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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 20, 2019 4:47:44 GMT -6
A few of my Early Girl tomato vines have officially topped their 5' foot cages this morning, though most of them are about 6" inches from topping theirs. It won't be long before I am trellising the vines along the cable that is stretched just above the cages. My vines are setting fruit high in the cages this season for some reason. That is an odd fact but one that is welcomed, as bending over to harvest a little over 100 tomato plants with fruit set at knee height is a back killer for sure! I'll need to spray Pyganic-Pro to help control the second wave of Whiteflies that I noticed moving in. They are not as bad this time as they were during the first wave about a week ago, but they are substantial. I'll need to spray at dusk this evening, as the chrysanthemum oil found in Pyganic is bad to roast and wilt the leaves on my plants if I spray it just before, or during, the heat of the day. An Early Girl Tomato plant, topping the 5' foot mark on this cabled tomato cage. The cable running along the top of the cages, keeps them from blowing over during high winds and heavy rain. It will also provide lateral support for any vines that out grow their cages. Oh, how they have grown in the past 16 days! It won't be too much longer before I will be driving my truck between these rows, gathering fresh, ripe, homegrown tomatoes for the Tahlequah Farmers' Market. (My back aches, just thinking about it.) That tiny, white dot you see at the opposite end of this row, is a one gallon water bucket for my Cotton Patch geese, and one of my goslings walking over to it to get himself a drink. These are fairly long rows. At the apex of the harvest, I'll be picking as much as a couple bushels of tomatoes along each side of this middle, that's why I set my rows so wide. Carrying buckets full of tomatoes for that entire distance would wipe me out before I even got them home to be washed and stacked in boxes. Before I built my Farm Processing Kitchen, I'd sometimes have 200 pounds of vine ripe tomatoes boxed up and sitting in my living room floor, waiting for morning to come, so I could load them on the truck for market. Now, I have all this space in my farm processing kitchen, to use for storage, freezing, dehydrating, and home canning. When we're not busy picking and canning tomatoes, we're often busy just trying to eat them. I modeled this kitchen, after some of the 'Summer Kitchens' I saw, while working among the Amish in Pennsylvania; back in 1988.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 25, 2019 0:42:10 GMT -6
I spotted the first fruit set on my Early Girl Tomatoes on May 20th. I usually get my first ripe fruits about 34 days after fruit set. I spotted my first nearly ripe tomatoes June 24th. They ought to be close to fully ripe within two days. If the days were hotter and sunnier, they'd ripen quicker but we've had weeks of heavy cloud cover and cooler than average weather this season, so they'll run a little late on ripening I think. (Only 4 tomatoes are turning red so far.)
I did, however, harvest a few tender pods of okra today.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 25, 2019 16:31:11 GMT -6
I was pleasantly surprised this evening, to find that our 90-degree, very humid day sped up the ripening process of my first few tomatoes. I've been watching these little fellas since the first day I spotted them on May 20th. Today, 36 days later, I've harvested my first ripe tomatoes of the season. Unfortunately, several of the reddest ones were damaged by worms and had to be tossed over the fence, but 4 of them were keepers, without blemish. Tomorrow, I plan to drive into town to buy a lime, so I can make my first tiny batch of Pico de Gallo.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 27, 2019 14:46:03 GMT -6
I picked enough tomatoes today, to give some away to the neighbor up on the hill.
Finally, it's time for BLTs and some Pico de Gallo. It will feel more like summer now.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 29, 2019 12:59:05 GMT -6
We made a huge bowl of Pico de Gallo, yesterday evening and had some good tomato sandwiches too.
I harvested enough tomatoes yesterday, to give quite a few away to my neighbors, and plenty left over to enjoy at home. It looks like I'll have more tomatoes to harvest this evening too. There are red tomatoes hanging in clusters on several plants today. It won't be long until I am overwhelmed with the harvest.upload
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 4, 2019 11:26:07 GMT -6
Those are nice looking tomatoes, Bon.
