The photo above was made in June of 1999. It shows the early development of the 15 varieties of tomatoes we tried that summer. On the front row right our jalapeno plants are visible. The stuff growing in the right rear is snappy beans. The old stump which was infested with copperheads is located to the right of the snappy beans, back in the shadows. (Not visible in this photo.)

We also planted okra, squash, shallots, basil and watermelons. Because we were in a drought nearly all summer, the squash never produced much at all. The three Sugar Baby watermelon vines managed to give us about 10 very sweet watermelons weighing an estimated average of 3-4 pounds each. We never have been able to grow decent okra here in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We'll give it one more shot next summer to see if okra can be grown here at all.

The tomatoes were our special project though. Last year we didn't get one we thought tasted like a real tomato. The Supersonics were especially disappointing. So this year we grew over 15 different varieties on our mission to produce The Delicious Tomato.

It was a struggle. Some weird Strangling Curly-Top Event affected most of the plants we planted earliest. I suspect this resulted from my terrifically enthusiastic application of kelp. About half recovered from it and half died. At that point we only had about 8 plants left living so we proceeded to go absolutely nightshade on the garden and bought 10 more varieties. We ended up with over 35 plants.

Most of the 15+ types came to the table with acid, thick-skin, cat-faces or some other un-delicious quality that instantly disqualified it from ever being grown again in the garden of the BBQ Compound. These unfortunate contestants need not be named. Instead, I will celebrate the ones that were heavy, juicy, meaty, mild and abundant. These were: