BLACK RUSSIANS...

Black Russian tomatoes are a right b*****d to grow! First, they make a crazy shape, with flowers that look more like dandelions than tomatoes, splitting the plant so they can't be trained.
Next they just have to split the minute they are anywhere near ripe-
And lastly, they are irresistible to blackbirds! Just one plant that has mistakenly got muddled in with another variety, the varmints will get in, and head unerringly to the ripening Russian, taking juicy big pecks out- and making them completely unsellable!
What makes these Black Russians so appealing- followed by the pink Coeur de Boeuf that we grow? How do the blackbirds know where they are and track them down even when surrounded by other varieties.
It's a mystery!
In a bid to beat them at their own game, I have been through and picked all the lower trusses while bright green- we'll see who wins this round!
Look for them on our markets www.edenfarms.co.uk/farmers_market.php, or order from our delivery service! ww.edenfarms.co.uk/products.php

ON PICKING TOMATOES.....

We are finally harvesting the fruits of our labour- this must be the dirtiest job on the farm! A special outfit, stiff with tomato grease, plus woolly hat, are needed to pick even in tropical conditions!Otherwise the grower gets covered in a scaly resin from the plants that turns the bathwater yellow and only comes off when soaked and scrubbed. Lovely!
However, aren't the results worth it! This week we have just started on our favourite plums, the strange Coeur de Boeuf, and a jewelled assortment of black, red and yellow cherry tomatoes; if you don't here from me again, assume I am trapped in Jungle Bolingbroke and send out the search party!
(anybody read Stephen King's Duma Key- it's a bit like that!)