This is the "after" photo of a tomato that's just had its serious July trim. In CenTX, we grow tomatoes in the spring and in the fall--and sometimes, when the plants look strong, we can carry them over from spring into fall. Here's the "before" photo, so you can see the difference. (Click to enlarge.)
By the time summer gets here (usually about mid-May or early June), the plant is still producing blossoms, but the blossoms don't set fruit when the daytime temps are above 90 and the nighttime temps are above 70. So the fruit that's on the vines in early June will be the last for the season. I had 16 plants this year and harvested about a bushel over 45 days--too much to eat, not enough to bother canning, so I dried what we didn't eat and made tomato powder.
Now that the plants have stopped producing and most of the tomatoes are ripe, it's time for the July trim. This guy (top photo) will be back in production in September, when (we hope) the days and nights will be a little cooler. That's the theory, anyway. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Depends (at least in part) on whether the tomato hornworm gets to the plant before I get to the hornworm. And on the constancy of my watering, and on the rain.
Thanks to all who clicked on over to Helen Ginger's blog for yesterday's Rhys & Susan show, a conversation about writing British mysteries between me and Rhys Bowen, award-winning author of a couple of British mystery series. The post is still up, if you missed it yesterday.
I'm pushing hard to finish The Tale of Oat Cake Crag today or tomorrow. "Finish" is a relative word, of course. There's a bit of trimming to do, and the author's note, but the storylines are tied into pretty knots and all the characters' dilemmas have been resolved. This is the seventh book in an eight-book series, so getting all the carry-over plots in shape for final resolution in Book Eight has been an interesting challenge. Somebody wrote to me the other day and asked me how I could possibly do three books in a year, when all she could manage was one short story. I suggested that she read this blog for a while, and she'd see. But the real answer is simply that I write every day. Write. Just write. Oh, and trim tomatoes.
Reading note. I know writers who write only when inspiration comes. How would Isaac Stern play if he played the violin only when he felt like it? He would be lousy.--Madeleine L’Engle
