Tomato Update

At last report, the Aiken tomato patch had been ravaged by tomato blight. Sadly, this situation is still the case; we have had to throw away over 100 tomatoes and many plants. Still, we have salvaged enough tomatoes to make 2009 our best year yet for the juicy red vegetable/fruits.

We are disappointed, of course, to have to let go of our earlier visions of the canned tomatoes and sauces that we had planned to open up later this winter. Still, I have always felt -- and continue to feel -- that there is not much that can beat a garden-fresh tomato. The little orange "Sun Gold" cherry-sized tomatoes have been our cash crop this year -- just two plants yielded hundreds of these things, and they have livened up our salads (and I've eaten lots of them like grapes!). The medium-sized prudens variety -- which proved to be especially susceptible to the blight -- are a good all-purpose tomato. The black krims are a weird-looking tomato, but super juicy, and my favorite are the gigantic brandywines, which are simply made to be sliced up and put on a sandwich with turkey, Vermont cheddar, and cucumber slices. Yummm!

I'm glad I got to enjoy tomatoes from the garden this summer, but I'll look forward to next year. Hopefully then we'll get the tomato-landslide we were hoping for this year.