There must be 500 lbs of tomatoes all over the house in different states of ripeness now. Little paths throughout the house to walk around! With all the freeze scares each day for the nights, I went out and picked almost all the tomatoes that can finish ripening. I started picking hard on Wednesday and then my good friend Mernie came over and helped picked the rest on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I had one of my best days ever at the Farmers Market as “The Tomato Lady’. It has been cold and had rained in Santa Fe and snowing on our mountain and I think everyone started thinking OMG- the tomato season is almost over! It was like a shark frenzy. My patrons didn’t want anything else-only tomatoes. I completely sold out. Now I just have to manage the remaining tomatoes in the house to make sure they ripen nicely. While I’m gone on Saturday at the giant pumpkin weigh-off, Caleb will be ‘The Tomato Lady’ again and then I will be back the following Saturday!
Category Archives: TOMATOES
Santa Fe Farmers Market/The Tomato Lady
Saturday went well for my first time at the Santa Fe Farmers Market for this year. It is actually my third year returning as The Tomato Lady. I had many varieties of tomatoes, much more than I anticipated and sold most of them. I had a few left over which I made into tomato sauce and tomato tapenade today.
‘The Tomato Lady’ returns to Santa Fe Farmers Market this Saturday, Aug 20
Here are some of the tomatoes I’ll be bringing to the Santa Fe Farmers Market
FINALLY, I will arrive at the Farmers market this Saturday, Aug 20 in the SAME LOCATION INSIDE THE BUILDING not outside. (COME INSIDE the BUILDING BY THE 2ND ENTRY WHEN YOU WALK DOWN MAIN OUTSIDE AISLE). I won’t have as many tomatoes YET as I would like so if you want some incredible, organically grown, heirloom tomatoes, you better come EARLY as I anticipate SELLOUT by 9:30am even though the market stays open till 12:30. Of course not all of them ripen at the same time so you will have a variety of tomatoes to pick from each week. Over 25 heirloom tomato varieties on 70 plants this year! This is the beginning-it will only get better as each week more and more tomatoes will ripen. I will also have other heirloom veggies there – Shishito peppers, a few Pepperoncini peppers, incredibly sweet, never bitter Fairy eggplants, fantastic nutty flavored Rattlesnake beans, wonderful thin French filet beans, Emerite, but mostly tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! Hope to see your happy faces soon!
Tomato hornworms are here!
Sphinx larva-tomato hornworm
Well I knew it would be too good to be true! The tomato hornworms are here-late but here. Picked off about 15 today that were found on the tomato plants. Boy are they hard to see. Great camouflage artists. I haven’t been in the garden much this past week due to a lot of art events around the SOFA show that just ended here in Santa Fe. As a result, three of us-Caleb, Elodie and myself found about 15 hornworms on the tomato plants. The hornworm is the larva of the Sphinx moth (also called the hummingbird moth but not related to hummingbirds). I was hoping that maybe they wouldn’t show up but they’re here! They can be seen in the top of the plants, not deep in the interior, thank god, where I wouldn’t be able to find them and they are almost inevitably always found hanging upside down on the branch they are munching on. When I find them, I pick them off (wearing gloves) and under my shoe they go! I think their instant death is better then giving them to the chickens who would peck them to a tortuous death. I do try to be humane in their demise! They aren’t hard to control by handpicking, it just takes a little time. Glad one never finds more than one or two in each plant. So tomorrow and everyday this week I will go hornworm hunting until I can’t find anymore..
My Garden Kicks Ass!
I think this is my best garden ever even though I don’t have a lot of produce yet-but it’s all coming! It’s gotten so lush with just a couple of days of rain. I don’t mean to brag but I must-it’s really hard to grow a garden like this in the high desert. I fight the pests and have problems too just like you but diligence and hard work has really help. Hope you enjoy these photos.
This is the same angle from the corner of the garden I’ve photographed since the beginning of this year. Wow what a difference 2.5 months makes.
55 tomatoes planted May 15th!
Here is the same corner in the beginning of the season back on May 15, 2011
Here the view is looking towards the entry from inside. Zucchini, flowers, scarlet runner beans, rattlesnake beans tomatoes, corn, asparagus, sunflowers, rhubarb all stuffed in the entry!
These Emerite pole beans are hiding the teepee now.
Corn, asparagus, flowers, rhubarb and sunflower coming along.
Baby cucumbers- these are Boothsby Blonde variety. They will make great bread and butter pickles.
Caleb, my apprentice, gave me a gourd seed that someone had given him but he didn’t know what type it was, so I call it-Caleb’s mystery gourd. Notice the purslane in the left corner. I’m going to try some this year so I left it in..
