Aaaaaaaaaggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Disaster has struck the garden. I'm 99.9% sure I have late blight. Yesterday was the first day all summer that I didn't go out in the garden. I went out this morning and Mystery Tomato #5 (Regular leaf pink beefsteak seed saved from an unkown tomato) had some splotchy water soaked looking leaves towards the top and some stems turning black. I ripped it out immediately and disposed of it. I've clipped a bunch of leaves from other plants that looked suspicious too. I think it's too much to hope for that the rest of my plants will survive. I saved the 3 large tomatoes from MT5 and they are (hopefully) ripening on the counter. I also picked a Dr. Wyche's Yellow that's just starting to turn, a Green Zebra (just turning), a Golden Queen (all 1st of the season) and another Stupice- pretty prolific, tough skins nice flavor. I went to the farm today to pick up my weekly produce (participating in a CSA this year) all their plants were totally wiped out. She said that tomatoes at the farmers market are going for over $20 for 1/2 peck. That's not good. It's a sad sumer for tomtatoes.


I'm hanging onto what I can and praying a lot. So far this year I've had production from Stupice, Silvery Fir Tree (nice flavor,thick-ish skin), Super Sioux, MT2 (saved seed from unknown tomato), Black Krim, Golden Queen, Black Cherry and Garden Peach. MT2 has produced 2 fruit so far (see bottom pic). It's a yellow regular leaf with a pink-ish starburst on the flower end. The pink-ish runs through the center of the tomato. It was a nice mild yellow (not bland but quite mild) with an unobtrusive skin, it weighed in at 5.6oz. Top is a picture of my first Black Krim -or Heaven on a Plate-as I like to call it. I have no idea why the picture is sideways I can't figure out how to fix it. This weighed in at 5oz. even, best tomato I've ever eaten. I accidentally started double the amout of BK's I wanted this year so I gave a TON away. My mom got her first (cat faced) BK this week. It was love at first taste. I gave one to a co-worker who raised hers in containers. She lost the labels but said she had a dark one that was really sour (by process of elimination it's probably BK). I don't think her palate is very refined -for reasons I won't go into here- so I'll take that review with a grain of salt. Also, she uses Miracle Gro (ugh!). Needless to say she probably won't be getting plants from me next year...



I ate a Garden Peach yesterday. It has a nice flavor but the skin is way too thick. I don't think I'll be growing that one again, I grew it last year and was on the fence about growing it again this year. It is a heavy producer but with limited space....

I transplanted Silvery Fir Tree from a hanging container where it wasn't happy to a really really large pot. I think I freaked it out because it totally stopped producing and the leaves are changing colors like it's fall. The black cherry (the only plant I didn't start from seed) has early blight pretty bad and is spreading it to Jaune Flamme. I have had really bad luck at the nursery where I got it -disease wise-I got dahlias from them last year that totally succumbed to powdery mildew within days of bringing them home. Their plants always look heat stressed I don't know why I go there. I won't be buying from them again but I did save the seed from BC so I can try it again next year.

Oh yeah, I decided to make mozarella cheese for the first time today just to see if I could. I can. It wasn't that hard and it's really cheap. Insalata Caprese here I come!