Harvested Over 800 Front Yard Snow White Tomatoes!

October 8 harvest: 2 Snow White (front yard), Brown Berry and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 4 tomatoes.

October 9 harvest: 7 Snow White (front yard), Red Currant(2) and White Currant for a total of 9 tomatoes.

October 11 harvest: 4 Red Grape, 3 Snow White (front yard), Husky Cherry Red, SunSugar, Yellow Pear and White Currant for a total of 11 tomatoes.

October 21 harvest: 38 Snow White (front yard), 2 SunSugar, 2 White Currant, 2 Red Grape and Red Currant(1) for a total of 45 tomatoes.

October 23 harvest: 26 Snow White (front yard), 3 White Currant, 2 SunSugar, Husky Cherry Red, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Big Pink, Yellow Pear and Red Grape for a total of 36 tomatoes.

October 26 harvest: 16 Snow White (front yard), 4 SunSugar, Red Currant(2) and White Currant for a total of 22 tomatoes.

October 27 harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 3 SunSugar and Red Currant(2) for a total of 13 tomatoes.

And today's harvest consisted of 19 Snow White (front yard), 3 SunSugar, 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Snow White (back yard), Sweet 100 and White Currant for a total of 28 tomatoes.

In the last 3 ½ weeks the front yard Snow White plant has gotten a second wind. It got so tall that it's crushed all the supports and has basically fallen to the south. The recently harvested SunSugar tomatoes are the largest on the plant this year, larger than the first initial flush of tomatoes on this plant.

Many plants have been pulled and more could be pulled if I could find the time.

We've now harvested over 800 front yard Snow White tomatoes (824)!

We ended up harvesting 261 tomatoes for the month of October and have harvested 7788 tomatoes this year so far. There's an outside chance that the strength of the front yard Snow White could get us to the 8000 harvest plateau.

My wife and I were away for a week between the 11^th and the 21^st. Her relatives stayed at our house to take care of our dogs.

I've started a new job on October 26. I'm doing full time consulting work for a large bank. I was unexpectedly laid off from my full time job on August 26.

You'd be surprised what a battle it is to keep all the paperwork in order after one gets laid off. COBRA coverage has been an exhausting battle. It's probably taken around 60 – 70 phone calls to various entities to get the coverage reflected by my health insurance carrier. Just yesterday I got a letter in the mail and I'm now technically not enrolled with my primary physician anymore. I hope to straighten that out with one phone call, but that remains to be seen.

I got my 401K moved to a rollover IRA. That took several phone calls, forms, a notarization, more signatures and whatnot but it seemed to go relatively smoothly.

I needed to start up my company again (it was shuttered earlier this year) and get liability insurance in preparation for this new consulting opportunity. I just filed another IRS form yesterday in relation to starting up my company again. There's two more to be filed within 60 days (along with some more money).

I've been getting quotes from health insurance companies to prepare from switching over from COBRA to a company paid health insurance. I didn't get too far with this, but there's more to come.

I filed for unemployment and I'm still trying to get my claims processed for the time I spent unemployed. I've sent out at least 5 certified letters to various agencies, including one yesterday. We'll see how it goes.

I met with my accountant to go over all of this and he helped point me in the right direction with these and plenty of other matters. It was taking me 4 – 5 hours a day just handling phone calls, faxing, copying, sending out snail mail and emails, just trying to push these processes along. It was (is) easily a part time job in and of itself.

This new job will probably not allow the flexibility needed to update this blog as consistently as I have in the past. The issue isn't now (the season is long over except for the few plants that have lasted) but during the spring and summer of next year. Let's hope I can continue to find the time and commitment to continue to post!

Harvested Over 7500 Tomatoes This Year!

Wednesday's harvest: 4 Snow White (front yard), Babywine, Large Pink Anna, SunSugar, Thessaloniki and Red Grape for a total of 9 tomatoes.

