I’m glad to hear that it has good taste in your location. It’s been more than a year since I last had it as I didn’t grow it this year to make room for more new varieties. I sure miss it.
OK, I know it’s not much but here are some of our newest picks. Large tom’s on top are German Johnson, Amur Tiger in the middle and a Cream Sausage on bottom. Haven’t tried the GJ or CS, think they need to ripen a bit more. The AT was kinda sweet, not real tart, with somewhat tough skin. But a good tom nonetheless.
We have other fruit that we’ve already picked and tasted. The Jaune Flamme so far are the best tasting, nice balance of tart and sweet. It has an orange/yellow hue. Yellow Pear was OK, kind of sweet, but not too tart, and the first Stupice was a spitter. But, I may have picked that one too early, there are more where that came from.
Lots of fruit turning color, but I have to resist picking them too early. Plus some of the plants are showing some significant disease, so hope I can stave that off enough to get a decent harvest.
Plus, I think a deer may have got into the inner sanctum, because there are a couple plants with some damage to some branches. But, you’d think they’d do more damage once they were in there. Maybe it’s not deer, perhaps birds. We’ll see.
Green Giant is ripening. I think I have enough for ketchup now.
At last I’m getting a steady flow of tomatoes.
We’re also getting some ripe fruit finally, mostly Jaune Flamme, Mischka, Mr Bruno, Yellow Pear, Chocolate Cherry, Amur Tiger and Stupice. All these are about the size of a golf ball or smaller. The flavor of these are generally good, I’d say the JF and CC have the best flavor. The only Stupice I tried was a real spitter, but maybe that’s because they weren’t totally ripe yet.
We picked some Red Calabash and Costoluto Fiorentino fruit, it was fair tasking, the RC the better of the two.
The only large fruit came off a German Johnson, and that fruit was OK, not great.
The other big fruit is taking its time ripening, especially the black and purple varieties.
I’m wondering if the flavors being off is because of all the rain we had, and it’s diluting the flavor out a bit.
Our cucumbers are already producing, Mrs Dood picked enough last night to make some pickles as I’m writing this. And we canned 7 quarts of some really tasty half-runner beans that our neighbor allowed us to pick last week. Hopefully our beans will pick up the pace soon. The corn was a big disappointment, we only able to can 9 pints.
I think so! It has been bone dry here, I have never seen it so dry, and the tomatoes are amazing in taste. My water bill was double last year, I sure wish it would rain! Well wait a bit, my nectarines are looking awesome! I bet brix is near 30. I need about a week!
THIS is why we endure July and August every year. Without those months there would be no…
Aaaahhh the taste of summer.
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I think all the rain not only diluted the flavors, but also contributed to fruit splitting, and to a lesser degree, quite a bit of blossom end rot. But, I think the BER issue also has to do with a lack of calcium.
At any rate, here are some new pics. Sorry for the poor quality, these were taken with my tablet cam. Plus, the orientation is off, but I don’t know how to turn them on here.
Here’s what I picked mostly today, a nice haul:
Jaune Flamme, almost orange when ripe, even tho I’ve not let a lot get totally ripe, hard to resist picking them. Plant has put out lots of fruit, and has pretty good disease resistance.
Yellow Pear, which has been very prolific, and are pretty tasty. But also has been splitting due to too much rain. Plants have been showing moderate disease issues.
Chocolate Cherry, maybe the best flavor of all the fruit so far. No splitting, disease issues or BER issues, either. This will always be in our garden.
I think these are Mr Bruno and Mischka, pretty prolific, flavors are OK. MB plant is showing some disease issues.
Some of the bigger tom’s are ripening, it’s hard not to pick them, but must resist the urge! Weeds have got out of control, but I am trying at least to keep them off the plants. Looks like maybe two or three plants have been nipped off. It’s prob deer but you’d think they’d do more damage than there is. Oh well, I can live with it for now.
I have not watered any of our veggies this summer, just haven’t needed it. Kinda glad, as it’s a long haul out to the various patches.
