Harvesting Tomatoes

We're finally harvesting tomatoes. Not sure why I say finally because it's still early in the season. The first to ripen are sweet 100s and the name describes them perfectly. They are smaller than a cherry tomato which I like because cherry tomatoes tend to squirt in your mouth and are almost too large. Eating sweet 100s is like eating a juicy piece of candy. The benefit of these tomatoes is a few seem to ripen each day. We've had a downpour every couple of days and the plants are really liking it.

When I lived in California I belonged to a fruit growers group. The agriculture extension office used to invite us to do taste tests for them for new varieties of oranges. We'd walk out in the orange groves and the ag officer would give us slices of orange to taste. We'd mark our opinion of the results on a printed sheet for the purpose. It was all very scientifically centered. I remember we all, almost always, agreed the best oranges had both sweet and sour notes. I guess sweet 100 tomatoes are an exception to that rule. Photo is a Buddha's hand citrus I grew in my California gardens. It is grown just for the pungent zest is provides.

My hardy gardenia are blooming and I keep forgetting to bring one in so I can enjoy the fragrance. Apparently the thinner leafed variety is the one which is the hardiest. Winter before last the cold hit them hard but this year they have recovered.

I finished my bisque firing and all of my glazing. Wednesday I fired a glaze load and it cooled down yesterday. This is the first work I've fired in I don't know how long. I've a couple of experiments in there. I always try something different in each glaze firing because you just never know what you'll learn or discover. Above is an experiment from long ago, too bad I didn't write down which glazes I used. Whoa is me. At the last farmers market I got two commissions and each week I've sold quite a bit of pottery so I have nothing to complain about, in the pottery realm that is. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.