I had never heard of that variety before you mentioned them this Spring. I've been doing some reading up on Black Moore Tomatoes since then. They sound like they have a really great tomato flavor, akin to a Cherokee Purple. Is that true?
I've been growing market tomatoes for restaurants for so many years, that I've had to sacrifice texture and deep flavor, for high quantity, and keep-ability; in order to meet demand. People buy tomatoes from me in bulk, so I have to have 50 pounds or more on hand at any given time, in order to keep my customers happy.
I have about 75 pounds of tomatoes ready to harvest today. I've got 25 pounds of them already picked, but it was bad timing, nobody buys tomatoes on a Holiday, so I have a bulk buyer showing up at 7:00 am tomorrow morning, to pick their own and buy them at discounted prices. I'll have to go that route, before I lose them, waiting until Saturday's market opens again.
I needed to harvest okra this morning too, but I had surprise guests at 7:00 am and ended up picking blueberries for them instead. I was able to freeze a gallon of berries for myself, for Winter before noon, so all was not lost. I suppose I will be harvesting okra this evening while everyone else is getting ready to shoot off fireworks.
Such is the life of a market gardener ...
I miss the olden days, when I just grew whatever type of tomato I enjoyed the best, but a guy has to make the tractor payments somehow; so I grow what other people like instead.
I do have one Cherokee Purple this year, and one Pink Brandy-wine, and a couple Big Boy and Better Boy Plants ... I couldn't find any seeds for German Johnson Pink. I couldn't get any Prudence Purples to germinate, but George, or Hank, gave me a couple of their seedlings, so I'll have a Fall Prudence Purple Tomato of very good quality. I'll have to wait another month or so for any of those varieties to ripen.
Those Black Moore Tomatoes sound very interesting.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 12, 2019 10:42:21 GMT -6
I have about 50 pounds of tomatoes sitting on a folding table in my kitchen right now. My Wife is busy making tomato juice. Hopefully, we'll make some Picante Sauce this year too.
The Farmers' Market starts at 8:00 am tomorrow morning, so we'll just have to wait to see if we have any left over. I picked 96 pounds of tomatoes Wednesday morning and the plants already need to be picked again.
Here is what 96 pounds of tomatoes looks like, double stacked on a 6' foot folding table. After I wash them all in a mild solution of bleach water, I set them out like this to air dry, before loading them on the truck for market. The red tomatoes were for Wednesday's Market. The orange ones will be for Saturday's market. The green ones are for frying with squash and potatoes.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 12, 2019 10:58:34 GMT -6
Just for fun! Here is what happens when you plant tomatoes and devil's horn in the same container.
Just kidding. It's probably just nuclear waste from the old salvage yard I built my garden on. This question is specifically for, George, though anyone who wishes may post a comment ... Do you think these traits could be passed on, by careful seed selection? That would be a cool line of tomatoes to start selling seeds from. If you were naming these, what would you call them? This one reminds me of 'Jimmy Durante.' I'm still looking for a 'Bob Hope' out there somewhere. I get these mutants every year, but have never thought of saving any for seed. I only enter them in tomato contests, where believe it or not, I only took second place for the ugliest tomato. On second thought, I think I'd have to call this one, "Jimmy Durante." I think this one was my favorite. I think I'd call it, "Cherokee Princess."
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 15, 2019 21:02:58 GMT -6
I harvested 144 pounds of tomatoes yesterday evening, with the help of some 'U-Pick' customers. I didn't get any pictures though. We were too bushed to go inside to get a camera.
I sold another 20 pounds of tomatoes this evening, along with 10 pounds of pickling sized okra.
I have harvested 335 pounds of Early Girl Tomatoes to date and have just a few Coyote tomatoes, Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Black Cherry Tomatoes, Heidi Tomatoes, and Big Boy, or Better Boy, Tomatoes trickling in this evening.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 19, 2019 14:01:33 GMT -6
We are up to 380 pounds of tomatoes so far, since last Wednesday morning. Tomatoes are just a 'Flash in the Pan' crop, so you can't ignore them. When they are ready, they are ready, and then they are gone.