Because of all the rain, our lawn grows fast, and it’s a chore mowing it, especially since I put mulching blades on the the rider. Seems like it clogs up a lot, and I have to stop every half hour of mowing just to pull out all the grass clumps that collect under the deck. It took me almost 4 hours to mow our plot yesterday, and that’s with a 48" deck! It took so long because you just can’t go very fast or the mower bogs down. I’m thinking of putting the old blades back on and try to mow more often. Lawn doesn’t look as clean, but I’m just tired of pulling all that grass out from under the deck.
Glad I got that done yesterday, as it’s a smooth 93 degrees out there today. I was out in it earlier picking the 'mater’s and had to come in after getting soaked in sweat. But, I’ll take the heat now instead of all that rain.
And, thought I’d show a pic of our freshly picked cukes, that were promptly turned into dill pickles! Look pretty good, I must say. But Mrs Dood gets the credit for making them, all I did was water bath them while she went to town.
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OK, some more pics. I had to pick these today, they were just getting too big and ripe.
Here they are, Gordost Sibiri, looks like a massive double bloom Dr Wyche Yellow in the middle, and Pink Brandywine on bottom.
Here is the DWY, I cut it up, had quite a bit of pith that I had to cut out. But, it did have decent flavor, somewhat sweet not too acidic. Bet it weighed close to pound and a half.
Here is a huge GS, appears to be a single bloom fruit, so nice size. Going to wait a bit before I slice this one up. Just weighed it, comes in at 550mg, or about 19oz.
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Boy, oh Boy, it all looks greatl You’ve had a terrific summer!
Thanks @mrsg47. It has been productive as far as tomatoes go, but frankly other than a couple good varieties, my other tom’s have been really bland and almost spitters. I think lack of fertilizing and lots of rain has contributed to this. I mentioned in another thread that all the rain may have leeched out valuable nutrients, and especially a lack of calcium. We’ve tossed dozens of fruit because of so much blossom end rot, again due to all the water + little calcium.
My best tasting and most productive varieties so far have been the smaller Jaune Flamme, Yellow Pear, and Chocolate Cherry. Some of the bigger fruit is ripening and coming on fast, but I’m dreading picking them based on the other’s mediocrity. They may be OK, guess I’m a bit disappointed in the results so far.
Add to that, our corn was a big letdown, we planted six 40’ rows of sweet corn and it’s been very unproductive. We canned about 9 pints last week, and it looks like that may be about all we’re gonna get this year. We had a very cool and wet spring, which isn’t good for corn.
AND, to add more good news, not, is our tater patch has already died back about a month ago, so we’re going to have to dig those up soon, way before they should be. We planted six rows of about 50’. Again, the rain and cold hurt, I suspect.
Hoping we get more fresh cukes, and that our beans start producing soon. We planted those with the corn, and they have lots of flowers, but not a lot of beans yet. Our neighbor let us pick a 5 gallon bucket of half-runner beans last week, and we canned 7 qts, and had some left over for supper. They were delicious, I love these type of beans. Bush beans, not so much.
Alright, for those who care for my daily updates, here are some pics from what I picked today, and the end product.
Our first Orange Kentucky Beefsteak, that hasn’t rotted or split on the vine. Pretty sweet flavor, not too tangy. This one weighed in at about 14oz.
De Barao, pretty good flavor, prob will grow again next year
A Watermelon beefsteak, somewhat sweet, with a little tang. The insides look like, yes, a watermelon. Weighs about 15oz.
A mutant Mortgage Lifter, looks almost obscene…
Gordost Sibiri, very good tomato flavor, looks somewhat like a watermelon inside too.
A slew of Mr Bruno’s, decent flavor, but with a kinda tough skin.
Aunt Ruby German Green, tastes like a ripe red tomato, but was kind of pithy. Maybe should’ve let it ripen a bit more. This monster had to be cut in half in order to not peg the scale. Even after cutting out the core, it still came in at 20oz.
The bucketful from today, the fruit on top are Siberian Pink Honey, which are oxheart shaped. Very good flavor, will grow again next year.
