Two things made the harvest really good this week. The first is that all the Cherokee Purple tomatoes that I picked ripened. Yay! 5.46lbs of tomatoes were added to the harvest this week. And though I will at some point get around to doing an overview of tomatoes (I hope). I just have to say 43lbs of tomatoes was the final tally for just this one plant. Cherokee Purple was the most prolific tomato I've ever had. It out produced most of the other tomatoes by 2-4 times. I can only hope it produces well in one of our normally cool summers.
The other thing that made it a great harvest week, but a bad gardening week was our first freeze. Well our first two freezes. So I harvested all the lettuce, chard, and spring onions and cleaned up the bed. They won't be doing any more growing anyway.
I also put up a plastic hoop over my row covers on my Asian greens to extend my harvest a bit longer. But I only had enough metal hoops to cover part of them. So the rest of the bed was harvested. Most of it got covered up though. I find at night it keeps it about 5F degrees warmer than outside and during the day it is about 20F degrees warmer. The rock wall leaks cold air into the soil so it will be hard to keep it warm. The most frozen part of the soil was along the rock wall. I would have guessed that the rock wall would be a good heat sink and keep the soil warm, but it doesn't seem to be true. I'll be hoping that I can keep them alive through December with the plastic added, but it probably depends upon how sunny we are.
I spent more money this week. I spent about $100 on hoops for next year. I bought 20 pieces of 18" rebar and two rolls of tubing. I pounded all the rebar into the ground so when it is spring time and I want to defrost the soil, the stakes to hold up the piping will already be up. Two beds have been treated like this. I also spent about $25 on some thick plastic for the Asian green bed. I tried to find a piece of plastic big enough that I already had, but no luck.
- Allium 0.40 lbs
- Greens 4.81 lbs
- Radishes 0.63 lbs
- Tomaotes 5.46 lbs
- Spent this week: $123.64
- Total harvested this week 11.26 lbs
- Total for the year 344.95 lbs
- 2010 Tally $877.78
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
You are so lucky to have tomatoes ripening indoors this time of year. They look perfect!
ReplyDeleteI already decided on trying Cherokee Purple next year and you posting on them made me more sure of my decision. Thanks
Wow, you are one lucky gardener to have all those CP's ripen for you! Our last CP was eaten about 3 weeks ago. What was your seed source for the CP tomato? Mine are never very prolific.
ReplyDeleteHello Daphne,
ReplyDeleteTomatoe show off on my blog too, today:) That tomatoe of yours, I will try to get hold of seeds for next season. Sounds lika a fantastic one!
Have a great week,
Charlotta
I couldn't believe it when I saw your tomatoes. I just bought some yesterday at the store for the first time. I had never seen these before and can't wait to try them. Maybe I should try to grow them next year.
ReplyDeleteJan
Always Growing
The CP tomatoes really were happy in your garden this year! We did not get a single edible fruit from my CP plants that I gave a try to this past year. They are not happy campers in the ultra cool/wet conditions we tend to have - so I probably will not be attempting to grow these again in the future. As much as they look wonderful to eat and grow - I cannot afford to give up valuable growing room to tomatoes that are not super cool tolerant and ultra early. I think the latest I can go is for something like the Market Miracle tomatoes that you sent me seeds for. They really did okay despite our bad weather - so I am definitely growing those again.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your beds are all set for early spring with the rebar all set in place for the hoop covers. Smart thinking to do it while the ground is soft.
Those are some beautiful tomatoes! I sure do love the color of cherokee purple...
ReplyDeletevrtlarica, It is strange and great that I have tomatoes being added to the harvest this year. It won't happen again I'm sure, but I'm loving it.
ReplyDeleteRobin, my seeds came from Dan. I'll be putting up extra seeds that I have available sometime in December probably. I will probably have a few CP seeds to give away.
Madame C, as I told Robin, I'll have some seed to send to people in December. I'll try to remember that you two wanted some. I don't send beans or pea seeds across the ocean, but tomato seeds are easy as I can slip them into a card and not have to fill out all those nasty customs forms.
Jan, Usually by the end of October I've run out of all of them. Even the ones that are ripening. It was a good tomato year.
kitsapFG, They were happy this year when our temps were in the 80s and 90s. I'm a little worried about how they will do in a normal year. Or a bad year like yours, or our bad year last year. But I won't know until I try. BTW Market Miracle was the third best producer for me despite that in a bad spot. It did pretty well in a good year. So for me I'll keep that one as it is good in the good years and good in the bad years. Can't beat that. The taste isn't up to CP, but it is still pretty good.
