I took a couple of field trips this week, making house calls to Matthew Ippolito's garden in Selden (left, top) and to Uresh Sheth's place in Syosset (left, bottom).
Armed with my humble SONY 2.0 Cyber-shot camera and a $9.99 scale I purchased at Bed, Bath & Beyond en route to Ippolito's house on Friday, I visited, weighed and recorded my findings. 
And what I found was pretty impressive, indeed.
Ippolito's Mortgage Lifter plant, pictured below, sported two plump beauties ripe for the picking. The larger one, which he is seen picking above, weighed in at 1 pound, 13 ounces. (Full disclosure: He graciously shared the non-contender with me, which my daughter Julia and I enjoyed with a salt shaker a few days later. My impartiality, however, remains unshaken, as is evidenced by the next sentence.)
Sheth edged him out with his 1 pound, 15 ounce Burpee Beefsteak, which he picked in my presence on Monday.
Others are lining up to be weighed, and contestants are calling and sending frantic emails at all hours beckoning, "My tomato is ripe and needs to be picked! Please come quick!"
Luckily, tomatoes are best picked a couple of days after reaching full ripeness, so there's no cause for panic.
Results will be tallied and posted here over the next few weeks, so stay tuned! AND, don't forget to vote for Garden Detective in the race for Best Hobby Blog by clicking the icon at left.