I usually plant tomato seeds at 10-day intervals, so I don't get inundated with this much harvest all at once, but this Spring, I got behind and ended up planting all 72 seed starter pots all on the same day, so I now have 72 mature vines producing at once. I filled a 5-gallon bucket, brim-full on the first 8 plants!
Thank goodness, my later varieties are not producing yet ... I have 122 plants total, but the other 50 or so, are not ready to harvest. These are Early Girl tomatoes. So far, this season, I've gotten as many as twelve ripe fruits from one vine in one day. Multiply that by 200 plants and you'll know why I'm too tired to write on the thread some days.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 24, 2019 20:16:55 GMT -6
I just got the ultimate customer complaint at the Farmers' Market this evening ...
It was just too good, not to pass along.
My future Daughter-in-Law, was helping me get ready for the Farmers Market today, by picking the tomatoes while I was busy picking the okra. I had over 200 pounds of tomatoes needing to be picked, but didn't have time. Many of them were Sioux, Bakers' Family Heirloom, German Johnson Pink, or some type of Beefsteak, so I told her, "Just get the really pretty ones. Leave the rest. I'll use the them for canners, or salsa, or something later on."
So, she picked 50 pounds of the most beautiful tomatoes I've ever seen, not a blemish, not a spot, all the fresh, green, lush stems still attached and everything!
I loaded her tomatoes in boxes and carefully placed them on the truck, so that I could take off to go set up for the mid-week, evening Farmer's Market. I actually got there early enough for once, to arrange things and make everything look extra nice; sorting tomatoes by size, by color, and by variety --- pointing all the stems in the same direction. You, know ... Nice ...
No sooner than I had everything in place, a random woman walked by my stand, cash in hand, and paused for just a moment to look my tomatoes over; then with no small amount of animosity, she blurted out, "Humph, those look really pretty ... but I prefer tomatoes that were grown in a garden!" With that said, she threw her head back and sashayed away, not doubt with a great sense of accomplishment in having informed me of the reason for her decision to not buy any tomatoes from my stand tonight.
I GUESS SHE TOLD ME!!!
That cracked me up!
I want that on a Tee-shirt now!
By the way, I sold out tonight within the first two hours, plus I really got a good laugh from that complaint, just as an added 'bonus'. You gotta love a well placed snide remark.
I don't know who that lady was, but she just made my day for the rest of this summer!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 13, 2021 21:59:15 GMT -6
Today, I took off from weed pulling and planted tomatoes. I planted Baker Family Heirloom, Beef Master, Cherokee Purple, Hiedi, Juliet, Early Girl, and German Queen.
I didn't plant any to sell this time, I only set out about 25 or 30 plants, for use in the kitchen. If I have any pretty ones this year, I'll eat them myself.
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Post by hmoosek on May 13, 2021 23:38:37 GMT -6
I really don’t care for raw tomatoes, but I love growing them. At one time a grew around 300 varieties every year, but I don’t grow very many these days. This year I didn’t even start any seeds, so I just bought a few plants from Atwood’s.
I like growing things that have a story attached or tomatoes people have shared with me. Anything rare. Oh and I’ll grow any Cherry type. Oh and I don’t care for green or blue tomatoes.
Ada’s Red Hope Frosty Pink Plum Hawaii Yellow Cherry Ikie Mini Gold Purple Haze Costoluto Genovese Cherokee Purple Black Cherry
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Post by hmoosek on May 14, 2021 17:55:58 GMT -6
@bon
Saving seed and sharing was my main purpose. Lots of tomatoes were given away. Took lots of produce to work too. We made lots of pasta sauce as we eat spaghetti, pizza and lasagna pretty often. Those were the days!
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Post by hmoosek on May 14, 2021 18:13:25 GMT -6
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