Secret Farm: A garden blog

Golden Queen Tomatoes

Best. Tomato. Ever. EVER! These are seriously the best tasting slicers I have ever had. Tangy, sweet, juicy - with an almost mango like texture and hint o' tropical flavor. Mmmmmmm! Now I'm panicking though, because I got these seeds from a neighbor who got them from someone on the internet, and I don't know if I can get any more. I am trying to save seeds from them, but I've never done that before, so we'll see how that goes. Anyone got any tips?

What's your favorite tomato?

Amish Paste Tomato

Here is one of the first Amish Paste tomatoes. They are big and red and seem to be a great paster - though I have yet to make any paste - ever. I probably won't either. I'm not really a sauce maker, and certainly not a canner. I do like to cook with tomatoes though, which is why I grew these guys and the Black Plum Pastes as well. Having to cook everything so long using my slicers last year made me finally see the light. They taste pretty good uncooked too. I will grow these again.

Another plus is the plant is also really big and branching, or wait, is that a minus. Well anyway, The plant is giving me a really good crop. It's one of my most prolific producers.

Mysterious Yellow

These guys are a complete surprise. I thought they were going to be Green Zebras like the rest of the volunteer tomatoes that I plopped in next to the garage, or maybe a Half Moon China as I had lots of them fall off and rot last year due to squirrel and mice damage, but no. They formed unifom smallish globes and I thought, oh they are Burbank Red Slicing Tomatoes. Oh well. (Not one of my faves from last year.) They started to ripen, and instead of red they were - yellow! With red streaks on the bottom even. Huh. Never grown these before. What gives? The only thing I can think of is cross pollination. Does anyone else have experience with that? How often does it happen? Any other suggestions for what happened?

Well, they're nice sunny little yellow guys anyway, and quite agreeable on the palate as well. Nice and juicy with your regular type tomato twang. A good sandwich or salad tomato. They are also hardy little suckers as they are sandwiched between two zebra plants, have been trampled quite a bit and barely watered.

First Tomatoes '07!

Well, it's official - I've picked my first tomatoes of '07. No pix yet, sorry - perhaps if I get up early enough tomorrow I can take some and post 'em before going to the cabin.

I actually picked my first two a few days ago, last sunday to be exact. They were 2 "Cherry Romas" and not quite ripe, but wer were leaving for a few days and I wanted to make sure we got to eat the first tomatoes and not the squirrels! Good thing too, 'cause I found a half eaten half ripe one on the ground when we got back last night. (A tomato, not a squirrel silly! Gross!)

The winner this year then was technically a Black Plum Paste tomato, but it had blossom end rot, so I didn't pick it until today. The others were a couple Tigerellas - vollunteers, and a couple of Blondkopfchens. I haven'tt tried any of them yet though, I guess I'm saving them for the cabin weekend.

Basil is also starting to go gangbusters, beans are blooming, and the squashes are finally looking like they may do something after all. It's amazing what a few days away from your garden will do. Sometimes I wonder if it's like that old "watched pot" saying, except this time it's a watched garden never grows. Or, maybe it's just the heat.

Ripe n' Ready

Here is a Northern Lights that was completely ripened indoors. Isn't it pretty? And there's no insect or rodent bites and no splitting either! If only the taste was as good I'd do it this was all summer. This one is a Big Rainbow (I'm pretty sure). You can't see it real well in this shot, but it's got a cool starburst pattern on the bottom there.

Greenies

I know it's too late for most of you. including me, but I thought I'd post a picture of good indoor ripening tomatoes anyway - since Nick asked a while back. All three of these are good candidates and should ripen just fine on their own indoors. Perhaps I'll leave them sitting on the stove and give you an update photo later. When you pick a green tomato for indoor ripening, remember they should have a slight bit of give, and have a nice shiny appearance. If they are dull and fuzzy, they may change color, but they won't be any good at all for eating, which I assume is what you are bringing them in for. Also, if they feel at all like a tennis ball they are probably also too young to bring in and may be really mealy and dry as they have not soaked up enough water yet. If you are desperate though, say the eve of a hard frost, go ahead and bring them in. The worst they could do is rot on your counter and make a mess. You may however get lucky and still be eating tomatoes from your garden long after your neighbors. The longest I stretched it out one year was past New Year's, but that's another story.

Mutant

This here is a Peche Jaune tomato, or rather three Peche Jaunes that have fused together. Not really sure how this happened, but it's kinda cool huh?

Gather your tomatoes while ye may

Yes, Fall is here, and that means that most of your garden has either slowed down or stopped all together. There are some things you can do though to prolong at least your tomato crop. The picture above is a good example of one. Just clip your green tomatoes off with a stem long enough to stick in a jar or vase of water. This will keep really green tomatoes hydrated so they stay juicy as they ripen instead of getting dry and mealy. Tomatoes that are just about to ripen can be snatched from the jaws of hungry vermin by simply bringing them inside and setting them out on the counter. I like to put them on a paper towel as the bottom will sometimes rot when in contact with the non-porous countertop. They should ripen before they dry out and thus retain their full juiciness. You may lose some to the indoor nasties (fruit flies) but most will make it as long as they don't have cracks or holes already. You may put your youngins into a paper bag, some claim this speeds up the ripening process as they can share their little ripening gasses. I on the other hand am crossing my fingers that mine ripen very slowly, as we are already swimming in tomatoes - never thought that was possible. The last option, I would actually like to dispell - if any of you have had luck with this though, please let me know. That option is pulling up the vine with remaining green tomatoes intact and hanging it upside down in the basement. I tried this last year with several of my vines, and even some of my potted ones, and all they did was shrivel up and rot - every last one of them. They didn't even ripen one little speck. I would have been much better off with one of the other methods. Anyone else have any other tricks? I'm all eyes. And please, don't be afraid of the new comment procedure, it won't bite - at least not as hard as the comment spam did.

Tomatocopia

Tomatocopia
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

Here are most of the tomato varieties that I grew this year. Most were fairly good, some were awesome, and some were a great disappointment - ah such is the game in the garden.

The best were:
Pineapple
Amana Orange
Green Zebra
Black Prince

A-OK:
Peche Jaune
Marmande
Mystery Roma
Northern Lights
Big Rainbow

Not so much:
Halfmoon China
Tigerella
Isis Candy Cherry
Mirabell
Burbank Red Slicing

Hybridization or Differentiation?

Here are two of supposedly the same tomatoes a Peche Jaune. Huh? Why are they so different? I dunno. One tomato is from a plant in the ground, and one is from a plant in a pot - a pretty big pot at that. To get even weirder, the one from the pot is the LARGER one, and weirder still, some in another pot are exactly the same as the smaller, yellower, fuzzier one from the ground. The only thing I can think of there is cross-pollination. Has anyone else experienced this? I didn't think it was supposed to make a difference, except for saving seeds. Here's another example with the Black Prince. The larger one in this case, is the one from the ground, but the one in the pot is not only smaller, but it has a different shape and coloring. What gives? Does anyone have a clue?

Giganticus

No, not referring to me in the title, to the tomatoes silly! This here's an Amana Orange, which I have to say, is a pretty darn good tomato. It's got a very cheerful color, and flavor- nice and tangy, and it is gigantic. I haven't picked one under a pound yet! Look - it's almost as big as my head! I think this one was a pound and a half. This here's a Northern Lights - very similar to a Big Rainbow, except no green. They are also quite large, this one was probably over a pound. The flavor is also quite good, very juicy. A nice tomato flavor, and just as beautiful as any Rainbow once you cut it open - the tomato kind of rainbow that is, I don't think you can cut open a real rainbow.