Sue and I will be departing tomorrow for Decorah, Iowa.  The SSE tomato tasting is on Saturday - we are so happy to be going back this year, since it was such fun in 2011.  On either side of the tasting we hope to do some biking, hiking, perhaps paddling.  

This is well-timed, as I can use a break from our own tired looking gardens.  Aside from a few Sungold plants, the tomatoes are gone.  Eggplant are starting a nice rebloom, which will provide some good fall fruit.  And peppers are going wild - in fact, my main garden task at the moment is working my way through a major hot pepper seed save.  The big garden is really tired - beans, squash, melons are all just about done. It was a good year; a hot year, and an exhausting but rewarding one as well.

Things are getting busy - I am about to sign a contract for my first tomato book, am about to write a tomato article for The American Gardener, and will be developing a few workshops for the Cultural Heritage program for West Point on the Eno park for next winter and spring.  New career, here I come!

It's an annual event - the season starts in January with planning...then planting, observing, transplanting...then into the garden, lots of maintenance, watering and feeding and troubleshooting....then the harvest and the madness of picking, seed saving, preserving, tasting, processing (and eating of course) - and finally the demise of the tomatoes, ravaged by the heat, disease and critters.  And it always seems to happen a week or two after Tomatopalooza.  

Over the last week I've pulled most of my tomato plants - there are maybe 20-30 remaining, including the extremely valuable and fought-after Sungolds!   But it's not all bad news, because now the eggplant and hot and sweet peppers get to shine.  There is now space to allow the remaining plants to spread out and stretch a bit.  And that's what I am up to - rearranging things, then ensuring everything is well fed and ready to continue pumping out the produce for the coming few months.  And there is still squash, cukes and beans - and soon, melons.

Tonight Sue will accompany me to another Zely and Ritz tomato dinner (it was to be the last, but I just noted they added one for next week....I am not sure if we can attend). So we will treat tonight like it is the last, enjoy the wonderful food, and share tomato stories with our fellow diners.  What fun!

What's ahead?  I've got a load of pepper and eggplant seed saving to do, will be digging into the book project once the contract arrives, heading to Decorah for the tomato tasting on September 1. And - already thinking about next year, the Dwarf project, what to continue and what to stop growing. If gardening has a season, that season seems to have 12 months around here!

Thanks as always to Sarig and Nancy for the opportunity to attend these wonderful events, eat great food, meet interesting people and have the chance to share a bit of my tomato knowledge.  Caitlin and I had a nice time last night....I will be attending next Tuesday night's dinner with Sara, and Thursday with Sue.  

Here is a bit of info about the tomatoes that were featured in the Heirloom Tomatoes with Mozzarella and Balsamic course:

Virginia Sweets - This is one of many (as in over 100) of the so-called yellow/red bicolor tomatoes that may or may not be just synonyms...the tomatoes are that similar.  Other examples are Pineapple, Old German, Mr. Stripey, Big Rainbow, Mammoth German Gold, Regina's Yellow - they all share potentially enormous size and striking yellow flesh with brilliant red marbling, as well as a very sweet, mild, fruity flavor.  

Green Zebra - Not strictly an heirloom, having been bred and released by Tom Wagner in the mid 1970s, this is a very popular small to medium sized round tomato with a pronounced tartness to its flavor - the flesh stays green when it is ripe, and the skin is striped green and amber.

Aunt Ruby's German Green - This is unusual in being a green fleshed variety that has clear skin (making it very hard to know when to pick); it is one of the very best flavored tomatoes and a good one to fool your friends with....how can a tomato that is so green inside be so succulent and delicious?  First introduced in the Seed Savers Exchange1993 Yearbook by Bill Minkey of Darien, Wisconsin, Bill received the seed from Nita Hofstrom of Clinton, Wisconsin, whose aunt, Ruby Arnold of Greeneville, TN, grew it for years. The seed originally came from Ruby Arnold's German immigrant grandfather, and Ruby simply called it 'German Green' tomato. Bill Minkey asked Ruby for permission to rename this variety and he called it 'Aunt Ruby's German Green' after Ruby Arnold.

Cherokee Purple - I suspect by now most people know the story of this tomato....the quickie version is that J D Green of Sevierville TN sent me seed of an unnamed "purple tomato that the Cherokee Indians gave my neighbors 100 years ago".  I grew it, loved it, named it and sent it to my friend Jeff at Southern Exposure Seed.  He loved the flavor, thought people would compare the tomato's appearance to a bruise!  All's well that ends well!

Brandywine - there were a few options for the pink tomatoes - the larger, flatter one could have been Brandywine, or German Johnson (see next entry).  Many people consider Brandywine among the most delicious of tomatoes (I certainly do!)...it is large, pink (clear skinned), and grows on plants with potato plant-shaped leaves.  We don't know all that much about its history except the Sudduth family gave the variety to Ben Quisenberry from Ohio - Ben is the one who popularized it through sharing seed and selling plants.

German Johnson - Similar in appearance to Brandywine (sometimes it is lumpier and has more pronounced creases on the tomato shoulders), this is THE North Carolina heirloom tomato - that, shockingly, we know essentially nothing about the history.  Always described as low acid, in truth there are no low acid tomatoes - just big variations in sugar content (tomatoes that taste sweet/low acid just have more sugar).  Also to be noted is that I just don't like German Johnson very much!  I don't find much flavor - and that flavor I note isn't all that pleasant to my palate!  But there are many who love it...go figure!

Eva Purple Ball - This is a perfectly round medium sized pink tomato - one of the most perfect looking heirlooms.  This variety was brought to the U.S. from the Black Forest region of Germany in the late 1800s by the family of Joseph Bratka of Elmwood Park, New Jersey - Joe shared the variety with Carolyn Male...Carolyn sent it to me - it was then exchanged frequently among seed savers and became quite well known.  It tends to be a mildly sweet, tasty variety.

Kellogg's Breakfast - This lovely orange tomato originated with Darrell Kellogg of Redford, Michigan - he sent it to SSE member Bill Minkey, and its popularity grew rapidly.  This tends to be one of heirloom enthusiasts' favorite orange tomatoes, having a particularly full bodied, well balanced flavor.

Let's see what varieties show up next Tuesday!