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.

Harvested Emerald Evergreen!

Today's harvest includes 49 SunGold, 25 White Currant, 13 Red Currant(2), 11 Violet Jasper, 11 Husky Cherry Red, 10 Red Currant(1), 9 Snow White (front yard), 8 Garden Peach, 8 Japanese Black Trifele, 7 Gajo de Melon, 5 Snow White (back yard), 4 Red Grape, 3 Black Krim (6 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Babywine, 3 Black From Tula (one 7.5 ounces), 3 Thessaloniki, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Marianna's Peace, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Pierce's Pride (15 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1) (10.5 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Green Zebra, 2 Weeping Charlie (8 ounces), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (8 ounces, 11 ounces), Principe Borghese, Taxi, Carmelo, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Plum Tigris, Green Grape, Brown Berry, Stupice, Patio, Michael Pollan, Poma Amoris Minora Lutea, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (still no smudge), SunSugar, Ananas Noire, Sweet Tangerine, Zapotec Pleated, Nyagous and Emerald Evergreen (new, 12 ounces) for a total of 206 tomatoes.

Yesterday's haul came in at 13 pounds. Today's haul will have a similar weight, perhaps a touch heavier.

I watered the front yard tomatoes late in the evening. In the morning Snow White had a bad lean to the southwest. I tried fixing it with my hands only to make matters worse. I got a hammer and two stakes and added another stake to Snow White and one to Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge.

We've now harvested over 2000 tomatoes for the month (2142).

The birds got to a Japanese Black Trifele and a Miss Elliotte Black.

Harvested Azoychka/Not Azoychka!

Today's harvest includes 36 SunGold, 16 White Currant, 13 Red Currant(2), 9 Violet Jasper, 9 Japanese Black Trifele, 8 Red Currant(1), 8 Red Grape, 7 Babywine, 7 Gajo de Melon, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Snow White (front yard), 4 Snow White (back yard), 3 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 3 Green Zebra, 3 Zapotec Pleated, 3 Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (9 ounces, 9.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 Garden Peach, 2 SunSugar, 2 Black Krim (6 ounces, 11 ounces), 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Topaz, 2 Green Grape, 2 Pierce's Pride (10.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Marianna's Peace, 2 Azoychka (new), 2 Poma Amoris Minorea Lutea, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (8 ounces, 6 ounces), Gypsy, Thessaloniki, Enchantment, Black From Tula, Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart (8 ounces), German Orange Strawberry (6 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1) (9.5 ounces), Weeping Charlie (7 ounces), Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Taxi, Nyagous, Sweetie and Carmelo for a total of 172 tomatoes.

As mentioned previously, the plant labeled Azoychka isn't Azoychka. Looking on the TomatoFest site, it's the size of Grape and the shape of San Marzano. I'll keep looking. Also, I may have harvested them a bit early. We may sacrifice these two to see how ripe they get.

There were some pretty good sized tomatoes in today's batch. You can see some of them in the above image of today's harvest.

The harvest numbers for Violet Jasper has been pretty consistent but we're actually running out of tomatoes on this plant. The numbers will drop and in all probability it will get a second wind around a month later.

The birds continue to pick off two or three tomatoes a day. Today they got to a Japanese Black Trifele and I believe Nyagous.

Yesterday was a mellow day for all. The backyard was cleaned up in the evening and everything is pretty much back to normal.

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 Aunt Ruby's German Green and Persimmon!

Today's harvest includes 15 White Currant, 14 Violet Jasper, 13 SunGold, 7 Red Currant(2), 7 Red Grape, 6 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2) (one 6 ounces), 5 Marianna's Peace, 4 Japanese Black Trifele, 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Snow White (back yard), 3 Black Krim (9 ounces, 13.5 ounces, 11 ounces), 3 Green Grape, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Zapotec Pleated, 2 Ananas Noire, 2 Red Boar, 2 Brown Berry, 2 Babywine, Patio, Stupice, Miss Elliotte Black, Topaz, Taxi, Lyn's Mahogany Garnet, Principe Borghese, Yellow Pear, Speckled Roman, Black From Tula, Yellow Perfection, Gajo de Melon, Plum Tigris, Depp's Pink Firefly, Red Currant(1), Gypsy, Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) (new, 11 ounces) and Persimmon (new, 9 ounces) for a total of 114 tomatoes.

