gumbo2176
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Overrun with tomatoes

I picked 36 of them today to add to the dozen or so already on the countertop getting fully ripe. I picked 20 green ones this past Sunday to give to my sister-in-law for frying and to share with her friend across the street from her.


Time to visit the neighbors with my abundance of lettuce, beets and tomatoes. To my surprise, my broccoli plants are still putting out side shoots and have been doing so for the past 6 weeks. Every time I think they are done, 3 days later I have to pick again.

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applestar
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Wow I didn't realize tomatoes could be part of your winter crop.
Completely different growing seasons since you can't grow any in the height of the summer. :o

gumbo2176
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applestar wrote:Wow I didn't realize tomatoes could be part of your winter crop.
Completely different growing seasons since you can't grow any in the height of the summer. :o
As long as we don't get a night or two of freezing weather, tomatoes grow just fine. I am having a few issues with bugs that I haven't had in the past, and if they are a bit nasty now, I hate to think what they will be like in the spring/summer season.

We do need a couple nights of below freezing weather to stem that tide. Just as long as it waits till after the tomatoes are all in. If not, Salsa Verde is always a good thing.

sepeters
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Oh man! I wish I was your neighbor! I am definitely going to try winter tomatoes now! What varieties do you find grow best in the winter? Do you plant them in the fall? And the most important question: do the tomatoes tend to stay green longer? I love fried green tomatoes.

gumbo2176
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sepeters wrote:Oh man! I wish I was your neighbor! I am definitely going to try winter tomatoes now! What varieties do you find grow best in the winter? Do you plant them in the fall? And the most important question: do the tomatoes tend to stay green longer? I love fried green tomatoes.

I put in a variety called Creole which are grown locally. It is a lot like a Beefsteak tomato. They do ripen a good bit slower in the fall than in the spring and summer months. I also eat fried green tomatoes from time to time even though my Dr. frowns on fried foods-----for me.

I also make a green tomato salsa that is a hit with my friends. It is just a tad sweet, but with some zip from the hot peppers I use and a bit of Tex-Mex with the Cumin powder.

I planted these tomato plants in mid September and have been picking both green and ripe tomatoes for weeks now. They will be done if we get a freeze and are actually starting to show signs of wearing down now but I still have dozens more tomatoes on them.

sepeters
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That salad sounds mouth watering! I will see if I can buy some creoles online. :wink:
BTW:I can't eat anything with any oil either, so I blanch my green tomatoes in boiling water for one minute and then slice and bread them and put them in the oven under the broiler or otherwise high heat. Not bad that way! :shock:

fishguysky
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Is this a complaint!? lol
Crush and bag em and freeze em for tomato sauce later!

btrowe1
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Making me jealous, your picking fresh tomatos and we're getting ready for a blizzard... hey do winter grown tomatoes taste any different than summer grown tomatoes... Thats just a funny right there..

gumbo2176
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btrowe1 wrote:Making me jealous, your picking fresh tomatos and we're getting ready for a blizzard... hey do winter grown tomatoes taste any different than summer grown tomatoes... Thats just a funny right there..
Besides ripening slower they seem to be a bit more juicy is what I've found. I plant the same varieties in the spring/summer garden and they grow to be a bit firmer and not as juicy as the ones I am now picking.

Perhaps that's due to there being no heat to rob the plants of much of the moisture their roots take in---------------but that's only a guess on my part.

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prettygurl
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Well, that's a problem.

(Too bad that my heavy sarcasm doesn't fully translate over the internet.)

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rainbowgardener
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don't want to hear it gumbo! Quit gloating. I'm not in the path of the storm coming (although I will be flying IN to it today for a weekend conference!), but my garden has been covered in snow for I think a couple weeks now.

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applestar
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Heh. We can gloat in the summer when he can't grow any. :wink:
I'm still intrigued that he's harvesting them now.

This sort of accounts for the package of Kumato tomatoes I caved and bought the other day. They were from Mexico. They were pretty good -- still some watery/bland flavor notes that I think wouldn't be there if home grown, but not the typical grocery store tomato. -- I heard that they grow nearly true even though they are supposed to be f1 hybrids, so I saved some seeds. 8)

Tomato growing season is coming! I've been convinced by some people that I should start the dwarf varieties a month ahead or at least with the peppers. :bouncey:

gumbo2176
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applestar wrote:Heh. We can gloat in the summer when he can't grow any. :wink:
I'm still intrigued that he's harvesting them now.



So true about not getting any in the summer. Honestly, growing them in the fall is a junk shoot. I roll the dice every September that we won't get any freezing weather before many of them ripen. I've had about 60% success over the years of harvesting ripe tomatoes in the winter months.

One year I had to take all the green tomatoes off the vines and wound up with a couple 5 gallon buckets worth and gave some of them away and made green tomato salsa with the rest. Then there was the year I had a bumper crop of beautiful tomatoes just starting to ripen and a brutal hail storm came through that lasted for 15 minutes raining down golf ball size hail. Everything in my garden was reduced to stems, trees defoliated, massive damage to my roof and vehicles, etc. I only managed to save a couple of the tomatoes that weren't damaged.


By July and August I only get in the garden to pick beans, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant and okra. Oh, and to water it to keep those few things producing.

erins327
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Wow! Here in Texas we would have been close to being able to do that. We had a couple good hard freezes in December, but its been like lows in the 50-60's and highs in the upper 70s since. We were able to grow tomatoes until this December though, and I bet if I had the room, I might have been able to protect them and still have them. But I got too excited about my winter veggies and uprooted them!

My new seedlings are already hardened and pots are outside getting the sunlight and wind, etc. Hopefully at this point that will keep up!

To have tomatoes all year round, sigh!

gumbo2176
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I picked 60 more this morning and gave half to my brother-in-law because he is near the Endymion Parade route and will have close to 75 people at his house this evening. I made a 3 gallon pot full of jambalaya and brought it over to his house an hour ago for the crowd to enjoy.

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ElizabethB
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Gumbo - :idea: since you have such an abbundance why don't you sell at the farmer's market or locally owned vegetable markets? When Dad was alive and healthy he did that. It may not a big money maker but it will finance your garden.

gumbo2176
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ElizabethB wrote:Gumbo - :idea: since you have such an abbundance why don't you sell at the farmer's market or locally owned vegetable markets? When Dad was alive and healthy he did that. It may not a big money maker but it will finance your garden.
I'd much rather give it away to family, friends and neighbors. What little money it would bring in would not be worth my time and effort. Besides, I love tomatoes and make a lot of salsa when I have so many. :wink: :wink:

imafan26
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I had Creole tomatoes years ago. If you find seeds can you tell me where you got them. I'd like to plant them again.

Are you canning any of the tomatoes?

cinnie0
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Oh my I never thought of letting my tomatoes go through the winter. I live in zone 9b. next winter I will have to try to keep them growing and plant more.

valley
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gumbo, how large an area do you have, where you grow tomatos? You must have rows and rows?



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