Garden Update: Now With MOAR Pictures!

Mama Love soaking up some shade.

Early Jalapenos. Just like little Christmas ornaments, all red and green.

 Harvested the garden today.  It's getting hot, up in the hundreds all last week, so the tomatoes are starting to shut down.  I'm amazed that they've hung in this long, being sick and all.  The peppers are kicking ass, though.  Here's a sampling:

 

Look at that color! Corno di Toro Giallo Pepper.

Long Slim Cayennes, hanging there like little jewels

Joe's Long Red Cayenne. It's a bigun.

Leeks doing well among the asparagus.

Artichoke bloom from the side.  It looks like an alien.

But from the top, it's just pretty.

Spaghetti Squash! Already!  I saw seven without having to hunt for them.

White garlic. The ones on the right are the little cloves I planted along with the big. Next year, I won't bother.

The Cream Cowpeas are producing. Man, that was fast!

Today's harvest, along with the onions I thought I'd bring in.

Nellie taking a break. Gardenin' companionin's hard work.

Photo Update

Lots of bell peppers and an Anaheim

Big old bell pepper

Cowpeas

Tomato patch

Squash and garlic in the background

Watering the garden

What's cookin' this month

Tomato sauce!  I make sauce from all the extra tomatoes from the garden, not just the Romas.  All the different flavors of the tomatoes really makes for a full-bodied sauce with a lot of zing and depth.  As the tomatoes are harvested, I usually throw them into a ziploc bag and then into the freezer, just fresh, no blanching, taking them out to make sauce later when I have quite a few.  Dropping the frozen tomatoes into boiling water makes it very easy to slip the skins right off.

Since the tomatoes were previously frozen, they're mushy and easy to put through the sieve.  Of course "easy" is relative (God, I hope Santa brings me a tomato mill this year.).

The tomato juice, after going through the sieve:

Cooking the juice down.  I simply simmer it 'til it's thick enough, then ladel it into ziplocs for the freezer.  I'm too lazy to can it right now.  Besides, hiding some of those ziplocs in the bottom of the freezer always makes for a nice surprise in late winter, when I'm really jonesin' for some taste of summer.

While I was at it, I thought I'd dry some more Principe Borgheses.  Aren't they pretty?

Nomnomnomnomnom.

I think I'll put some of them on some flax bread.  Mmmmmmm. Dinner.

I WON!!!!!1!!!ELEBENTY!!!

I won Tastiest Tomato at the Tomato Festival at Ladybug today! WOOT!

My entries.

I wasn't going to enter since I had to work today and couldn't figure out how to get my entries over there and entered, but earlier this week Michael, my boss at The Natural Gardener, said he was going and offered to enter them for me.  So I went a bit nuts and entered six in the tastiest contest and one in the biggest contest.  Yeah, I owe him a bag of tomatoes for all that.  (Update One: I told Michael that if registration was a pita, just enter the Arkansas Traveler and the Creole in tastiest, and maybe the big Traveler in the biggest if he could without too much trouble. Yep, registration was a pita, so he donated the rest of them to the boy scouts who were selling BLTs that day.  I like that ~ the brag sounds better when I tell that I won with only two entries instead of enough to fill a shotgun shell. I still owe him a big bag of tomatoes and they're coming tomorrow.)

Update Two: It was the Arkansas Traveler!!

I didn't expect much from the biggest contest since my entry wasn't really all that big.  I'd picked other bigger ones at the beginning of the season.  Some of the first blooms on beefsteak types are commonly fasciated (think "Siamese blooms"), so those regularly produce whoppers.  But since I've been picking ripe ones for a month or so now, the biggest one I had uneaten at this point was an Arkansas Traveler and it wasn't all that big.

But I was kinda' hoping for the tastiest.  Them's some good bragging rights right there.  I mean, what in the hell are we growing tomatoes for?  They sure don't write songs about a tomato's disease resistance, and productivity won't make you "slap yo mama".  So yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I thought if I win something that's the prize I want, and I want an heirloom to win it.  Since I have plenty of those, I went out last night, whittled through the thirty or so varieties out there, and picked six ~ Creole, Arkansas Traveler, Snow White, Ponderosa Red, Valencia Orange, and Brandywine.  I still don't know which one won.  It was all done anonymously obviously, so I'll have to get any paperwork Michael was given and then contact Andy at Ladybug to match up the winning number/info.  I can't wait to find out. (Part Two of Update One: I still don't know if it was Arkansas Traveler or Creole, so I still can't wait to find out.  Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow.  I'll let y'all know.)

It's funny.  At first I didn't much care about winning or not.  I just entered for the fun of it, to say I did, thinking it would be kinda' nice to be a part of it.  But this morning as I was driving to work, I kinda' thought a bit about how good it would feel to win.  Then after Michael left with my entries, I started kinda' wanting to win.  As I stood there at the info desk where I was working today, that feeling kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger, hauling ass passed "kinda' " and hitting "reallyreallyreally" about noon.  I didn't know where that all was coming from since I'm not normally that competitive, so I thought about it and thought about it and then thought some more.

I thought, "It sure would be nice to have bragging rights!"  But no, that wasn't it, not completely.  Then I thought, "It'd be nice to win Ladybug's first contest and be a part of history so to speak."  But no, that factored in but wasn't it either.  "An heirloom has to win the tastiest contest. That's why I want to win."  Nope, not really.  Then I thought, "It'd sure be nice to see Judge Clark's face next time I see him if I was to win."

Yep, that was it.

I met Judge Clark a few years ago when I started at the Natural Gardener.  He was one of our plant suppliers, bringing in vegetable transplants he'd grown for us to sell.  I was always so happy to see his kind face and what he'd brought us this time, and never a bit minded his gentle urging to "Get my babies in the hoophouse and out of this hot sun soon now."  A couple springs ago he came to work with us as our Tomato Consultant and sat at a table just outside the veggie hoophouse door, holding court with his tomato books and tomato catalogs at the ready.  I got to know him even better then and was glad of it.  He has a passion for growing food, just like I do.  I learned so much from him by bringing customers to him for advice, then standing there and listening.  Many times I'd ask followup questions of my own later and he was always happy to talk tomatoes, and general country life.   

It took a little while for me to find out that Judge Clark is a local celebrity since he never brought it up.  Coworkers eventually filled me in, so I Googled him.  What interesting things I found!  Even if you've never come into the nursery, you may have been touched by him and just not known it.  Ever eaten at some local restaurants lately, flashed the Hook 'Em Horns sign, or had (or been) a child in the Texas school system in the past twenty or so years?  Then you've been touched by Judge Clark.

This past spring I was a bit disappointed to hear that he wouldn't be joining us at NattyG's.  Seems he was going back to judging, traveling all over the Hill Country to do it.  Well, I guess that's an important enough reason.  Darnit.  At least I'd still get to see him when he comes in the nursery.  And little did I know he'd be one of the judges judging my tomatoes today.

Yeah, I really can't wait to see him next time he comes in.

2012 Celebrity Challenge: Update 2 ~ Taste Test

Taste test time!  

No, Squint, you can't help.

Following the production results I listed in the 2012 Celebrity Challenge: Update 1, I did a taste test the other night and wrote down my conclusions.  Then I took them all to work (except the Dinner Plate ~ wasn't enough left of it to take really) and got some of my coworkers' opinions.  Here's how it all shook out:

My picks: Arkansas Traveler was best, followed by Trucker's Favorite, Ponderosa Red, Rutgers, Creole, and Dinner Plate.  The Homestead and Super Fantastic just didn't do it for me, and apparently not for anyone else either ~ those two weren't even mentioned except by a couple people to say they didn't like them much.  

No, you can't either, Nellie.

The results from work were similar, but a different fave was picked: Creole.  Maybe that's because it was sweeter and I like more acidic ones best?  Maybe because the other night my taste buds were on overload by the time I got to that one?  Maybe I'm just weird?  Dunno (but my money's on the last one).  

About a dozen people let me know what they liked, some mentioning two or three, so I'll just list how many "Likes" each got:
Creole ~ 8

Arkansas Traveler ~ 6

Ponderosa Red ~ 5

Trucker's Favorite ~ 3

Rutgers ~ 1 liked and 1 definitely did not

BJ. Honey. I know you're not the brightest bulb on the string, but surely you already know what I'm about to say. I can see it in your eyes. You know, but you had to ask anyway so you didn't feel left out. Bless your heart.

