{"id":11775,"date":"2026-09-01T12:48:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=11775"},"modified":"2026-09-01T12:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:48:50","slug":"holy-cow-do-we-have-tomatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2026\/09\/01\/holy-cow-do-we-have-tomatoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy cow, do we have tomatoes!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will and I went out to the Wolf Garden yesterday evening to check the watermelons. We picked more of those, and yes, more Sweet Granite muskmelons, and some tomatoes to seed out. As we checked things, Will picked 12 more muskmelons that were very ripe. Then we found a nice big Leelanau Sweetglo watermelon that was ripe. The nearest curly tendril has dried up, and the bottom spot is now yellow instead of white, both signs of ripeness. Yea!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
These are just a few of the Early Rouge tomatoes I picked yesterday to seed and make salsa with.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But when I went over to pick some tomatoes, I was shocked. In just a couple of days, we’ve got ripe tomatoes everywhere! Where I had planned on just picking a couple of varieties to seed out, I have to change my plans. It’s time to begin canning tomato recipes very soon! I could go out right now and pick a bushel full. Seriously! And boy are the tomatoes (and squash, watermelons, and muskmelons) big this year too. They liked all that manure, I guess. I have pound and a half Mia’s Italian paste tomatoes that double as a slicer for our BLTs and don’t ask about our Bill Beans. Some will easily weigh 3 pounds when ripe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Here’s our first Bill Bean tomato and it’s small, compared to some of the others on the plants that are still green.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’ve started letting Sarge, our English Mastiff, who’s almost 3 years old and still a pup, out in the fenced front yard to play with Gypsy, our Dutch Shepherd rescue, who loves to play rough. They make us laugh every time they are out there. Zoomies, wrestling, and playing catch wears both of them out after half an hour or so. They lie down and then play some more! Good exercise for them both.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sarge and Gypsy have a great time playing in the front yard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also went down to check the Gete Okosomin squash in the Main Garden. Nice, big, orange squash there! And, driving down through the plum orchard, I was astounded at the hugely abundant harvest of plums hanging there, ripening slowly but surely. I know one old lady who is going to be very busy in the near future! Likewise, the apples scare me. The poor trees are loaded and bending down with the weight.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our potato crop this year is a dismal failure. They got overtaken by pigweed and the plants are struggling to be even visible. Luckily, I canned up a bunch. Oh well, in gardening, we always get crop failures each year; we’re not perfect, just like everyone else. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will and I went out to the Wolf Garden yesterday evening to check the watermelons. We picked more of those, and yes, more Sweet Granite muskmelons, and some tomatoes to seed out. As we checked things, Will picked 12 more muskmelons that were very ripe. Then we found a nice big Leelanau Sweetglo watermelon that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-animals","category-food-preservation","category-gardening","category-seeds","category-self-sufficiency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11779,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775\/revisions\/11779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}