2024 Tomato Harvest

 This summer I planned on growing just a few tomato plants that I really love. But somehow a few that I love, turned into over 20+ tomato plants along the fence line mixed in with the flowers. Some new ones that I wanted to try and of course the usual favorites from last season. This has become a new process for me since I am so limited with space in the garden boxes I decided that if I plant one or two and then a flower and then a couple more and then another flower that it is technically not taking up space but sharing the space and they should both benefit from that. The flowers will attract the bees to further aid in pollination of the fruit and visa versa. I also decided that in doing this that Im not really taking up space and if they survive, it was meant to be. I also prepare for loss of new tender plants by over planting but I think this time almost everything survived.

The summer of 2023, I planted 12 San Marzano tomato plants in the large 4x6 raised bed and they were amazing but I had an over abundance of them that didn’t ripen until fall and I sort of felt overwhelmed when I wasn’t able to use them all to make sauces like I intended on early in summer. Instead I harvested them later in the season and only made a few batches and froze the rest of them whole. I skipped the San Marzano this year and stuck to my favorites which have always been the sweet cherry types and the heirloom variety that I can just eat right off the vine. My favorite out of all the heirlooms that I’ve grown so far is Paul Robeson. It has amazing flavor and so meaty and I love that in this tomato!! I love the marbling inside these tomatoes and the colors and textures are so stunning. One tomato that seems to always amaze me is the pineapple tomato. I don’t even remember planting that many this spring but I must have because I had so many of them. And they were not little, they were very large and looked like little pumpkins which were fun giving away and sharing with friends.  

For the 2025 garden I may not grow the pineapple again, but if I do I will try and only grow one or two plants. I do love having a huge variety of tomatoes. The colors are so beautiful!

The newest tomato that I tried this summer was the bumblebee. You can see them on the dish above next to all the sweet cherries. It is also a cherry type but in my opinion has sort of a heirloom taste to it. 

I am super impressed by the long life that these had and stayed fresh for so long.  I noticed that the bumblebee take longer to ripen than the other tomatoes, but it was worth the wait and they have a lovely green striped pattern on them. I bought my seeds from Baker Creek again this year, as I do with so many of my other seeds now. 

 

Of course Luna had to get involved with some of the harvesting this day. I think she might have been actually telling me that it’s time to go for a walk and trying to convince me that I needed to stop for the day. I love her! If you had to guess, who do you think actually won?