Can you believe it? Here it is September 15th, and I finally picked my first tomato of the season.
How wild is that? I suppose there is a first for everything. 😉
~Mavis
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It’s About Time
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Anne in VA says
YEAH! At least you have plenty on the vines. You can pick those and let them ripen in the window sill if you get a cold snap.
Ashley Bananas says
Yay!!! Glad you’re getting some produce!
Lana says
It’s about the same here. This week we finally picked two handfuls of green beans after waiting all summer. Tomatoes have been about two weeks now. What a crazy season!
Susan says
Here in Everett, WA my beefsteaks look the same. I’ve harvested a couple but they’re very small and they’re just NOW slowly turning. I’ve gotten quite a few cherry tomatoes, but the beefsteaks have been quite slow. (I still have summer squash that is just now producing too!
Mrs. M says
While waiting for more tomatoes to ripen, perhaps you and the HH can go searching for space rocks. There’s a reward offered!
https://joltofjoyful.com/fireball-from-outer-space-flashes-across-maine-and-a-museum-wants-to-find-what-caused-it/
SueD says
I picked my first beefsteak today. It’s not quite red, but it came off when I touched it. Totally not a good year for tomatoes. Pulling the cucumber, aubergine, beefsteak and paste tomato plants tomorrow. I finally have enough paste tomatoes for a small batch of sauce. Tomorrow will be a cooking and freezing day.
Elise in the SF Bay Area says
This is why I stopped growing big tomatoes. I prefer to have only cherry tomato plants, but someone gave me an heirloom starter in June which now has about a half dozen very young tomatoes (and still growing strong). I’m not sure if any will ripen before it gets too cold, even here in (Northern) California.
I do like making your heirloom salsa recipe when anybody gives me gobs of large tomatoes, but otherwise I don’t really want more than I can use for salad (sometimes we also do lettuce-free cherry tomato salads). I just started picking my cherry tomatoes a month ago (8.15)!
Amber from Ontario says
I also mainly grow cherry, and salad tomatoes, which are about the size of golf ball. They are all Heirlooms except the hybrid cherry Sungold, which are so sweet I cannot resist growing several. It was mid Aug. before I started picking ripe tomatoes, and it is usually by the end of July.The cold wet Spring slowed everything down here too. Thank goodness I do have quite a good harvest, but not as abundant as usual. have been busy roasting and stewing my tomatoes. I freeze the roasted ones usually, but did can a few pints because I was running out of freezer room. I just spray wash the others in a colander, drain, then cut them, or prick them with a knife, put them all in a large 15 liter stainless steel stock pot, cook them, then whirl them with my immersion blender until all the peel disappears. I do not worry about seeds, lots of good nutrients there. My lids, stainless steel canning funnel, and stainless steel large ladle are also sterilized in boiling water.Then I fill hot sterilized qt. jars with tomatoes,and 1 tsp. of salt, and 1 tsp. of sugar in each qt. I sterilize my jars in the microwave, and keep them very hot before filling. I also keep the burner on my stove on medium, and keep the tomatoes very hot. I use lids that have the raised centers that pull down when they seal. You can water bath can them too if you feel that is necessary, but I do not if they seal well, and I have never had a problem. I love tomato and hamburger soup in the winter, and I use them in other ways, like in rice dishes as well ! I do not buy tomatoes in the winter at the grocery store. Instead of a tomato sandwich, I heat some roasted tomatoes, and have it on toast. They are wonderful with scrambled or poached eggs and sausage as well!
Our weather is in the 70’s F. now, and really beautiful! Awhile ago it was too hot and humid, but the butterflies, goldfinches and blue jays are around now. The butterflies like my orange Mexican Sunflowers, and the birds are getting some seeds from the large yellow Russian Sunflowers. Harvest time is my favourite time in the garden!!!
Holley says
I hope they survive the hurricane! Good luck!
Katherine Lassiter says
Are y’all in the path of the hurricane?
VA says
PRAYERS YOU AND NEIGHBORS DO NOT EXPERIENCE ANY ADVERSE EFFECTS FROM THE TROPICAL STORM AND ARE ALL SAFE.
Margo says
My tomato crop has been dismal at best. Just now getting red, but rodents (rats, possums, skunks….)decimated most of them this year and crazy weather in spring and early summer didn’t help. Next year we will have to critter proof the raised beds. But at least I now have a few for fresh eating. I think gardening should have a motto for years like this, “There’s always next year!”
Sandra says
I hope you are safe and sound looks like your area is experiencing severe weather.