Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tomato/Tomatillo Tuesday

omg, omg, omg, a purple tomatillo. I'm so excited!!!!

Some of the tomatillo husks are starting to turn brown and peel away, which I've read is a sign that they're getting ripe enough to pick.

The Supersweet tomatoes are growing nicely. But did we start these seeds too late? (Probably).

It's nice to see so many grape tomatoes in various states of ripening (my favorite picture here). These are all Bonnie grape tomatoes that we bought as plans from a nursery. They're good, but not as sweet as the Napa Grape hybrids we grew in the past. Unfortunately I couldn't find Napa Grapes anywhere this year.

The most recent tomato harvest included a pint of grape tomatoes and five Patio Princesses (grown from seed). 

I list our Harvest to Date on this page, but I'm also tracking our harvest in a Super Nerdy Spreadsheet I created. Last year I also tried to do a cost-savings analysis of growing our own veggies, but lines got sort of blurred because sometimes we bought mulch and soil for the flowers and not necessarily the veggie pots. I admit that I haven't really kept precise records this year either, but I plan to do a general cost savings analysis for my own curiosity.

I can tell you that I stopped buying tomatoes a few months ago, and because we froze most of our pepper harvest last year, I haven't bought a single pepper since May 2010. Have you seen the cost of red, yellow, orange, etc., peppers? That's serious savings.

Also, an update on the Black Krims I wrote about on Friday. They didn't taste as salty as I expected, as the seed packet led me to believe. They were very juicy though. We diced them up and threw them into an omelet, and the dark red color made for an interesting look.

9 comments:

  1. aahh! your purple tomatillo is awesome!! i can't wait until mine ripen. yours set fruit way before mine did. mine spent about three months growing huge and flowering a ton, but all the blossoms dropped (even when i tried hand-pollinating them!) until just a few weeks ago, now they're setting left and right.

    i bet your supersweet tomatoes will do well. tomato plants grow so fast this time of year. and you can always bring them inside for fall/winter tomatoes!

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  2. Those purple tomatillos are really cool! I'm glad your tomatoes are giving so much fruit. We've started harvesting grape tomatoes off my mystery tomato and have big green ones growing on the tomato I left where I found it in the garden. I haven't noticed any savings yet. I'm just glad to have tomatoes that don't taste like plastic.

    I'm moving one Endless Summer hydrangea into the back garden and am giving the other two away. They need too much water and aren't giving me enough blooms to make the water bill worth it. Plus I discovered they're grwoing in a heat island created by sun reflecting off my windows so their wilting problem is never going to go away. Good bye hydrangea, hello spirea!

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  3. @Emily--I've been looking around at my container plants wondering which ones I'll bring in. I was thinking of keeping the Supersweets inside this year. Glad your tomatillos are setting!

    @Casa Mariposa--so two mysteries solved! The tomato and the cause of the hydrangeas' issues. Glad you found a new place for the hydrangea.

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  4. Looks like you have had a lot of success with your tomatoes! You are right...you are saving a lot of money by growing your own peppers. Unfortunately my tomatoes did not do well at all. In fact, we only had two. :/ I will keep trying and trying and trying.

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  5. A purple tomatillo - how exciting! Looks like you're getting lots of tomatoes! I love to grow Black Krims because I love the color. It just screams "not from the store!". ;)

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  6. I cannot even BEGIN to describe my tomato envy. Lucky I know nothing about tomatillos or I'd have to deal with that too. Awesome container gardening! My tomatoes are planted out in the garden and looking totally happy and comfortable staying green forever and ever...

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  7. Love the purple tomatillo. I've been thinking of starting a "super nerdy spreadsheet" for my garden because I can't remember when to fertilize and prune certain plants.

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  8. @Amy--thank you. And definitely keep trying! Last year wasn't such a good tomato year for us, but there's always next year right?

    @HolleyGarden--yes, exactly! It's fun to have a cool, not available in the grocery store tomato. :)

    @linnie--I'm sure your tomatoes will start to blush soon. We've had a lot of hot sunny days lately, and I think that gave them a push.

    @GirlSprout--thanks! My other finance friends and I joke with each other that we make spreadsheets for everything. :)

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  9. I love the cute little grape tomatoes. The spread sheets sounds like a great idea to me.

    I get forgetful as well, which is why I have a written journal.

    Blogging on blogger has also helped me keep up with what I've done last.

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