Fantastic. I haven't grown any this year. Only shop bought for us ;(

Picked five so far. Early Girls.

Ours got off to a late start, with the grey cool rainy spring :-(

Pictures?

First tomato for me is always Jaune Flammee--and I had it a couple of days ago. I eat with the seasons, so that first tomato is really celebratory. And JF is one of the best tomatoes out there.

We planted 6 varieties but won't have any ripe ones until next month. Our garden is getting a wonderul downpour of rain this morning - hoping for over an inch. One of our Aussies is so reactive to thunder - I feel so bad for him. He just quakes from fear but the rain is such a gift.

Seagrass, have you tried one of those thunder shirts?

I'm waiting for the good farm stand to open...should be Monday.

My favorite is caprese....some nice ciabatta bread, olive oil, fresh basil, fresh mozz, fresh tomato, more olive oil, S&P. Just a little bit of heaven on earth!

The hot, dry weather in late May and early June seemed to set mine back a bit but now they are going crazy. We’ve had Sun Sugars for weeks (small yellow cherry) and I need to roast more. My favorites are Cherokee Purple, just lovely for a BLT. I always have the old reliable Better Boy and Lemon Boy, plus I try a different one each year. This year it’s Mortgage Lifter and they are almost ready to pick and are huge.

My first is always a cherry -- usually Sun Gold. They're also typically the last to produce which is the stage they're at now. Most plants have been pulled. I have one Cherokee Carbon that I cut back, but haven't yet yanked and it's put out new growth, so I may leave it and see if it produces fall tomatoes. It was a good year. Always sad to see it end.

I've been eating Sungolds for a while now. I have two plants that are huge and producing a lot. I started freezing some yesterday. I've made a couple BLTs with them so far. I have a lot of large beefsteak tomatoes out there but they're all green still. My one surviving yellow pear is struggling. I thought I had several Black Krim but the one possiblity is producing weirdly shaped bright red fruit that are tasteless. I've tasted several and they taste like store bought tomatoes, so will be ripping that plant out. I need to find that seed packet and see where I bought them.

Last year I grew Jalenpenos, which turned out to be banana peppers.

Pictures?

Funny thing, when I first opened this thread (on my phone, at a long red light, yes I know) up popped the picture of a gorgeous kitchen. I thought “day-um, Bragu!” but saw no tomato. Then I realized it was a Houzz ad!

My garden fresh tomatoes only come from the farm stands. But since gravitating towards organic, I find myself getting a bit squeamish about buying from smaller farms. Dcarch has put some thoughts in my head about that over the years and I’m probably being ridiculous, but now I save it for a rare treat. Wish I could grow my own but between my brown thumb and various critters in the neighborhood, there’s little hope of that. The one year I tried, everything got eaten just shy of picking.

I picked my first 3 beefsteak tomatoes yesterday and there are a couple more that were just starting to blush that I will pick tomorrow. So far just Big Beef but there should be some Kellogg's Breakfast ripening in the next week which are my favorite.

We've had BLTs a few times already using some tomatoes I bought at a farm stand and the thick cut bacon from the whole hog we bought. Yum! We'll have BLTs a couple times this week with the homegrown tomatoes.

Sherry - I've heard about them, but no have not tried. I think it would freak him out even more. He anticipates sudden loud noise. He runs from the kitchen when DH gets the food vacuum sealer out of the closet. He also books out of the kitchen when we get the carbon steel grill pan from the potrack because sometimes searing a steak sets off the smoke detectors. And so it goes...

The last dogs we had that were scared of thunder and fireworks, they did not have the thunder shirts available. Ours now has short hair and is not scared. I would of probably tried them if they had been available at that time. Most likely would not of worked, but I would of tried.

Our Lab and my Chihuahua, who did not like each other, used to huddle together in the bedroom.

Bragu, have fun storming the castle. But do it quietly for the dogs, and my cat.

LoneJack, I love Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes! I don't have any this year, but I do have Big Beef and several other varieties.

I've had a couple of ripe tomatoes from my Patio tomato plant, but none from the garden yet.

We also had a longer spring and then a freeze 6/14 so my tomatoes had a slow start too. I do have a Manitoba ripening up. It's beating my cherry type tomatoes (none have changed color) which I find surprising.

Waah - I'm filled with envy! my tomato season has been over for months now. I really miss those goodies. Our overnight lows are around 80F, so no fruit would set, even if I could get anything to survive the heat.

Seed starting usually doesn't happen for me until September/October.

No tomatoes here for at least a couple of weeks, unfortunately. Elery has already staked claim to the first one, LOL.

I planted Sophie's Choice, the seeds were gifted to me from Partymusic, and they are usually my first ripe. I also planted San Marzano this year for the first time. My canning tomatoes are Rutgers and slicing tomatoes are Great White, Barnes Mountain Pink, Pineapple and Golden Jubilee. I also planted SunGold and Black Cherry as well as a couple of Green Zebra. Lots and lots of green tomatoes and vines so thick they were encroaching on the adjacent pepper plants so I had to fence them back, so I'm hopeful.

I have picked zucchini, kale, Detroit DArk Red beets and dug the first Kennebec potatoes today to use as "new potatoes". Oh, and one white cucumber which I've never grown before so had to try. It tasted oddly like a cucumber, LOL.

