It’s raining tomatoes!
Ok, so maybe it’s not actually raining tomatoes. That would hurt. But don’t you think this song (how great is this video?) would be perfect with the lyrics changed to “It’s raining tomatoes!”? Yes? Me too! The video would consist of people outside with their mouths opened while cherry tomatoes fall into them!
The month of July is usually the start of tomato season and this month they didn’t disappoint. They started to grow then they slowly started to turn red. Then they all hit. There are cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes and the biggest beef tomatoes I ever saw in my life! I’ve mentioned this before but tomato season both excites me and scares me.
It’s exciting because the garden is not complete without the tomatoes and I absolutely love them! It’s frightening because the tomatoes grow quick and they grow many at once. One day it’s a regular day then the next day you’re staring at 100 tomatoes sitting on your counter top waiting for you to make the first move. Are you going to make salsa? Tomato sauce? Stewed tomatoes? Do you wonder how to make diced tomatoes? Are you going to try something new?
Then you have to time it right too. Then you have to start making room in your freezer or pantry for the tomatoes. Then you gotta get your apron on, put a day aside and get your tomato groove on.
The cherry tomatoes always grow great and in great big clusters. I love watching their colors change on a vine from the closer tomatoes being red to the outer ones a green. Slowly the entire vine turns a beautiful bright red.
Our roma tomatoes this year also grew in big groups. Right now it’s not uncommon to see 20 of them growing alongside of each other multiple times on the plant.
This year we decided to try Brandywine tomatoes because the seed description blew our minds. It said “The large fruits, often over 1 lb., have a deep pink skin and smooth red flesh.”. Really, 1 pound tomatoes? Really, 1 pound tomatoes grown in a container? Really, 1 pound tomatoes grown in a container on a rooftop? You betcha. We picked the first 2 last week and they each weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces! We got them over 1 pound! They are giant and beautiful! I love them!
Now picture time with our tomatoes!
CHERRY TOMATOES
Here’s the cherry tomatoes growing on the vine with their various colors. Notice how the first tomato to turn red is always closest on the vine. Since that’s the first tomato to grow it will be the first to turn too.
So many cherry tomatoes!
ROMA TOMATOES
Here’s the beautiful roma tomatoes growing in big groups.
BRANDYWINE TOMATOES
Then there’s the giant beef tomatoes! These guys are so pretty!
And more tomato pictures because I can’t control myself.
Hope you liked this happy tomato harvest post!
Are you growing tomatoes this year? How are they doing?
If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be a tomato. I am an addict! Yours are beautiful, can’t believe how many you harvested on your garden rooftop, nice. Cherry tomatoes, even better. We pick vats of them and eat and eat and eat. Salsa and tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes, and a million other things….we love them all!
This is just amazing. I’m in awe and jealous of your mad gardening skills. Please come to my house and make my garden produce such loveliness. Please.
Hahaha, awww.. wish I could!
I definitely liked your tomato post. We just returned from a two week vacation and the first thing we did was go look at our garden. The cherries are turning red but our large tomatoes are still green.
Your different tomato plants are booming with lovely shaped tomatoes! Ooh yes!
Cool & fun pics too! 🙂 My tomatoes are doing great too! xxx
I so wish it were raining tomatoes in my yard. These are all so bright and beautiful!!! Happy happy summer 🙂
Pamela – I sure wish it was raining tomatoes – I would not only walk around with my mouth open but also with a wheel barrow to collect as many as I can! I am not having as much luck with my tomatoes – but yours look wonderful – wow! what an amazing collection – you are a pretty amazing gardener!
Thanks Shashi! A wheel barrow full of tomatoes sounds pretty awesome…!
Nothing says summer like tomatoes! The brandywine variety looks insane!
My parents are on vacation, so when I stopped over yesterday I raided their garden for all of it’s tomatoes, NOM! I’m a little embarassed to say I somehow never got my garden going this year.
Wow I so love your tomatoes, all of them. Lucky girl I see some canning/preserving in your future.
I’m so, so jealous of your tomato harvest! This is my first time ever having a patio garden and I planted tomato’s from seed (I first typed “from scratch” which took me a minute to figure out why that didn’t look right!). I think I planted them late for the season and while the plants are getting big, no tomatoes yet! Hopefully I’ll get a few before it’s too late – your pictures are totally giving me tomato envy 🙂
Haha, I like “from scratch”! Hoping you get some tomatoes this year Kelly! Since we had such a long Winter we’re a few weeks behind ourselves!
wow. that’s a lot of tomatoes! I hope you have a second or third freezer to house all the tomato sauce, jam, who knows what else! On a side note…I LOVE tomato sauce and I will be relocating to NYC for 6 months this winter…so I’ll just be here waiting for my invite. I’ll bring the pasta!
