It's Tuesday morning, and - surprise! - showers keep blowing over (the morning dog walks so far are rather wet-feet affairs!). We are having a lovely, relaxing time...listening to lots of music, cooking some local seafood (scallops last night), crosswords, Sudoku - and if the rain stops, long walks around town and on the beach.

I was notified a few days ago that Epic Tomatoes is nominated for a book award by the UK magazine Grow Your Own - you can vote here! This is such unexpected, and exciting news, and I thank my gardening friends in advance for their support.

No, that wasn't the menu of edibles available this morning at the Seven Springs resort, location of the September Mother Earth News Fair. But they are areas of expertise of a group of wonderful authors (now friends) at our table this morning. It was such a pleasure to get to know Melissa Caughey and Jessi Bloom, and catch up with friends Jeanine Davis and Nan Chase. It was a reunion of sorts, since all but Jessi were at last week's Heritage Harvest Festival as well. Yesterday I got to spend some time with Ira Wallace and the other delightful folks manning the tomato tasting/Southern Exposure Seed Exchange tent.

I found it so valuable to compare notes on our shared experiences as relatively new garden writers, and look forward to seeing where each of our friendships and connections go next. It is clear that we all share deep passions for our relative areas of expertise, and value our connections with those that we reach through our books, blogs, and workshops.

To find out more about each of the people I mentioned above, please click the highlighted links - you will find information about their various books and other activities.

Here are just a few first pics from the event taken last evening. Any similarities to the Overlook Hotel are purely coincidental!

Here I am! How could nearly two weeks have passed since my last blog?  Nothing on epictomatoes.com - no newsletter.  It's just that time of year - combined with something about this year that has made it very different from other years. Yes, the book (well, the book related events, which really are keeping me busy).

The Tomato Tasting event at Seed Savers Exchange and Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello and Splendid Table interview were all fun and quite wonderful. I've been doing a lot of journaling to try to make sense of it all (what a year!), to process the experiences, all of the wonderful people I've met, opportunities I've had to share my stories - and in parallel, keeping the garden not only going, growing and harvested, but bringing along plants from newly created Dwarf hybrids.  

Briefly, on the garden - I've put a few pics below. Peppers and eggplant continue to thrive and pump out loads of great fruit. Most dwarf and indeterminate tomatoes are tired and about to be removed - they've done great, and it's been a long season! Seedlings of the new crosses I've made between some of the Dwarf releases and various indeterminate varieties (representing starting points for new varieties) are growing nicely in 5 gallon grow bags. I hope to get some ripe fruit from them before frost - or at least get an idea of fruit size and shape. 

Below are views of the new hybrid seedlings, along with a view of the peppers and eggplant. In the top row, third picture are a seeding from a mystery variety sent to me by a friend (which I am calling Jennie - I think it may be the variety Kimberly, mistakenly sent in a packet of Lillian's Yellow Heirloom) - and the hybrid between Mexico Midget and Summertime Green!

Here's what's next - and it is going to keep me really busy for as far as I can see. I am off to Seven Springs PA on Friday to speak at the Mother Earth News Fair. After that, we will get ready for our annual two week escape to Ocracoke Island (finally - badly needed!). While there I hope to get a grasp on where the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project currently sits. 

I am also planning for a complete revision of how I will reach out and communicate - meaning a new integrated website, which will replace this (Weebly - the nctomatoman) site and my other (Wix - epictomatoes) site. This will mean collapsing into a single blog, deciding on the fate of my somewhat monthly newsletter, and creating space for future plans (a podcast, videos). Thankfully I am getting some badly needed help with all of this - but my goal is to make it easy for me to share what I am learning about tomatoes as I continue my gardening journey.

Stay tuned - changes are on the way, and some new things as well!

I am so, so delighted to be providing meaty (veggie?) updates in September. Every single eggplant is thriving. All but a few peppers are thriving. At least half of my tomatoes are still kicking along, though they won't win a beauty contest.

Pictures always speak better - so here they are - with some descriptions for each row coming first.

Top row: the remains of the indeterminate varieties in 5 gallon grow bags; row of hoped for fall crop - mostly newly created dwarf X indeterminate hybrids, a mystery sent to me by a friend (which I call "Jennie" and assume it will be the variety Kimberly or similar) and the F1 between Mexico Midget and Summertime Green
second: planting trays for the fall tomatoes, mix of various fall crops (greens, beets, etc), view of the pepper rows with Okra peeking above all
third: Feherezon pepper, row of hot peppers, row of sweet peppers (showing Fire Opal's purple fruit)
fourth: eggplant Skinny Twilight, eggplant Twilight Lightning, selection of eggplant - top are Green Ghost and Listada di Gandia, below are my selections from Orient Express hybrid - Midnight Lightning, two Skinny Twilight, and Twilight Lightning (these are now finished in my view).
fifth: a pair of Lillian's Yellow Heirlooms with a Yellow White (aka Viva Lindsey's Kentucky Heirloom).

As for the garden update...check back this evening for a few pictures. Suffice to say that the parade of eggplant, tomatoes and peppers continues!