Jay - I'm so happy for ya I could almost go out and dance in the rain to help send more your way! I really don't need anymore for a day or two. My barrels and anything else that would catch water are full. Here in Norman, we got a LOT more than OKC...like over 2 inches.

That first BLT of the season is soooo good! I had my first this week, from a Cherokee purple. In fact, I had one for breakfast and another for lunch! I think the only other thing that would perfect it would be to make a garlic infused mayo for the spread.

Paula

Great Jay, you got a BLT! It is officially summer!

The goal here for most people is to have a full size ripe tomato by the 4th of July. I beat that a little, maybe a week. Besides all of the cherries, I have picked Black Krim, Sioux, Cluster Goliath, Lime Green Salad, Pink Brandmaster, Ensalada, Big Boy, and I think 2 Baker Family Heirloom, and probably others that I'm not remembering right now. I'm sure I have had a half dozen or more off of the Ensalada plant and more than one off some of the others. I have read that Ensalada is a saladette tomato, but mine was dry and more like a paste. Some have been a nice size, but the big ones are yet to come. I can see several on the Carbon plant and Sioux that are looking quite large. I picked a Sioux that must have been from a mega bloom and was like three tomatoes fused together on one stem. It was big and ugly but tasted good. I haven't eaten the Pink Brandmaster yet, but it is large but a little catfaced. Both of the Black Krim have been nice tomatoes, but they are kind of different looking with their green shoulders, but they were smooth and unblemished. It is a good tomato but not the best I have eaten.

I have picked three huge long peppers this week that were great and I don't know what they are. I guess I buried the name tag, or maybe the chicken moved it the day I had them out for awhile. They love to grab those little pieces of blinds. I have had several bells and I think they have all been Purple Beauty. Looks like plenty of jalapeno out there too although I have only picked one.

I haven't had any cukes yet, but I have some about 3 inches long. Today I picked the first of the long beans. I had so many squash all at once that I made five jars of relish to use them up. In a few more days that is going to happen again so I guess I need to grate and freeze some for breads and such, and maybe even freeze some for squash casserole.

I'm glad to hear that you tomatoes are coming because you sure had a hard time getting them to the ground.

Carol,
I had mentioned in the first post I tried to make I ate a cuke along with the BLT. I've been eating cukes for at least 2 weeks. Also have been getting squash at least that long.

I've got several fruit on some of the larger fruit type plants. Will see how they do when it warms back up. I've found in the past that the larger fruit types tend to struggle more if they have heavy fruit set when the heat hits. That is why I usually wait to plant those type till later for a harvest in Sept and Oct. I have an 1884 Purple that looks like it is going to get really huge. It is a fused (mega bloom). I've had several of those this year. The The blossom stem is huge also. Wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't end up the biggest I've ever raised. Not going to be real pretty. I have 3 Black Krims. One I bought and 2 I raised. They sure didn't take the heat well. Looking some better now. One of them has a fruit from a mega bloom and it is ugly. But many nice looking fruits. Big Cheef has a nice sized nice looking fruit and I think a few smaller ones. Have fruit set on many of the Brandywine crosses. But none that I've noticed on Brandymaster Pink yet. Have had a lot of blossom drop on it and Royal Hillbilly. I pulled 3 more today. When the blooms no longer have good blooms I've found it is usually time to pull them. Have had very few ever amount to much after that. I can't make up my mind what happened. Nothing fits for sure. Some symptoms of the physllid yellows I've had the last 2 seasons. But again not sure. I'm going to do some more searching but haven't found anything but the yellows that is even close. I sprayed with garlic spray although that don't seem to bother the physllids. Overall still looks like it could be a decent year. Lots of nice plants. When I had the soil tests ran one lab said to add some things when I planted besides the sulfur. The other said add sulfur only. I added sulfur and the Jobe's tomato mix to most holes. That is in addition to the sulfur I added last fall. I had a few volunteers come up. One in a onion row. Around the 25th of May. It is the biggest and bushiest plant I have. Not sure if it has fruits but loaded with blooms. It didn't get anything but the sulfur I added to the whole garden. The other volunteers are growing well also. Makes me wonder if maybe I should of listened to the one who said not to add anything but sulfur. I don't feel right if I don't add something to the hole. This plant of course is a sprawler. It is over 2 foot tall for sure and at least 3 ft diameter. And like I said came up late. Of the nine big plants up to 2 foot tall with blooms I bought only one produced tomatoes before mine I started that were 10-12 inches smaller when transplanted. The Pink Girl was the 2nd one of them to produce. So again in my climate even planting big plants didn't gain me a lot it seems. I feel my best bet will be to start some in the greenhouse in containers and then move the containers outside when it warms up. If gardening didn't present challenges it would be no fun. LOL. Raining a little again. Jay