It was quite hot yesterday. The temperature got up to 106.8 degrees at Pierce College, about a mile away. Some of today's harvested tomatoes have different shades of color due to differing maturation on the fruit. For instance, some of the White Currant had deep yellowish white shoulders (indicating it was quite ready) but the rest of the tomato had a faint greenish hue (indicating it wasn't quite there). In other words, it was so hot that it was causing maturation differences within the same tomato.

My wife watered some of the back yard tomatoes two days ago and finished the job yesterday.

We haven't done too much with the tomatoes this week, short of collect them. We've been in the middle of tiling the kitchen floor, having to move all of the appliances out of the kitchen, getting the floor put in, getting the back splash put in, getting it all grouted and such. The original plumber, who said he'd help move the appliances, went on a two week vacation without notice. With the help of a good friend of ours we got the appliances moved out but had a heck of a time getting them back in to place. The refrigerator was easy. The stove was relatively easy. The dishwasher was put in place but due to the less leg room, the hot water line couldn't quite be hooked up correctly. So no hot water for the kitchen sink. The washer/dryer was put into place only to realize the water wasn't turned on. So we pulled it out and turned it on. Since we pulled out the washer/dryer the legs were adjusted so that the pair didn't lean to the left. It was put back in place, all was well except for the dishwasher/hot water line and our friend left about 2:00 AM Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

So my wife ran the washing machine and soon there was water on the floor. So we called our friend back (he had just drove away), pulled the stacked washer/dryer out again and ran an empty load. I found a leak underneath the washing machine and my friend found the source. Okay, that explains why the subflooring had decayed underneath the washing machine when we originally pulled it out, the leak was always there and only now was it discovered.

My friend came by last night to finish off the dishwasher so now we have hot water in the kitchen sink. We have repairmen coming to fix the washing machine today and another problem my wife found last night – the dishwasher door has issues.

But the tile floor/back splash/riser look great while the tomatoes collect.

The harvested Aunt Ruby's German Green was a surprise. I did not look ready to the eye but it felt ready. I went by feel.

There is a tomato called Persimmon. This isn't that tomato. This is a plant supplied by the Tomato Lady of Beverly Hills. It looks a lot like Weeping Charlie, only orange in color. My wife saw it and she said it looked like a persimmon.

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.

Finally, Some Heat!

Today's harvest includes 18 SunGold, 15 White Currant, 14 Violet Jasper, 6 Marianna's Peace (one 6 ounces), 6 Garden Peach, 5 Red Grape, 5 Husky Cherry Red, 4 Yellow Perfection, 3 Zapotec Pleated, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 Taxi, 2 Principe Borghese, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Red Currant(2), 2 Green Grape, 2 Green Zebra, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow(2), 2 Snow White (back yard), 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), Gypsy, Black, Toni's Round, T. C. Jones, Ananas Noire, German Orange Strawberry, Speckled Roman, Dr. Wyche's Yellow(1), Black Krim, SunSugar, Stupice, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge and Poma Amoris Minora Lutea for a total of 111 tomatoes.

Our weather is finally warming up! It got up to 95 degrees yesterday. This will help mature the tomatoes on the vine. It also sterilizes some of the flowers so they never become tomatoes so it's both good and bad. Today should be just as warm if not warmer.

The back yard Aunt Ruby's German Green finally has a tomato growing on it! There are two in the front yard. Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) has some good sized tomatoes growing on the vines. Aunt Ruby's German Green(2) is the same height (roughly 5 feet) and has one very small tomato growing in slow motion, if at all.

My wife watered some of the back yard tomatoes.

I need to stake several of the tomato plants.

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.