A few snapshots of some goodies we pulled from the garden yesterday
Finished up pulling some of the determinate tomato plants that had finished up for the season and started picking! I haven't weighed the cherry tomatoes yet, but my kids picked a hefty bowl of them. Here is a 'sauce & salsa' bin that we grabbed from the garden yesterday evening:
That was the start..
In the photo (above), we have:
Tomatoes (Brandywine, Pineapple, Marion, Box Car Willie, Money Maker, Super Sweet Cherry 100), Purple Tomatillos, Corn (Silver & Gold, Silver Queen), Peppers (Cubanelle, Anaheim Chili, Emerald Green, Cayenne, Banana).
This year we have had some tremendous storms and some that dumped inches of rainfall per hour. Heavy rain causes some of the varieties to split very easily, but we are carefully observing which varieties hold up best for this - to better prepare for next season. Funny how we (gardeners) are in the middle of the season and already thinking about the next. 😆
The large, yellow variety is the 'Pineapple' heirloom tomato and the similar large, pink colored next to them are 'Brandywine' (Pink). I add the 'pink', but it is redundant because Brandywine strain began as pink and then other colors were eventually bred from this variety.
Here's Somethin' Funky!
The only hybrid I like to grow: Super Sweet Cherry 100
This variety is one of the toughest I've grown and I mean tough! My kids are like the little hands of death in the garden, but they can't hurt these plants. Last year, the first two frosts did not even stop these! It's impressive.
First year ever growing tomatillos
The tomatillo plants attract pests like crazy! I used them almost sacrificially this year as an experiment. They do work well keeping the bugs occupied - it seems the garden pests preferred the tomatillo over the tomato plants. Have you noticed similar results with tomatillos in the garden? I am interested to know in the comments below!
The fruit has a sweet flavor to it and we are going to try them in some homemade salsa! If you have any tomatillo recipes, toss them below in the comments.