An abundance of delicious tomatoes

Harvesting tomatoes four times a week we can see the massive difference in the plants this year compared to last year.

This year the plants are very vigorous and have not dealt with too much stress thanks to the cooler July.

Last year at the start of August the plants were heavily stressed and although there were tomatoes ripe to pick, there were no flowers or tomatoes for the future.

As a result of being less stressed the plants have a good amount of tomatoes on them that will be harvested and eaten over the next two months. 

We are harvesting all of our varieties we are growing this year and what we are mostly picking is from the second of three large plantings we do.

We’ve made some changes to how we are growing the heirloom tomatoes that seem to be helping a little bit in addition to the weather which is the main factor.

Just like the past years we will continue to make tweaks in the coming years about how we grow tomatoes for next year and beyond.

We are jotting down notes for us to look through this winter when we have more time to plan. Right now we are focusing on harvesting all the tomatoes and other summer veggies for the next two months plus the planting of fall veggies.

The first fall veggies we seeded two weeks ago are looking very good in the greenhouse. They germinated very well and are growing pretty fast.

Tomorrow we are getting more of the area prepped where we will begin planting those leafy greens in a few weeks.

We are preparing larges sections for the lettuce and brassicas since we will be planting them so often it is easier to have them area ready instead of having to prep soil every week.

In June and early July we had the early season crop of Black Mission figs and now the main season crop is ripening.

The main difference between the two crops is the size of the figs. The early season figs are very large while the main season figs are at most half the size.

Some people regard the main season figs are superior due to their flavor. Their flavor is condensed into a smaller fig and the tree has experienced more of the stress of the summer heat which adds flavor.

We are planning to have the first few baskets this Saturday and then the harvest will pick up next week thanks to the warmer weather.