Annnd, here are the results, after sampling various fruit. Seven quarts ready for the cellar.
After yesterday’s disappointing taste tests, today was an improvement. Still waiting on quite a few more varieties to ripen up, and hope they don’t rot or get scarfed up by deer, who have seemed to have figured a way thru my fence force field.
So far, the varieties to make the cut to next year so far are: Jaune Flamme, Chocolate Cherry, Yellow Pear, Gordost Sibiri, Siberian Pink Honey, Orange KY Beefsteak, and maybe De Barao.
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This Is not the total harvest but a look at varieties I picked today. I picked them early as rain is expected, and I’m leaving in the morning till Sunday night. These are coming with me!
Rutgers
Green Giant Not the biggest, bigger ones on the plant.
Lucid Gem
Brandywine (Cowlick’s) These are a very unique red, it’s pink because it is not ripe.
KBX First ripe one! Well almost ripe! It will turn orange when ripe.
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Dear subdood, Boy, to me, seeing those jars filled makes you a real winner! The statisfaction we get from out fruits and vegetables is great. I too had to dig up by inground potatoes two days ago. Had some of them tonight with butter and fresh parsley. Nothing like it! My tomatoes are a bust, due to no rain. Getting a more rain tonight I hope. But that is only two days out of all summer this far! Bet those tomatoes taste really good, they look fanstastic! 
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Drew, Lucid Gem looks great, can you slice one so I can see the different colors on the tomato inside? You have quite the selection as you usually do! Big guys too!
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Drew that is one beautiful tomato! I am so sorry I couldn’t grow it this year!!! I’ll save this post! Thanks so much!
I think Girl Girl’s Weird Thing is the prettiest tomato I’m growing. I had some nice examples but was focused on seed saving and didn’t take photos. I will take photos of the next ripe one. It also is one of the tastiest tomatoes. It tastes a lot like Indian Stripe, or Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye. A keeper for sure! I like all mentioned, all are keepers in my garden. Once I sample a few more, i will only grow a few I really liked. Last year I discovered a few great paste tomatoes for sauce. Romeo was exceptional. Very large tomatoes that weighed very little, they were dry and all flesh. The plant was productive too, no weak points! Perfect for sauce! Opalka was good too, and for late season Polish Linguisa was great. It picked up production when the other two declined. I still have others like Cow’s Tit, Korean Long, and others I want to try. Next year I will be growing pastes again. So i want a few for fresh eating, and a few for sauce. The Italian sauce tomatoes are great, but I still prefer the paste types just because they are so easy to process for sauce. Taste is excellent too.
Your pics were nice Drew. How did your Brandywine taste? My Pink Brandywine has frankly been a spitter, and I don’t know why. They seem to be a dark pink on the bottom so I think they’re ripe enough. But, they were a bit green on top, so maybe I should leave them on the vine a bit longer.
And how is your Green Giant? We picked our first green (Aunt Ruby) yesterday, and it was fair, but not the best tasting one so far. Maybe because it was so big and had a lot of pith? Idk. There are others on the plant, so we’ll see.
Let us know how they taste when they ripen up.
I went out to the patch this evening and picked some of the varieties for the first time: Korol Sibiri, Black Krim, Great White, and Paul Robeson. They seem to be a bit unripe, so I’m going to let them set a day or so. These are the varieties I’m really interested in, so I hope they will be good samples. Still haven’t had any Lemon Oxheart, J Black Trifele, black or yellow brandywine, Abe Lincoln, or Cherokee Purple ripen enough yet.
A lot of my fruit seems to be rotting on the vine, I think because of the alternating rain and then bright sunshine. Plus disease has reduced the foliage on the plants, so that prob contributes to sunscald. It’s supposed to be around 93 the next couple days, and then heavy rain next week. Plus, the deer seem to be thieving quite a few. So, I seem to be racing against diseased plants, the weather and the cloven devils.
I guess you’re headed for your lakeshore place? Is that on Lake Huron?
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