Tomato Time

All of our tomato vines are producing right now. Sometimes it seems that we wait for this all year--planning the varieties, nurturing the seedlings, staking and tweaking the vines. Last year we had very little success so this year we made a special effort to amend the soil. We shoveled in compost last fall and added mushroom compost and chicken manure this spring. That is paying off big time. There are only two of us at home so we are sharing our bounty with our son's restaurant. We have a very small yard, only a tenth of an acre, but since we xeriscaped when we first moved in pretty much everything is potentially a place to plant. Our cold springs and early winters mean that the south side of the house is best for the tomatoes. We have squash, potatoes, green beans, pumpkins and all sorts of herbs as well but the tomatoes are what makes the work memorable and worthwhile.

 This is just one day's picking. Lots of varieties of tomatoes--German Johnson, Indigo Rose, Celebrity, Sungold, Marmande--even one developed at our local agricultural college that's just a number.