Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Big Tomato Harvest!

Yesterday I got home and found Meg was watering the garden beds, using the sprinkler with well water and watering from a rain barrel by hose. I joined her with my new 2.5 gallon metal watering can using water from the 300 gallon rain tote. The rain totes both have 3/4 inch spigots so the water fills the can twice as fast as the hose(we have low water pressure) or smaller 55 gallon rain barrel. We both worked hard in the 95 degree heat spot watering the new plants and anything looking bad.

While Meg was watering I picked these tomatoes, the orange ones on the top are Rutgers are around 12 ounce tomatoes, the darker ones are Cherokee Purple most of them went over a pound! I'm sure this bowl has at least 10 pounds of tomatoes. These are the biggest and best Cherokee Purples I have ever grown!

The Roma tomatoes will be harvested tomorrow 2-3 pounds look to be ready. My history with romas is not so good, these are looking great! The Jubilee tomatoes should be ready very soon too.

While feeding the bees late this afternoon I kept hearing odd noises in the big oak tree by the pond. Later I went out to turn on the sprinkler and watched a Northern Cardinal fledgling in the garden path, must have just flew out of the nest. Both parent cardinals were watching ever so carefully, I left them alone to watch over their baby.

The temperatures are still hot as it can get here, Friday is calling for 102 (39c) degrees. Dry, yes it is very dry, we had a couple small showers a few days ago, got a little water in the rain totes, the new one got at least 20 gallons, I used some of that water yesterday.

6 comments:

greggo said...

red is the word this day for those tomatoes and cardinals

Rhonda Gales said...

Great harvest. Cherokee Purple is on my list for next season.

Andrea said...

Wow Randy, those are so deliciously looking tomatoes. Congratulations that you are now harvesting the real fruits of your labor! More to come.

Karen said...

Wow, ripe tomatoes already. They look so good. Ours are just lil' green nubbins yet.

That's really neat how fast the water totes can fill a watering can. I'm glad to hear it's working out. Now all you need is a good gully-washer and you'll have full totes. Nothing like rain water for the plants.

Bridget said...

Great harvest. Those Cherokee Purples look fab. I want some!

sweetbay said...

Sorry to hear you didn't get any of the recent rain. It is about as hot as it can get isn't it?

Great-looking tomatoes. For the second year in a row our tomatoes are kind of a bust. We need to grow the heirlooms in pots and I think all need more lime.