The calm before the storm

Dinner from the garden

This is a period of waiting.  Except for the beans, everything is gathering strength for the big ripening push.  It is the calm before the storm.

More vegetables should be like the green beans.  They have been steadily producing for weeks now.  Sometimes more, sometimes a little less, but almost always enough for a meal.  We have about five pounds in the freezer and I need to freeze another big batch.  The frozen beans last year had an unpleasant problem with their skins sliding off when thawed.  They tasted OK, but it was off-putting.  This year
they are getting blanched in a steamer and frozen in vacuum sealer bags.  We'll see if that helps.

The tomatoes are producing enough for eating fresh and cooking for dinner, but there is a tsunami coming.  I know this and am looking forward to it.  That is when you can tomatoes and sauce and salsa until your nails are tomato-colored and the house, your clothes, everything, smells like tomatoes.  The family threatens to move out, but in the end, the summer's efforts are neatly stored in lovely glass jars, ready for winter, spring and early summer.

For slicing tomatoes this year,  we have a Big Beef, a Brandywine and an Early Wonder.  The Early Wonder has  not been an early wonder.  Its seeds came free with another seed order, so we gave it a whirl.  The vine is vigorous and has a good number of tomatoes, but it has produced only one ripe one so far.  It should have a respectable harvest, just not an early one.

Brandywine tomatoes

The Brandywine and the Big Beef are planted next to each other, which was a mistake.  Intertwining at the interface of the plants makes it hard to tell which variety is which.  The Brandywine is huge, far outstripping the others vines for vigor and lushness.  It now has guy-lines to the fence posts for support.  It has a pretty good population of tomatoes but seems slower to ripen, although we have gotten a few.

For vine to tomato ratio, the Big Beef wins.  Its vine is not as lush as the Brandywine, but it has lots of fruit.  I think the first ripe slicing tomato came from the Big Beef.  The fruit is not giant, as suggested by the name, but nice all the same.

The only cherry tomato this year is a Black Cherry given to us by a seed-starting friend.  The vine is very vigorous, creeping over to invade the plants on either side and crawling down the path.  We've had a problem with other cherries splitting, making them unusable or unappealing at best.  This one doesn't split.  Its fruit is about an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter, firm, and in nicely spaced clusters of 7 or 8.  The ripe tomatoes are a kind of purple-y/chocolate color which makes them difficult to find on the vine and to know if they are fully ripe.  My family is still a little put off by the color.

Unripe Black Cherry tomato clusters

Loaded Viva Italia tomato vine

For tomato sauce and canned whole or diced tomatoes, we have 3 plants each of San Marzano and Viva Italia tomatoes. The Viva Italia has lots of fruit that is nice and dense, with good flavor, but the plants are slowly being overcome by some disease.  I hope the tomatoes ripen before the plants die completely.  It seems that whatever is affecting them has spread to other plants, in varying degrees.  Plant diseases are not my forte, so maybe the folks at the Horticultural Society or extension service can help.  There are a lot of leaf diseases that look alike to me.

San Marzanos

The San Marzano plants are full of clusters of long, pointed fruit and haven't been too affected by disease.  They are a little slower ripening than the Viva Italia, but the few we have eaten had nice, thick flesh and good flavor.  They will be great for sauces and canning, along with the Viva Italia.

Principe Borghese tomatoes

The last two tomato plants are Principe Borghese.  These drying tomatoes are about the size of largish cherry tomatoes and come in clusters of 5 to 8.  The bushes are determinate, so have stopped making new fruit.  Early in July, I counted (by counting clusters and multiplying!) 300+ fruit per plant!  So far, we have dried about 250 tomatoes with plenty more to follow.  The dried tomatoes are sweet and tart and very yummy!  I would plant this again and plant more of them - at least three, maybe four, plants.