Storm Damage

Apparently while I went about my business today in Dunwoody, a storm raged through Decatur and took down 3 of my tomato plants, broke one of the pots, broke limbs off another, and destroyed the pepper plant. I’m going to see what I can do to salvage the Ceylon in the broken pot. Details to come.

A wonderful dressing for all your salads (with tomatoes, of course)

I’ve been looking for a good way to use up the dill I’ve been growing in a pot on the deck.  This is it.

Buttermilk Dill Dressing

an Eggs on Sunday original

You can make this into a dip, instead; just reduce the amount of buttermilk used (or leave it out entirely, relying just on the sour cream and mayonnaise for thickness.)

Makes 2 cups of dressing (enough for quite a few salads!)

Ingredients

1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp coarse salt (plus any additional to taste)
freshly ground black pepper – at least 1/2 tsp
3 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 cup buttermilk

Preparation

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, minced shallot, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Whisk in the chopped fresh dill. Slowly add the buttermilk in a stream, whisking constantly until it’s the consistency you like (I find the 1 cup makes a good consistency for a salad dressing.)

Thanks to Eggs on Sunday for this taste treat.

Tomatoes vs. Jam

Today my neighbor threatened on Facebook to come and liberate some of the tomatoes from the porch.  This, clearly, is one of the dangers of urban tomato farming.  Megan, Christie and Stacy had quite the back and forth today about how if Christie stole tomatoes today, there would be no tomato jam in her future.

Luckily the vines were heavy with fruit when I got home.  Very heavy.  It was the kind of harvest I’ve been dreaming of.

A rainbow of small frys

The big harvest

Close-up of the first totem to be harvested

Ceylon, ready for its close-up

Picking the First Tomatoes

I came home today to find the tomatoes ready to pick and in great need of water, but we were running late for dinner with friends.  So the first harvest happened tonight in the dark, nearly entirely by feel and by memory of what should be ripe.  And I know I’m not supposed to water at night, but I did give them a little drink.  Hopefully they will be grateful and not get sick.

Small Fry Tomatoes

Ceylon Tomato

The Ultomato

Well, problems with staking the Ceylons (the only indeterminate variety I’ve planted), have me looking for a new solution.  Today I picked up 2 of the Ultomato re-usable cages at Home Depot.  They are a little big for the containers, but I love that they are adjustable and support the center stalk of the plant so well.

Before

After

And the biggest news of the day is that I finally have some fruit ripening that looks healthy!  Hopefully we will be over-run with cherry tomatoes soon.  I can’t wait to make tomato jam!

Small Fry

Ceylon

Frustrating BER Problems

Casualties

Still trying to figure out how to fix this blossom end rot problem.  Some of the tomatoes are even beginning to ripen, but much of the early fruit comes out with a big sad spot where the blossom was.  I’m blaming the plentiful rain that we have had this spring and am hoping that I can stop this from happening to the later fruit.  I think that the PatioF is the worst offender, so it may be on the chopping block for next year.  We shall see.

Thirsty plants

Meanwhile, every day that I come home and it hasn’t been raining, they are all very thirsty and wilted.  I think they need more frequent water because they are in containers rather than in the ground, even though they are mulched.

End of May – Plenty of Fruit on the Vines

Green Small Frys

Sunny side of the porch

Green ceylons

I’m getting impatient for something to turn red!

Blossom End Rot?!

Dreaded blossom end rot

Oh no!  I have discovered blossom end rot on 2 of my Patio F plants and one Tumbling Tom.  With some research it looks like this is due to a shortage of calcium to the plant because of period of heavy rain and then some dryness.  The solution: Mulching all the plants and spraying affected plants with calcium spray (purchased in a bottle at Lowe’s).  Hopefully we’ll have a good report next time.

Welcome

My tomato craze began last year when I planted two grape tomato plants from Lowe’s in a big pot on my front porch.  This year I ordered seeds, bought more pots, and began what looks like a tomato jungle on the sunny side of the porch.  The purpose of this blog is to share some thoughts on growing tomatoes in containers for all the urban gardeners out there.

Green Tomatoes

little ceylon

Having been working on this since February, I was thrilled when the first little fruits appeared on May 7.

little small fry - the first to fruit!