The Creole and Arkansas Traveler were the most talked about, and there were a few people who were adamant in their liking of one or the other.  Since those two are also fairly productive (though no where near as much as Celebrity, dammit), looks like they're the front runners so far this year.  I think I'll enter one of each in the tomato contest at Ladybug this Saturday.  I went out there to check and there are some nice ones still on the vines, but they're awful red.  I hope they hang in there 'til then.

The two fluted ones at bottom left are the Ponderosa Reds, and the two round reds front and center are the Creoles.  And in case you didn't see the writing on the wa... uh, tomato, all the other pictures are of the Arkansas Traveler. And my goofy fambly who have to horn in on everything. God love 'em.

I still have a few that I haven't taste tested yet.  Tonight, I noticed the Mortgage Lifter is ripening a LOT of fruit.  I'd forgotten all about the Mortgage Lifter.  I guess you've got it bad when you forget about an entire tomato plant.  And let's just not mention that tonight, when I wanted to check the progress of my contest entrants, I had to consult the map to find the Arkansas Travelers...  Okay, okay, AND the Creoles.  Hangs head in shame (over my faulty memory, certainly NOT over the number of tomatoes I have. *clutches pearls*)

Thursday's Haul

Man, the tomatoes are really coming in now!  Just look at how many I picked Thursday night.  We amended a couple more beds, planted a few more things (two Sugar Baby watermelon plants, a package of red seeded yard long beans from Kitazawa seeds [yes, more yard longs], and a bunch of orphan plants from work), harvested some of the garlic and picked a LOT of tomatoes.  You can see all sorts in the baskets in the picture, along with some onions I plan to use in sauce.  Underneath the hat (and booze) are a dozen or so bulbs of garlic, some of which will go in the pot, too.

The garlic did pretty good.  I planted a hundred each Inchellium Red and some other plain white garlic from work last October.  I'm leaving the plain white for a little while longer since it was still quite green, but the Inchellium was falling over, so we pulled it and got about 75 bulbs that made cloves, some small and some large.  I planted probably twenty really small cloves that I didn't expect to make much, so all told that's a good harvest.

I kept out a dozen or so of the biggest bulbs for replanting next year.  Some stems broke off the bulbs when we pulled them, so those came in the house with me for cooking first (I'm thinking trim the pointed top, stick a pat of butter on it and bake).  And the rest were braided.  I'm not sure if I did it right and the braids may fall apart before too long, but at least they're all not laying on the ground.

Overall, not bad for the third try.  First try, I left them in the ground waaaaay too long and the wrappers rotted away.  Second try, it got too hot way too early and they never made cloves.  So I'm happy with this year's gain.

Garlic is a member of the Holy Trinity of Cooking, so I'm not giving up on learning to grow it well.  And to find the perfect types for this area.  I hope to order some different ones from Gourmet Garlic Gardens this fall.  I also picked up some bulbs from a little old man at the farmers' market last week who said he's been planting it for thirty years, so long that he's forgotten what kind it is.  It's purple striped and looks like a hard neck, but I may be mistaken.  He said to wait until the first cold snap to plant it so it'll sprout right away.  Sounds like a good tip to me.  Faster sprouting = less time sitting there in the ground, getting exposed to disease and rot. 

Speaking of that Holy Trinity, I've still got to work on growing onions better.  I think I'll order some sets from Dixondale early this year and get them in the ground as soon as they'll send them.  Got that tip from another grower at the market who was selling some gorgeous whoppers.  She said it was her first try at onions and got them in the ground in December.  Gonna' do that next year for sure.

Peppers, the last member of the Trinity, I think I have by the balls.  Check out the bell peppers in the picture on the left, and the one in the picture below.  It's as big as a baby head!  FINALLY I've figured it out.  Acidity.  They like acidity.  I read about that online, on a guy's website who had pictures of plants with beautiful colored bells dripping off his plants.  With success like that, you don't argue much.

I put two 2 cubic foot bags of acidified cotton burr compost in the 2'x12' or so row the bells are in and they are going ca-RAY-zeee!  ALL eight plants.  In years past, I'd get maybe three or four sick little bells per plant per year.  Not this year.  I have that many on each plant already, and they're all whoppers.  Besides the ones I started from seed, I bought four plants of two types of bells at work and planted one of each in the acidified bed and a non-acidified bed.  So far, the acidified ones are doing much better. 

