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First Official Ripe Tomato

August 5th, 2010

Last Week on Friday I picked my first official ripe tomato of 2010, right before we left for vacation. Of course I picked a few earlier that were from a volunteer, but these are labeled “official” since they were from plants that I started from seed.

They were ‘Zapoted Pleated’ and ‘Constoluto Genovese’ tomatoes. If I remember correctly these two tomatoes were among the first I picked last year as well. I was thinking that my ‘Sub-Arctic’ would be the first. It’s loaded with tomatoes, but only one is starting to turn.

It looks like I have a ‘Goldman Italian American’ ripe on the vine now that I’m finally home from vacation. We made it home much later than expected after coming through some pretty serious storms in SE Ohio. Fortunately we were on a major highway when they hit, but when we got off on the back roads to head home we had to turn around five times to find another route after coming across power lines and trees blocking the roads.

We ended up on some back roads, that could barely be called roads that were also littered with fallen trees and branches, but not completely cut off. Finally we made it home, much later than expected, but that is one the drawbacks of living in a rural area!

Have you harvested your first official tomato yet? What variety was it?

21 Comments to “First Official Ripe Tomato”
  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mark mile, Susy Morris. Susy Morris said: First Official Ripe #Tomato http://goo.gl/fb/b66Di #edible #harvest […]

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  2. Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary on August 5, 2010 at 6:52 am

    My in-laws are in Toronto, OH and they called to tell us what a bad storm they had too. Glad you are all ok.

    We harvesed our first ripe tomatoes at the end of last week. I have 5 different varities, the lemon boys were the first to ripen.

    Reply to Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary's comment

    • Susy on August 5, 2010 at 8:23 am

      Yes, we were driving through south of that, trying to take 250 up through Cadiz to get home, but it was blocked with power lines and trees in many places. In one spot we waiting for a while for the fireman to clear some trees off, then we drove over one power line they had cut off.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  3. Andrea on August 5, 2010 at 7:44 am

    Picked the first tomato yesterday, it’s a German Johnson.

    Reply to Andrea's comment

  4. kristin @ going country on August 5, 2010 at 8:23 am

    Indeed I have. God bless the Stupice–always the first to ripen. But I’ve also had some Baby Cakes, San Marzanos, and a couple of Black Krims.

    This is a very early year for tomatoes.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  5. Sense of Home on August 5, 2010 at 8:56 am

    My first tomatoes were the Dragon Spring Cherry and the Beaver Lodge Plum, that was a few weeks ago. This week I have harvested two ABC Celebrity. I have a LOT more on the vine, the canner will be busy soon!

    Reply to Sense of Home's comment

  6. Doug Schmidt on August 5, 2010 at 9:02 am

    I liked the picts of your tomatoes.
    We harvested Black Krims , and a couple of Amish Paste

    Reply to Doug Schmidt's comment

  7. Donna B. on August 5, 2010 at 9:06 am

    Eee! How exciting! I’ve only been picking cherry tomatoes… I took too long getting my heirlooms in the ground early enough – they’re big but all still green. Time is running out!

    But those tomatoes look absolutely GORGEOUS. I’ll have to look into those if they are early-bearing/early-ripening…

    And I hope you had a wonderful holiday! Sometimes getting away is a good thing, hehe! But of course the adventure of coming home too is pretty exciting.

    [Oh yes, and on a side note I am totally tardy to respond to this, but I believe I was one of the few picked for the columbine seed give-a-way! Eeee~ But I haven’t been contacted yet… should I e-mail you? I am not too late, am I?]

    Reply to Donna B.'s comment

    • Susy on August 5, 2010 at 3:45 pm

      Yep, you did. I e-mailed you again, but it may have gotten sent to your spam. If you didn’t get it contact me through the button in my sidebar. I’ll need your address to mail them off to you.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Seren Dippity on August 5, 2010 at 9:08 am

    I just planted a Constoluto Genovese as one of my fall tomatoes. I had to buy starts from the nursery; I just can’t seem to get seeds to transplant stage in the summer. In January – no problem. In June, no matter how I baby them they are too weak to survive, I had two trays of tomatoes die as I tried to harden them off. I guess there is no way to go from AC to 95+ degrees easily. I tried starting a seed tray directly outside and very little germinated and what did, didn’t survive.

