Finale

We have a winner!

In an amazing upset Zeina has come out on top after Mike has thrown in the towel. Here's a statement from Mike:

After a long hard fight, it is with a heavy heart that I am hereby submitting my concession from the contest. Though I had an obvious lead in the growth of my plants, in the end it seems Mother Nature was against me. Just when my first tomato was ready to ripen, my plant was devastated by a giant tomato hornworm. After smothering the plant in pesticide, the worm was dead, but not before it had gorged itself on my tomatoes. Nevertheless, I pressed on, ever vigilant. I was sure that my lead was extensive enough that this was only a minor setback; however, next came the rabbit. Once again it seemed I would not be able to eat my own tomatoes. I was too ashamed to send pictures. I wanted my plants to regain their composure. I spent many nights awake crying, I was in an awful place.
In the end, my plant was picked to shreds by the birds. While I raised my plants with care, it seems nature itself was against me. And so Zeina, I applaud you. You have accomplished what I could not. To the victor go the spoils, and so now I must prepare for you a dinner of your choice. The contest was hard fought but in the end it seems the best woman won.

At least that's similar to what Mike should have said, but this is the same man who can't find the time to take pictures of a motionless object sitting on his porch. So what he actually said, in an instant message to me, was:

BTW. I'm conceding the tomato bet. Birds picked my shit apart.

The link was added by me, as was the punctuation and capitalization. No one can accuse Mike of being wordy. Mike's loquacity aside; let us now move on to the pictures of the winning plant:

Zeina's pics


Here we see the winning plant, as it is the only one left. The plant has been through an ordeal of its own, but has risen above it and as you can see there is some ripening going on with those tomatoes. Last time I counted there were around 20 tomatoes growing.


Here's a closer shot of the ripest tomatoes.


A few days ago there was a strong thunderstorm that managed to knock over Zeina's plant. The impact of the fall caused some of her tomatoes to fall off, so she wanted to show them as well.

So that does it for The Tomato Blog. Overall it was a fun experience in the beginning until Mike ruined everything. However it was fun to belittle Mike's inadequacy in the promptness department, so I guess it wasn't all a waste. Now I need to find something else to blog about I suppose. It will also be interesting to see if Mike will hold his end of the deal and cook a meal for Zeina, not to mention if it will be edible.