Violet Jasper was removed by my wife during the day. This plant was removed in preparation for laying down winter crops.

Thursday's harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 Sara Black, Husky Cherry Red, Large Pink Anna and Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe for a total of 14 tomatoes.

Friday's harvest: 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 Topaz, Husky Cherry Red, Babywine and Marianna's Peace for a total of 14 tomatoes.

Saturday's harvest: 8 Snow White (front yard), Babywine and White Currant for a total of 10 tomatoes.

Plenty of back yard tomatoes were removed: Green Zebra, Weeping Charlie, Red Boar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Pierce's Pride, Marianna's Peace, Black From Tula, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart and Thessaloniki.

All of these plants started to get a cobweb like formation at the top. It looks like some sort of fungus. I would have kept a couple more of these plants around if it weren't for this fungus.

Sunday's harvest: 6 Snow White (front yard), Aunt Ruby's German Green (back yard) and White Currant for a total of 8 tomatoes.

Today's harvest: 4 Snow White (front yard), 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Red Currant(2), Babywine and Snow White (back yard) for a total of 10 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 7500 tomatoes for the year (7505)! But we're harvesting in dribs and drabs so we won't get near 8000 this year.

Yesterday got up to 105.0 at Pierce College. Today it got up to 110.0.

Updates to this blog will continue to be spotty until the end of the year.

Harvested 600 Front Yard Snow White Tomaotes!

Yesterday's harvest includes 9 Snow White (front yard), 2 White Currant, Violet Jasper, SunSugar, Marianna's Peace, Snow White (back yard) and Thessaloniki for a total of 16 tomatoes.

Today's harvest includes 13 Snow White (front yard), 2 Violet Jasper, 2 White Currant, Husky Cherry Red, Large Pink Anna, Sweet 100, Sara Black, Marianna's Peace and Black Oxheart (7 ounces) for a total of 23 tomatoes.

We've now harvested exactly 600 Snow White (front yard) tomatoes! The plant is showing some wear and tear but the plant has plenty of blooms and ripening tomatoes.

I haven't harvested a Sweet 100 tomato in over six weeks.

Pulled Out Three More Tomato Plants...

Today's harvest includes 15 Snow White (front yard), 2 Large Pink Anna, 2 White Currant, Marianna's Peace, Stupice, Red Currant(2) and Carmello for a total of 23 tomaotes.

I pulled out three more tomato plants yesterday: SunGold, Stupice and Aunt Ruby's German Green(1). There was one more ripening tomato on Stupice and that's why it's in today's harvest total.

I haven't harvested White Currants in a month. Last harvest for White Currant was 8/19.

Ricardo And Liz Can Sure Throw A Party!

Today's harvest includes 17 Snow White (front yard), 12 SunGold, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Yellow Perfection, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Snow White (back yard), 2 Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, 2 Brown Berry, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Violet Jasper, Stupice, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Babywine, Miss Elliotte Black, Black Krim, SunSugar, Topaz, Red Currant(1), Green Grape, Weeping Charlie, Marianna's Peace, Black Zebra, Jaune Flamme(2), Toni's Round, Black, Thessaloniki, White Currant, Michael Pollan and Azoychka/not Azoychka for a total of 68 tomatoes.

In the morning my in-laws came over to pick up their two dogs. We'd been watching them for some time but it was time to give them back.

We were guests of an Open House party for Ricardo's mom in the evening. My wife made a marinated tomato salad made from our tomatoes picked earlier in the day. Ricardo's cooking skills are second to none. They really know how to throw a party! I'm not going to eat for a week.

Harvested 200 Garden Peach Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 28 SunGold, 6 White Currant, 4 Snow White (back yard), 4 Snow White (front yard), 3 Garden Peach, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Large Pink Anna (21.5 ounces, 7. 5 ounces), 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Babywine, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Sara Black, 2 Nyagous, 2 Azoychka/not Azoychka, Thessaloniki, Gajo de Melon, Yellow Perfection, Brown Berry, Carmello, Principe Borghese, Stupice, Violet Jasper, Michael Pollan, SunSugar and Black Krim (7 ounces) for a total of 72 tomatoes.

