Ripe and Unripe Tomatoes and a Harvest

Besides watching a seed burst out of fertile soil, or that seedling grow into a producing plant, my next favorite part is when it is finally time to pick ripe fruit and veggies. Oh, and cutting herbs like parsley and mint, or hmmm... lettuce.

Here are a few pictures of one of my harvests.  Feast your eyes!

This is the inside of my fridge after a very busy day of harvesting.  Weslee doesn't like watermelon or cantaloupe but I managed to grow a few sugar baby watermelons, a few crenshaw muskmelons (cantaloupes), and a few golden watermelons. Loving the radishes too (ready to slice and pickle!). 

Just a quick harvest before the first frost. just a quick harvest before a freeze. Notice the yellow pear tomatoes, orange slicer, and small eggplant. PLUS - our pride and joy, besides the several small orange carrots, we managed to grow 2 atomic red carrots (top of plate) and some cremey-white carrots (just under the red carrots). We also pulled up 2 tiny sweet potatoes, and two small red-bunching onions - very potent!

This is a colander of green (unripe) tomatoes I picked just after a first frost. The plants survived (barely) under two blankets and a big piece of plastic. It was too much work to try to save the plants, and I didn't have room to bring the pots inside. So I picked these to dehydrate then grind into powder. Green tomato powder is added to my all-vegg powder, and also kept separately to add depth to soups and stews. It's not very tasty by itself, and I haven't yet experimented with making green tomato preserves.

Colorful Tomatoes

One of my favorite things to grow is tomatoes.  Seeing a big bush or tall vine with colorful fruit beckoning ...  is there anything better?

I have to be careful of the acid in tomatoes but over the years, I found a few varieties that my stomach doesn't hate. The ones that seem to do well are: Yellow Pears, Kellogg's Breakfast Orange, and a tiny currant tomatoes that I can't find the name of anywhere!!

The following are a few of my favorite pics of my growing tomatoes:




Black Cherry Tomatoes and a red slicer.
I accidentally planted 2 different varieties
in one pot. Both did well.



This is a pic of one of my harvests.  Squash,
peppers, cucumber, eggplant
and, of course,, tomatoes. Yum!!



This is a tray filled with sliced yellow
mamas, yellow pears and small red
roma tomatoes

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My first dehydrator was a cheap round one but it worked.  I love my new Excelsior though!

This tray of tomatoes dried about 6-8 hours until mostly dried and barely pliable. Bagged with a dessicant package added, then placed the baggies in a tightly sealed mason jar.

Living in a small apartment with a small patio (as opposed to when I had the farmette in Colorado), I had to make some adjustments. Most of my gardening is done in pots. Does it matter? Only in regards to quantity ... but not quality.  I can still have a plant of each of my favorite low-acid tomatoes and as long as I take care of them, they will produce enough to save for the coming months AND provide some for fresh eating too.

How many of you grow tomatoes on your patio?




Tomato Seedlings

I got a late start on sowing my tomato seeds but since we are still almost a month before they can go outside, they should be good to go in time.

In the plastic "milk" jug:

Red Micro Tom

In the six plastic cups:

Barry's Crazy Cherry

Kellogg's Breakfast (my fave)

Yellow Pear

I started the tomato seeds in just a tiny bit of soil, and as they grew, added more soil, leaving just the top of the leaves showing. Repeated. And repeated. These now have strong roots.

Seeds Finally Started

I am little late starting my seeds but hey... better late than never!

This shows just a few of the tomatoes and the mini bell peppers that I've started. Oh, man! My mouth is watering even now! My fave is Kellogg's Breakfast tomato, an orangish sweet slicer.

Since my son doesn't like peppers or tomatoes, I am planning on just enough for me and to dehydrate for next winter.

I did however also start today some spinach seeds and various lettuces which Weslee will eat. Tomorrow I will do the strawberry starters, sugar snap peas, mini carrots, and in a few weeks, the vining green beans...more of what he will eat!

He will be able to have veggies every day, and hopefully strawberries in a few months.  

This will all supplement the food I stocked up on.

You should do this too.

URBAN GARDENING - NOTE:
I will be discussing more urban gardening this year. I have a small apartment with a small patio. Inside, near my back door, I have a setup like an indoor wire garden shelves with a plastic cover. I have my seed starters there for now, but when I can move things outside, I will.  Exception: those plants that don't need pollinators, like lettuce, carrots, radishes and herbs will stay inside.

I encourage everyone to order heirloom seeds of a few veggies that you will actually eat (I use Baker Heirloom), some medium to large pots, and some potting soil. Place the pots in a sunny window, or set up wire shelves with a grow light or two.

If you want tomatoes or something else that requires pollination, and have no place outdoors for your pots, you must hand-pollinate. I will discuss that later.