Hello again from Eight Gate Farm! After a stretch of very pleasant (if dry) weather, the Heat Dome which has affected much of the US is starting to roll over us. Forecasts are for near 100 for 3 or more days. Oddly, it is supposed to cool off each night, which should make it more bearable, and gardening chores can be done in the early morning without too much discomfort. Any rain is a long way off.
We are very happy that it is now tomato time! Three of my four slicing-size tomatoes came in this week. Leading off is "Genuwine," a cross between the heirlooms Costoluto Genovese and Brandywine, with advantages over both parents. The taste is only slightly less excellent than Brandywine, our favorite, but which doesn't produce much here.
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| Genuwine (F1) |
The Chef's Choice series of hybrid tomatoes now numbers more than six, and most are AAS winners, but I've only grown the "Orange" version. In taste, it's a little more sweet than acidic, but very delicious.
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| Chef's Choice Orange (F1) |
And then there's Large Barred Boar. This is one of the open-pollinated tomatoes bred by Wild Boar Farms. I've grown their "Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye" for a number of years, but decided to try this one instead.
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| Large Barred Boar (OP) |
All I can say is "wow!" This one knocked it out of the park in the flavor department. It is giving Brandywine a run for its money, and that's saying a lot.
This was our first tomato dinner...The Kitchen Goddess made crostini, which is simple but super-delicious. I like the fresh oregano leaves she put on it.
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| Crostini |
In other "first harvests" of the season, I pulled all the onions. This is much earlier than in seasons past, but the tops had all flopped over and were browning. I'm disappointed with the sizes this year. No Deerfield Fair prizes lurking in this lot.
Here's the white onion "Alisa Craig Exhibition" and the yellow onion "Talon."
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| Alisa Craig (OP) and Talon (F1) |
And here's the red onion "Barolo" and the shallot "Ambition."
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| Barolo (F1) and Ambition (F1) |
I planted a long row of potatoes in the field garden, but had some seed tubers left over, so I planted two short rows in the raised bed garden. They showed signs of being ready (dying back) well before the field crop for some reason. I dug them up this week. They are mostly Red Bliss with a few Kennebec. Sizes are small.
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| First potato harvest |
General harvests were light. Here was Monday's.
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| General harvest #1 |
Here was Wednesday's.
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| General harvest #2 |
That's the last fennel; like its siblings it had its roots gnawed by voles.
And here was Saturday's. You can see that the "Sophy" zucchini are producing well, and I'm trying to keep picking them before they get too large.
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| General harvest #3 |
That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks once again to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday. Stay cool!
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