June 21, 2011 - The Time Has Come!






I always expect the first tomato of the year to be a big disappointment. It seems it is usually mealy and tasteless, and I expected this one to be exactly that. After all, it has been trying to ripen through temperatures that sometimes got nearly down to freezing, and it has had very few warm, sunny days to help it along. I warned Mr. Granny that it was just our summer ritual to eat that first nasty tasting tomato, so suck it up and go for it. Boy, were we surprised! This little two ounce beauty, not much bigger than a golf ball, actually had the taste and texture of a real tomato! I must say, I think we'll be very, very happy with Bloody Butcher. I'm happy to say there are three more that are getting close to ripening.



Of course, it was only proper to prepare a garden dinner to celebrate the first tomato. The onion, carrots, sugar snap peas and broccoli were fresh from the garden, and the bell pepper strips, from the freezer, from last year's garden. A six ounce bowl of fresh raspberries, our third and largest picking of the year, will top some vanilla ice cream for dessert.



Stir fry chicken with fresh garden vegetables are becoming a favorite, and appear on our menu on a weekly basis. Tossed with a simple stir fry sauce of chicken broth, soy sauce and cornstarch, then served over noodles or rice, it's an economical, filling and delicious meal. Mr. Granny even loves it, broccoli and all!

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36 comments:

  1. I'm so jealous. Can't wait for the tomatoes!!

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  2. Yay...thats great. The Time Has Come and you soon will be loaded with tomatoes :) Glad to hear that you got your first tomato.

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  3. Hooray for Granny's first 2011 tomato! You must've grown really sturdy seedlings for it to turn out so well despite the prolonged cool spring your way this year. Your garden stir fry platter looks beautifully scrumptious.

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  4. Oh my gosh, that all looks so wonderful! The only thing I could eat from the garden at this point still is dirt. Mmmm, think I wait!

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  5. Thanks to all, and APG....please, don't eat the dirt!

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  6. How nice to try and enjoy your first tomato of the season.:) Those Bloody Butchers do indeed taste pretty darn good for an early tomato. You do an excellent job of keeping Mr. Granny well fed with all of those healthy and delicious foods...mmmm.

    My first little broccoli heads are coming on so Mrs. H and I are looking forward to that...it was well over 70°here today, we are excited about that too.:)

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  7. I love the 4th photo!. I'm going to have try the bloody Butcher. I've only had one tomato ripen so far this season (the Fox Cherry). I have a few more with a blush on them so it won't be long till the next one is ready to eat.

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  8. It's all thanks to you, Mr. H.!

    Enjoy the warmth (it was 87 here today)and enjoy your broccoli! As much as I complained about small broccoli heads, my harvest has already exceeded both 2009 and 2010 totals.

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    Liisa, my Sunsugar should be the next to ripen. I bought it because the Sungolds were a bust, but now the one puny surviving Sungold is growing and thriving! I'm going to have a lot of cherry tomatoes.

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  9. I am so jealous. But I'm taking notes on what ripens early, and in cool temps. I'll be trying Bloody Butcher next year.

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  10. Congrats Granny!! What a perfect tomato!! I'm jealous!! My Bloody Butcher was a bloody mess this year. I went through 2 plants and both died! Drat!

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  11. Hooray for the first tomato and for the lovely array of veggies from your garden! It's so great you are getting such awesome harvests already.

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  12. That stir fry looks so good. Lucky lucky Mr. Granny (and good for him, not picking out the broccoli!)

    I grew the Bloody Butcher last year, but honestly can't even remember it. I think it was our first warm year of the four we've been in Michigan and I think I must have only focused on my Brandywines. I'm glad you're "first" tom was a good one!!
    :)

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  13. Congrats on your first tomato Granny!! I am happy to hear that it was tasty. We have gotten a few more MWC's but I don't see any big tomatoes blushing yet :(

    What a nice garden dinner! We are just loving stir fries around here too! That's one way to get Mr. Granny to eat his broccoli!

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  14. Looks wonderful. There are few things more satisfying than a meal of your own vegetables!

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  15. Bloody hell; my plants are only a few inches high!

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  16. Congratulations! And on the first day of summer too.
    Stir fry is one of our favorites too and we eat with chop sticks too since we had the real thing in China last fall.

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  17. Yummy!! 87! It's 87 here by 9 AM. It's getting old.

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  18. Nice tomato, and that dinner sure looks delicious!

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  19. Way to go! We're still waiting here.

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  20. Congratulations on your first tomato!! I too don't expect much from the first one, usually the struggle alters the flavor. So glad you were surprised :)

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  21. Wow a good tasting first tomato. The first one is never the best though, so I wonder how good the future ones will be. I'm guessing one of my sungolds will be my first tomato. It started to set at the same time as the Cherokee Purple.Oh how I wish they were as fast to set as peas. I'd be eating tomatoes now too.

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  22. Yum! Both the tomato and the dinner look delicious. We do a lot of stir fries in this house too. Great way to use a variety of veggies and between the garden variety variances and by using several different sauces and/or noodles versus rice to go with it -- it really never gets boring because it is always quite different!

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  23. That stir fry looks awesome! I may have to try it. My tomatoes are about the size of a pea. It is so nice seeing all our work coming to fruition...literally.

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  24. Congrats! My early "Fourth of July" tomatoes are the same size as those. LOVE stir fry, it's my favorite and is also a great way to use freezer veggies in winter, and we always get leftovers for hubby to take to work - a very high mileage dish!

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  25. What time did you say I should come to dinner ? That tomato is awesome looking ..don't forget to save some seeds. They look worth the wait.

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  26. Ginny, Mr. H. sent me enough seeds to last a lifetime, so I don't even have to save any for myself!

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  27. Beautiful tomatoes! Your garden produce is mouth watering! Stir fry looks so yummy!

    Wouldn't you tell, it's time for my lunch!lol!

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  28. I am always so delighted with getting the first tomato that I don't really notice if it's not so good. Usually the little tomatoes come along first and they seem to produce a good flavour any time. The variety this year (same as last year) is Sweet Million.

    Your chicken stir fry and veggies looks mouth-wateringly good.

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  29. Delicious looking stir-fry Gran! I've heard great things about Bloody Butcher and was close to ordering seeds this year. What is it's growth habit like? Is it a true indeterminate?

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  30. I am excited to see your first tomato. I guess that shows how excited I'll be when we get our first one!
    Your garden dinner looks so colorful and delicious!

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  31. Your dinner looks wonderful, and yes, I'm jealous of your ripe tomato. I imagine you use wall of water to get them to ripen so early in the season. I must say it is worth it to have tomatoes to enjoy in June.

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  32. Thomas, I have no idea, but I'll keep you updated on its progress. It's maybe 2' tall right now, but started blossoming when it was under 12". The tomatoes, all of them, are shorter than they usually are this time of year, but started a growth spurt the past two weeks with warmer weather.

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    Brenda, I've never used a wall of water. I just grow them under lights until it's safe to set them out (late this year). As I was telling Thomas, this variety began blossoming when it was less than a foot tall and still in its seedling cup. Seeds were started 3/11, transplanted into the garden 5/1.

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  33. Thanks to all for your comments! I hope to have another ripe tomato tomorrow, and I'm ready for another stir fry any time ;-)

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  34. Oh yum, tomatoes look great. I will most likely miss our first, being away all next month, but hope they will be alive and well when we get back.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog. Have a great gardening summer!

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  35. I love it. The dish looks so tasty. We won't get tomatoes for a couple weeks yet. We should have them, but we'll have to wait.

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  36. Ahhh, your first tomato. Congratulations, you lucky lady...or should I say talented. Yup, talented.

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