Today I wanted to put off harvesting the tomatoes. I wanted to just lay around and read the Sunday paper. Maybe I would get out of my jammies…maybe I wouldn’t. I was weak. I couldn’t resist the call of the garden. “Pick me. Pick me.” This morning I was up irrigating, fertilizing, and harvesting. Since I discovered the wonders of freezing whole tomatoes it wouldn’t be so bad. I just needed to go through the 37 plants and haul the harvest up to the house for processing. I try to cull as I go removing damaged fruit to the green waste. Once they’re in the kitchen, I wash and dry the tomatoes then quick freeze them separately before storing them in freezer bags.
Along with the tomatoes I harvested Black Hungarian Peppers, Serrano Peppers, Genovese Basil, and a couple of Atomic Red Carrots. Not pictured are the Lemon Squash. Salsa production will crank up again now that the Serranos are going bonkers. It should be faster and cooler using the freezer method to skin the tomatoes.
The Red Flame Grapes were harvested with the gluttonous eyes of the mourning doves coveting our booty. Although this bowl of grapes may not seem like much, it’s about 10 times the amount produced in 2009. The vine is only 2 years old. This was a nice surprise. I was also surprised to find a hornworm munching the grapes leaves high in the arbor. That dude was swatted down and squished about as fast as I could move.
Via con Dios, hombre.
16 comments:
That's a lot of tomatoes! I didn't know you could freeze them. The grapes look yummy.
Enjoy your day!
Donna
Oh my, I am officially jealous!!!! Wow, what lovely grapes!!! But then you do live in Cali! Beautiful, really.
That looks like one amazing crop to me :)
I have eight tablegrape vines planted -- including Red Flame. At least I can see now what's coming. And you're tomato harvest is just amazing. It just goes to show what a decent spring will do for you. I'm a good month away from this kind of production on the vines.
Wow! Your tomato harvest is fantastic....which has me wondering why ours isn't:( I was ready to blame the heat for our scraggly tomato plants but since yours are in the same predicament...we are stumped as to what our problem could be. The plants in our back yard garden (which gets a bit of shade) are healthy but producing only sparsely, and the ones in our shared garden (all day in the sun) are producing somewhat better, but the plants look awful. I think I need to pick your brain to see if we can figure this out. The weird thing is, last years crop was in the same spot (sun-wise, different beds) and extremely healthy and productive...sigh.
Okay everyone. Can we offer Maureen any suggestions? Maureen, are you growing the same variety as last year?
Oh good grief...your tomatoes look fabulous, and courtesy of some odd mid-summer persistent coastal fog, I'm convinced we're the only ones without ripe tomatoes on the planet. Sure, we picked a couple of cherry tomatoes (literally, maybe four tops), the rest are plentiful, and green. Begging for enough sun to ripen. I have tomato-envy, can you tell? :P
*Maureen: I took an inventory of the tomato beds this evening and have determined that all the tomatoes, with the exception of the Al Kuffas, are on the decline. The hot summer sun is beating them down and grasshoppers are moving in. I'm fine with that. My pantry and freezer are stuffed with tomatoes. Nonetheless, I wanted you to be aware that most all my tomato plants look like they may be giving the nod to fall crops.
*Curb: Really? I would trade my tomato bounty and swamp pants for you cool, coastal fog any day. You name it. I'll trade it. Maybe you could settle for growing cool weather crops.
Ours started looking bad within weeks of reaching about 3ft. tall. We planted 16 different kinds of slicing tomatoes and 6 paste, all started from seed, both hybred and heirloom. We planned on keeping track of the plants production and narrowing down the list for next year's crop but I'm not sure this has been a fair test. And the problem is pretty much across the board, even the always dependable Early Girl looks pretty sad. The bottom half of the plants are dying....and the tomatoes are all getting sunburned because they have no protection from the upper leaves. It is a fairly new garden, this is the second year, and tho we trucked in humas last year we used home-made compost this year.
As I said before, we have 2 gardens. The one with the tomato issue is our 'shared' garden. The good thing about having them both is that we can compare and contrast growing conditions. Our back-yard garden is growing in 15yrs. worth of amended soil and a bit of afternoon shade. Those plants definitely look much healthier.
We have our thoughts on what the problem could be ..... nutrients in the purchased compost ran out and we didn't replenish the soil enough to handle another crop, and the heat (ignoring your success:) The other fact to consider - our squash, beans, cucumbers, carrots and onions are all doing fabulously. In fact, if the aphids don't take over we will be getting the first watermelon crop we've ever successfully grown!
So my grand plan to make all my own tomato sauce and canned diced tomatoes and ketchup and salsa etc. etc.has gone horribly wrong....bummer.
I have made a bit of fresh salsa and I'll probably get a couple batches of sauce out of the ones I picked this last week, but we'll be at the Farmers Market this weekend to make up the difference for our winter eating.
I do so appreciate your taking the time to read this novel :) and to help out....any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!
Those tomato baskets are adorable!
We are also in the central valley and our tomatoes aren't producing well either, Maureen. Green Beans are even worse.
On the plus side, our Sugar Baby melons did well and have already been harvested, and zucchini and yellow crookneck squash has been prolific along with cucumbers. Oh yes, and we are harvesting corn this week!
Incredible tomatoes! This year, I'm going to experiment with making homemade ketchup. That is assuming I get any tomatoes. Thanks for your help on identifying the "mystery plants."
oh boy those tomatoes look lovely! You know my envy :)
I wonder if Maureen has a bacterial issue such as blight happening? It can transfer from potatoes.
*Erin: You may have a great suggestion. I believe Maureen grew potatoes that could aggravate blight in her tomatoes. Hope Maureen keeps us updated.
Thanks Sandy....misery loves company;)
I never thought of blight. We did grow potatoes in a nearby bed this last winter, tho I specifically didn't plant the tomatoes in the same bed. Would the potatoes have been affected as well? What would that look like? I'm going to do some research on that issue.....thanks for the suggestion.
*Maureen: I have a photo of what my potatoes looked like as blight took over on my 05/02/09 post about potatoes. Look to the references on the right for potato or search by the date. Hope you're coming up with some solution.
*Sandy: When did you plant your melons? I'm still waiting on my crop getting ripe.
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