I added another stake to Azoychka/not Azoychka and did some more tomato taping this morning.

My doctor asked me not to forget to bring him tomatoes the next time I visit him. That visit is this afternoon. I'll bring him today's harvest.

Last night my wife and I and a couple of friends (including our “seed lady”) were at the Dodger game last night. They lost 10 – 5.

We've now harvested over 2500 tomatoes from the front yard.

We've now harvested exactly 200 Garden Peach tomatoes this year. However, the plant is turning yellow and for the moment it doesn't look like it will produce too much more.

Tasted Sara Black -- Not a Winner

Today's harvest includes 28 SunGold, 10 Snow White (front yard), 9 Garden Peach, 8 White Currant, 5 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 4 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 4 Babywine, 3 Green Grape, 3 Red Currant(2), 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Persimmon, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Red Grape, 2 Gypsy, Thessaloniki, Nyagous, Gajo de Melon, Yellow Perfection, Black Zebra, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Sweet Tangerine, Red Boar, Taxi, Large Pink Anna (13.5 ounces), Black Krim (6 ounces), Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Stupice and Emerald Evergreen (8 ounces) for a total of 102 tomatoes.

My wife and I tried a beautiful looking 11 ounce Sara Black last night. It was somewhat disappointing. My wife liked it less than I did but there was no mistaking that this tomato “needed support”. The tomato didn't really stand on it's own.

The tomato itself looked beautiful, cut beautifully and was juicy and meaty. I thought the tomato was mellow but my wife described it as “soapy” – and not in a good way. I cleared my palate and took another bite and I can see where my wife is coming from. It doesn't taste bad, there's just not enough taste at all. Most of the taste comes from the texture of the tomato.

I give this tomato a soft thumbs down.

24.5 Ounce Large Pink Anna Harvested Today!

Today's harvest includes 51 SunGold, 12 Snow White (front yard), 11 White Currant, 8 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Garden Peach, 5 Babywine, 5 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 4 Snow White (back yard), 3 Violet Jasper, 3 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Red Currant(1), 3 Nyagous, 3 Gajo de Melon, 3 Paul Robeson, 2 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Red Grape, Jaune Flamme(2), Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, German Orange Strawberry, Emerald Evergreen, Green Zebra, Red Currant(2), Principe Borghese, Stupice, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea and Large Pink Anna (24.5 ounces) for a total of 133 tomatoes.

The Large Pink Anna tomato at 24.5 ounces is our heaviest tomato this year, outdoing yesterday's 22.5 ounce tomato.

We've now picked over 800 SunGold tomatoes for the year (810), over 500 White Currants for the year (501) and exactly 200 Husky Cherry Red tomatoes for the year.

Harvested Paul Robeson!

Today's harvest includes 84 SunGold, 31 White Currant, 15 Garden Peach, 11 Husky Cherry Red, 7 Snow White (front yard), 7 Babywine, 5 Nyagous, 5 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 4 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (one 7 ounces), 3 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 3 Japanese Black Trifele (7 ounces), 3 Persimmon (8 ounces), 2 Red Grape, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 T. C. Jones, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Marianna's Peace (6 ounces), 2 Green Zebra, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Violet Jasper, 2 Paul Robeson (new), Stupice, Black Krim, SunSugar, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Red Currant(2), Black Oxheart (11 ounces), Red Boar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Pineapple (14.5 ounces), Ananas Noire, Zapotec Pleated, Snow White (back yard), Gajo de Melon and Thessaloniki for a total of 212 tomatoes.

My wife came out with me in the morning and watched me pick some of the front yard tomatoes. She helped out by picking some more SunGold tomatoes after I had pretty much stopped harvesting that plant. That's why the SunGold harvest is so high today.