Flower bed to the right of the entry-zinnias, cosmos nasturtiums, pole beans and sunflowers. I can only imagine this when they all bloom.
My one lone cosmos flower yet but what a beauty-Magenta cosmos flower
Here is Caleb’s baby mystery gourd-wonder what kind it’ll be. Kind of looks like a pear right now.
The tomatoes have really shot up-about 5 feet tall now. Now the Long Gourd tower in the background doesn’t look as tall.
Best tasting zucchini ever-Costata Romanesco
Pepperoncinis’ with eggplants behind them
The Long Gourd is stretching towards the top of that 10′ trellis tower I built! Never thought I’d see that!
Scarlet Runner bean flower-beautiful!
Here’s one of Caleb’s bees doing it’s thing with the pumpkin flower.
Finally the Shishito peppers are kicking in.
View from the inside looking out towards the gate. The Rattlesnake pole beans are producing and growing over the arbor now. Way in the background inside the corral is the pumpkin patch.
Finally a baby ‘Greenie’ pumpkin-about 5 inches in circumference right now-small but I’ll take it!
Put my cell phone on top of the giant pumpkin today to give it some perspective. It put on 11.5 lbs yesterday— went from 56.5 lbs to 70 lbs. Hope the squirrel doesn’t get it. Been hiding all the pumpkins under row cover and burlap to discourage the squirrel.
Today’s small harvest-slow but steady!
Tomatoes Starting to Ripen
My tomato plants are looking good and are loaded with tomatoes although mostly green. I was starting to get one ripe tomato here and there a couple of weeks ago and now I get several a day-not enough to go to the SF Farmers Market yet but certainly enough to have every night now with dinner. AHHHH! I wait for this time in the garden! I have yellow, orange, black, green and of course red starting to ripen.
To beat the birds from pecking holes (I don’t always win) I am picking the tomatoes a little early when they first start to get a little color and let them finish ripening inside.
I love to slice them and put over a bed of lettuce and drizzle a little balsamic vinaigrette over them. I’m also thinking I need to make some grilled cheese sandwiches with sliced tomatoes inside. YUM!
Where are the tomato hormworms?
tomato hornworm revealed
I haven’t seen any tomato hornworms yet which I think is unusual for this time of year. I looked up in my blog posts from last year to see when the tomato hormworm showed up- they appeared on July 8th. And come to think of it, I haven’t seen any Hummingbird moths or Sphnix moths either yet. Maybe the -20°F weather we had last winter killed the larvae! We’ll see.
Tomato plants getting BIG
The tomato plants are now getting BIG. I’ve gotten a few ripe tomatoes-fighting off the birds for them! Most are starting to really produce green tomatoes now. I hope to get to the SF FARMERS MARKET by MID-AUGUST or sooner, tomatoes willing..
Here are my earliest tomatoes on the right that may allow me to go to the market sooner than later. On the left is my strawberry patch.
I have a variety of black tomatoes coming on-Paul Robeson, Giant Black Pear shaped tomatoes, Cherokee Chocolate, Black Krim and Black Cherry. None of which are shown yet.
I should have a plethora of cherry tomatoes this year-Sungold, Black Cherry and Green Grape and a mystery red that was suppose to be a San Marzano! Here is a closeup of Sungold. Hope the birds don’t get it! All the cherry tomatoes should start producing soon!
I also love the bi-color tomatoes-my favorites. I’m growing Gold Medal and Striped Germans shown above. Both varieties can get between 1-2 lbs and are SWEET, SWEET, SWEET. They only have flowers right now.
My Big Zacs take longest to ripen 90+ days so you won’t be seeing these until late in the season but what a treat.1-2 lb giants with that old fashion tomato flavor perfect for a BLT..
Here is a brandywine. Notice the potato leaves. I haven’t had good luck in NM with Brandywine tomatoes due to the disease factor but these are looking good so far, I have red, pink and yellow brandywines going.
‘Big Zac’ Giant Tomato Megablossoms
Single flower on left and 2 blossoms joined to create the megablossom on the right
I’ve planted 6 Big Zac tomato plants and several of my own from last year that came from the the N. Harp 7+ lber tomato seed. I haven’t seen as many megablossoms this year as I would like to see. A megablossom is a blossom that has 2 or more blossoms that fuse together to create a tomato that has several sections creating two or more fruit joined together which give a rather gnarley appearance but produce some really big fruit usually over 2 lbs.
2 lbs. 11.4 oz
Big Zac is NOT the only tomato that produces megablossoms but it does produce more than the average tomato. Other tomatoes can produce megablossoms as well just not as many as the Big Zac variety. Here is one of the Big Zac tomatoes I grew last year that was close to 3 lbs. Notice the 4 sections.
