Harvest time. Seriously depleted crop due to the Great Tomato Atrocity, but the countermeasures have allowed me to claw back a little satisfaction. Now time to see about making some nice chutneys or other preserves. By the way, have you noticed all the stories in the press about the sudden rise of interest in gardening to grow food at home? See/hear an interesting NPR one here. (Many claim it has much to do with the Obamas’ White House garden, but you and I know it is all because of my blogging about it here over the years, right? …Right? ;))
Aaaaanyway… here are some other shots of the harvest/harvesting:
(Click for larger view.)
(That last one is a cucumber by the way…)
Why not join in the gardening yourself, by the way? It is not hard and very rewarding and you can do it even if you have no outdoor space. See, e.g., Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne’s lovely book.
-cvj
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Jealousy and Envy !!!!
last year i got tons of tomatos and pole beans
this year exactly NOTHING – now reduced to going
to the local farmer’s market and paying 7 bucks.
I thought starting from seed would acclimate better.
oh well – they look absolutely great.
A dark, deep dusty red, and it was almost variegated. When we have more, I’ll try to show you.
Nigel,
Those tomatoes look great! Happy eating!
Eleanor,
What do black cherry tomatoes look like? Sounds rather intriguing…dark red? Or a much deeper colour?
-cvj
We harvested our first tomato this evening! Hurrah! Being in London though (Nige – we’re practically neighbours..) it’ll be a while before the majority ripen. They are black cherry tomatoes, and the half I tasted was delicious. I’m still jealous of your bowlful though.
Here’s a photo of some of the potted tomatoes remaining after yesterday’s harvest of the ripe ones (which unfortunately have been eaten already – although they looked fairly similar to the ones you can buy in the grocers, they were tastier):
http://www.quantumfieldtheory.org/ColchesterTomatoes16Aug09After1stHarvest.JPG
I have to admit, string was very useful here: we used it to support the laden stems.
We’ve also just harvested the first nice medium-sized tomatoes grown in pots (with sticks for support) outdoors along the wall. They needed a lot of watering. You’d think that a greenhouse would be needed for them in Colchester, Essex. The squirrels here seem to stay up trees in the park during the summer. Still, I’d prefer to live in California with the milder winters, even with plagues of hungry squirrels. Have you tried growing grapes and pineapples? There must be something that squirrels either don’t like or can’t readily take.
I love your garden posts. Ironically, as an agoraphobic, I tended a garden this summer because my mother fell and broke her hip. I’d walk my loaner dog up the hill to her house before dawn, start the water on one patch, then walk him home, hop in the pickup (by then it was daylight, and I would never willingly walk in daytime) and head up the hill to turn off the water. It was *so* stressful trying to keep someone else’s tomatoes alive that I would never willingly undertake that task myself. Besides, I only made it into my back yard once this summer, and that was at 3 a.m. Some tomatoes survived my care, however, and she’s managed to consume a few since she returned to her apartment.