My summer never officially starts...

[Jenise]

...until I have my first insalata caprese with locally grown tomatoes.

That was lunch yesterday. Life is good.

...until I have my first insalata caprese with locally grown tomatoes.

That was lunch yesterday. Life is good.

We're in synch - my first one was for supper last night.

...until I have my first insalata caprese with locally grown tomatoes.

That was lunch yesterday. Life is good.

I assume locally-grown doesn't mean "in your own backyard?" Or did your tomatoes finally ripen? I love a good unadulterated caprese salad.

[Jenise]

...until I have my first insalata caprese with locally grown tomatoes.

That was lunch yesterday. Life is good.

We're in synch - my first one was for supper last night.

Hope you had some crusty bread with yours. That was the only thing missing from ours--I mean, it would have been there if I'd planned to serve the dish in advance, but I didn't.

...until I have my first insalata caprese with locally grown tomatoes.

That was lunch yesterday. Life is good.

You have tomatoes? All I have are nickle-sized, green fruit. I fear I will only eat tomatoes for about 2 weeks before the frost kills the plant. UGGGHHHHHH!!!

[Jenise]

I assume locally-grown doesn't mean "in your own backyard?" Or did your tomatoes finally ripen? I love a good unadulterated caprese salad.

Right, we don't have any ripe tomatoes yet. But I found a few at the Farmers Market on Saturday--small, misshapen things, kind of tomato bloopers if you will, but nonetheless sweet and tasty--that were entirely worthy of their fate when I found a hunk of mozzarella bufalo I didn't realize I had.

By 'unadulterated', I presume you mean no balsamic or other embellishments? Just toms, mozz, basil, EVOO, salt and pepper? This reminds me of....wait, this is a good idea for a new thread. Look for my next post.

[Jenise]

...until I have my first insalata caprese with locally grown tomatoes.

That was lunch yesterday. Life is good.

You have tomatoes? All I have are nickle-sized, green fruit. I fear I will only eat tomatoes for about 2 weeks before the frost kills the plant. UGGGHHHHHH!!!

No! Not yet. These were a Farmers Market find, and I think the farmer was from Skagit. In my own garden, this morning I saw one one tomato finally turning an orange color, but no other looks even close. My Fourth of July hasn't even set fruit yet.

I'm proud to say that although the numbers are small, I've been picking ripe tomatoes for several weeks now, putting me a good two months ahead of past years. But then I admit I've taken extreme measures.

[Jenise]

I'm proud to say that although the numbers are small, I've been picking ripe tomatoes for several weeks now, putting me a good two months ahead of past years. But then I admit I've taken extreme measures.

And what, pray tell, have those been? I might want to learn from you.

I'm proud to say that although the numbers are small, I've been picking ripe tomatoes for several weeks now, putting me a good two months ahead of past years. But then I admit I've taken extreme measures.

And what, pray tell, have those been? I might want to learn from you.

Probably a green house or row covers. In past years I have planted my tomatoes before the frost date, and used row cover...had tomatoes in June. There are all sorts of things on the market to get them going. I am curious too what Mark did!

And what, pray tell, have those been? I might want to learn from you.

Well, I didn't elaborate because I kind of doubt many others would go for this and it's a long story... Karen is certainly close. You need to keep in mind that I have two problems when it comes to tomatoes on Whidbey: deer and cool temperatures. Whidbey is 40+ miles long and so has a range of climates but is generally cooler than the rest of the region and that goes double where I am, exposed to cool westerlies. We haven't made 80 F here yet this summer and 70 is a more normal high temp. Deer leave certain plants alone but the list is short and I doubt it includes tomatoes.

First, I chose "early" varieties. Cherry tomatoes often are that and one is a yellow cherry. The other is a Czech (?) heirloom variety called "Stupice" that other locals swore by. A "potato-leafed" variety, the plant looks odd. Then, with summer so slow to start here, I waited a long time to plant. I bought the plants in mid-May but they probably didn't go in the ground until a month after that. Tomatoes don't set fruit unless they stay above 55 F or so at night, something that barely happens here now, let alone in a cold/rainy early June. So I repotted as they grew and was moving them out in the sun (when we had any) during the day, back into the garage to stay warm at night.