The rest of the peppers, things like jalapenos, poblanos, cayennes, etc., I've had good luck with ever since I started feeding them extra nitrogen.  They just produce and produce and produce.  But the bells stymied me.  Not anymore.  HeeheeHEE!

The jalapenos, cayennes and poblanos are doing well.  The plants are just covered with fruit.  I want to make ristras with them.  Next year I think I'll grow a lot more of those.  I'm thinking Christmas presents.  Chili ristras and garlic braids.  Ooooh!  Garlic braids with three or four kinds on them!  And handmade parchment labels telling which kinds of garlic are on it!  Yeah.

The NuMex Joe E. Parker anaheim isn't doing so well ~ one fruit on the one plant.  Don't know what went wrong with it.  Could be just a bum plant, or maybe it just takes a bit longer to get going.  The one pepper on it does look good though!

And the tomatoes.  Man.  I have so many of them I don't know what to do with, so while preparing the Principe Borghese and Red Figs for drying, I eyed the Brandywine Blacks and Snow Whites and thought why not?  I cut them all in two, tossed them with some peanut oil and coarse sea salt, popped them into the oven at about 175 ... and proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait.  I checked on them every twenty minutes or so for four freaking hours ~ still not done.  By that time it was kind of late, so I kind of forgot about them.  Ooof.

But they were still great!  The little Snow Whites were a bit too burned.  They're a sweet tomato, so don't take well to a bit of blackening apparently.

But the Brandywine Blacks were FABULOUS!  And the little Figs were even better!  Up 'til now, I'd thought the Principe Borghese were good.  Nope!  I'm thinking I may not even grow those anymore, replace them with the Red Figs and Brandywine Blacks for drying.  Yep.

So I tried this drying thing again tonight.  Caught them early this time (mostly) and I also learned my oven gets hotter in the back than in the front.  Makes sense, seeing's how I left the door open a bit.  I need to remember to turn them halfway through the process.  This time, I turned them up to 200 so it only took two hours.  Surprise!  Ooof.  But no matter.  The Snow Whites are perfect!  No salt on them.  They're fruity sweet, so I didn't think that would be very tasty.  Turns out to be a good call.

But those Red Figs!  Oh, what flavor!  Comparing the Principe Borghese to the Figs is like comparing a whimper to a scream.  Night and day.  Definitely a keeper, that one.  I was also making sauce from the Romas during this time, so as I was cooking I kept eating just one more, then just one more, then just one more, then I remembered I hadn't taken a picture yet.  Ooops.

I also talked to Marlena at the market today and she said a gas stove is much better for drying ~ just put them in and let the pilot light do it's thing.  Man, I miss my gas stove. But I get to have it back once I get moved into the cozy cabin!  Soon.  Very soon. 

She also said don't bother with the oil and salt.  So I didn't on tonight's round.  Not bad.  And easier.  I like easier. 

Things to plant again (and again and again)

Valencia Orange Tomato.  Oh, man, is it good!  It's gorgeous bright orange colored skin (honestly like a Valencia orange) is almost blemish free.  The shape is typical tomato ~ fat, round and slightly flattened.  It's meaty with few seeds and the core is almost non-existent.  But the flavor is the best part ~ fruity-sweet and deep, probably from a hint of acidity, but only a hint.  It's just a beautiful tomato.  The plant's not that productive (I think it set a half dozen before the heat set in the first time, we'll see if it set any more this last cool down.), but it's one I'll be saving seeds from for dang sure.

Another hit this year is Snow White.  These little pale yellow beauties are nommy!  Smaller than a quarter (bite sized!) and perfectly round.  This one's also fruity sweet, but no acidity I could tell.  It's sweeter than the Valencia.  The plant is pretty darn productive, too. I think these would look beautiful in a bowl with some Yellow Pears, Sungolds, Juliets, and a few Matt's Wild Cherries thrown in for sheer cuteness. 

As usual the Romas are kicking ass.  They're so freaking productive it's incredible.  The San Marzanos are holding their own, but it's not a candle to the Romas. 