I’ve been a little preoccupied with the tomato scare but now am on the hunt to see if any of my Zacs have some of these blossoms.
Tomato scare
Trying to protect the tomatoes-wrapping them in row cover
My tomatoes have been looking great, in fact the best ever in 25 years, but about 2-3 weeks ago I noticed a couple of the plants started getting new leaves that looked wierd-sort of fernlike which I thought was odd but they were still green so I ignored it.
Tomato 'fernlike' leaves
Well, this week I noticed about 48 plants had this weird look and the new tips were very distorted. I researched on the internet and it looked like Tobacco mosaic virus or Cucumber Mosaic virus which can spread rapidly among the plants. If your tomatoes get it, it can ruin your whole crop not to mention your whole garden for 3 years as that is how long it can remain in the soil. You must pull the plants and dispose of them as it is very contagious at least for the Tobacco Mosaic virus. I was panicky so I wrapped up the remainder of the ‘ok’ plants in row cover to try to protect them. I called Pat Torres, our County Extension Agent here in Santa Fe about sending samples down to the state lab as I feared the worst. I brought two complete plants to him on Friday, filled out some paperwork and he sent it overnight to the the lab person who went in (on his day off) on Saturday to do a diagnosis for me. What wonderful people! (Both he and Pat) The lab guy tested for all 4 major tomato viruses that are most common here in New Mexico and luckily all the tests turned out negative-no pathogens found. Yes! I’m saved! The lab guy said it looked like Herbicide Drift called Abiotic disorder (or 2,4 D damage) and felt they will outgrow the weirdness and be OK.
And the funny thing is I did spray (carefully) with Roundup 3 weeks ago my driveway and sides of the studio for weeds in the gravel that are about 100 feet uphill of my main garden. He said if you spray on a hot day (and when hasn’t it been hot here lately) it can vaporize and travel up to 400 feet anywhere the breeze blows it. That’s 100 feet more than the length of a football field. The rest of the veggies were intact because they were still under row cover. He also said some herbicides (I’m going to email him for which ones) can travel in the air for 40 miles! So be careful with Roundup or any herbicide. I always go organic in the vegetable garden but sometimes not in the regular garden. What a scary lesson!
Herbicide damage-also called 2,4 D damage
Tobacco Mosiac virus
Vegetable Garden July 4, 2011
Happy July 4th! Here’s a look at the main garden so far this summer. This year is definitely slower than this time last year due to lack of precipitation but with the monsoons here, it should take off this month and kick butt. To see last year’s garden at this time, go here.
The cukes I’ve had to replant due to something eating the seedlings several times even though I’ve covered it with row cover..
I have 2 Costata Romanesco zucchini plants. The leaves are very delicate compared to other zucchini types. Hope we don’t get hail. I grow it because I think this is the best tasting zuke ever. I read about this Costata Romanesco in one of Debra Madison’s vegetarian cook books-‘Local Flavors’. She lives in Santa Fe and has several vegetarian cookbooks out. Great books on what tasty things you can create with your veggies. I’m not a vegetarian but am always looking for new ways to use my vegggies so I don’t get bored.
We didn’t get ANY strawberries this year because I almost lost them all when we had that -25°F this winter. I have June bearing strawberries so I know the time has past. I had just a few plants this spring that survived but the strawberry patch is coming back nicely. Next year I will cover them with straw before winter to help insulate them.
This variety of pole bean is called ‘Emerite’ from John Scheepers. It is a new variety for me. I also have my favorite, ‘Rattlesnake’ beans and another new bush variety called, Verandon, which is a french fillet style of bean. I made a teepee out of bamboo. Notice the row cover in the background covering some of the cucumbers.
Here is the eggplant patches. They are doing well. The patch in the foreground has ‘Fairy’ eggplants in them, a variety that get 3″ long and are my favorite. Their skin is always tender and they are never bitter. You don’t have to soak them in salt water like some varieties-and they are beautiful-purple fading to white. I like to saute them in olive oil and throw them in a stir fry with noodles.
The patch in the back with me are a new variety of eggplant called ‘Rosa Bianca’ and next to it are 4 ‘Peperonchino’ peppers that are growing well.
This year I planted rhubarb among the asparagus plants. I found them this spring at one of the nurseries and they were the sorriest plants I’ve ever seen at that time. They say they grow well with asparagus. Now they are beautiful! Seem to like their location. On the left is row cover I use to help protect new flower seedlings. I take it off in the day and back on at night. Once they get a little bigger, I take it off completely.
