Oregon Spring And Sun Gold

Day 302: If you're wondering why my recent posts have been rather more domestic than usual, it's because western Washington has been having hot weather coupled with thick smoke drifting down from the fires in British Columbia. Over the last two weeks, the Mountain has been invisible or nearly so from my home, and at times, I haven't even been able to make out the horizon of Elbe Hills. Yesterday was the worst it has been. The smoke was visible between my house and my neighbour's, and the trees at the end of the pasture were all but lost in haze. Other than short runs out into the garden or to the mailbox, I have made very few forays into open atmosphere and away from the filtering capabilities of air-conditioning. This is not normal, not for Washington, and cabin fever is taking its toll on my disposition. As much as I want to be OUT, the air is too thick to breathe and I have no desire to become a statistic. Still, enforced domesticity does not sit well with me and I would be glad of a little rain. So would my garden.

I've been watering on an almost daily basis, perhaps a bit too heavily for the Oregon Spring "beefsteak" tomatoes. The vine is producing prodigiously despite being very compact this year, but my diligence with watering has caused most of the tomatoes to split. They're not inedible; I just have to cut away the hardened bits where the flesh has been exposed, and the remainder of the fruit is sweet and juicy, and especially delicious when harvested sun-warm and served with a dash of salt and pepper. On the other hand, the Sun Gold plant is spindly and leggy despite having been fertilized, and is bearing rather sparsely. That said, I've still been able to pick enough tomatoes for both myself and a neighbour, although I would not call this a "good tomato year."

Oregon Spring

Day 292: My mouth is watering already! I have never had tomatoes ripen earlier than late August, not here in my mountain garden, but Oregon Spring was developed for this climate and it is proving to be the best producer even over Sweet Million, my other favourite. What at first I took to be a rot issue at the stem end has panned out to be nothing more than a little sun-scald or water damage. Several four-inch fruits are beginning to show color.

I purchased strong plants in four-inch pots this year, and I think that's part of the secret. Buying smaller plants means they have less time to develop. Even so, last year's crop filled my kitchen window where I put them to ripen, eating them one by one as they matured off the vine. These, though...these promise sun-warmed, juicy goodness within the next two weeks. No danger of frost between now and then! Hurrah for Oregon Spring!

The Taste Of Summer

Day 360: With drenching rain on the roster for the weekend, I picked every decent-sized tomato on the vine today and put them in the windowsill to ripen. It's taken almost a week for the first ones to redden up completely, but tonight I sliced into one of them and found it to be absolutely delicious. I have had a better yield, pound for pound, of full-sized Oregon Springs than I ever had from Sweet Million cherry tomatoes. If not quite a "beefsteak" variety, they are close enough for me.

Oregon Spring Still Life

Day 356: For the first time since I moved here over two decades ago, I have had some moderate success with full-sized tomatoes. The growing season is quite short here, a factor which previously led me to select "Sweet Million," a 60-65 day cherry tomato, nibbling them straight off the vine as they ripened. For the last several years, though, I have been lucky if I got half a dozen fruits from two vines, hardly worth the bother of keeping Bambi at bay. This year, I thought I'd try a different variety and selected "Oregon Spring." The name sounded good, anyway, as if the plants might have been developed specifically to withstand the Pacific Northwest climate. I brought them home, babied them indoors until the end of May and then stuck them in the big pot outside the back door. I saw blossoms emerge and tiny fruits begin to develop and swell. Then they continued to swell without the slightest blush appearing and I wondered why. Oh dear! I'd misread the tag! They weren't cherry tomatoes at all! Oregon Spring was a full-sized variety. I figured failure was inevitable.

Well, I picked these two before they were ripe just in case Jack Frost got moody. Nights have been in the low 40s, and that's a bit too close for comfort. Give them a few more days on the kitchen counter and they'll be ready for taste-testing. Oregon Spring may well become my garden's delight.