweet 100, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8 ounces), 2 Grande, Vorlon, Piement, Snow White, Cuor de Bue and "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green) for a total of 101 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 600 Black Cherry tomatoes (604)! These tomatoes look good and the plant is still cranking out more tomatoes.

The gardeners came by today and a lot of tomato plants were pulled. This is a partial list of what got pulled: Speckled Roman(1), Yellow Perfection, Porkchop, Jersey Giant, Black and Brown Boar, Indigo Rose, Japanese Black Trifele, Grande, Garden Peach, Aunt Ruby's German Green and Cuor de Bue. I know there are at least two more that the gardeners forgot to pull and I probably have missed a couple that they did pull.

Most of today's harvest was given to the hard working gardeners.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants in the evening. 

Harvested Over 300 Sweet 100 Tomatoes This Year!

Friday's harvest includes 7 Sweet 100, 5 Supersweet 100, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 SunGold(1), 2 Black Cherry, Husky Cherry Red, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (13.5 ounces), Black and Brown Boar, SunGold(2), Blue Beauty, German Orange Strawberry, Speckled Roman(2), Cuor de Bue and Isis Candy for a total of 29 tomatoes.

When I walked away from the Black Cherry tomato plant, something caught my eye. I walked back, stared for about five seconds and found a full sized hornworm on the plant. I pulled it off and threw it on the street.

Saturday's harvest includes 13 Sweet 100, 7 Supersweet 100, 4 Black Cherry, 3 SunGold(2), 3 Isis Candy, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Grande, 2 Shah/Mikado, Pineapple, "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green), Vorlon, Japanese Black Trifele, Speckled Roman(2) and Juliet for a total of 42 tomatoes.

Today we harvested over 2000 back yard tomatoes this year (2033 tomatoes, now 2093 tomatoes)!

After the harvest we went to a birthday party for a 4 year old in Huntington Beach. We had a nice time there and met some very nice people. Then we went to the West Adams District for yet another party. We got home late and tired.

Sunday's harvest includes 21 Sweet 100, 6 Supersweet 100, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Black Cherry, 2 SunGold(1), Husky Cherry Red, Yellow Perfection, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, SunGold(2), Blue Beauty and German Orange Strawberry for a total of 39 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 300 Sweet 100 tomatoes (320 tomatoes, now 332 tomatoes)!

In the late morning we brought down most of the tomatoes for a birthday party for my wife. It's her birthday today! We had a lot of fun down in San Juan Capistrano catching up with everybody. Fun, fun fun! Again we got home late and tired.

Today's harvest includes 12 Sweet 100, 4 Black Cherry, 3 Blue Beauty, 2 Supersweet 100, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2), 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 SunGold(2), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (13 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), "Something Orange" (Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 9 ounces) and Isis Candy for a total of 31 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over undersized 100 Blue Beauty tomatoes! I had noticed hornworm excrement about a week ago underneath this plant but never found the hornworm. Today I found it and tossed it off of the plant.  

Harvested 1000 Tomatoes in August!

Yesterday's harvest includes 5 Black Cherry, 4 Supersweet 100, 2 Snow White, Cuor de Bue, "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green), SunGold(1), Blue Beauty, Japanese Black Trifele, Garden Peach, Aunt Ruby's German Green and Isis Candy for a total of 19 tomatoes.

Today's harvest includes 4 Supersweet 100, 3 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (10 ounces, 13 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Black Cherry, 2 Isis Candy, 2 SunGold(2), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Speckled Roman(2), SunGold(1), Blue Beauty, Piement, Pineapple, Shah/Mikado, Amos Coli and Snow White for a total of 28 tomatoes.

The three Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomatoes look great. Evertyhing else is basically the dregs of the end of the summer.

It got up to over 101 degrees yesterday.

We've now harvested exactly 1000 tomatoes for August! Also, we've now harvested exactly 100 undersized Shah/Mikado tomatoes. 

Harvested 150 Snow White Tomatoes This Year!

Monday August 12 -- no harvest.

Tuesday August 13 harvest includes 14 Sweet 100, 7 SunGold(2), 6 SunGold(1), 5 Husky Cherry Red, 5 Black Cherry, 3 Supersweet 100, 3 Blue Beauty, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Snow White, 2 Pineapple, 2 Juliet, 2 Isis Candy, Porkchop, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Indigo Rose, Piement, Cuor de Bue (6 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) (6 ounces), Husky Red(1) and Husky Red(2) for a total of 61 tomatoes.

This harvest was brought down to my in-laws the next day.