The harvest numbers for White Currant have been very steady lately -- 32/31/31/31.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants yesterday evening.

Harvested Large Pink Anna!

Today's harvest includes 49 SunGold, 31 White Currant, 17 Garden Peach, 16 Husky Cherry Red, 7 Babywine, 6 Red Currant(1), 6 Green Zebra, 6 Snow White (front yard), 5 Nyagous, 4 Japanese Black Trifele (one 7.5 ounces), 4 Violet Jasper, 4 Snow White (back yard), 4 Azoychka/not Azoychka, 3 Jaune Flamme(2), 3 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (6 ounces, 7 ounces, 6 ounces), 3 Persimmon (one 6 ounces), 2 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 2 Black Krim (6 ounces), 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Green Grape, 2 Black From Tula, 2 Marianna's Peace, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) (8.5 ounces), 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Red Grape, Thessaloniki, Gypsy, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart, Weeping Charlie, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Taxi, Chile Verde, SunSugar, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1) and Large Pink Anna (new, 11 ounces) for a total of 198 tomatoes.

The harvest total are a bit of a drop from yesterday's total of 243. That's a large enough drop that yesterday's 243 may be our high water mark for 2010.

I fertilized the container plants in the back yard and watered the whole back yard. I gave our compost pile a good soaking as well.

Harvested Over 3000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 43 SunGold, 32 White Currant, 15 Garden Peach, 13 Snow White (back yard), 12 Husky Cherry Red, 7 Violet Jasper, 7 Babywine, 6 Red Grape, 6 Red Currant(1), 6 Red Currant(2), 6 Gajo de Melon, 6 Snow White (front yard), 6 Japanese Black Trifele, 4 Nyagous, 4 Marianna's Peace, 3 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 3 Black Krim (13 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Black From Tula, 3 Zapotec Pleated, 3 Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) (12.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 10.5 ounces), 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 2 Pierce's Pride (6 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Red Boar, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Weeping Charlie (7 ounces), 2 SunSugar, 2 Persimmon (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (6 ounces), Patio, Michael Pollan, Miss Elliotte Black, Carmelo, Topaz, Plum Tigris, Green Grape, Yellow Perfection, Enchantment, Thessaloniki, Gypsy, Azoychka/not Azoychka and Black Oxheart (10.5 ounces) for a total of 219 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes for the year (3054) and over 2500 for the month (2571).

The image above is from yesterday's harvest. It weighed 11 pounds, 8 ounces.

The birds left us alone yesterday – no tomatoes lost to birds.

In spite of our high harvest totals, some of the tomato plants look picked over and exhausted. But with the weather on the cool side some of these plants will get a second wind.

Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe Has A Tomato On It

Today's harvest includes 53 SunGold, 28 White Currant, 18 Garden Peach, 13 Red Currant(1), 12 Husky Cherry Red, 10 Gajo de Melon, 8 Red Currant(2), 8 Japanese Black Trifele (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 7 Red Grape, 7 Snow White (back yard), 7 Violet Jasper, 5 Snow White (front yard), 3 Babywine, 3 Black Krim (9 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 SunSugar, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) (7 ounces, 17.5 ounces), 2 Emerald Evergreen (13 ouncex, 10.5 ounces), 2 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (6.5 ounces), 2 Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, 2 Sweetie, 2 Pierce's Pride (14 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1) (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Zapotec Pleated, Thessaloniki, Black From Tula, Marianna's Peace, Pineapple (7.5 ounces), Weeping Charlie (6.5 ounces), Green Zebra, Sara Black (10 ounces), Brown Berry, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Carmelo, Principe Borghese, Miss Elliotte Black and Persimmon (8.5 ounces) for a total of 213 tomatoes.

Yesterday's harvest had the exact same weight as the day before – 13 pounds, no ounces. It's now officially tomato high tide here!

