Sunday, August 3, 2008

Tomatoes!

I haven't even gotten to NJ yet and I'm surrounded by tomatoes of all shapes, shades and sizes. And I love it! This past weekend it was my turn to do the pick up at Lindentree Farm. Sylvie and I headed out there together and part of the "pick your own" was Cherry Tomatoes. We had a couple different options, but our favorite (through taste testing) was the Sun Gold variety that ripens to a beautiful orange color. Here I am after filling our basket (and our bellies) full of these delicious treats.
There were so many rows of tomato bushes with tons of unripe tomatoes on them, so I know we'll be getting more in the coming weeks!

I have some of my own tomatoes growing on the back porch. I got a plant from my friend Jeff on my birthday and it's doing really well. I think it's a Green Zebra variety, so I'm excited to see what this ripens into. Here is a photo of the biggest one right now:

There are plenty of flowers and some more fruit on the vine, just waiting to ripen into home grown tomatoes! I can't wait!

The strangest thing (also tomato related) happened in our kitchen this week. My roommate Tim had bought a tomato at a farmer's market a couple weeks ago and left it out on the counter. I was cleaning up the kitchen and when I went to throw this weeks old, rotting tomato away, I noticed that little tomato plants were growing out of it. We now have it out on the back deck and lovingly refer to it as our Mutant Tomato. I can't wait to see where this goes. You can see more green shoots trying to poke through under the skin:

Also on the back porch (but not tomato related) are my morning glories! They are growing out of a pot and seem to be doing well climbing up the rails on the porch. I haven't had any flowers yet, but I'm starting to see buds and that's very promising. I just want to see both the moon flowers and morning glories bloom at least once before I have to leave.

This summer has been great for all of the plants on our back porch. Tim has some peppers and we have a good variety of herbs, too. It's so nice to have an outdoor space to enjoy on these hot days. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to find something with that option in Princeton. For now, I'm happy enjoying the porch that I have.

2 comments:

Jocelyn said...

I have tomato envy!!!!! Must be a good growing season out there.

Jerri said...

What a great post about tomatoes and other plant varieties!

I love it! Great photos. You look so happy picking your tomatoes at the farm, too.
Jerri