I'm now committed to growing only half as many tomato plants next year, if that. At the moment, I can't help but ask myself, "what on earth were you thinking???" Forty plants only sounds like a good idea when you've never grown tomatoes before. Sometimes, too much of a good thing can be just as bad as too little. I'm sure it won't be long before I start having one of those nightmares in which I'm carrying around a bucket of tomatoes and trying desperately to give them all away only to find that the bucket never empties.
Tomatoes in all colors, shapes and sizes.
I also wonder why it is we have such silly town ordinances that prohibit the sale of homegrown produce on residential land. That's two thumbs down if you ask me.
This past week, I also pulled all of my onions to make room for fall crops. They all seem to be curing nicely.
Finally, I also harvested all of my bucket potatoes. As far as the ones growing in the ground, I think I'll wait a few more weeks before digging them up. The dying leaves were showing signs of blight(or so I thought) so I decided to remove all of the foliage. Hopefully, the potatoes will remain happy and untainted where they are.
This week's harvest numbers:
Beets - 5.72 lb
Carrots - 2.05 lb
Potatoes- 4.88 lb
Scallions - 1.71 lb
Onions - 3.43 lb
Corn - 2.91 lb
Cucumbers (16) - 9.05 lb
Zucchini - 1.22 lb
Tomatoes- 40.60 lb
Total harvested this week- 71.57 lb
Wow and Wow! The tomatoes are beautiful! 40 plants! Amazing. i'm thinking I have to really step it up next year. My plants aren't producing as many tomatoes as I hoped!
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Those are some gorgeous tomatoes and lucky you to have a bounty of them to deal with. I would be saucing and canning like mad and enjoying every minute of it!
ReplyDeleteGreat onion and potato harvests too. Your summer garden is really performing wonderfully for you.
Wowzas! I know you think you got in over your head but I'm so glad! I love seeing your beautiful tomato harvest!!
ReplyDeleteI would take that second and third picture and have them framed on a kitchen wall. The colors of those tomatoes are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI have around 40 plants too. 90% of tomato harvest is canned or in freezer. There is no chance that we would eat as many fresh tomatoes.
Onions look lovely too. Mine have some small holes on them, so I have to use them as soon as possible or they will rot.
we are in the western cape, South Africa. Hot dry summer and wet winters. Aloe - succulent world. Very little luck with vegies. It seems I can taste the delicious vegetables looking at your photos. sigh...
ReplyDeleteAmazing very good harvest!My first attempt growing tomato did not go well, planted only one variety.
ReplyDeleteNot too shabby, Thomas! Look at all of those colors. They're beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThose tomatoes are Beautiful Thomas! I was laughing so hard reading your post. I think half the amount of plants would be more then enough next year. Too bad you can't sell them at your home.
ReplyDeleteNice onions! Did you grow them from seeds, sets or plants?
I agree with MojVrt, you really should frame a picture or two for your kitchen.
The tomatoes are gorgeous! There are certainly a lot of them. Are you canning or freezing any?
ReplyDeleteI have come to the conclusion that one one only needs a few plants for 'fresh eating", and that all the rest must be for preserving....and in that case all of those gorgeous tasty slicing heirlooms are kind of a waste.
ReplyDeleteGrowing more paste & plum next year, fewer slicers. Do you have a shelter anywhere locally that accepts produce?
Oh, and sorry to hear you may have blight, my tomatoes have made me suspicious once or twice, but I think I am safe so far. Last year I cut back greenery and waited 3 weeks before harvest, my tubers showed no signs of blight (and I did have it).
ReplyDeleteWhat a bounty of tomatoes, Thomas. Now is the time to put your new chest freezer to work. Wash up the tomatoes and freeze them whole until you are ready to cook with them. They can be made into sauces, added to soups, etc.
ReplyDeleteLeafhoppers or other insect damage on potato foliage can look like blight. I was worried that it was late blight too until I researched this. The edges of the leave turn brown and crisp. The potatoes underground should be ok.
Hi Robin, I started the reds from seeds and the whites from sets. Next year, I think I'll just stick with sets in order to free up room on my seed starting shelf...although I say that now.
ReplyDeleteThe Mom - I've already froze a ton of tomato sauce. I'd like to can as well but am skid-dish about food born illness.
Kelly - LOL! I just googled that this very morning!
I planted 39 tomatoes my first year and It looked exactly like your post. Down to 19 this year but I agree with Kelly, fewer slicing and more paste.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, your tomatoes are a pretty picture. Enjoy
Thomas, tomatoes are pretty unlikely to cause illness. I always can them by themselves and then make sauces as I need them. The only exception is salsa, which I make and can during the summer.
ReplyDeleteYowza! Man...that's alot of tomatoes..hehe
ReplyDeleteWow, what an amazing harvest. I love that you are growing the darker colored potatoes, they are some of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI made the same mistake my first tomato year! I second the mom's idea, if it's too overwhelming, you can freeze them whole and sauce them later as you need. The trick to canning them is to have enough added acidity to make them safe (lemon juice, vinegar) or you can avoid the stress by doing it in a pressure canner, that's on my wish list someday! Don't get me started on those stupid city codes, one night on the evening news here they had "busted" a kid's lemonade stand because they didn't have a business permit.... STOP THE INSANITY! Perhaps they should go elsewhere in town and enforce the business permit thing on the drug dealers LOL
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that not every growing season will fare as well for you as this one has. I grew 24 tomato plants last year and harvested 100 pounds. I grew 24 tomato plants this year and will end up with less than 15 pounds. It has just been a bad garden year.