As you can tell by the recent totals of 36/36/49/53, we're getting inundated with SunGold tomatoes. Not coincidentally this harvest blitz occurred just after a heat wave. The numbers for Red Currant and White Currant have risen at this same time.

Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe has a tomato on it! The plant has grown to about two feet or so but hasn't filled out at all. But there's clearly a tiny tomato growing from one of the few bulbs on it.

I added a stake to Gajo de Melon.

Speaking of which, we finally tasted this tomato. We both thought the flavor was good but my wife thought the skin was simply too thick.

Poma Amoris Minora Lutea – We tried a tomato that wasn't getting soft. In fact we may have picked one a bit early. The flavor was mild and again, somewhat mushy. Still, this would be a good tomato to slice into quarters or eighths and add to salads.

The birds got to another Japanese Black Trifele.

Party Time!

Today's harvest includes 36 SunGold, 13 White Currant, 12 Violet Jasper, 8 Snow White (back yard), 7 Japanese Black Trifele, 6 Red Grape, 5 Gajo de Melon, 4 Garden Peach, 4 Zapotec Pleated, 4 Red Currant(2), 4 Marianna's Peace, 3 Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, 3 Topaz, 3 Red Boar (one 6 ounces), 3 Nyagous, 3 Husky Cherry Red, 3 SunSugar, 2 Black Krim (6 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Snow White (front yard), Babywine, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (7.5 ounces), Aunt Ruby's German Green (8.5 ounces), Chile Verde, Sweetie, Taxi, Plum Tigris, Brown Berry, Green Zebra, Weeping Charlie (6 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1) (12. 5 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), Black From Tula, Thessaloniki and Gypsy for a total of 143 tomatoes.

Wow, what a fun party! Easy for me to say...my wife prepared most of the dishes in the limited time remaining. I went out in the morning and got supplies from various places and help set up, but my wife had prepared several salads (and several people were raving about the marinated salad) and pulled it all together. Our neighbor made salsa with mint using our tomatoes. We asked some people to come later because of the expected heat (it got up to 104 degrees) and that bought us some time. My mother-in-law came earlier in the day and helped to pull it all together.

People came from all over – neighbors, mutual friends, people I haven't seen since our wedding, and a couple of consultant friends that I haven't seen for about 13 or 14 years. Several children came as well, I can think of a half dozen off of the top of my head.

In spite of the heat, everyone seemed to have a good time. A fair amount of people brought food and spirits. We ended up in the unusual position of having as much (if not more) food and drink than when we started. This week for dinner – leftovers!

Unfortunately because of the hot weather and the lack of hot water until Friday, some of our harvested tomatoes got soft. They won't be thrown away but still will be used for other things.

Here's what I remember from some of the taste testing:

Aunt Ruby's German Green – Tasted good but tasted more like a tomato than I remembered it from years past. Perhaps it was picked a tad soon.

Garden Peach – Good stuff, citrusy and refreshing.

Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge – Tasted quite good actually, good texture. Still no purple smudges on anything. I'd bring a plate for sampling. give the name and always get the purple question when the tomato in front of them is clearly 100% orange.

Poma Amoris Minora Lutea – Mushy, little taste. But the tomato was a bit overripe so we'll try again.

Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart – Good tasting with a bit more acid than normal. However it didn't knock my socks off like the original Berkeley Tie Dye.

Persimmon – A real winner. People really liked this tomato. I did too. Good texture.

Japanese Black Trifele – Quite good, some of them reminded me of Black Krim.

Pineapple – People really liked this one, too. It doesn't remind people of a tomato.

Black Krim – Response was muted but I noticed there weren't any left.

Marianna's Peace – We hadn't tried this tomato (like several others) until this party. A very good tomatoey taste. I like it.