Wednesday's harvest includes 5 Sweet 100, 5 Garden Peach, 3 SunGold(2), 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Supersweet 100, 2 Black Cherry, 2 Snow White, Pineapple, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (13 ounces), SunGold(1), Ananas Noire (8.5 ounces), "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green) and Husky Red(1) for a total of 27 tomatoes.

There was no harvest on Thursday.

I don't remember the exact day it was made...but my wife made tomato sauce from our tomatoes. She let the sauce simmer for six hours and pulled out the skins as they separated. After boiling it down she added various spices and on a whim added green olives. I don't know what it was but we both agreed that this was the best sauce she ever made! And my wife has made fabulous tomato sauce before. But it was absolutely out of this world delicious.

Friday's harvest includes 8 SunGold(1), 6 SunGold(2), 4 Garden Peach, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Amos Coli, 3 Supersweet 100, 3 Yellow Perfection, 2 Juliet, 2 Isis Candy, Pineapple, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8.5 ounces), Shah/Mikado, Snow White, Cuor de Bue and Husky Red(2) for a total of 41 tomatoes.

There was no harvest on Saturday.

However, my wife watered the back yard tomatoes on this day. A couple of days prior she had watered the front yard tomatoes.

In the evening we tried one of the Dr. Wyches's Yellow tomatoes (sweet and yummy) and an Aunt Ruby's German Green (same for the interior, but had a thicker skin). Both worked.

Sunday's harvest includes 6 SunGold(2), 5 SunGold(1), 5 Shah/Mikado, 4 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Snow White, 3 Supersweet 100, 2 Juliet, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Garden Peach, Amos Coli, Speckled Roman(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (11.5 ounces), Jersey Giant, Black and Brown Boar, Japanese Black Trifele, "Something Orange", Cuor de Bue, "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green) and Husky Red(1) for a total of 47 tomatoes.

Monday's harvest includes 4 Supersweet 100, 3 Isis Candy, 3 Snow White, 2 Black Cherry, 2 SunGold(1), 2 Cuor de Bue, SunGold(2), Husky Cherry Red, Yellow Perfection, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (13 ounces), Jersey Giant, Piement, Japanese Black Trifele, Speckled Roman(2) and Juliet for a total of 25 tomatoes.

I found a hornworm eating a Grande tomato today. I was really surprised by it but there it was! I tossed the hornworm away and threw away the tomato.

Today's harvest includes 13 Black Cherry, 3 Isis Candy, Husky Cherry Red, Pineapple, SunGold(1), Blue Beauty, Grande, Garden Peach, Amos Coli, Snow White, Cuor de Bue (6 ounces), Supersweet 100 and Juliet for a total of 27 tomatoes.

We've now harvested exactly 150 Snow White tomatoes this year! But the harvest is slowing down... 

Harvested Over 3000 Tomatoes This Year!

Friday's harvest includes 11 Black Cherry, 11 Sweet 100, 11 Supersweet 100, 7 SunGold(1), 6 SunGold(2), 3 Isis Candy, 3 Husky Cherry Red, Speckled Roman(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8 ounces), Jersey Giant, Shah/Mikado, Jaune Flamme, Indigo Rose, Blue Beauty, Piement, "Something Orange" (7 ounces) and Juliet for a total of 62 tomatoes.

Saturday's harvest includes 11 Black Cherry, 9 Sweet 100, 8 Snow White, 8 SunGold(2), 6 SunGold(1), 5 Supersweet 100, 3 Isis Candy, 3 Juliet, 2 Husky Red(1), 2 Indigo Rose, Hungarian Heart, Husky Cherry Red, Jersey Giant, Garden Peach, Amos Coli (7 ounces), Aunt Ruby's German Green and "Something Orange" (10 ounces) for a total of 64 tomatoes.

The gardeners came by in the morning so I had them pull out more plants. The pulled plants were Hungarian Heart, Paul Robeson, Green Grape, Jaune Flamme, Gold Medal, Pineapple Pig and Missouri Pink Love Apple. Green Grape and Jaune Flamme had tomatoes on it but looked unappetizing.

Gold Medal was a major dud. A friend of ours has been displaying her 2.5 pound Gold Medal tomatoes. Ours did not get over an ounce. I'm jealous!!

My wife took all of the larger tomatoes and cooked them down for six hours on the stove, making a terrific sauce. The only downside of this is that we still haven't tried the "Something Orange" tomato (I think it's Dr. Wyche's Yellow), but it is a major portion of today's tomato sauce.

