Tomato Harvest 2008

Above: Thai Pink Tomatoes - see how they just began to blush?

Above: Cherry Tomatoes - I love this picture. Shows unripe, on-its-way, and ripe. Sweet and juicy - popped in my mouth!

Above: We had to plant most of our tomatoes in pots last year (2008) and need to do so again this year because we'll be (hopefully) moving sometime in the Summer and want our garden to go with us. See how each tomato got a basil and marigold? Great companion planting! We had only one tomato hornworm the whole season!

Above: I love this picture! Shows just one day's harvest: quite a variety of tomatoes (thai pink, black cherry, regular cherry, yellow pear, etc.) and the string beans, yellow straightneck, pickling cucumbers. I loved bringing in the colander (yes, we harvested with a colander!), arranging the produce on a plate and taking a picture. Then preparing dinner. Yum!

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Considering how we were novice gardeners in 2008, we were so blessed with a terrific crop of tomatoes that year. We had 20 tomato plants, of which 19 of them bore beginning sometime in July (if I remember correctly), and each 5-gallon pot got one (or 2) tomato plants, a basil and a marigold. There were very few bug attacks.

We had several varieties (we got some of our seeds off the rack and others we ordered):

• Big Rainbow Striped Tomatoes - a slicer that is mostly orange with green and red faint stripes, very sweet, somewhat thick-fleshed, and the most delicious tomato we've ever tasted. We are definitely growing this again.
• Thai Pink Tomatoes - they start off a little white and as they ripen, they turn a light pink, and deepen to a vivid pink. Very juicy. Some people don't like the taste, but Hubby and I are ok with it. Not something we'd grow if we had limited space.
• Black Cherry Tomatoes - these were a little larger than a cherry tomato, and are actually purple. Thick flesh and somewhat sweet. We had only 2 plants of these so we mostly ate these freshly picked. We did dehydrate and freeze some.
• Red Cherry Tomatoes - had only one of these plants and it gave us about 15-20 red cherry tomatoes every 3 days or so. Sweet.
• Roma Tomatoes - although just about everyone knows about these, have to mention. Ours didn't get very big but when they ripened, they were thick and crimson red. Perfect for making some of our favorite dishes. Great dehydrated and frozen. Replacing this with Amish Paste in 2009.
• Yellow Pear Tomatoes - I tasted my first yellow pear in 2007 and HAD to grow them in 2008. We had about 6 of these plants, and every one of them bore prolifically. We brought several in the house in October and enjoyed them well into .. well, March we ate the last one! Great for salads, but we also dehydrate and freeze them.
• Kellog's Orange Breakfast (paste) and Orange Mama and Yellow Mama - ok, here's the problem. I had started several plants (squash, gourds, tomatoes, etc.) and planted them in mid-Spring, and unfortunately a fox uprooted them all (digging a hole to take a nap in). I saved what I could, but the labels either scattered or faded. So, we had lots of other kinds of tomatoes, including these 3, but we have no idea what was what. We will keep better track this year. It's a good suggestion for you too. Label label label!

We tried to extend our harvest last year with blankets. We got a little bit of additional time but it was too much effort. We had to keep running outside to batten them down. Major wind storms. This year we'll just pick the green ones (there were almost 70 last year!) and make green tomato relish or fried green tomatoes. We dehydrated some but should have done more.