One of our container plants bit the dust – I think it's Red Cherry. My wife may have broken the stem earlier and one of the newborns reached out and apparently grabbed it. It's not much of a loss at all. This plant had about five small tomatoes slowly maturing and hadn't done much in a while.

My mother-in-law stayed the night. All of us are dragging today.

Harvested Sweetie!

Today's harvest includes 18 White Currant, 17 SunGold, 13 Snow White (back yard), 10 Japanese Black Trifele, 9 Violet Jasper, 7 Red Grape, 5 Gajo de Melon, 5 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2) (one 6.5 ounces), 3 Marianna's Peace, 3 Red Boar, 3 Red Currant(1), 3 Red Currant(2), 3 Black Krim (8.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 3 Garden Peach, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Gypsy, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Chile Verde, 2 Green Grape, 2 Speckled Roman, 2 Zapotec Pleated, Yellow Perfection, Nyagous, Pineapple (18.5 ounces), Pierce's Pride (9.5 ounces), Sweet Tangerine, Weeping Charlie, Brown Berry, Green Zebra, Black From Tula, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Snow White (front yard), Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (7 ounces), Aunt Ruby's German Green (8 ounces), Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Miss Elliotte Black (6 ounces), SunSugar and Sweetie (new) for a total of 137 tomatoes.

Yesterday's temperature got up to 102.6.

Today is the day of our tomato tasting party! We're not as prepared as we like since we just got the hot water on yesterday. My wife had hoped to do some canning before the party but it was just not meant to be.

The image above is from today's harvest.

Harvested Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart!

Today's harvest includes 21 SunGold, 18 Violet Jasper, 12 White Currant, 6 Red Grape, 5 Red Currant(2), 4 Marianna's Peace, 3 Snow White (back yard), 2 Zapotec Pleated, 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Gypsy, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2) (one 6 ounces), 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Snow White (front yard), 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (6 ounces, 9.5 ounces, still no purple smudges), 2 Babywine, 2 Stupice, 2 Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart (new, 7.5 ounces, 13.5 ounces), Sweet Tangerine, Speckled Roman, Michael Pollan, Patio, Jaune Flamme(2), Nyagous, Topaz, Carmello, Principe Borghese, Black Krim, SunSugar, Miss Elliotte Black, Poma Amoria Minora Lutea, Garden Peach and Japanese Black Trifele for a total of 108 tomatoes.

Yesterday it got up to 102 and it looks like it will be even hotter today.

When I got home one of our crepe myrtle trees had fallen to the ground (the supporting stake broke) and several of the tomato plants needed staking. I got three front yard tomatoes staked while we were working on propping up the crepe myrtle tree. This morning I tied the wayward branches to these new stakes as needed.

Yesterday's harvest came in at 6 pounds, 6 ounces.

The Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart tomatoes look great. I've actually tossed out over a half dozen of these tomatoes because of blossom end rot. Not these.

The birds got to a Thessaloniki...

We're halfway through the month and have harvested approximately 1400 tomatoes (1378). So we'll never reach the 6800 estimate. What's interesting is that even though it's gotten hotter over the last two days, our harvest numbers have fallen – 132/111/108. Last year at this time the harvest totals were 116/127/155. And that's with 25 percent less plants than this year.

Stay patient. The heat will accelerate tomato ripening. This can be seen in the tinier tomatoes – SunGold's numbers are climbing, White Currant is strong, Violet Jasper is strong. As time marches on, the slightly larger tomatoes will mature like Garden Peach, Poma Amoria Minora Lutea, Babywine and Nyagous. That plant that isn't Azoychka start to ripen and produce in numbers.

The tide is coming – just wait and see.

Harvested Pink Berkeley Tie Dye and Black!