Jay, I think it is much more important to build a big root system, not a big plant, before you put them in the ground. Sounds like your methods were better than the methods of the greenhouse you bought from.

I didn't do anything to hurry mine along this year. I didn't use my WOW or cover them with anything. I just put them in the ground when I thought it was safe and let them do their own thing. (Except when hail threatened)

I think there is only so much you can rush anyway unless you have a greenhouse. Last year, Dawn gave me a cantaloupe plant at the swap. I brought it home and put it in a pot. She ate melons for weeks before I had a ripe one. Plants just produce when they are ready.

I am not surprised that you have cukes and squash. When I lived in Denver, it seemed that I was making pickles every week to use up the excess cukes, and the squash never stopped. Lots of hours of sun, and maybe being a mile closer helps. LOL No squash bugs either. I think I got my cukes in much too late, but that's OK, they will taste great with my tomatoes.

When you get a Greek Salad in the US it always has lettuce, but in Greece it doesn't. It is normally tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, sometimes onion. It is drizzled with olive oil and has feta cheese crumbled all over it. It is still one of my favorite summer salads. Another favorite dish of mine was what they did with zukes. You would love this one. They made a batter that was a cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, one egg, and salt. They sliced the zuke and spread it out on a towel and salted it and let it rest to draw out some of the moisture. Then they dipped the slices in the batter and deep fried them. They served them with a sauce made of plain yogurt, grated (or finally diced) cucumber, and a LOT of garlic. They usually brought you a big loaf of fresh bread with a knife sticking in it. They could have kept the rest of the meal, because I was happy with just that much........except for those french fries cooked in olive oil....oh my gosh...are they ever good. I feel the urge for a greek meal coming on. LOL

I would liked to have added mushroom compost to my garden this year, but I didn't have a truck to go get it in. I had a trailer that I could have fixed up to use for that but just didn't get it done. Since I can get compost at a reasonable price here, I really need a work truck. I have found one and we are transferring the paperwork on Tuesday. Just an older truck that I can use for lumber, and bags of garden stuff, and compost. A real work truck that I won't be afraid of damaging. My SUV has carried a lot of stuff, and I have had to clean the carpet a lot of times. LOL It is supposed to be just for me, but Al is already talking about being able to drive it and not put the miles on his good truck......Do you suppose it is really mine?

I am so glad that you are getting rain. We got less than a quarter of an inch but it is in the forecast for scattered T-storms the next five days. We turned our air conditioner off for 4 nights and just used it in the day. We went all day today and didn't even think about needing it, but about 10:20 tonight we had to turn it on again. The temp is only 79, but humidity is 89 so it isn't cool tonight. It has really been humid this year.

OMG - I must make a "true" Greek salad, Carol - it sounds delicious, and I love Greek food anyway. When I was in Boston, I used to go to some of the tiny little Greek restaurants - out of the way places, and the Greek food was soooooo much better than I find here locally. The Boston area is a melting pot of people from many different ethnic backgrounds, including a large Meditarranean population. I love Spanikopita, Felafel, Feta cheese, Kalimari olives, and foods I no longer recall. I've been dying to try the attached recipe for Pan Fried Eggplant with Feta Cheese, just to see if I can "like" eggplant, LOL! It's the one veggie I haven't found I really like, so want to try some different recipes other than Eggplant Parmesan. I am going to save this thread with your other recipes.

Did you try the Lime Green Salad tomatos yet? I have read they are a bit tart, but supposed to be real nice when used together with other cherry tomatos in a mixed salad. Can't wait to try them.