Some winter things are hanging in there, too.  The Red Russian kale has finally bit the dust.  A couple weeks ago it started bolting, then the insects set in.  I think I'll wait to pull it 'til it's obvious it's a goner, so it's still out there in all it's lacey-leaved glory.  It looks like it's trying to put some more leaf rosettes out down near the bottom.  We'll see.

The chard is still there, too.  The Fordhook Giant is beautiful.  Tall, white and hardly a bug bite on them.  They do look like they're suffering in the heat a bit, all wilty and such about midday.  But it's hanging in there.  The colored chards I can't say the same for.  They look as bad as the kale. 

The collards are still doing okay, too.  As is the dill and a few forgotten beets.  The leeks are plumping up.  I wonder if I should pull a few to eat now or wait for a freeze to sweeten them up.  I have the same conundrum about the greens. 

And the ubiquitous tomato picture(s).  Starting from the top left ~ five little Romas.  The bright orange one to the right of them is the Valencia Orange.  At it's feet are the Snow Whites and Isis Candy Cherries.  To the right of them are three little Black Brandywines (very productive, but not as nommy as the other purples) and a big Black Giant with a quarter on it's head to show size.  Below that are a little San Marzano, then a Black Krim and a Cherokee Purple.  To the left of that and against the front rim of the tray are two Creoles.  Behind them is a Dinner Plate.  To the left of it is an Early Girl.  To the left (lower left and upper left both) are two big, fat Ponderosa Reds.  And we're back to the Romas. 

I need to have a taste test, but at the moment I'm too full of flax bread.

Breadgasm

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but a couple years ago I lost a hundred pounds by switching to a low carb (low crap, really) diet.  I like sweets and all, but two of my very favorite things in the whole wide WORLD, and two things that are quite high in carbs, are pasta and bread.

Mmmmmmmm, pasta.  Linguine with a perfect al dente bite smothered in alfredo sauce and studded with shrimp.  Homemade macaroni and cheese made from a real roux with muenster, white cheddar, and mozzarella.  Or just freshly boiled angel hair drizzled in butter and capers.  Oh, gods (because calling on one isn't enough.).

And bread.  Breadbreadbreadbreadbread!  Sourdough, French, garlic, nut, wheat berry, rye...  Toasted in butter on a cast iron griddle.  Baked into croutons, seasoned just right.  Or sandwiches ~ oh, I could go on all night.  And the smell ... oo-oooh, that smell ... of it baking in your own oven.  THAT I could even make a meal of all on it's own.  Just give me a freshly baked loaf and a stick of butter.  Gimme, gimme, gimme.  Oh, bread, how I've missed you.

But the longing may have ended.  I just tried Laura Dolson's Focaccia Style Flax Bread and ... well, the title of this post says it all.  Oh. EM. GEE.  It's good.  So good that I'm going to copy the recipe to a card in my recipe box, the hard drive of my computer, and the bottom of this post just so I don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever lose it. 

It tastes just like a whole-wheat nut bread.   It's lightly nutty and sweet, but not overwhelming at all.  It's the perfect accompaniment to the baked sausage, mayo (Hellmann's of course), basil leaves and Valencia Orange tomato I topped it with.  It's consistency is soft, just like bread.  It's not at all like dry heavy pumpernickel or tough tortillas or even cake, all of which I've encountered in my trials of other low-carb breads.  (For the record, I like cake.  Who doesn't like cake?  Of course I like cake.  Just not in my bread.)

When I was making it, I noticed it called for a couple tablespoons of fake sweetener.  I'm not a big fan of fake sweeteners, so I used agave nectar instead, which has a low glycemic index and load so it won't affect me nearly as badly.  It does add 32 grams of carbs to the whole thing, but that just means the bread's got 3 1/3 grams effective carbs per piece.  Not bad.  The recipe makes 12 pieces, each with 6 grams protein, 185 calories and 5 grams fiber (looks like I'll be poopin' good, too).

Oh, I am in love.  Now I just need a noodle recipe. 


