Wow those are nicely shaped tomatoes.
The variety that is most popular to be conjoined are the beef steak. Early Girls are a good tomato and I think the Cherokee Purple is the one that 2-ton just posted.
I haven't heard of them so I will try next spring to see if they are available.

Cherokee Purple is a really lovely tasting tomato, one of my favorites. I don't usually grow them because they don't seem to produce very many fruits for me, and are somewhat bumpy like beefsteak. Eva Purple Ball is the one I mentioned as being so round and blemish free. Here is a pic of an Eva next to a Big Boy...both picked today. I rotated the picture upside down so you can see the tomatoes right side up.

I used a soil ammendment a few years back that was composed of wheat bran, molasses and a few other things I can't remember. I only used about a cup full for the whole planting area in the pic below. The worms absoutely loved it and I could probably have started a worm farm with it.

One is an Early Girl, another a Beefsteak, Patio and something else...four different kinds in all. I could not find the picture of these growing over the top of the trellis but I had tomatoes that year growing on the roof! This pic shows them only about 7 feet tall.

Talk about tomatoes coming out of your ears! We were giving them away to all the neighbors there were so many. Won't use that stuff again!

Nice set up Drac. The arbor comes in handy to tie you plants to.

Here is my latest batch from this morning, Dilled green and yellow beans, Dilled cauliflower and Dilled cukes. One of my water colors in background

yummy!

Pickles look gorgeous Molly. You're a good artist too.

Thanks Eris, I am anxious to try the cauliflower ones when they are ready. I will wait about a week then try them.

How long do you usually pickle them for?

I just put the spices in the jar along with a few garlic buds and fill up the jar with my pickles and then pour the hot brine over it and then seal the jars. They should sit at least 3 or 4 days but I guess the longer the better. They are very easy to make, I bought the cauliflower and this time of year they are cheap. I am still using Tux's recipe and I do modify some of the jars a bit.

OK; first the back story. Dad bought (mail order) one of those carpet flower beds that I'm sure you folk are fully aware of. Only one flower actually sprouted though; have to confess that I procrastinated and didn't plant the bed until the first week of June. lololol

Anyway, I have no freaking idea what this plant is. I thought it was going to be a sunflower especially since it grew so big (and Dad forced me to water the thing during our few weeks of pretty bad drought), but obviously it's not. Any folk here have an idea the name of this huge plant? lol

I reduced the size (auto-rotated for you where needed), but kept the EXIF data intact. It's still pretty cloudy outside so the image might be a tad on the dark side (did not retouch other then the resize). Anyway, as a side note, there are a few other bulbs waiting to burst from the thing, so I suspect by next week, it will really be a pretty site to be seen.

This one reminded me of my geranium.

I spent hours looking for the name of your flower Lyle. I did find that a 10 petal flower is very rare. There are 5 petal flowers that are split and look like 10 petals but yours is definitely 10, which narrows the search.
Did you plant this from a seed, bulb, root, seedling or something else? Is it an annual or perennial?
Anyway, I am still hunting, maybe someone else will find it.

Lyle,
would this be it? http://www.mariesgardenflowers.com/Tithonia.html

The flower looks identical but the stem doesn't come close. The stem is short like a Sunflower plant; very close the the body of the plant itself.

It also has 12 petals and the leaves are very different. BTW, Lyle you ninj'd me again. grrr.

It still could be a Tithonia since I saw some plants species (yahoo image search) with short stems too. Thanks for that info b10h4z4rd.

Did ya see post 233 above Lyle about it being very rare

It could have some missing petals Molly and the 12 petal example that b10h4z4rd might be closer. I just found this plant that has exact leafs as my plant and also the short stem, but the petals are orange on my plant; still I'm pretty much 100% sure that b10h4z4rd is right; it's a Tithonia.

http://www.nri.org/projects/sapp/Tithon ... ifolia.htm (also known as the Mexican Sunflower and I said my flower reminds me of a Sunflower; it even tracks the sun. lol)

Molly, your table spread is beautiful, with all the colorful jars.

I've been making salsa with the last of my tomatoes. It's a hassle to make but it's way better than the store bought stuff.

Looking delicious Tux, please send me some, . I have a recipe I might try but the problem is I have tons of tomatoes but they don't all ripen at the same time. Anyway, it seems like a lot of work but as you said, it is worth it to have the home made. Nice job