Please tell me that you have eaten at least one tomato sandwich; white bread (the cheapest you can get, or home-made), your home-grown tomato, salt, and mayonnaise (let’s not get in to the debate, but, the blue top one). That is worth a summer down here in the American South.
I’m very happy to report that they are one of the main motivations for me to have a garden, and as of last week, my late and pitiful garden was producing a few things, including tomatoes. We are now enjoying home grown tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh basil, a couple types of lettuce, and Swiss chard.
Tomato seeds are awesome. I remember when the wife puked off our deck during pregnancy and, surprise, couple of tomato plants pop up.
Not yet but I'll give it a go. And I keep the stuff with the green top, thankyouverymuch. They are resilient. I finally have yellow pear cherries trickling in. The plant is absolutely packed with them. I have hundreds of green ones. Some of them are monsters.
GREEN top? Do you mean the, "K-Word"? I would accept, "Yellow Top", for sure, and certainly New Orleans' own other "Blue Top". But, GREEN? Stick to it, then. Much respect.
Tomatoes from today, plus some peppers. I have a ton more tomatoes outside that I've pulled but aren't perfectly ripe yet. Our weather is perfect for ripening so I leave them at the table by the back door until they are ready to be used. The paprika plants are just outrageous in their production, I will definitely grow them again. The plants are almost as tall as me and just fucking bonkers with fruit. I am so glad I bought that dehydrator, it has been used daily lately. We love "sun dried" tomatoes here. Somehow since last year my kid went from loving raw cherry tomatoes to turning a nose up, but when I dry them they become tomato candy and they are gobbled up.
I've never heard chili plants called that before. Fantastic haul you've got there... my cucumbers are just at that phase where we've had 2 medium sized ones that we've harvested, but there are about 20 close behind. The tomatoes have been about 2-3 a day for a couple weeks now... fantastic toasted tomato sandwiches for lunch... as well as great tomato salads with fresh basil. Swiss Chard is just huge right now, and I'm about halfway through my romaine crop. All in all, for such a late start this year, it's starting to kick in no too badly and done well for next to no work.
Heck yeah to Swiss chard. That's one I'm glad I tried to grow. I have a nice patch of mature plants that I'll never be able to use all of. I've almost given up on the cucumbers. There are so many, and I wasn't keeping up with picking while I've been sick. There are some monsters out there. The really big ones, I'll split apart and feed to the ducks. I'm just afraid to look at all right now.
Indeed. Just with years past, I've been so keen and started stuff months before, putting in the time/effort to be able to transplant and hit the ground running as soon as possible, and this year, none of that work was done. And then it was a cold, wet, late Spring. And then puppy. It just seemed like so much to overcome that I wasn't expecting any results from a few seeds thrown in the ground really late, and yet it worked out really well.
The most underrated vegetable ever. In suburban, standard, American supermarkets, at least. No one buys these because, I think, the rutabagas come with their foliage chopped off, and they are covered in this strange wax coating. And have likely been sitting in a warehouse, truck, or market for goodness knows how long. You'll usually just see like three random ones sitting in a tray below the peppers and parsley here. Peel 'em, chop 'em up, and boil 'em. Mash them up with a little butter or olive oil and they are better than even mashed potatoes. Sweet and delicious as candy, with no "peppery" flavor like turnips or arugula. Incredibly fined-textured, too. Wonderful under a richly braised beef. I planted a whole row, and they are coming up nicely. So excited, and hopeful, for a Christmas harvest.
I started my tomatoes late but they are coming in now. Probably 25 ish lbs so far in 20 ish plants so pretty low so far in lb production. This fall so far is back to a more normal temp so I think that might be slowing down the second flush. I need to top my plants. I switched to San Marzano for my paste this year because for whatever reason Tomato Growers Supply wasnt selling my traditional Opalka. They have been hearty and disease resistant so for but Im not super impressed with the fruit size or taste. Opalka's had much bigger fruits and tasted slightly better. Not really fair given the late start of the season this year but I still think Ill switch back.
I started late too and got some output from them, but it dropped significantly recently. I finally figured out why.
I finished topping my plants several days ago (took about a week to get it all done) and I think it's already helping get the fruit ripened faster. I've never done it before this season but we had such a late start that my plants are full of green fruit and I had to give it a try. I even topped my peppers. They are reacting to the treatment a bit slower but its worth a shot. I don't want to have to cover them with plastic visqueen to get my haul. I may have to get some of those opalika seeds you rave about. I'm used to the San marzano but you have tried both and still like the opalika better.
I will never do San Marzano tomatoes again. Grew them a few years ago from seed from a reputable company. Pitiful. I probably culled down to around six plants, and I don't even remember getting a single tomato. All the fruits were incredibly small, like the size of your index and middle finger giving a salute. Every single fruit suffered from blossom-end rot. Now, that deficiency is completely on me, but I did not have that problem on any other tomato variety that year. They were beyond terrible. Complete waste. Now, I have heard wonderful things about the Opalka variety. I haven't grown it here yet, though. Back to San Marzano tomatoes. Don't worry yourself over buying canned San Marzano tomatoes from the "Foothills of Mount Vesuvius" for five times the amount of money as you can buy a can of domestic (if you are American or Canadian) tomatoes that are from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Iowa, etc. Those Italian tomatoes are bullshit. There is something about how they are canned, packaged, tariffed, and exported that makes them an entirely inferior product to your $.99 can of Hunt's grown in Iowa. America's Test Kitchen did a review on this, but I can't find the video. So, maybe Italy has actually cleaned their canned tomato product up. I doubt it, though.
I was going to make snide comment about out of all the ways to describe a tomatoes size, you chose this one instead of say, a marble, golf ball, tennis ball etc. Then I googled what a San Marzano tomato looks like and your description is spot on.
I have 2 areas with San marzanos. One, I trimmed the side shoots pretty well. The fruits there were the size of elongated grenades. The volunteers that I let be more naturally bushy are smaller like you described. Some are bigger, some a little smaller, but definitely prolific. I like them. They taste great, and I have a lady who buys plants from me each spring. I really want to try that opalika that has been raved about here to compare. I just processed some tomatoes this morning for soup. Here is fruit from the two differently managed plants.