A Monday picking. Heavy rain was predicted to move in, so we thought it best to take the ripest tomatoes before anything happened to them. Clockwise around the outside, there is one Caspian Pink, five Incas, two Rutgers, six Sugar Plums (grape tomatoes), five Taxis, and four Romas. Of course, there's also an overachieving Caspian Pink in the center.
That guy weighed 1 lb. 9.9 oz. (~734 g.). I'm pretty sure it's the largest tomato I've ever grown. County Fair here I come!
The heavy rain didn't actually materialize, but we did get a few welcome hours of steady downpour. And the big tomato ripened beautifully indoors. We savored it for four separate meals. I'm saving its seeds, just in case it breeds true. Anyone who wants to try a sample, shoot me an email at eightgatefarm@outlook.com and I'll do my best to mail you some. No guarantees the outsized results will be the same, but it might be fun.
A Wednesday harvest, with our weekly artichoke ration.
A Friday harvest, showing our first picking from the second succession of Espresso bi-color sweet corn, and a few shishito peppers. Even though the corn stalks were coated with diatomaceous earth to repel the earwigs, when these were picked the disgusting, silk-damaging creatures were still hiding in the cob bases. I think this experiment is a failure.
And a Sunday harvest.
It's been a strange bean year. We got large early harvests, but they slowed way down after that, and many of the later pods were small and curly. I wonder what caused that? This will be the last real picking, as I pulled most of the plants. Last year, we were still picking well into September.
I love sunflowers, especially tall ones. This year I planted "Mongolian Giant." The seeds were literally over an inch long. It's supposed to grow up to 14 feet (4.25 m.) tall. These won't reach that, I'm think, but they are still pretty tall. I'm tall, but I slouch.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! I look forward to your Harvest Monday contributions.
Wow - that tomato is ridiculously huge - it completely dwarfed the scale!
ReplyDelete1" sunflower seeds? Those would be some great eating and it would be so much easier for the kids to shell. Can't wait to hear the harvest & munching report on that one.
And welcome to my bean year - when it comes to bad performances in the garden, it's always good to know that you are not alone.
Thanks, Margaret. I'll be sure to give a report on the sunflower seeds.
DeleteWOW on tomato - that's huge! and holly cow on sunflowers! Now that's the variety i'd love to have to grow if you have extra seeds this year. I can send you my dark maroon sunflowers - they're not huge, but they are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenny. If the goldfinches leave me any, I will gladly swap seeds with you.
DeleteI'm up for some of those tomato seeds, will flip you an email. I'm growing Kong sunflowers which are supposed to get to 14 feet but never do. But still, 9 to 10 feet still towers over me! I agree with Margaret, those seeds would be great eating.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susie. Tall sunflowers are fun!
DeleteWowsers! That is a huge tomato! I doubt that any of my Caspian Pinks will rival that. Earwigs are tenacious pests. Good luck with your battles. Show us some of those huge sunflower seeds, I can't imagine a one-inch long sunflower seed.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michelle. As I'm sure you know, Caspian Pinks of any size are great eating.
DeleteI've never heard of a 1" sunflower seed. I could get into that, but have no place to grow a 14' tall sunflower.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Daphne. Do you have space for even a couple of sunflowers?
DeleteBeautiful harvest, You were smart to bring the tomatoes in and ripen them on the counter rather than have them split from the rain. And that is a whopper tomato, don't think I have one that big in years. Too bad about the earwigs, maybe time to use the Spinosad (but may be too late, once they are in the ears). Yuck.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the spinosad I used on later plantings did the trick--we'll soon see. It's hard to search for the buggers without damaging the stalks.
DeleteThat is one impressive tomato! Sorry about the earwigs in the corn. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachel. Next year I intend to fight the earwigs even harder.
DeleteThat's one impressive tomato! I am excited to read next year if it produces something as large from the saved seed. Good try on your corn experiment. It is always worth trying to find something non-toxic to keep the pests away. I just can't keep the raccoons out of mine, so I gave up that crop. I am also excited to see what kind of blooms your sunflower makes. I love sunflowers. They will always have a place in my garden too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lexa. I'll show more pictures of the sunflowers as they bloom. Actually they're starting now. Sorry you can't grow corn.
DeleteYour tomatoes and zucchini look great. Caspian Pink is such a pretty tomato and you definitely got a whopper of one. I used to hate finding earwigs in corn, they're pretty much the reason I stopped growing turnips out west.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Phuong. I guess Caspian is as pretty as any heirloom tomato, which is to say, definitely rustic.
DeleteI love tall sunflowers too, but I didn't get around to planting any this year, so I will enjoy looking at yours instead! My beans are in reverse of yours. They started bad, limped along through July, and now are blooming and setting on again in the heat of August. Go figure!
ReplyDelete