Friday, July 17, 2015

Friday Food - Tomatoes

Some of you who have been reading this blog for a while might remember that I rather enjoy a good tomato and fried egg sandwich. This is attested to in my cleverly titled post "Egg and Tomato Sandwiches." I also rather enjoy a good BLT from time to time, as found in "Friday Food - A Little Late" (this one has pictures!).

To that end, this year I once again planted tomatoes outside our back door. Four plants. Each about 8 inches tall when they went in the ground in May. Now a couple of them are about 4 feet tall, and one is probably 8 feet tall, taking over most of the available space. (I'm not entirely sure whether the fourth one is still alive - I can't tell which is which.)

Until about a week ago, I had all plant, no blooms. I've been watching the tomato plants our neighbors have, and starting to get pretty jealous. They've got smaller plants, but actual blooms. And even some tomatoes, already. I, on the other hand, just have plants... leaves... and vines... and... wait... a little yellow flower!

Yes, last weekend I noticed my first blossom! Since then, that one trailblazer has been followed by at least a dozen more. I think they're all on the same plant but, again, I really have no way of knowing. I haven't seen any bees out there (yep - tomatoes are impacted by the problems with insects not being around), so this weekend, I plan to see if I can help the plants "self pollinate" by jostling them around a bit to agitate the pollen.

Then - if all goes well - I'll start to see tomatoes. I hope it works, because I'm salivating, already.

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