While doing my morning rounds and checking the garden beds, I spotted a bit of colour among the compost tomatoes!
The first to photos look like the Indigo Blue tomatoes we grew last year. The last photo looks like the Roma VF we grew last year.
Given that we are two days away from our average first frost, I don’t expect any of these to ripen.
I did get a pretty decent harvest this morning – and even remembered to bring my big colander that I use specifically for this.
There was barely a handful of all three types of beans. At this time of year, having any at all is a treat.
There is one melon that came off its stem, but I’m not sure if that was because it was ripe. This melon was starting to soften in a spot next to the stem.
I grabbed a couple of the largest Dragonfly peppers, and the single Goldy zucchini and G star patty pan. The zucchini does have a couple more on the plant that can be harvested in a few days. The G Star patty pans are still blooming, but I’m not seeing any developing squash. The white patty pans are blooming lots, but still only male flowers.
The red tomatoes are all Forme De Couer – including the one green one. I was trying to get a red tomato, and the green one broke off, instead! The small tomatoes are the Black Cherry tomatoes.
I was in the process of watering the old kitchen garden from the rain barrel when my brother and his wife showed up with another load. While my brother was clearing the space they wanted to unload into, I was able to give my SIL some tomatoes. She chose the red tomatoes, but tried a Black Cherry, too. As we were leaving the yard, I spotted a single Chocolate cherry and gave it to her to try, and asked her if she could taste any difference. The Black Cherry tomatoes aren’t getting any darker, and look just like the Chocolate cherries, so I was curious. She didn’t find a lot of difference in the taste, except that the Black Cherry seems a touch sweeter, while the Chocolate cherry seemed a bit more acidic. She really liked both.
After that, I helped them unload, and they are on their way home. After a hydration break, I’m heading back out to finish watering the garden. We’re expected to reach a high of 24C/75F today, which isn’t too bad. Over the next couple of days, we’re supposed to hit highs of 28C/82F, and later in the week, we’re even supposed to reach 30C/86F. On the 10th, our average first frost date, we’re expected to have a high of 28C/82F, and a low of 13C/55F. Which would mean no danger of frost at all!
Looking at the long range forecast, it will be another 10 days before we start getting overnight lows below 10C/50F again. We’ve dropped down to 6C/43F a few times over the past week. If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, we won’t get those lows again until the last week or so of September, and won’t get risk of frost temperatures until October.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all those forecasts changed by the end of the day, but if it does, I hope it changes to warmer, not cooler, temperatures! The garden needs every frost free day it can get!
Still, I’m happy with what we have. It is more than I was expecting for this year!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 