Last Homegrown Tomatoes Of The Season

[wacojoe]

The weather guy tells us here that we are going to get a freeze tonight, so I am picking the rest of my homegrown tomatoes. We have been eating and sharing them for the last month, while I read that there is a shortage on the commercial market. I reckon we will pick another bushel or so today, and while some are vine ripe, many will ripen just fine over the next two weeks giving the family excellent table eating for the holidays. In fact, I have some tasty black-eyed-peas in the freezer I put up, that go great with fresh 'maters, salmon croquettes, and cornbread. Mmmm, I don't think the tomatoes will make it to New Years, so I better do that deal now.

[Ferraridriver]

Ours ran out about two months ago. The big ones were not as good as last year, but the cherry tomatoes were great.

What do you recomend for "beafsteak" type with a good flavor?

Two vines of the big ones are enough for us, and one vine of cherries.

[wacojoe]

Originally posted by Ferraridriver
...What do you recomend for "beafsteak" type with a good flavor?

Our weather here is not conducive for growing beefsteak tomatoes, because that requires a long growing season at the right temperatures. We get too hot too fast in the spring, and the fall is not long enough before the cold either. Beefsteaks take a longer time to grow, set and mature. Most tomatoes will not "set" when temperatures reach above 85 degrees. So we have to generally "settle" for table slicers and smaller, but they are good enough. The Brandywine (actually, there are numerous Brandywine cultivars) is most highly regarded by tomato freeks, but their attributes must be too subtle for me, because I thing they are bland for the most part. Maybe I've never had a good one.

In the spring I grow ~15-20 plants of four or five different varieties. For the larger cherries the Sungold is outstanding, and Matt's Wild Texas is awesome but tiny (1/2"). I have the best luck for my soil with Donna for the 4-6" slicers year after year. In the fall I pick a determinate type that produces it's crop mostly at once rather than spreading it out. For that, the trusty old celebrity is tried and true.

[GG]

Freeze warnings posted for us here..tomorrow night going into Wed morning.

Better pick em while you can!


The farms around us will be in high gear getting ready for the colder temps.

[JVencius]

I grew Brandywine tomatos over in MT and I'll agree that they're fussy, but I enjoyed their flavor much more than beefsteak tomatos (which I found rather bland, but acceptable when sprinkled with coarse kosher salt). The Brandywine vines tended to get a little "stringy" (not really the word I'm looking for, but close enough) and needed to be pruned regularly so more of the energy went into producing fruit and not into sending out more vines. If I could only grow one kind of tomato, though, I'd grow Italian Roma tomatos--they're tasty raw, they work much better for making into sauce, and they work quite well in the dehydrator.

[Sid_]

Cleaned off the mater vines last night. Pulled them out and tilled the soil. What to plant for the winter?