My Big Zac Takes the Lead!

Last Friday, 9/24, I brought my Big Zac to the courts for official weigh-in. Larry did the measurements while Rich, Ken and Fred witnessed. The official weight was 21.0 ounces, tying Pam's Brandy wine. However, applying Tie-breaker rule no. 1, my Big Zac beats Pam's Brandy Wine on girth. My Big Zac measured 15.5 inches while Pam's measured 15.0 inches, and therefore, it now takes the lead!

It looks like I will have one more entry before this competition ends. It is another Big Zac, coming from the same vine as this one.

My Big Zac on The Vine

Larry Takes Official Measurements.

My Big Zac tied Pam's Brandy Wine in weight.

Pam's Brandy Wine No. 3 Takes The Lead!

Last Wednesday, 9/15, Pam brought to the courts her two nice looking tomatoes, both Brandy Wine, for weigh-in. (Patrick, where were you?). I took the honors to do the measurements while Sue took pictures.

The first Brandy Wine weighed 20.6 oz with a girth of 15 inches, beating Karl's Big Boy outright. But the second of Pam's Brandy Wine, so perfect, not even a mutant, outweighed her first, weighing 21.0 oz, with a girth of 15.0 inches!

This is Pam's third entry, and is now the tomato to beat!

Karl's Big Boys

Now it's Karl's turn. On Sunday, 9/12, Karl brought in two Big Boy tomatoes for weigh-in. The first one had a girth of 13-3/4 and looked like a perfect tomato with hardly any blemish and symetrical all around, and it weighed 19.2 ounces, outweighing Pam's leading Brandy Wine by 0.4 ounces.

The second Big Boy, not as pretty, it looked like a mutant of at least two tomatoes and it beat Karl's first Big Boy. This one weighed 19.8 ounces with a girth of 14-5/8 inches, and now takes the lead!



Congratulations to Karl. But we have at least two more months before this competition ends. I think I will have to put more manure in my garden.

Carmel Submits another Marianna's Peace - Close but no cigar

On Labor Day, Sept 6, Carmel brought in her second tomato entry this season for weigh in -- another Marianna's Peace, in an attempt to beat Pam's leading Brandy Wine which weighed 18.6 oz at weigh-in. It was a disappointment for Carmel when the weigh-in results showed her tomato only weighed 17.1 ounces, with a girth of 12.5 inches.

Carmel brought her sister who was visiting from Park City to the courts to witness the weigh-in event.


Long enough?


I like tomato weigh-ins.

Carmel Submits another Marianna's Peace

Karl Submits Three Entries

Karl brought in three tomatoes Saturday, Aug 28, for weigh-in, in an attempt to topple Pam's leading Brandy Wine entry. The heaviest of the three was only 0.3 ounces lighter than Pam's! The Brandy Wine maintains the lead at 18.6 ounces!

Here are the measurements of Karl's tomatoes:
Hilly Billy No. 1 - 17.1 ounces, girth 14-3/4 inches
Hilly Billy No. 2 - 16.4 ounces, girth 14 inches
Big Boy - 18.3 ounces, girth 14 inches

Karl won the first tomato contest in 2003 with his Mortgage Lifter weighing 2 lbs, 2.2 ounces!

More photos of weigh-in and Karl's tomato garden are shown below:

My Vegetable Garden

By Pam Knudstad

(Note: This post validates Pam's previous Brandy Wine entry which is now in the lead, and makes her a fully legal participant in this contest. -zc)

Here are two pics of the garden and some of my remaining tomatoes. In fact, I think I may even have a tomato that will beat out my first entry!



Here is a little story of the garden:

When we moved into our home in the Spring of 2000, there was no landscaping and the yard was filled with dirt and thousands of grassy weeds standing 4 to 6 feet high. Three years later, my husband, Nils (a Ship Captain in a tanker fleet) was sent back out to sea for regular long stints. Our son was 3 yrs old at the time. I quit my job in the legal field, rolled up my sleeves, grabbed a shovel and went outside to attack my field of weeds! I was so proud of myself, and decided to go further and build a garden. I roughly designed the boxes for our raised garden and handed the plans, wood and tools to my father-in-law, Alfie. It took Alfie about six months in our garage to build seven beautiful boxes for our raised garden. I dug a trench and buried the PVC pipe under the boxes, and installed a drip system for watering each raised bed. The garden sits in our front yard where it has full sun exposure most of the day, perfect for growing vegetables. The first crop was harvested at the end of the summer of 2003.

Inside the boxes is a mixture of aged redwood humus, and homemade compost that I add each season. In my garden, I have 4 tomato plants: Italian Roma, Brandy Wine Heirloom, Sungold Cherries and Chocolate Cherries. There are also a few volunteers: Sweet Million Cherries and Cabernet Grape Cherries.

I am currently also growing Beets and Walla Walla Onions, Pumpkins and Peppers. So now we are nearing the end of the season, and it is time to plant for the Winter! I am hoping to produce a nice crop of Broccoli, Cabbage, lettuces, Brussel Sprouts and others that will last until next spring.

After 7 years of growing tomatoes, I am very honored and proud to be able to enter one of our tomatoes in a contest, and thrilled to be in the lead!

As my husband says, "There is nothing better than true love and home grown tomatoes!"

I will be eternally grateful to my father-in-law for all the work he put in to build our raised beds & to sit with my son while I worked in the garden