Focaccia-Style Flax Bread

2 cups flax seed meal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsps. agave nectar
5 beaten eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup oil (I forgot to put this in and it was STILL good)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil pan (a 10X15 pan with sides works best) with melted butter.
Mix dry ingredients well -- a whisk works well.  Add wet to dry, and combine well. Make sure there aren't obvious strings of egg white hanging out in the batter.
Let batter set for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken up some (leave it too long and it gets past the point where it's easy to spread.) Pour batter onto pan. Because it's going to tend to mound in the middle, you'll get a more even thickness if you spread it away from the center somewhat, in roughly a rectangle an inch or two from the sides of the pan (you can go all the way to the edge, but it will be thinner).
Bake for about 20 minutes, until it springs back when you touch the top and/or is visibly browning even more than flax already is.  Cool and cut into whatever size slices you want.

 Make a freaking sandwich.  Eat it.  Fall apart in bliss.


Update June 2nd: I tried this recipe with golden flaxseed meal, 1 tablespoon agave nectar and 1/3 cup melted butter instead of the oil.  It tasted cornbreadish.  I think with even less agave nectar and twice as much salt, it'd be even more like cornbread.  Ooh! Ooh!  Green chilis!  Gotta' add those, too. 

2012 Celebrity Challenge: Update 1

Celebrity

Late last year, I started looking into who owns what hybrids.  I found out that 80% of them are owned by big agribusiness companies who have been buying seed companies and the hybrids they've come up with at an alarming rate.  I'm not a big fan of big agribiz.  If I were to list all the reasons why in this post it would digress into a teal deer of epic proportions.  No, I don't think they are the antichrist, but I do think they are chasing the almighty dollar at all costs and are doing much damage in the process, so I like to avoid doing business with them whenever I can.  Many customers at work feel the same.  More and more of them are asking for heirlooms and telling me why.  I've learned a lot from them and my own research, knowledge I pass on when another customer asks.

Early Girl

A problem I'm coming up against is what to tell them when they say, "Shit! Celebrity and Early Girl were my favorites! What do I grow now?!"  Those two are the most popular tomatoes around it seems.  Many people have reported that Celebrity is incredibly productive, and my trials so far have borne that out.  Early Girl is supposed to be the same, with the added benefit of being early, something very desirable down here in our hot climate.  Both are likely owned by Monsanto now that they've bought Seminis seeds.  Bummer.

Arkansas Traveler

Growing tomatoes is a challenge for us here in Central Texas, so when someone finds that perfect tomato variety that does well here, it's hard to let it go, even when faced with going against your principles.  I can understand that.  I mean, we are talking about home grown tomatoes here.  Many people only have room for a few plants, so are torn between a sure thing they've always counted on and trying something new since doing so could mean few or no tomatoes this year.  When they look at me and ask, "Which should I grow?  Which is as productive and disease resistant as the old standbys?", I want so badly to give them good advice, but I don't know for sure and it kills me to think I might be steering them wrong.

Marglobe

In order to be able to answer them with at least some certainty, I've embarked on a search for the tomato that will kick Celebrity's ass.  Just like in years past, I planted many varieties this year, but this time I researched a little more and picked many of them with this challenge in mind.  And I planted a Celebrity and an Early Girl right alongside them, as well as a couple other hybrids.  Of course I won't be able to determine from just one year who is the clear winner, so I'll continue to do this challenge every year, replanting the winners and a few new contenders each year along with those hybrids. 

So far, I think I have a few good prospects.  Here are how things are shaking out so far.  I've listed each variety, then number of tomatoes as of today, whether or not and how much it's sick with the wilt going through the patch, and general comments.   


Hybrids:

Mortgage Lifter

Celebrity ~ 20 tomatoes. Slightly sick, but otherwise good (healthy) looking. Short plant, maybe because it's a semi-determinate? Might not be able to cut it back and have it grow back for a fall flush. 
Early Girl ~ 14 tomatoes. A little sick, but otherwise good looking. Tall. Despite it's name, it's not early.  None of the fruit are even beginning to blush, yet I've already harvested ripe fruit from three or four other plants, and another handful are starting to ripen theirs. 
Champion ~ 22 tomatoes. A little sick, but otherwise good looking.  Tall.  Like the two above, this is a hybrid recommended on all the lists for our area.  It was also mentioned in The Texas Tomato Lover's Handbook as one of the author's favorites.  So far, it's not doing well for me.

Ponderosa Red

Super Fantastic ~ 4 tomatoes. 20% sick, but otherwise good looking. Tall. This is a hybrid I think we grew as a kid.  Neither super nor fantastic so far.  Maybe it'll do better in the heat?