I wish I had a second freezer Lindsey! That’s a dream…. until then I’ll just be rearranging my freezer every single day to fit sauces in it! Awesome news about NYC!
I do love your garden posts. I always look forward to Summer tomatoes and it’s fun watching your gardens grow.
Show off! But I will have to admit I am saying that with envy. In my part of the Pacific NW I live on the salt water—-Straits of Juan de Fuca. It never gets quite warm enough to grown in abundance outside of a green house anything except the cherry tomatoes and some mid size brands—-Romas do good too. But the whoopers—no way! And they are sooooo good. But we do get the ones grown on the east side of the state, so we do have some access to sun ripened beef steak varieties. I am totally impressed.
Gorgeous Pamela, just amazingly gorgeous. Oh how I wish some of your rain would fall on my neighborhood!
Your tomato post is amazing! It’s definitely an explosion! We are about to have a cherry tomato explosion. I think there are probably 100 on the vine. I’m already thinking caprese, salsa, tomato sauce, tomato pie, and anything else I can think of before they get ripe! 🙂 Your garden amazes me.
That’s super exciting Bri! I love the anticipation of seeing all the tomatoes about to start to turn.. good luck, happy snacking! 😉
We have just about the same amount of cherry tomatoes. But only a few roma 🙂 We harvested so many cherries this weekend and I’ve been eating them like candy. They are so good and the perfect snack!
Your tomatoes are so gorgeous! I especially love the cherry tomatoes. They are like eating candy 🙂
Hello beautiful tomatoes! I can almost smell them through the computer screen. 😉 All the dishes I can make with these babies.
This is a nice problem to have! I’ve been dreaming up all kinds of yummy tomato recipes, but I don’t get really good ones unless I hit a farmer’s market. Your tomatoes are so gorgeous, and I have major tomato envy!
I LOVE Brandywine!! I didn’t start them this year, because I tried a couple new varieties, and I was already eyeball deep in too many seeds. I have sungold and isis red cherries, and then Soldacki, Black Seaman, Tigerella (Red Zebra), and a Russian Cosmonaut! So far, there are flowers on all of them, some fruits, but most are very green. Nothing harvested.
We’re SO far behind!
God I am absolutely in love with tomatoes, you can do so much with them 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Gorgeous gorgeous tomatoes! I am always a sucker for a good ripe cherry tomato.
I love tomatoes! My mouth is actually watering just looking at all these lovely photos. I have a cherry tomato plant but the tomatoes haven’t started turning red just yet. I see lots of little green babies waiting to become delicious!
Love your tomato photos. Brandywine is one of my favorite slicing tomato. Know what you mean by 100’s of tomatoes coming in at once, other produce too, harvesting is fun but staring at a counter full of produce that must be dealt with can overwhelm.
[…] you see yesterday’s tomato harvest post? If you did then it’s no surprise to see a tomato sauce recipe […]
I have 4 tomato plants and the fruits are all very tiny and green…sighs…dear God..where’s the sun? Raining without end!!
Grrrr. Your tomatoes are beautiful and abundant– and mine are still green…! Why is this?? I have several plants in pots on our building’s roof deck in NYC– got two or three ripe ones a few weeks back and have lots of green ones– but nothing even remotely starting to turn. What’s the delay? Anyone have any ideas?? They look happy otherwise…
Hey Joe – when did you plant them? Are they from seed or did you buy the plants somewhere? In general, I just always advise to be patient (I know it’s hard!). I know a few other people who’s tomatoes haven’t turned yet and with the later start we all got this year that might just be your issue.
Tomatoes are the Bees Knees. 🙂
Question Miss Gardening Guru, why do tomatoes get those split bits on top? Is it over watering? Or just the design of the tomato? I noticed many of mine later in the season were spliting.
Hey Anna, usually the splits are caused by heat or irregular watering. Some varieties are more prone to splitting than others. Hope this helps!
So beautiful! I love tomatoes and looking at all your gorgeous produce always makes my mouth water! Love the cherry ones especially, I could eat those like candy all day long 🙂
What a fantastic crop you have had this year! I haven’t been able to grow any this year as I am having to spend large amounts of this summer at sea! I can’t wait till next year when I can get back to growing them. Home grown tomatoes are the best nothing beats that smell the vines give off 😀
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