THE BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT...

I can't ask for a better gift this Christmas than this!

To me you are perfect!

If you have followed my journey trying to grow tomatoes you know of my struggles.  Ironically I am so obsessed with them and never gave up hope that one day I'll be able to pick some from the vines.  So seeing these three crimson juicy tomatoes ready for the picking is so surreal and I feel like I'm over the moon! 

My wish for the coming year will be to successfully grow more tomato plants and be able to harvest baskets of them. 

Merry Christmas everyone!   

 

I AM NOT ALONE

Does the temptation to buy tomatoes amount to suffering from OCD?  

I am obsessed with collecting tomato seeds and growing them.  Until I am successful and have a decent tomato patch, I will continue to buy them.  

I can't walk into a supermarket and not go to the veggies aisles in particular where the tomatoes are placed even if I do not have t-o-m-a-t-o on my shopping list for the day.   I still must wiggle my way there just to check them out and the chance of me putting some into my trolley even though there are tomatoes at home has always been high.  

I always thought I was the only one to behave in such a manner until today.  Well so I was at the supermarket standing in front of a huge box of tomatoes.  It didn't help that the tomatoes were huge;  have grooves and just of the perfect ripeness.  On top of that, the  packer was opening boxes and boxes of them and piling them up to form a little mountain where eager hands were waiting to grab them. 

Off course out of the many hands, one belongs to me.   I never imagine that one day I would be selecting and buying tomatoes as if I was buying a designer's handbag.  

An elderly lady who was beside me looked up and sheepishly said: "I can't resist all these tomatoes.  They're so nice.  I have some tomatoes at home but I still can't resist them." 

There was a familiar ring to what she said as if she was speaking on my behalf.  

"It's alright to buy more." I told her sounding all serious and grown up as I smiled secretly to myself. 

DREAM OF A DREAM...

My love for tomatoes is legendary.  Many know that I have a mad crush over them especially dear Jo-Ann @couscous_jr.

I do enjoy eating tomatoes but not as much as I love collecting the seeds; photographing them and looking at Bakers Creed online shop where I am in love with all the tomatoes and want to add every variety of seed packs into my shopping cart. 

Last night instead of reading bedtime stories, I was admiring those gorgeous beauties posted on IG which left me drooling.       

Suddenly I found myself in the garden (Jo-Ann, you were posting those tempting tomatoes!) and stumbled upon a plant laden with tennis ball size luscious crimson tomatoes.  Naturally I was ecstatic!  Wow... vine ripen tomatoes!  I lifted one to take a picture and the fruit just dropped onto my palm. 

When you fed your head with varying shapes and colours of tomatoes just before bedtime, it was only natural you dreamed of them. 

Lesson learned.  I woke up and there were no tennis ball tomatoes.  So it's back to deciding between green zebra, pork chop or pink boar to grow.  

Never knew deciding which tomatoes to grow can be so hard!

NUTTY LIKE ME?

One of the things I hate to do is preparing tomatoes for cooking.  They aren't different to handle just that I tend to complicate things a little bit.  I would be spending the longest time ever over the chopping board because like someone with OCD, I have to remove every single seed out of every single tomato that I use.  No kidding! 

I have nothing against these seeds but I just couldn't bear the thought of my molars crunching onto these teeny weeny ones.  In my mind I could conjure rows upon rows of sun-kissed tomatoes growing happily with just that fistful of seeds I collect.  

Just in case you're wondering how many plots of tomatoes I have since I am a habitual tomato seeds remover (remove all the seeds Annie!) well.... well... I actually don't even own a single plant right now with the exception of these if these seeds choose to sprout!

 
What is it exactly with tomatoes and me? *sigh* Hmmm.... it's really a love & hate kind of relationship.

Anyone out there just as nutty?  I certainly hope not!

 

DREAMS DO COME TRUE

How wonderful to start off the New Year with my first pair of home-grown crimson red tomatoes! 

Yay! Finally parts of my dreams come true.  I mean the part where I aspire to grow tomatoes.  The part about growing beefsteak size tomatoes is still no where in sight yet but that's ok, this is a great start. 

It's hard to describe my joy but I am one happy girl.  I've been looking at the twin like forever and I've subjected them to photo shoots like non-stop.  If they could speak, I wonder if they'll complain about how I subjected them to torture under the bright lights but proud Mama here just didn't have enough.  

Here are some pictures of the crimson twin!

They're cherry tomatoes and supposed to be small but these were teeny weenies.   I can only think that as they're organically grown, they turned out tiny but who cares!  I mean they're home-grown... they're pesticide free.... and they're the sweetest tomatoes I have tasted!

