A major heat wave has struck the West coast and most of us are sweltering away.  Many of my friends poo-poo our heat, but those are the same friends that live in the Southwest, South, Midwest or Southeast.  Basically anywhere outside of the Northwest.  Listening us complain about the heat is much like listening to you complain about the rain.  Only trouble is those outside of the Northwest forget that we don’t have air conditioning here.  Or at least most homes don’t.  This girl, who doesn’t sweat, doesn’t think the heat is good for much of anything besides making me cranky and growing tomatoes.

Last year the tomato crop was dismal.  The cold spring and summer kept the plants from setting fruit and once they did not a single fruit would color.  At the end of the season I harvested about 5 pounds of green tomatoes.  It took 2-3 weeks for them to fully ripen.

This year I was optimistic.  I planted my hoards and hoped for the best.  So far I’m not disappointed.  My plants are so overloaded with fruit they are falling all over.

(These are the plants grown in 100% Tagro, an experiment this year)

I knew I had to be patient when it came to my little fruits.  Some plants were slower than others to set fruit.  Some set right away.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I actually picked my first tomato (and a wee little pepper too).  I planted Snow White cherries and 3 were showing signs of being ripe.  I was tempted to snatch it off of the vine and gobble it up on the spot.  However, being the good gardening blogger that I am I took a photo first.  I don’t think I set down the camera before eating one.

This afternoon I picked an Azoychka and sliced it for my salad.  By Thursday I should have about 50 pounds of ripe tomatoes.