We just picked our first ripe tomato. As it was only one, we had to cut it in half so quantitatively not so significant but qualitatively a major milestone in a gardening season.
It wasn’t even from the short season tomato plants we started early before the others and sheltered under cloches to jump start the season. Those still seem to be on track to start by the Fourth of July, which I always shoot for. They will still probably come in before that even as the first ones are starting to show color and they ripen quickly after that.
This was the Sungold, a cherry tomato that was given normal treatment. Being a cherry it was a wee bit of a bite, but most of the pleasure was in the concept of having a ripe tomato, so the amount was lesser. Looks like another one will ripen by tomorrow.
It does bring up the question for next year should I just start the Sungold as the early tomato? I will probably hedge my bets and do it in addition to the early one instead of replacing it in case this was an anomaly, but if it holds true to being early next year, then for 2014 it will become the early tomato, which will simplify my varietal range.
I guess I should have taken a photo of the first tomato but eating it was more of a priority and won out.
June 26, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Very happy for you, Madhava! Here in our little dale lying west of Boston and east of Worcester, I’ve already picked two zucchini from my Patio Star (c. pepo), which is a zucchini bred specifically for container cultivation. They are a little smaller than your typical Italian zucchini, but very tasty!
June 28, 2012 at 8:24 am
We have buds on our zucchini but still have it under floating row cover to protect it from the squash bugs. Once the buds open we will have to open it up and hope for the best.