I picked the first ripe tomatoes of the season last week. Only the tiny grape tomatoes and a few Park’s Whoppers are ripe so far, but the Orange Jubilees, Beefmasters, and Celebrities aren’t too far behind. No rain means I’ve been watering faithfully, but no rain also means a high percentage of fruit set (as the bees & other pollinators have more flying time during non-rainy weather).
A patch of early blight cropped up, but it doesn’t seem to be spreading, thankfully.
I’m eating those grape tomatoes smeared with a bit of herbed chevre. At some point, I’ll be sick of the little buggers, but right now, they’re still a treat.
Bouillie 
Hi, Celeste. Love your blog and read often. Sorry about the blight problem. Hope it doesn’t spread. A friend of mine planted 500 tomato plants (he sells them). Blight wiped out his entire garden. My uncle (who has been gardening since he was a kid) said that once a garden has blight, don’t plant in it again because the blight will come back every year. I don’t know how long not to plant in that spot again, but I can ask him if you don’t already know.
Happy Easter!
I’ve heard that about blight, but the sunny spot in my backyard is quite limited. So I’m stuck with managing blight, as I can’t move the garden. A few anti-fungals will control it, but the best course is to plant blight-resistant varieties. The Park’s Whopper and Beefmaster tomatoes seem most impacted by the blight.
My problem was that the backyard got no early morning sun. As a result, the dew stayed on tomatoes longer and this always led to diseases of one kind or the other. I always used to say my back-yard raised tomatoes only cost me $10/lb.
I would really love to be able to raise some heirloom tomatoes. I do have someone in Luling who sells beautiful and flavorful tomatoes for $1/lb but it’s not the same as going out the back door and picking some.
The guy in Montz told me he will have some May 6 at the Farmers Market. I look forward to the time when tomatoes are ripe like no other in the year.
It is hard to grow tomatoes without adequate sun. I know exactly what you mean about “going out the back door”–I did exactly that this morning. It’s a beautiful thing.