Seagrass, we had a big old dog that was afraid of thunder, she was a black lab and St. Bernard cross, so BIG. I had to lie on the floor with her when there was a storm. She died when she was 15, she had a heart attack during a thunderstorm. (sigh) I don't have any suggestions, I tried everything to console her and nothing ever worked except lying on the floor and "snuggling" her and she'd still pant and cry.

Annie

Lucky you! Nothing yet here, but that's not unusual. It's typically late July at the earliest that I get any tomatoes. I do have some green ones on the vine and the plants look healthy this year (which they have not in the last couple years), so I'm pleased about that.

Harvested (green) jalapenos, cukes, and pattypan squash already.

Home grown tomatoes are always such a treat.

Not to brag but we picked ten big tomatoes today despite our severe drought.

Kath, I had 2 plants that produced tomatoes other than what I thought they were supposed to be. I too had to go look to see where I bought them. They were actually last year’s seeds and since i never use all the seeds and store them securely, I never think twice about planting them the next year. One was supposed to be a Celebrity and turned out to be a small yellow grape. The other was to have been a Lemon Boy and it’s another yellow cherry of some sort. I almost always plant 2 of everything so I still had 1 of each growing. And I am very careful with my seedlings and plant tags. I always grow many and give away seedlings I don’t use so it bothers me to think I gave people something they weren’t expecting.

Another comment, for those of you who like Sun Gold, do try Sun Sugar sometime. It is by far superior in my view. Thinner skin and so good and prolific. I couldn’t find them last year so grew Sun Gold and hardly had any.

I did harvest a partially red huge Mortgage Lifter today before the birds or squirrels got to it. Can’t wait to try it.

Interesting name for a tomato

Another comment, for those of you who like Sun Gold, do try Sun Sugar sometime. It is by far superior in my view. Thinner skin and so good and prolific. I couldn’t find them last year so grew Sun Gold and hardly had any.

I haven' tried Sun Sugar, but I did try Sun Orange and Chocolate Sprinkles. Both were huge disappointments. Sun Gold has been my go to cherry for 25 years. It always gives great production in my garden, but I realize all gardens are not the same. Next year I'm trialing Super Sweet 100. It gets rave reviews on the Louisiana Gardeners FB page.

I thought Celebrity was a hybrid? Is that seed you've saved before, Outside?

We had a mixed breed dog who was terrified of thunder - and fireworks too, of course. She would hide, trembling, in the bathroom. I remember trying unsuccessfully to comfort her too. I used to put my hands over her ears, hoping that would help.

Yes, Celebrity is an indeterminate hybrid. I grew it last year and have grown it in the past with good results. and it’s a good, steady producer. Not a huge tomato but great for slicing or for roasting and freezing. And typically i have a few well into fall. I can’t recall saving the seeds before but probably did.

I usually have some seeds left over that I use from one year into the next. Very rarely have I used any older than that but occasionally have planted some zinnia or sunflower seeds and had them do ok.

Judi i can vouch for Super Sweet 100s being very good. I’ve also grown Sweet Millions, however this year something chewed my plant and it died so I have very few red cherry tomatoes (just ones from an odd volunteer plant that came up by the fence).

Elmer, the Mortgage Lifter heirloom tomato has a funny story behind it. As the story goes, the guy who developed it was able to pay off his mortgage thru the sale of this prolific tomato, so thus the name. I have no idea if this is true, but the seed catalogs continue to spread the story.

annie1992, Barnes Mountain isn't far from where I live. My DH's paternal ancestors lived there. Their farm has been in the family since the 1880's, and is owned by one of his cousins now. I will have to try that tomato next year.

FWIW, in case anyone didn't know, hybrids generally won't come true to seed. I've had some odd volunteers from mine - only one was halfway decent, and not like the original.

Annie1992, I meant to ask you what you thought of Black Cherry. I grew some last year and was disappointed in the flavor (not much at all) and texture. Yield was great and they were pretty, but it ended there.

Of course I’ve learned over many years of growing tomatoes that soil and growing location and conditions can vary and have a lot to do with results for everyone. I’ve had my fair share of poor years too. Even though I rotate, sometimes I think I’ll just give my garden a years rest.

To clarify…I saved seeds from the original seed packet and used those, not from the tomatoes I grew.

I just read Carol’s comment and realized someone may have thought otherwise. And she is totally correct about hybrids. I’m basically lazy and don’t usually bother with saving tomato seeds from the tomatoes themselves. I do sometimes save marigold, gomphrena and other flower seeds that are easy.

I'm the same way with seed saving. If it's easy I'll do it. I'm saving zinnia seeds right now. That's a first. I usually buy them. I need to do the same with the gomphrena. This was my first year growing them from seed.

Celebrity is a popular tomato at the farmers market here.

Neighbor just handed me a tomato over the fence, and I had it for lunch. I had seen Tomato Cracker Salad on internet, and tried it. It was wonderful. Cut up tomato, some course crumbled soda crackers and some mayo to moisten. Wonderful!!! Picture, not mine. Best eaten immediately, so crackers don't get soggy.