8 lbs of green San Marzano tomatoes

It hasn't been a good year for tomatoes: long, slow cool spring, lots of rain. Actually, wasn't a good year for jalapenos, either. They just disappeared.

There just isn't enough time for my heirloom San Marzano tomatoes to ripen before we get frost. I haven't seen any turn red: I think they've been taken when they turn orange. It's not the rodents, because they just eat things in situ, and the stem end of the tomato remains on the plant.

So this weekend I decided it was time to harvest what is out there, and decide which ones I'm going to try to ripen indoors, and which ones I'll turn into some green tomato recipe. I've got 8 lbs of them, so I have lots of room to experiment.

My front garden didn't develop many weeds this summer: the 4 tomato plants pretty much overran the garden. Pulling the plants out today has left my garden much emptier! I still have a few rosebuds that may bloom.

Anybody have a favorite recipe for green paste tomatoes?

Now I've done it

I took a little walk to East End Garden centre yesterday to buy plants for the two planters (front living room window, front of porch) that are sitting completely empty. Bought some lovely plants (potato vines, double impatiens, petunias). Also saw some other plants that I couldn't quite resist, because I had such luck last summer.

I bought 4 San Marzano tomato plants.

If you know my house and its situation, you know that my back yard has become almost completely shaded over the last eleven years. So it's definitely not a place to grow tomatoes.

So I will be planting them in the front garden. Among the roses. Heck, flower and vegetable gardens were never separate things in the middle ages to Renaissance. The French called them potagers.

Why not? Maybe the thorns will help protect them from raccoons and other thieves. If not, I bought another set of four plants to serve as centurions guarding the tomatoes.

Jalapeno peppers.

I chortle with glee. We'll see if I'm successful. My front yard, although it gets more sun than my back yard, doesn't get any where near as much sun as the allotment gardens at the base of Leslie Street get.

Cross your fingers for me!

Pruning time!

Pruned:

• Honeysuckle vine (leaves were already budding out)
• Potentilla
• Euonymous

so I can paint the wrought-iron fence next weekend.

Cut back the Japanese Anemones to the ground (they're herbaceous, and will reappear from under the earth).

Also grossly pruned the roses. Will do a fine pruning in a few weeks, when I see which canes survived the winter. I had a few really big hips on some of them, swollen with seeds. I saved a few, and brought them in the house to dry out. I may try planting the seeds to see what I get!

Spring!

On my way over to the grocery store this evening, I

• heard a male cardinal singing his territorial song
• saw two robins
• saw two male grackles.

OK, the cardinal is here all winter, and the robins may have been, too, but the grackles are definitely a sign of spring!

This weekend it's supposed to reach 13C each day. I think I'll be doing some garden clean up!

Enjoying last summer's bounty

Just felt like taking a picture of some of my tomatoes thawing. I liked the frosted look.

It's a mix of Romas and San Marzanos. Thaw them, slip the skins off and cut them in bits, then turn them into to pasta sauce. Memories of summer!

2.5 kilos (just over 5 lbs)

More tomatoes.
I think, however, that this is the last of the Caspian pinks for the season.

There are still many more Black Cherries, San Marzanos, and Romas to come.

Several of the birdhouse gourds have serious munches on them, and are not likely to be useful. I've left them on the vine, hoping (maybe against hope) that this will persuade the beasties not to munch the other ones, because they're obviously not tasty.

We'll see if there are any harvestable ones by the middle of October.

More tomatoes!

Last week, I got about 7 lbs of tomatoes. About the same the week before. This week I harvested some that are not quite ripe as well as the ripe ones. 10 lbs worth!

I'm freezing the paste tomatoes as they ripen, and I'll make a big batch or two of tomato sauce one of these days (with lots of my basil in it).

I've also got about 10 birdhouse gourds growing: let's hope they continue to grow, and ripen before the garden gets closed for the winter.

It's been an exceedingly dry summer. I've been watering on a weekly basis, because there just hasn't been any rain to talk about.

It's been fun having a garden plot, but I'm not likely to renew it for next year. I've got enough with my front and back gardens at home, and really want to devote some time to photography.