The Tomato Tale

Welcome to the first installment of The Tomato Tale.  Hopefully, it will be a TALL Tomato Tale.  DF & LBR Maggie fights the Good Fight each year in high elevation Flagstaff, a mountain town where growing fat red tomatoes is akin to The Red Badge of Courage.  It is so difficult to grow decent tomatoes up there at 7,000 feet most people give up and just buy them in the stores.  Maggie is one of the courageous few who dare the elements, pests, ice, sleet, snow, pelting monsoon rain and other unknown factors to attempt to harvest the Gardener's Delight--Big Fat Red Ripe Tomatoes.  Maggies throws caution to the wind and spares no expense in her quest.  Money? Not a problem.  Time? Not a problem.  Space? Not a problem.  Whatever it takes, Maggie is willing to provide.  Her tomatoes are spared nothing in the lofty crusade to produce genuine PRODUCE!

This year Maggie is going exotic with a tomato that's supposedly of Siberian genetics.  You've heard about Siberia, it's almost as cold as Flagstaff.

Here's what Maggie had to say about this international newcomer:

"I read about a Russian variety of tomato -- Stupice (stew-peach-ka), in our local paper's gardening column.  It is touted to germinate more quickly and taste much better than Early Girl as well as some other varieties.  It is an indeterminate variety or cherry-sized tomatoes that continue to bear fruit well into the fall.  The columnist claimed to get tomatoes all through September.  He subsequently picked the green ones and kept them in a paper bag and says he was eating tomatoes at Thanksgiving. So far, they are proving to be fast growing -- germinating in several days."

Last year it was such a hoot following Maggie gardening exploits that we decided to publish The Tomato Tale this year here on our blog.  THANKS, Maggie, for sharing your exploits with our readers.  We will all be at the edge of our tables waiting for the next installment.  Keep 'em comin'!

Many Cheers, jp