EG, I do too. And even though they were ripened from green, they taste better than supermarket tomatoes. They don't have the summer taste, but mostly they lost the sweetness and still have the underlying flavor.
We have 3 Early Girls ripening on the counter. They're not as pretty as those Cherokee Purples of yours! CP is on my list to grow next year. We normally have hot summers, and it is one heirloom that many in our area have success with.
ReplyDeleteI did have just a few more tomatoes ripen, I didn't even add those to my harvest Monday post! It's pretty nice though to have fresh tomatoes mid November!
ReplyDeleteWow, nice looking CP!
ReplyDeleteMy indoor ripen tomatoes tasted like super market variety, I threw them into soups and stews, don't really like to eat them raw.
Lovely tomatoes! What a great reminder of summer.
ReplyDeleteYou harvested tomatoes? Lucky you. We have regular frosts now so tomtoes are a mere memory.
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed that you still had tomatoes in your garden. They are gorgeous. How does it taste?
ReplyDeleteWhat a delight to still have fresh home grown tomatoes! I picked some stragglers from the garden this weekend which turned out to be pretty tasty, but of course I forgot to weigh them before they got consumed.
ReplyDeleteMy only harvest this week was tomatoes ripening from when I picked them green in Oct. They were starting to shrivel but still made a nice sauce. No other harvests for us because we were traveling. I'll be back with a post next week.
ReplyDeleteyay - you have tomatoes - I'm glad they ripened for you. I'm on to winter veg now, and growing indoors - like micro greens - yummy!
ReplyDeleteThose tomatoes really look exotic! Are they as delicious as they look? How is the taste compared to a brandywine, for instance? Would they do well in hot summers (high 90's)? I was considering the hoops and rebar for my garden. The rebar at 18 inch lengths is sufficient for the hoops in wind and rain?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Hi Daphne,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Chris and I am a regular reader of your blog. I emailed you at your daphne@daphnesdesigns.com email address regarding your "Get Growing" blog posts. I didn't know what other email address to use.
Best regards,
Chris
Very nice tomatoes, we love the Cherokee purples. I grew a variety called Japanese black trifele this year that we really enjoyed and we will grow again next year. Nice greens!
ReplyDeleteI'm sad that your garden finally got frosted. I LOVE seeing your produce. Such lovely photos. But my guess is that you'll still be getting greens and root crops for a while.
ReplyDeleteWe finally got our new handmade Amish furniture! Stop by my blog to see my pathetic harvest for this week AND the beautiful new furniture.
Sorry I've been MIA until today. I'll be mostly busy today too, but hopefully will get to people's posts.
ReplyDeletevillager, it would probably do well there. Though we rarely get over 95. It did well in the low 90s though.
Mac, mine don't taste as good as the summer ones, but it still tastes likes a black tomato. Mostly it lost its sweetness, but still has some flavor. Though I'm mostly cooking with mine too as they tend to be more mushy.
mamaraby, thanks.
Ottawa Gardener, well I harvested them a while ago, but they were green and I never tally them until they turn as I don't like green tomatoes.
meemsnyc, they tasted better than storebought but not nearly as good as a summer tomato.
Michelle, you are getting some nice weather now. I find it amusing that you missed summer during summer, but your fall has been wonderful.
Emily, have a good trip
Stevie, that sounds really yummy. I like micro greens. My favorite is peas.
ReplyDeleteVeggie Pak, yes they are as delicious as they look. Well in the summer they are. Now they are just OK. Black tomatoes taste very different from the typical red tomatoes. They have a deeper flavor. I don't know if they would do well in the high 90s or not. Low 90s just fine, but the high 90s might kill their pollen like it does for all the other tomatoes. I haven't tested the rebar yet, but I would guess it is good enough. I'll certainly find out. I'm thinking of putting a middle line down the center of the hoops so that ought to keep them stable.
Chris, the best one is the one listed on this site daphne@alum.mit.edu. The spam folder might have eaten it. I'll look for the email.
Nice to see the Cherokee Purple's still. They really did well. Mine gave up months ago. I didn't even have any to harvest green and ripen inside.
ReplyDeleteI bookmarked your blog weeks ago and just this minute got around to checking you out. All I can say is omg. You are amazing in the way you've designed your space, in the amount of food you harvest, in the care you obviously lavish on your plants. I will be following you in the future, and feeling ever-so inadequate by comparison. Hats off!
ReplyDelete