 
 

BACK TO BASIC

After I barred my fingers from tickling any of the tomato blooms (you silly girl!) and let nature takes its course (or at least use a cotton swab or art brush) there were blooms on the tomato plants but still no tomatoes in sight (*sigh*) but at least those blooms stay on the vines.

Internet and social media are great platforms to share and learn. So I discovered that tomatoes are self pollinating; some light breeze or gentle shake of the plants help.  No rough finger tickling is required as that will only aggravate the blooms further.

"Now there's flowers on the plants but still no sign of any tomatoes.  It's been a long time.  Hopefully I'm getting nearer to this tomato dream..."

"When tomatoes are setting out flowers, they require as much sun as they get and also extremely heavy feeders... use organic fertilizers..."

"A great fertilizer should have micro-nutrients and minerals, also live microbes..."

"If  your soil is alkaline add a little sulphur and this will drop the pH but if your soil is high in sulphur pH add dolomite or lime...."

"However you don't want fertilizers that have too much nitrogen, this will get a big leafy plant.  Keep the big leaves off; they take nutrients from the tomatoes.  Only leave enough leaves to cover your tomatoes..."

So in summary I learned that if the tomatoes do not get enough exposure to sunlight, the fruits will not form and if there's not enough water, the blooms will drop.   Fertilizers are important too just as you need to eat some super food.

Ok so assuming all these sunlight, water and fertilizer problems have been sorted out.  You thought you could rest on your laurels but along came some uninvited visitors waiting to destroy your crop.  What do you do? 

Well plant marigolds around the border of your tomato patch.  They're great companion plants and the smell acts as a deterrent to bugs and insects.  If that is not good enough, plant borage, another great companion plant.  It will deter tomato h0rnworms as well as improve the flavour of tomatoes.  How wonderful!  

LITTLE BABY STEPS...

Nothing quite like homegrown!  The taste and fulfillment you get from growing your own fruits and veggies are so worth it.   

Out of my long list of things that I love very much to grow are tomatoes.  Seeing how people who grow their own tomatoes raved at the sweetness and deliciousness of them all makes my desire to grow bigger.   

I yearn to grow tomatoes like these

I spent hours looking at people's tomato harvest on IG as well as gluing my eyes on the computer checking out seeds that promised gorgeous looking tomatoes.  I always thought tomatoes were either orange or green (ripe and unripe) until my internet stalking revealed that a rainbow of colours like blue, green, orange, pink, yellow and even white (varieties) tomatoes exist! Oh boy.. on top of that, they were all so good looking!

My world literally swam in tomatoes but as much as I was obsessed with them, in the garden it was a totally different story. There was zilch tomato.

In the beginning, seeds just refused to sprout and when they sprouted, they looked like teeny weaklings but I never gave up sowing more seeds! 

Finally I must have done something quite right because I found a few robust seedlings which continued to grow taller.  Each day I watched so eagerly with excitement for the first flower to appear.  They did appear in clusters and then frizzled out and dropped.  The cycle repeated again and again and months after the first flowers appeared, there was still no sign of any tomatoes in sight.

Aren't I clever?  Just because I read of people hand pollinating blooms, I reckoned since no tomatoes were still in sight and bees just weren't doing their jobs, I happily used the tip of my not too dainty fingers to tickle those tomato blooms.  

More disasters followed but surely I am getting nearer to harvesting those prized tomatoes.

I AM SECRETLY IN LOVE

(1)  Drooled over photos of gorgeous tomato posts on others' IG with envy.

(2) Checked out overseas heirloom seeds and drooled (again!) over Ananas Noire, Brandywine, Creme Brulee, Chocolate Cherry and all their other siblings or cousins and secretly disappointed at the appalling lack of varieties locally.   

(3)  Stalked the tomato section of every supermarkets for any newcomer.

(4) Bought tomato plants for soon to be vine ripen tomatoes.   

(5)  Collected more and more packets of tomato seeds.

(6)  Fondled and caressed tomatoes lovingly in the hope that I would grow them just as beautifully.

(7) Hoarded ripe tomatoes in the veggie compartment waiting for "the right time" to sow the seeds. 

(8)   Happy even though my shopping spree yielded nothing except for a couple of tomatoes. (It's the seeds that I want)

(8)  A friend walked into his kitchen, came out with a bowl of tomatoes and handed the bowl to me.   

(9)  At one particular supermarket, this same guy always wore this "I know what nonsense you're up too... don't deny" smile whenever I approached (where else if not the tomato section!)

Thank you but don't crack your head to buy me a gift.  A packet of tomato seeds (heirloom please) will be just great and if you ever catch me stalking you / your garden please excuse me but I could just be admiring your tomatoes... with envy.