The biggest disappointment of the garden so far. The ‘Shishito’ peppers are still slow but finally don’t look sick any more. Still small and something ate some of them so they are really small but they will come back. Some of them are producing buds. No wonder they are so expensive at the SF Farmers market-they are not so easy to grow..
Overall I am very pleased with the tomatoes this year. They are doing well. Everything is done except for my scheduled organic fungicide spraying every 10 days-especially now that the monsoons appear to be here. I’ve only lost 2 tomato plants and another 3 are suspicious. I will cover those with some row cover in case they have something contagious but if I think they are dying I will pull them pronto. Notice this picture taken from the some angle as on May 15th below-when I first planted them-they have come a long way!
It has proved to be a more challenging year what with the lack of rain for so many months but I feel confident for all of us with some more rain we will have a good garden this year.
costoluto genevese tomato
Tomato care in June
The Wall of Waters are all off the tomatoes now. I used Companion fungicide as a drench. They got a little wet in the Wall of Waters and I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t come down with early blight while gone on my trip. I also sprayed on the foliage Serenade, which is a foliar fungicide. So one end gets the drench and the other end gets the foliar spray. I figure if you zap them both ways, I should have better protection. When I came back, all looked good except one which was diseased so I tossed it in the garbage, not the compost. Don’t leave diseased plants in the ground to possibly pass on diseases to healthy plants. Then I staked them all up with bamboo stakes and tied up the branches. I cut off any branches that touched the ground so as to not spread any soilborne diseases. Next I had to redefine my wells and put straw over the well to conserve water, help with evaporation and keep soilbourne diseases from splashing up on the tomato plants. Afterward I decided to sterilize my tomato cages since I had some loss due to diseases last year. Might be overkill but I want to be cautious this year before I put them over this year’s tomatoes-don’t want to spread any diseases. I used a 10% solution in a gallon of water (that’s about 1 .75 cup bleach to one gallon water) and sprayed my cages with a hand sprayer. Now I need to put the cages over the tomato plants and start picking off suckers that are showing up. Arrgh, a gardener’s work is never done…
All this work for this..
Virginia Sweet Tomato
Tomatoes are doing excellent in Wall of Waters
tomatoes coming out of wall of waters
All of my tomatoes that are in Wall of Waters are kicking ass right now, many of them outgrowing the Wall of Waters (WOW) and needing me to take the WOW off. The 2 tomatoes that didn’t have Wall of Waters (I ran out) are struggling, even under row cover for protection. It is amazing to me how good the tomatoes do inside those wall of waters and how poorly they do without them. The Wall of Waters act like little greenhouses and are worth every dollar they cost. As a result almost all of my tomatoes have a great head start on the season. I know I’ve talked about them before, but they are worth a mention again. If you want to be really successful with tomatoes, I think you must get these and use them when you first transplant.
Planting, planting, planting…
Well, if you are wondering why I haven’t been posting, it is because I’ve been out PLANTING, trying to get the last of the garden in. So far, I have 70 tomato plants, ‘Rattlesnake’ pole beans around my trellis, 4 ‘Pepperocini’ pepper plants, 16 eggplants, 2 rhubarbs and put additional wall of waters around all of the tomatoes and created some new drip sections for all these.
Tomorrow (Sunday) goes in 12 shishito pepper plants, bush bean seeds, pole bean seeds, 4 different types of cucumbers seeds, ornamental japonica corn, flowers and a new drip system manifold (I take a deep breath now) I hope to get this done (early-way early!) before the BIG WINDS come in AGAIN and make life MISERABLE….
Monday goes in 2 giant pumpkins, 1 giant greenie squash, 2 giant marrows and a giant pear gourd go in. The long gourds will have to wait till I make them a trellis later this week or next.
Phew! It is always such a big push in spring to get things in the garden and fall come harvest time. The rest of the time I feel like I’m just cruising in the garden! All this on 4000 sq feet of garden which is only 1/10 of an acre…
Time to plant your vegetable seeds outside in Santa Fe
Weather next 5 days from May 24
Look at the forecast! Finally summer is upon us! I can’t wait! Yesterday my soil temperature was 70° F in my main vegetable garden so I feel like it is safe to plant our warm season seeds now. I will plant squash, cucumbers, and bean seeds as soon as I can get them in now. Do cover them with some row cover to help keep the birds and 4 legged critters from eating your seedlings as they come up.
I also will transplant the peppers, eggplants and the rest of my tomatoes as well. I have too many veggies still to plant so I have decided not to grow winter squash as it takes so much space in the garden. Besides I grow giant pumpkins, the biggest squash of all so I can just eat that in the fall! Hope I can find room for everything!
giantveggiegardener 