When they did go out, they went out protected by their own mini-greenhouses. I use four foot high cages of welded wire elsewhere to protect plants until they're (hopefully) big enough to tolerate some deer browsing. I borrowed a couple of those as tomato cages and wrapped them in clear plastic. Each is supported by three stakes inside them driven into the ground, a precaution against wind. So the plastic-wrapped cages are are doing double duty as deer protection and plant warmers. Finally, inside the cages I constructed a poor man's "Wall-o-water", surrounding each plant with a ring of water-filled, stoppered wine bottles. The idea of Wall-o-water (a commercial product) is mostly to protect tomatoes from early season frost. In my case, mid-June put me well past any frost danger but hoped that heat collected by the wine bottles during the day would radiate on the plants at night, keeping them above the magic 55 at night.

So I've tried a lot of things all at once, a very uncontrolled experiment. I have no idea what worked but the bottom line is ripe tomatoes on Whidbey in mid-July. Before my experience has been more like the one Jo Ann fears, the first ripe fruit just as the first winter frosts arrive. The thing I haven't worked out: how to conveniently get the fruit out. So far I've actually been removing the cages, a two-man operation that's not really workable, especially as the plants get bigger and use the cage for support. I think it's time to open up a few strategically placed windows in my "greenhouses"!

As I said, extreme measures I can't imagine people wanting to duplicate the whole thing but maybe someone will find something useful in there somewhere...

I'm surprised. I'm always railing about the short growing season here in east central Wisconsin but we have had a very early spring and summer and I plunged ahead in planting by a full month. I've been harvesting for 2 weeks - Black Crim, Black Prince, Sweet 100, Pink Caspian and just picked a Green Zebra . Not tons but enough for salads very night. The cucumbers have gone nuclear with all the rain we've had...some are quite virile, growing straight up on the trellis instead of hanging down... unusual garden year. Might be all the chicken and horse poop we applied last fall .

My tomatoes came in around fathers day, I just love summer time foods. -RP

I'm proud to say that although the numbers are small, I've been picking ripe tomatoes for several weeks now, putting me a good two months ahead of past years. But then I admit I've taken extreme measures.

And what, pray tell, have those been? I might want to learn from you.

I'm with Jenise -- please tell. My goal was to eat tomatoes from my garden on July 4th. At this rate, I'll be lucky to get some by Labor Day!

We harvested our firs Summer Gold yesterday. Brandwines look to be 30 days away!

[Jenise]

Mark, those really ARE extreme measures. Whew! I like the wine bottle idea.

Next year look for an early variety called Fourth of July. Last year I bought one at Whole Foods in Seattle, which is the only place I saw it, but this year they were all over Bellingham so they'd be in your area now, too. It's a prolific producer of small, sweet, good-acid tomatoes that buds out impressively early and churns out fruit longer than most. I only bought one this year because I discovered it so late and had already purchased what I had room for, but though I have nothing to pick yet I would be surprised if once it gets going it doen't outperform all the others just like it did last year. Still learning what works--I've officially given up on zebras, for instance. Love the tomatoes but they are the last by several weeks in an already too-short summer to set fruit/ripen every time I plant them, so they don't earn their space.

I assume locally-grown doesn't mean "in your own backyard?" Or did your tomatoes finally ripen? I love a good unadulterated caprese salad.

Right, we don't have any ripe tomatoes yet. But I found a few at the Farmers Market on Saturday--small, misshapen things, kind of tomato bloopers if you will, but nonetheless sweet and tasty--that were entirely worthy of their fate when I found a hunk of mozzarella bufalo I didn't realize I had.

By 'unadulterated', I presume you mean no balsamic or other embellishments? Just toms, mozz, basil, EVOO, salt and pepper? This reminds me of....wait, this is a good idea for a new thread. Look for my next post.

Yes, just the simplest of ingredients (but those must be good ingredients.) Nothing to overpower the taste of a "real" tomato.
I like your new thread.

We've been eating our little guys for a couple of weeks. We grow them on the patio where the cement concentrates the heat and they ripen quickly.

[Robin Garr]

We got our first tomatoes around the end of June, but they didn't start coming on reliably until about July 15, which is a little late for this semi-Southern climate. Now they're coming on strong. I didn't join in this discussion, though, because we haven't had our first caprese yet. I did pick up a creamy ball of just-made mozzarella this week, though, so it's coming soon!

For me summer starts when we have our first local corn on the cob and BBTs (Bacon, Basil and Tomato) with farmers market tomatoes or home grown tomatoes.
Last Thursday I processed the first batch of cucumber dill pickles for the year. I did 21 jars and a set a gallon of deli style pickles to ferment. Next week I shall start on the dilled green beans and maybe the jalapenos both pickled and poppers..