Heirlooms:
Arkansas Traveler ~ 10 tomatoes. Medium sick, but robust.  The fruit are HUGE.  Much bigger than I was expecting.
Cour di Bue ~ 11 tomatoes. Very sickly. Looks like I'll lose it.
Creole ~ 10 fruit. Fairly sick.

Rutgers

Dinner Plate ~ 6 tomatoes. Sick, but robust.  Tall plant.  None of the fruit are anywhere near dinner plate sized, more like golf balls.  Maybe it was named for the plate you'll put them on and not their size?
German Johnson ~ Normally, if the fruit weren't bigger than a pea, I didn't count them.  But this one's 6 tomatoes were all about that size.  I think I might have planted it late?  It's sick, but barely so, and doing very well otherwise.
Homestead ~ 5 tomatoes. Sick, but robust.  Medium sized plant
Marglobe ~ 17 fruit. Pretty dang sickly looking.  Might lose it, too.  Short plant. Smallish fruit.
Mortgage Lifter ~ 14 tomatoes. Sick enough to have lost many bottom leaves, but the top is quite robust and healthy looking.  Fairly good sized fruit.

Stupice

Oxheart ~ This one I had high hopes for since last year it produced one of my first fruits, then went on to give me many more, but this one got a slow start.  The seedling I started from seed was awful small when I set it out, but I did it anyway and I think the plant suffered for it.  It's now a fairly tall plant, but not producing much yet.
Pink Ponderosa ~ 5 tomatoes.  Sick, but tall and healthy.
Ponderosa Red ~ 14 tomatoes.  Pretty dang sickly, dammit.  It was doing SO well. 
Red Brandywine ~ The seedling I planted died.  BUMMER.  This is one was another I had high hopes for since last year it did so well for me, having more than a dozen fruit on it by early May.
Rutgers ~ 14 tomatoes.  Short and sick, but doing well.

Trucker's Favorite

Stupice ~ 33 smallish tomatoes. Very sick.  Might lose this one, too.  Tall plant.  I didn't think this one would be a contender since I thought it was a small-fruited variety, but it's so productive that I had to include it.  Fruit aren't as small as I was expecting.
Trucker's Favorite ~  6 tomatoes.  Sick, but good looking.  Tall plant.  Another one I had high hopes for.  I think this one is an old fashioned shipping/commercial variety, so I thought maybe it might hold it's own.  So far it's not, but I may still try it again next year.


And an honorable mention goes to the Brandywine Black.  That thing is a monster!  It has over thirty fruit on it and gave me the first ripe tomato of the year.  Good flavor, at least as good as my other favorites.  I'll have to do a blind taste test later in the year when more of the blacks are ripening at the same time.  It's sick, but doing well. 

Roma

Also, I wanted to record that the Romas are really kicking ass.  As usual.  They're outproducing the San Marzanos by far (but I'll bet the SMs will win hands down in a taste test).  The Amish Paste is very sick, but the Principe Borgheses are doing well, as are the Red Figs.  I must count their fruit next time I'm out there.

Oh!  And the Snow White is COVERED in fruit!!  I am amazed at how many there are.  I've already picked three and had them for lunch today.  Nice, sweet and fruity flavor.  Very good!  I think it'll be a staple in my garden from now on.

Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead

La Nina is gone.

I'm sitting on my bed, curtains open, looking out on the wetness outside cloaked by an overcast sky.  I can feel the huge collective sigh emanating from everything out there.  The trees seem to be standing taller, the grass is greener, and the garden ... oh, the garden...

I am so tied to my garden.  No matter where I am, I feel it.  It's as if there's a tether between my garden and me, one I only have to turn my mind to to travel down and transport myself to the peacefulness of it.  It's a source of hope ~ when I'm feeling down, I think of it and what I want to do next, picturing how it will look and I will feel when I'm done, and somehow everything feels better.

When it's hot and dry and things are suffering out there, I can't bear it.  I suffered right along with it last year.  Man, did I suffer.  Some people get seasonal affective disorder in the wintertime when the sun doesn't shine.  Me, I get it in the summer, when the rain doesn't come.  I lose hope that things will ever be other than hot, dry, and miserable.

But now, sitting here basking in the afterglow of two inches of rain that fell last night, I have hope again.