Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes

Right now we are splitting the time working on the farm between tomato harvesting time and non-tomato time where we get everything else done.

Starting last Friday the amount of heirloom tomatoes and Early Girls that were ready to harvest multiplied from Wednesday while we are still harvesting lots of cherry tomatoes.

Due to the cooler spring more of the tomato flowers were pollinated and produced fruit which excited us and with the hot weather over the past two weeks more of the tomatoes than we expected have been ripening.

It won’t be just a week or two with lots of heirloom tomatoes as there is still lots on the plants that still have to ripen and we haven’t begun harvesting off the third planting yet.

Our first planting of cherry tomatoes are starting to get a little smaller and producing fewer but our third planting of them is starting to come in so we still have a lot.

We are now harvesting all of our varieties of tomatoes as some of them took longer to start ripening than others.

Our Brandywine tomatoes didn’t do great last year and this year we hadn’t got many fruit until the past week when we have got so many. They are all a great size for slicing or chopping up in a salad and the pink tomato is delectable.

A relatively new variety that we grew which has just started producing lots of ripe tomatoes is Benevento. It is a hybrid tomato bred by Fred Hempel of Artisan Seeds in Sunol which combines the flavor of heirlooms and the qualities of beefsteaks that make them so popular commercially.

Another veggie that has been loving the hot temperatures is the basil, as long as it gets the water it needs.

The sweet Italian basil, Genovese, we grew is delicious on a pizza, in a tomato salad and of course using it in pesto which can be simply made with basil, olive oil and garlic.

We also have Thai basil which has a unique flavor that is savory, spicy and similar to anise. It holds up very well cooked which the Genovese basil doesn’t.

The fall veggies we seeded just over two weeks ago are growing really well with these hot days and should be ready in another two to three weeks to be transplanted in the field.

As will be the weekly tradition for most of the fall we seeded lettuce this week adding a few more varieties including the first red butter of the fall. We also seeded some more broccoli.