More Summer Tomato Crop

I gathered a bunch of our smaller tomatoes the other day for a summer pasta dish. The Scatalone plant was the last one I put in this year. I picked up the start from the farmer's market and it took me ages to find this variety.

It is the most amazingly delicious fruit - so far my favorite variety. Sadly, because it went in last, it's not nearly as large and booming as its predecessor was last year. I must remember next spring to order starts ahead of time for this amazing tomato and get at least two plants!

Here's a shot of a variety of our smaller tomatoes - early ssubukis aliana, isis candy, scatalone, black cherry.

Delicious!

Summer Bounty Comes Rolling In

Our waldo peas seem to be finally finishing. I'm not sure why, but the leaves have developed a waxy white covering that may be due to overwatering. I think I'm going to trim them back so they can fall to compost in the garden box soil. In the meantime, I noticed that there are actually new shoots coming up, which is fantastic because my son LOVES to eat these peas!

Today I'm making a roast pork tenderloin in fig sauce for dinner and we needed figs. We are incredibly lucky that there's a bike path a block from our house. There's an incredible array of fruits that grow along the path and on fruit trees that grace the walk to the path.

We headed out to the fig tree on the path this morning only to discover that the most recent blush of ripe figs had been harvested by others. There are plenty more on the way, and we did manage to find the last few edible ones for our sauce.

Likewise, our pear tree is producing beautifully this year. Above is a shot of the (as yet) uneaten parts of today's bounty. We already ate a lot of peas and some pears and figs!

First Tomatoes of the Season!

I lied right there - in the blog post title. These aren't technically the first tomatoes of the season. We've already had a smattering ripen early, but they never even made it into the house for a wash. We just popped them into our mouths too quickly.

Here's the first photograph of the first (ish) tomatoes of the season. 

There are three varieties shown here. At 1 o'clock is the Isis Candy - very sweet. This lives in the back tomato patch. At 4 o'clock is the Early Ssubakus Aliana, also sweet. It's in one of the big planter boxes on our driveway. 6 o'clock features a small Cherokee Purple. There are monstrous ones hanging on the plant right now that dwarf this little one. It was a tasty tomato on my bagel! Finally, and 8 and 10 o'clock are two Black Cherries. This is the blighted plant, but it's producing well so far (I've trimmed off the offending leaves and stems). The plant does look scrawny, with super long stems and not very bushy, but the fruit is delicious so far.

Aack! My Tomatoes are Blighted!

I'm no tomato doctor. If anything, as per the title of my blog, I'm a tomato undertaker. True to form, it's mid-July and after an early blush of plant coddling over the spring and some booming growth... one of my tomato plants is ailing.

Last Year's Fails: 
Blight on the Brandywine?
Last year, my pink brandywine became extremely sickly. It produced one lonely and mealy tomato and, in the end, it looked a bit like a dog hung on its choke-chain. That's not an image I like to promote, but that's what it looked like -- it had lost almost all its leaves in a slow turning from dark green to pale yellow and this one tomato was on one of the highest branches. It wavered there on this thin neck of a branch as the plant became progressively sicklier and scrawnier. The brandywine was the one plant I had really looked forward to, as I'd surmised the tomato's flavor would be most like my husband's childhood tomatoes. So, I strung the poor thing up pretty high to keep it from drooping over onto the driveway.

In retrospect, I think this plant had blight, especially now that I've read up on the condition more.


Another Blight?
I had another plant go pretty badly, as I recall now. The leaves never got too diseased-looking, but the fruits were all leathery and gross and the plant never really thrived. I think it was the Black Plum. The Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News has pretty good descriptions of some ailments for tomatoes. In the blight description, it mentions "leathery" fruit, which this plant definitely had, but it didn't have so much leaf death.

Blossom End Rot
 I had two plants with an obvious condition last year - blossom end rot. Both the Gourmet Yellow Stuffer and the Scatalone lost almost all their fruit to this last year. The Scatalone is a long fruit anyway, and my understanding is that tomato shape can have an effect on the condition.

This Year's Fail: Blight on the Black Cherry?
So, we're just barely getting our fruits in now with lots of beautiful looking green tomatoes on all the plants... but my Black Cherry has suddenly become a withering plant with brown leaves and browning, soft stems. The leaves have some black speckles too.... is it blight? Yikes!!!

Loquat Season is Here!!!

Yay!!!! All last spring, I cajoled my (then) very strong willed 2 yr old into early evening walks with me by enticing her with the prospect of getting some delicious loquats from neighborhood trees (there are three fruiting, quasi-public domain trees on our block alone).

Today, we had our first loquats of the season. Perfection!

My toddler son had his first taste and is hooked and I have a new incentive for my (now) very strong willed 3 yr old to take after dinner strolls with me!

More Plants in the Garden - Bell Peppers

I decided to plant bell peppers with the tomatoes that are in the big boxes, so I picked up what I could find at the farmer's market yesterday. I ended up with two red bells and one chocolate. I hope to round out the pepper crop this year with a purple and an orange, possibly another chocolate too!

I got the peppers in the boxes today and they seem happy.

Brandywine in front, chocolate bell pepper in back.




Tiny red bell peppers in fore of box on right. Garlic and fava beans in front.

Tomato Plant Update #3

We planted the tomatoes today, but beforehand I got some shots of them still in thier cups.

Here they are from the top:





And the side:

Tomatoes are Finally In!

It took longer than expected, but the little tomato starts I've been tending since Tammy gave them to me back on March 25. It's been on and off cold at night, and we're still getting some winter rains, but I decided to get them planted out. They're pretty hearty by now and have gotten really big in their little cups!

This is the Early Ssubakus Aliana, in one of the big planter boxes:



Here's the Black Cherry in the other big planter (I put them on opposite ends for maximum spread, and intend to put bell peppers on the empty sides tomorrow).



Here are the Cherokee Purple, Tomatillo and Isis Candy (left to right):