I turn 25 pounds of plum tomatoes into a dozen jars of Indian tomato pickle

I knew there was a reason why I was keeping all those empty jam jars.

Full disclosure: these are not tomatoes from my garden.

But one of the vendors at the local farmers market was selling a box (25+ pounds) of organic plum tomatoes for $25, it was pouring rain and the forecast was for more all weekend … so why not make Indian tomato pickle?

First tomatoes of 2023

I love the smell tomato plants leave when I brush my hands on them. And I love the taste of Sungolds.

We got these in the ground in late May (don’t think it was as late as early June) so I’m just thrilled that I could pluck the first two tomatoes from our garden this year. I left the third for … tomorrow?

I just harvested two zucchinis before they morphed into baseball bats. That’s already three, and a fourth is close. I may be baking delicious chocolate zucchini cake in the next few days….

The garden on July 4

Happy Independence Day! Love, love, love these crocosmia and the jolt of dazzling red it delivers throughout the flower beds.

The lavender just behind it is crazy happy too.

Final gleaning, first frost

Saved from the frost

The weather forecast called for our first hard frost last night. That’s a normal time for us but even so… I’m not ready for winter.

Time to grab the last of the produce and herbs.

And there was still a lot. Even some bush beans. Though we left the kale and Swiss chard for another time. And we covered some greens — we’re trying for a long row cover this year given that the cold frame has finally fallen apart.

Disappointing tomatoes, crazy lemon cucumbers and more from the garden

Still life with lemon cucumbers

Way too many 90+-degree days and way too little rain this summer. Is that why there is no tomato glut? Or is it more because this is the first year in a long time that we haven’t planted sungold cherry tomatoes?

The Early Girl tomatoes have been a disappointment. We planted various tomato plants in early May, had to protect them from that surprise killer frost just before Mother’s Day .. and what happened to that claim of fruit 50 days after planting?? Not even the first to ripen. Three months in, and the plant is still a disappointment, to be honest, as is the baby boomer cherry tomato.

The first tomatoes

Fourth of July tomatoes — yes!

Is this the earliest yet for us? Five Sungold tomatoes harvested on the Fourth of July.

I admit they aren’t as uniformly golden as ones we will harvest later on. But wow were they good!

We’ve also been harvesting cucumber, peas, arugula and basil, but it’s the tomatoes I’m most excited about.

Here’s what the tomato bed looks like:

 

More from the vegetable beds

Our test of growing zucchini is a tomato cage seems to be a success. We’ve already gotten more this year than in the past, so keeping the leaves off the ground seems like the way to go (though I am wondering if bugs have since gotten to the more prolific one — note to self for next year: keep plants in separate beds to prevent bugs from hopping from one to the next).

These photos are about 10 days old:

I failed at keeping one really well contained in the cage, though the sprawl seems to be less than in years past. Regardless, it’s ginormous.

Next year we’ll try with cages upside down to see if that helps better contain the early sprawl and then just let them spread out after a rung or two.

The tomatoes are doing fine, though I am concerned about the number of dead leaves near the bottom on so many. We’ve had plenty of rain this year, but it tends to be in short, heavy bursts, rather than a slow soak, so maybe the plants aren’t getting as much water as I think. Or maybe we’ve got a case of something else?

The first Brandywine from our Mississippi plants was this deep red and so tasty with basil from the garden (and mozzarella from the store):