Seattle Tomato Saga

Seattle is not known for tomatoes.

Our summers are mild and wet with little or no humidity. When planning the tomato section of the garden, smaller tomato varieties were chosen, but a few bigger varities were thrown in to see how well they would actually grow. To refresh your memory, here are the seedlings:

This is only part of the successful seedlings. Several were given away.

And then came the Wall-O-Water, or Aqua Shields. Their purpose was to insulate the plant against any cooler weather Seattle might experience AND trick the plant into thinking it was getting more sunlight.

In May and June, the Aqua Shields were great.

By mid June, I thought that I would have a few tomatoes to enjoy. But, I also knew that they still would not taste the same as those I had grown up eating in Indiana. Seattle just did not have the hot temperatures or humidity to produce the rich tomatoes.

But...here is where the story takes an almost Twilght Zone Twist...

This is the front yard area in at the end of June.

(Notice the height of all the plants based on the trellis)

After weeks of abnormally high heat and humidity,

(temperatures in the upper 90's and as high as 104),

the front yard area looks like this:

It was an amazing transformation and hopefully not one to be repeated next summer. Seattle has never known heat like that. As the tomatoes are ripening, I'm wondering...

will it taste more like an Indiana tomato?