ReplyDeleteErin - a pressure canner is on my wish list too! As far as city ordinances go, maybe we should ban the automatic sprinklers that water my neighbor's lawn twice a day everyday even when it's raining.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought looking at the first picture was farmer's market. Some city codes are just crazy. Here in Chicago we can only have two garage sales a year, and you have to have a permit for them. That would be a perfect way to sell some of your extra produce. Some of the best producing broccoli I ever grew came from seedlings I bought at a garage sale for a nickle apiece. She dug them right out of the ground and put them in a baggie.
ReplyDeleteWow! Your tomato photos are gorgeous. I have 50 plants but yet to see anything besides cherry tomatoes and one green zebra. Hopefully I'll have spreads like yours in a few weeks. I plan to can many of mine into salsa and sauce. But I too have already decided to plant half as many next year. They are too crowded and are getting a bit of early blight between the plants. I figure if I do fewer plants in the same space they may do just as well.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I love all the different colors, shapes, and sizes of your tomatoes. How silly that you can't sell your produce, you might just have to sell it out of the trunk of your car. Pssst, lady, wanna buy some homegrown tomatoes....
ReplyDeleteIf you really can't handle it all there's probably a food bank in the area that would love to take some off your hands.
I'm so jealous, this is really turning out to be a cold crappy summer for growing tomatoes around here.
Forty plants is a lot of tomatoes. I started with 13 and pulled a sick one early on. So I have twelve and still am getting inundated with tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteWow, great harvest, I love the tomatoes and onions pictures, they are so pretty.
ReplyDeleteHoly moly, 40 tomato plants! I only have 4 plus 2 cherries, that's enough for the 2 of us. I'll do a bit of canning when the paste tomatoes ramp up, otherwise I like the way they trickle in a few at a time, just enough for fresh eating.
That is one bumper crop of tomatoes. You should make some sauce and freeze it or dry some in the sun.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a stressful nightmare to have, if you were to ever have one! I tend to remember a lot of my dreams for the first few minutes every morning (as opposed to my boyfriend who never remembers any of his dreams), and I can totally imagine myself having a dream like that. But... considering that I'm still harvesting tomatoes in the single digits, I may think it's a good dream. :)
ReplyDeleteYour photos are just amazing - they're art-print worthy.
ReplyDeleteWe did 30 tomato plants this year and were inundated during peak season as well - they're starting to slow down now as the plants start getting the various leaf diseases southern plants invariably get at this time of year.
For next year we're talking about doing only 20 plants (2 boxes at 10plants per box). We're thinking 1 box of paste tomatoes and 1 box of the slicers we like the best (Better Boy and Early Girl, even though they're hybrids and we try to stick with heirlooms). The hybrids just stay so much healthier for longer and produce so much more...
Maybe you can start selling at the local farmer's market as a guest vendor :)
those tomatoes are gorgeous. i normally plant about 10 plants for our family of four which gives enough fresh and a small amount to freeze, would like to do more though. i was stunned to read of the prohibition re selling - i think if they tried to do that in new zealand there would be a nationwide protest! i sometimes take excess to my children's kindergarten to sell (and give them some of the profits) i would like to find some elderly who used to garden, but can't anymore, and give them some of our excess. still working on that one.
ReplyDeleteFabulous photos of the tomatoes, and a fabulous week's harvest too. Congrats. Don't let them go to waste. Either give them away (really, people won't run away from a fresh tomato like they will a zucchini) or put them in the freezer whole and deal with them later.
ReplyDelete40 tomato plants are indeed too many for a small family, but look at all these wonderful tomatoes you got! What a beautiful abundance, and you have enough to eat, to preserve and to make gorgeous gifts to your friends.
ReplyDeleteAwesome stuff going on in your garden, Thomas. Been on a blogging break and was surprised at how busy you have been with your bountiful harvest. The mater look wonderful and that corn, wow!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the tomatoes. Our first year we didn't have enough and the weather took a toll on them as well. The next year we had more, and I suppose it was close to the right amount as we ran out of tomato products (except salsa...I always over do it with our favorite tomato sauce)in June.
This year we planted even more, but the verdict is still out on how much. They just seem to be taking forever to ripen. Had the first of them this week.
Love your trellised watermelons, think I will give that a try next year.
Thanks again for sharing your wonderful garden with us.
Why not make tomato sauce. Cut them up in 1/4. Add 1/4 up onion some garlic cloves, put them all on a roasting tray. Heat your oven at 425, roast them for about 45 min, until roasted down. Let cool and put in a blender add some fresh basil, parsley and oregano, blend. Pour into small tupperware and freeze. I have been doing this for years with all my tomatoes. Makes great sauce.
ReplyDeleteTomato's and rabbits - produce more than what you think! haha
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks great! Mine has had a poor time of it - poor soil, extreme heat and drought. Almost made this gardener throw in the towel until we ate our first ears of corn. Yum and gives me hope for fall planting!
HA!!! I thought my husband was insane for planting 25 tomato plants. Next year, 14. Just 14! Oh my goodness--the canning...it must...stop.
ReplyDeleteAnna in MD
Please please PLEASE grow as many tomatoes next summer! Especially if we miraculously end up back east and as your neighbors. Hey -- it could happen! ;) Mmmm I heart homegrown tomatoes. Doug makes this awesome heirloom tomato + japanese eggplant + turkey sausage ratatouille that your tomatoes would be PERFECT for!
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