    Anyway, I’m looking forward to another round of tomatoes. This time I planted several determinant varieties, hoping to make it easier to freeze batches of sauce. yum.

    Enjoy your beautiful tomatoes.

    Reply to Seren Dippity's comment

  9. Amy on August 5, 2010 at 9:13 am

    Glad you all made it home safely~Susy………My first tomatoes were cherry……Now all of them are turning…..and we have an influx…….german, san marzano, roma, brandywine, and whites-.which were given to me by a friend who does the master gardener classes…..”It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”
    Lewis Grizzard

    Reply to Amy's comment

  10. Turling on August 5, 2010 at 9:59 am

    Good Lord, it looks as though you had to drive through the apocalypse. Nice to have you back.

    Reply to Turling's comment

    • Susy on August 5, 2010 at 11:38 am

      Mr Chiots jokingly said, “I wonder if this is what it’s going to be like 2012 when the world is coming to an end?” That’s kind of what it reminded me of. If there was hot lava flowing over the road it would have been just like a movie!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  11. Joshua on August 5, 2010 at 10:38 am

    Not only have I harvested my tomatoes, they have all mostly succumbed to early blight and I have pulled the plants from the garden and reconditioned the bed. So, your tomato harvest is just beginning, and mine is totally over. How do you like that?!

    The one plant that was keeping the blight away was the cherry. It had overgrown the cage and was making as if to take over the whole garden. I pulled it out mostly just so I could walk on my garden paths again without squishing tomatoes underneath my feet! Next year, I plan to be a bit more diligent with my pruning, or stick to determinate varieties that won’t sprawl like that.

    Reply to Joshua's comment

    • Susy on August 5, 2010 at 11:39 am

      I usually let the volunteers sprawl as they may, they seem to be so productive. Must be their wild roots coming out.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  12. Wendy on August 5, 2010 at 10:57 am

    My first official ripe tomato was my Tom Thumb, then my yellow pear tomatoes, then some small round ones (volunteer). My first large tomato was my brandywine (I think – since I didn’t label them well). :)

    Glad you are home – the kids enjoyed seeing Lucy last weekend!

    Wendy

    Reply to Wendy's comment

  13. Marianne on August 5, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    In Madison, WI, I have been harvesting Sungolds for a few weeks now and Early Girls two weeks ago. Also in the past week I have started to harvest Estiva, Speckled Roman, Jet Star, and Black Krim tomatoes. And I have an out-of-control tomatillo plant – the fruit isn’t ready, but I’ve had to prune it back to keep it from taking over the whole garden!

    Reply to Marianne's comment

  14. Kaytee on August 5, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    I’ll be picking my first tomatoes today! A few of my Red Pear are just about ready. And I have one paste tomato about ready. I lost the tag for it before planting, so I have no clue what it is, and of course they’re the best tomato plants I have!

    Glad to see you made it back okay. I’ve been on some of those back roads in Ohio. I would question the GPS when it told me to go down them!

    Reply to Kaytee's comment

  15. MAYBELLINE on August 6, 2010 at 12:04 am

    Wow – I’m about at the end of my tomato season. My 37 plants did me proud with my 1st summer growing heirlooms.

    Reply to MAYBELLINE's comment

  16. rowena on August 6, 2010 at 6:01 am

    I picked a St. Pierre earlier this week which really made my day. It as been a late summer for us….spring just never wanted to leave…so I’ll probably be harvesting our tomatoes in a couple of weeks or at the end of the month.

    Reply to rowena's comment

  17. Joe on August 7, 2010 at 2:55 am

    WOW can I say those tomatoes look DELICIOUS! You’re lucky to have such a crop coming on…I don’t have any tomatoes this year, but I do have six ‘Fresno’ chile pepper plants as well as one ‘Anaheim’ chile plant. The ‘Fresno’ plants are covered in peppers – I’ll post photos on my blog soon…the hiatus is over :D

    Reply to Joe's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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