Now it is officially summer...

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by meadowyck

George

I love your new counter top decor.

Thanks Jan. I thought I would share my latest countertop decor as well. These were still steaming when I took the pic.

[meadowyck]

This verison of your new counter top is even better...LOL

[RebelRidin]

This is what I found facing me yesterday.
All that work on my raised bed conversion and it comes to this!
JUST MORE WORK TO DO!

[PA_Julia]

My Lord that's alot of beautiful looking " work " you have to do!!


Julia

[lakelady]

holy cow. That's an awful lot of tomatoes! How many plants do you have? yikes. I wish I had this problem right now! Congratulations!

[remy]

Wow! You really got them coming in. Your counter top decorations are very nice.
Remy

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by lakelady

holy cow. That's an awful lot of tomatoes! How many plants do you have? yikes. I wish I had this problem right now! Congratulations!

I wish I could share the probelem with you Antoinette (and any one else who would like such a problem of course). Not counting the five cherries I have twenty-nine plants going. Ten of those are producing much less than the others due to limited sunlight hours and competition with a black walnut tree.

Right now it's a task just to keep up. This evening I canned another eleven quarts. That makes eighteen between this week and last. It will start to slow a bit shortly though as the early fruit set will yield to a dirth of fruit set during those 100+ degree days we had. I am seeing some new fruit set now but the humidity is starting to cause problems with the lower parts of the plants and I've got some pruning to do if I want to get the plants through until frost. If I manage that it will be because of the pruning and fungicide. I have never gotten a plant through till frost here in this garden. Just too wet, hot and humid! I can't complain though as I always get a decent early crop.

[b54red]

Beautiful crop. I hope they keep on coming in for you.

I only have about a dozen on the counter top with no new ones in sight. I have some plants set out for fall but that can be very iffy.

[JayPaul1024]

Gorgeous!!! We need a brief tasting review of each variety too, please! I'm particularly curious about the tasting review for Coustralee and Clint Eastwood varieties. I planted on May 15 and have at least another 3 weekes to go before first blush on any of my varieties which were Aunt Ginny, Black Tula, Blondforkphen, Brandywine (not sure which varieity, but I think it is "red") Clint Eastwood, Crnkovic Yugoslavian and Paul Robeson.

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by JayPaul1024

Gorgeous!!! We need a brief tasting review of each variety too, please! I'm particularly curious about the tasting review for Coustralee and Clint Eastwood varieties. I planted on May 15 and have at least another 3 weekes to go before first blush on any of my varieties which were Aunt Ginny, Black Tula, Blondforkphen, Brandywine (not sure which varieity, but I think it is "red") Clint Eastwood, Crnkovic Yugoslavian and Paul Robeson.

Hi JayPaul,

It sounds like you have some really interesting varieties on the vine. Sorry I didn;t answer sooner. I've been quite busy between work and garden/canning. As to the Coustralee and Clint Eastwood's...

Clint's has a nice full flavor with a bit of tart and good sweetness. Not too sweet though. Just a very tasty tomato. I.ve been enjoying them sliced into wedges with some salt and a dash of pepper. Not particularly large fruits (mostly baseball sized) but a number of the. I have been canning the extras.

Coustralee... I am coming around on this one. The fruits have been large, are gorgeous to look at and are incredibly smooth textured and meaty. The first two we had seemed bland though. I gave a number away and one of the folks we shared them with just raved over them. This week we tried a couple more. Apparently I wasn't leaving them ripen long enough. They were sweet, creamy and just delicous. Unfortunatley the heat took its toll and unless I get some more fruit set soon I won't see more than a couple more this year. I can't complain though, with the size of the fruits taken into account it was quite productive.

Hope you get some of both soon!

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by b54red

Beautiful crop. I hope they keep on coming in for you.

I only have about a dozen on the counter top with no new ones in sight. I have some plants set out for fall but that can be very iffy.

They are still coming Red though I know I am now past the peak. Especially after last nights storm. The 60+ mph winds took a toll. My sweet corn is gone, my ten field edge "extra" plants got flattened. A cherokee purple and a KBX were the biggest loss there.

The trellissed plants in my main garden faired better. I will need to prune a bit to clean up the storm damage and give them a taste of fertilizer (they were already looking a little hungry). Then I'll cross my fingers that August doesn't start out too hot to see If I can get them to recover and set some more fruits. I'll keep my fingers crossed for your fall plants too!

Today though I have to work up this weekends harvest (pictures below). I have all I can handle at this point... We did get a chance for some BLT's with MPLA and ARGG yesterday along withs some fresh salsa.

[RebelRidin]

I just finished up processing about an hour ago. Altogether I put up eighteen quarts of tomatoes and nine pints of salsa today. That brings me to forty quarts so far.

I have to say that I really like the look of yellow tomatoes in a jar. These are Mandarin Orange and Jubilee...

[Mark0820]

That is a very nice looking harvest. The salsa looks delicious. I like the way you used different colored tomatoes in the salsa. The yellow canned tomatoes look great. The salsa and canned tomatoes will taste good this winter.

[RebelRidin]

Mark,

The different toms and colors add a lot of appeal when used fresh, both taste and visual. The colors loose a lot of their intensity and contrast when canned and of course that straight from the vine taste is lost. Still it makes an interesting mix and is (IMHO) at least as good as any I could buy.