A few weeks ago we made a trip up to the Okanagan and naturally had to take in a couple of farmers’ markets.  I am always so overwhelmed by the produce available there compared to what my island’s markets offer.  Not a fair comparison I know, but I just wish I could take advantage of markets like that weekly.  Anyway, as it was such a late tomato year for us, I could not take my eyes-and hands-off all of the tomatoes that were available, especially the packages of assorted heirloom varieties.  Now, a few weeks later, I am waltzing into the kitchen and plunking my own plump heirloom tomatoes onto the scale-each one well over a pound. I am suddenly in the midst of a tomato glut; there are so many tomatoes coming out of my garden that I cannot keep up. I have dried them, and made sauces for freezing, salsa is next and then there is the daily consumption.  My husband wants to know if I am getting tired of tomato and basil salads.  Are you kidding!

I’ve grown a wide variety of tomatoes this year-probably half are heirlooms and half are hybrids.  I’ve also tried to cover early to late varieties thinking that the sooner some are on the plate, the better.  And half of the tomato plants have been grown in pots as I am always short of space for tomatoes.  The cherry varieties-Tumbler, Sungold & Gardeners’ Delight-did well in the pots and the Sungold and Gardeners’ Delight are still going strong. Slightly larger ones such as Flamme have been modest producers regardless of placement.  But the main season tomatoes in the ground have outperformed the tomatoes in the pots.  Although, I think that if I had watered the pots more frequently and limited the size of the plant, I would have had pretty good yields from them.  Overall, despite a late start, the tomatoes have been great.

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