Congrats, Jay! I am going to fix me a BLT for dinner tonight. I just keep eating the tomatos with a bit of sale & pepper, and enjoying the taste in its purest form. That's what happens when you don't get fresh tomatos for a number of years - too many, in fact!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Pan Fried Eggplant with Feta Cheese

Jay,

Congrats on both the first BLT of the season and also on the rain. I think you have a good chance of having more rain this week.

Carol,

I used to be happy with the first big ripe tomato in early June, and once I started getting them in late May, I began shooting for mid-May, and then early-May, and now mid-April. Our first BLT this year was in late-April, but that was from cheater tomatoes transplanted into pots in February. With the in-ground plants, I usually have ripe toms by mid-May if I can cover them up with 5-gallon buckets and protect them from the inevitable freeze the first week in May. (It just seems wrong to have to cover up big plants with fruit almost to the breaker stage in early May, but I guess Mother Nature thinks it is funny to throw a late freeze at us 5 or 6 weeks after our average last frost date.) I don't think I'll ever get fruit any earlier than I already do, but that first BLT is so special!

At the opposite end of the calendar, the last BLT in Nov. or Dec. is very bittersweet because you know that it is the last one for a long time.

For a couple of years in the early 2000s, I pushed tomato production into winter with covered plants (picture a mini hoophouse over about 6 plants) or plants in pots, but any fruit that ripens after October generally has poor flavor due to the cool weather/lower sunlight and the corresponding lack of development of sugars and flavor compounds, so I don't bother with that any more.

I'm moving from plum/peach overload (down to 1 big bowl of not-quite-ripe plums left and that is 'the end' of the plums) to tomato overload, so think I'll be making Annie's salsa all week. I'm making it several ways this week...one will have no vinegar and will go into freezer jars, and one will be the original recipe, and the third will have some of the vinegar replaced with part bottled lime juice and part bottled lemon juice. I know the vinegar is necessary in order for the recipe to pass the Ext. Service safety tests and be approved as a safe canning recipe, but I really don't like the vinegar, so I'm trying to work around it without damaging the safety of a batch.

The humidity and heat index are brutal here today, and I guess we can blame that on all the Gulf moisture streaming up over our states. There's Invest 95L off the NE gulf coast that might send us moisture in a couple of days, and there's Invest 96L forming in about the same area where Hurricane Alex developed. 96L has a very good chance of becoming a tropical depression and, eventually, Hurricane Bonnie. Early models (which have high error rates) show Bonnie coming towards Mex/Tex/La eventually. I think we may have a July with lots of recurring rain bands if the tropical systems keep coming into the Gulf of Mexico.

I know the rain is great and always badly needed here in the summer, but the humidity is really something else! It is torture!

Susan,

I have tried and tried and tried and have just concluded I do not like eggplant. So, I plant it anyway for fun and as a trap crop for flea beetles and then give away the eggplant fruits. This year we planted the eggplants in Maddie's Peter Rabbit garden, and we chose the two plants because of their names....Hansel and Gretel. Both are producing well.

I liked Lime Green Salad well enough when I grew them for 2 or 3 years but they weren't good enough to make the permanent growing rotation.

Dawn

Susan, I have only eaten (part of) one Lime Green Salad but have some more in my kitchen. At this moment, I would have to say that if you like the taste of fried green tomatoes, you will probably love it. At least, that's what it reminded me of. As they ripen, they will begin to take on a yellowish look and the fruit will soften. You have to watch pretty close because they don't change much from unripe to ripe. I have two of these plants and both are COVERED with tomatoes.

Dawn, I tried your Pink Brandymaster today and it is a good tomato. It had a little bit of a core, but the taste was very good and it was nice sandwich size.

Eggplant is not my favorite veggie either, but Al loves it, so I plant it for him. It is a lot of trouble here because you have to keep it covered for several weeks until the flea beetle population dies down. They seem to love it. I have learned to like it in several dishes. We have an attorney friend here that is Greek. Before he married, his mother would come to visit and fill his freezer with homemade Greek food while she was here. Many of those times, she made any extra dish, and sent it to us. She could make anyone like Greek food. My biggest eggplant is only about golf ball size so I have to wait awhile.