Today's harvest includes 17 White Currant, 15 Violet Jasper, 12 SunGold, 9 Husky Cherry Red, 8 Yellow Perfection, 5 Ananas Noire, 5 Red Grape, 5 Marianna's Peace, 5 Stupice, 5 Garden Peach, 4 Babywine, 4 Red Currant(1), 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 3 Nyagous, 3 Zapotec Pleated, 3 Red Currant(2), 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Green Grape, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 2 Speckled Roman, Thessaloniki, Gajo de Melon, Enchantment, Snow White (back yard), German Orange Strawberry, Red Boar, Weeping Charlie (7 ounces), Brown Berry, Jaune Flamme(1), Chile Verde, Patio, Michael Pollan, Miss Elliotte Black, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (new) and Black (new) for a total of 132 tomatoes weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces.

Yesterday's haul was estimated at 14 pounds but I think it weighed more than that.

The birds got to another Japanese Black Trifele and took apart two Gypsy tomatoes. I picked a low ripening Gypsy and put it on our shelf because it would have been a prime target for a bird attack.

Over the weekend I moved some of the container plants to an area where they will get more sun.

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes.

Harvested Poma Amoris Minora Lutea and Carmelo!

Today's harvest includes 26 Violet Jasper, 23 Husky Cherry Red, 22 SunGold, 17 White Currant, 14 Yellow Perfection, 9 Red Grape, 8 Garden Peach, 6 Red Currant(1), 6 Green Grape, 6 Marianna's Peace, 5 Snow White (back yard), 5 Red Currant(2), 5 Principe Borghese, 5 Stupice, 4 Black Krim (7.5 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 4 Topaz, 4 Speckled Roman, 4 Zapotec Pleated, 4 Gypsy, 3 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 3 Babywine, 2 Snow White (front yard), 2 Miss Elliotte Black (8 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Brown Berry, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (1) (7.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Pierce's Pride (11 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Gajo de Melon, 2 Ananas Noire, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Japanese Black Trifele, Michael Pollan, SunSugar, Taxi, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Plum Tigris, Jaune Flamme(1), Green Zebra, Sara Black, Weeping Charlie (7 ounces), Sweet Tangerine, Red Boar, Pineapple (9 ounces), Enchantment, Jaune Flamme(2), Nyagous, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea (new) and Carmello (new) for a total of 218 tomatoes.

There was no harvest done on Sunday and that's why today's numbers are so high. If you average this for two days the total would be 109 which would have been our highest harvest total to date.

We've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes for July and over 1500 for the year.

The birds got to Sara Black and one of the Japanese Black Trifeles still ripening on the vine.

Harvested Pineapple and Depp's Pink Firefly!

Today's harvest includes 16 White Currant, 10 SunGold, 10 Violet Jasper, 9 Husky Cherry Red, 6 Snow White (back yard), 5 Gypsy, 5 Red Grape, 4 Red Currant(2), 4 Principe Borghese, 3 Marianna's Peace, 3 Zapotec Pleated, 3 Green Grape, 2 Stupice, 2 Topaz, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Brown Berry, 2 Yellow Pear, 2 Speckled Roman, 2 Pineapple (new, 14.5 ounces, 14 ounces), Snow White (front yard), Babywine, SunSugar, Weeping Charlie, Red Boar, Sweet Tangerine (6 ounces), Ananas Noire, Jaune Flamme(2) and Depp's Pink Firefly (new) for a total of 101 tomatoes.

Almost all of our tomatoes were given away by the morning, including today's harvest. We are having a tile floor put in the kitchen and that meant clearing everything out of the kitchen. No room for tomatoes!

One of the places where we dropped off tomatoes was at our “seed lady”. We then visited in the afternoon and tried one of the Pineapple tomatoes. Very interesting tomato. My wife and I liked this tomato but neither of us fell in love with it, yet we can understand why this can be a favorite for others. It's a very mellow taste that doesn't remind you of a tomato at all. This won't sound appealing at all but seems somewhat tasteless. What's really going on when you taste this tomato is you get the gentle sweetness up front without the acid taste at the end. Thus the “tastelessness” is really the lack of an acid kick at the end. Recommended.