Harvest Monday: The First Tomatoes
This week the first slicer tomatoes ripened suddenly. I grow these Siletz organic seeds because they are dependably early on the coast and will withstand cooler temperatures so they can be set out in April. They are nice tidy shrubs with about 8-12 large tomatoes each ripening right now, and hopefully a long and productive season ahead. I have 3 plants at the house and one at the community garden plot.
The toms were amazing with fresh basil and some olive sourdough I made from my starter.
There are many peppers ready to be eaten green (or purple as with the Filius Blue peppers), some are picked to encourage more flowers, and the others will get left to allow the peppers to turn red and spicy.
There are still lots of blueberries on the shrubs out front, and now that I have divided my yellow alpine strawberries into a lot more room, I’m getting heaps of those as well (thanks for the advice, Laura!) And with all the kale growing at the community garden, I just had to have more kale chips.
I thinned out a bunch of small beets this week for both the sauteed greens and the roots. I’m growing at least 4 types this year: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden.
It has also been a big week for flower harvests. With so many cutting blooms growing, my house is filled with colour both inside and out. The crocosmia below is one of my favourites – both the firey orange crocosmia and the larger upright lucifer crocosmia look just a good indoors as outside from my hammock.
Tags: beet, crocosmia, harvest monday, kale, pepper, tomato
July 26 2010 03:27 pm | Growing Food and Harvest and Photography
meemsnyc on 26 Jul 2010 at 5:10 pm #
You make your own sourdough bread? Wow, I bet it’s so yummy! I think your tomatos look amazing.
Stacy on 26 Jul 2010 at 6:38 pm #
I can never get over how drop-dead gorgeous vegetables are. Those beets are just luminous, and I would never have thought to put those two words in the same sentence before!
thyme2garden on 26 Jul 2010 at 6:52 pm #
Fresh tomatoes and basil with homemade sourdough bread? Wow, I want to get invited to your house for snacks! Your kale chips sound very intriguing, too. Love all the colors of your harvest!
Priscilla Prince on 26 Jul 2010 at 9:53 pm #
I’m amazed with your ability to grow veggies and flowers. I always get hungry when I read your post! Your tomatoes looks wonderful. Peppers seem to be taking such a long time for me, I barely even see any flower blossoms but small buds. I have Jalapeno, Serranos, and recently planted sweet Islander Pepper. All this waiting…
Heather @ Dusty Bay on 27 Jul 2010 at 5:24 am #
Your veggies and flowers look fantastic Stevie!
melanie watts on 27 Jul 2010 at 7:46 am #
It all looks yummy Stevie. Thanks for the reminder I’ve got to get out and thin my beets. The crocosmia is very pretty. I ‘ve never heard of it so I suppose it is not hardy up here.
miss m on 27 Jul 2010 at 8:34 am #
Those siletz look sumptuous ! Curiously, mine haven’t produced any earlier than the others.
Lovely harvest ! Crocosmia looking stunning !
Daphne on 27 Jul 2010 at 9:45 am #
That looks like a really delicious lunch.
Stevie on 27 Jul 2010 at 1:52 pm #
Thanks everyone!
Miss M – did you set them out earlier than the rest? I started the seeds and set them out a month earlier than my other tomatoes.
Ottawa GardenerOttawa on 27 Jul 2010 at 2:17 pm #
Mmm… the slicers. We don’t have any of those yet and you are making me salivate with the kale chips. I love kale SO much. It seems more each year in fact. Which variety do you grow? I mostly grow Red Ursa but it is a bit mixed up with other varieties that I have grown.
Scott on 27 Jul 2010 at 5:05 pm #
Your harvest is looking fantastic. Looks very tasty:))
Lisa Anne of This Urban homestead on 27 Jul 2010 at 7:42 pm #
Your photos made me drool. Nice harvest!
Tamara on 28 Jul 2010 at 4:05 pm #
Wow, that is some harvest! Our Junior just got his first harvest of cucumbers out of the new 5 acre greenhouse and got 2000 cukes! How cool is that?!
Leslie on 28 Jul 2010 at 8:27 pm #
Yummmm… nice looking tomatoes. Mine are still green. I guess I didn’t get the seeds started early enough. On the other hand, I have a bumper crop of cucumbers this year with all the heat we are having.
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