Today's harvest includes 10 Black Cherry, 6 Snow White, 4 Juliet, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Garden Peach, 3 SunGold(1), 3 SunGold(2), 2 Supersweet 100, 2 Cuor de Bue (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Husky Cherry Red, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (15 ounces), Shah/Mikado, Pineapple, Japanese Black Trifele and Isis Candy for a total of 43 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes for the year (3017)! Also, we've harvested over 500 back yard tomatoes this month (509). We've harvested over 500 Black Cherry tomatoes (501), over 250 Sweet 100 tomatoes (260), over 200 Supersweet 100 tomatoes (204), over 50 SunGold(2) tomatoes (57) and over 50 SunGold(1) tomatoes (51) this year. 

Harvested Over 500 Tomatoes This Month

Today's harvest includes 18 Supersweet 100, 9 Sweet 100, 8 Black Cherry, 3 SunGold(1), 3 Snow White, 3 Garden Peach, 2 Cuor de Bue (6.5 ounces), 2 SunGold(2), 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Piement, Yellow Perfection, Husky Cherry Red, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (14 ounces), Jersey Giant, Shah/Mikado, Missouri Pink Love Apple, Japanese Black Trifele, Grande (13 ounces), "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green) and Juliet for a total of 66 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 500 tomatoes for August (556)! Our harvesting pace is ahead of July's numbers but July's numbers were rising while August numbers should slowly fall.

The Grande and "Something Orange" tomatoes are fine looking tomatoes.

Last night I went to a neighbor of our dear friend that passed away seven weeks ago to pick up a couple of boards and chicken manure (seriously). I gave them yesterday's harvest plus a bunch of other tomatoes. We reminisced for about an hour or so.

I was sad to see their former house, sitting silently. 

Loteria Grill Was Fun!

Friday's harvest includes 19 Black Cherry, 11 Snow White, 10 Sweet 100, 9 SunGold(2), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Jersey Giant, 3 Juliet, 2 Porkchop, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Husky Red(1), 2 Supersweet 100, 2 Piement, 2 "Something Orange" (14 ounces, 14.5 ounces) 2 Green Grape, Vorlon, Shah/Mikado, SunGold(1), Jaune Flamme, Blue Beauty, Amos Coli, Cuor de Bue (7 ounces), "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green, 6 ounces) and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) for a total of 82 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 100 Snow White tomatoes today (104).

Saturday's harvest includes 24 Black Cherry, 14 Sweet 100, 7 Snow White, 7 Supersweet 100, 3 Cuor de Bue (9 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Juliet, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Green Grape, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Jaune Flamme, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (17.5 ounces), Black and Brown Boar, SunGold(1), SunGold(2), Vorlon, Indigo Rose, Pineapple Pig (7 ounces), Piement, Aunt Ruby's German Green, "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green, 7 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) and Husky Red(1) for a total of 78 tomatoes.

After the harvest, my wife and I quickly got ready for the Tomatomania event at the Loteria Grill. We brought all our Piement and all our Black Cherry tomatoes, most of our Aunt Ruby's German Green and Cuor de Bue tomatoes and today's Dr. Wyche's Yellow for tasting. Based on the comments I overheard, people really liked our tomatoes.

My wife and I ended up as part of Scott Daigre's "groupie" crowd after the taste testing. My wife and I came late -- by the time we showed up Scott was talking and all the tables were taken. During the taste testing we tried to sit down at a half open table but we got booted out. So we tried an open booth in a corner -- it wasn't open during the Scott's talk -- and the "groupies" gathered around after about 10 minutes. Works for me.

The "groupie" table agreed that Shah/Mikado was rather blah. But there were many new varieties that were quite interesting. We all caught up with what's happening in our lives and so on, the meals were great (even better than prior years, IMO) and a good time was had by all. We came away with Lemon Tree and Blue Beauty tomatoes as well as some of Scott's fresh eggs. It was really nice!

Oh yeah, we broke the 2500 harvest number today for 2013 (2532). Also, we harvested over 200 Sweet 100 tomatoes this year (209)!

Sunday's harvest includes 18 Black Cherry, 8 Sweet 100, 7 Supersweet 100, 6 Snow White, 5 Juliet, 3 Porkchop, 3 Husky Red(2), 2 Jersey Giant, 2 "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green), 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Cuor de Bue (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Isis Candy, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Yellow Perfection, Vorlon, Black Krim, Missouri Pink Love Apple, SunGold(1), SunGold(2) and Piement for a total of 74 tomatoes.

My wife pulled Black Krim today.

We've now harvested over 400 Black Cherry tomatoes this year (417)!

My wife prepared some of Scott's eggs this morning as well as cutting up a Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) for me. The eggs were great and the Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) was quite good. I'd call it good tasting and refreshing.

However, there was no harvest today due to back trouble. Let's hope it clears up enough for me to harvest tomorrow