pretty close to peak tomato here

JayPoc · Fri Jul 22, 2016 4:09 pm

Here's today's haul. The bigguns are just now starting to come in, but as you can see...the cherry/grape types are in full swing. Anybody have any good recipes for cherry tomatoes? I have three pounds of 'em...

AnnaIkona · Fri Jul 22, 2016 4:13 pm

3 pounds of cherry tomatoes?!

gosh...I don't even have one ripe one just yet

I guess I started too late this year.

Add cherry tomatoes to salads. Slice 'em in half and dump into your salad. These tomatoes are the best in salads.

JayPoc · Fri Jul 22, 2016 4:26 pm

AnnaIkona wrote:3 pounds of cherry tomatoes?! gosh...I don't even have one ripe one just yet I guess I started too late this year.

Add cherry tomatoes to salads. Slice 'em in half and dump into your salad. These tomatoes are the best in salads.

Lots of basil too. I hear they go good together?

yeah, we're eating tomatoes about 2 to 3 meals a day. I do love the sweetness of the little ones...

applestar · Fri Jul 22, 2016 4:46 pm

Which varieties of cherries, JayPoc? Looking really good -- I can't believe I don't have any yet. Two blushing cherries today, Finally! Those dratted TRM's really set me back this year. evil:

I'm thinking when mine are ready, I'm going to try the "cut in half and dehydrate" - tomaisins - as well as pizza topping with the sweetest cherries, though I sometimes have issues with the skin so have to go with the thin skinned ones. Cut in half, season and drizzle with good oil and roast, then food mill is a good base for almost anything.

I made jam with them one year, cooking until they burst, running them through food mill to remove skin and largest seeds, then adding sugar. I thought it tasted like strawberry jam. I want to try using that to make strained sauce as base for different baked goods similar to lemon/raspberry squares, pie, cobbler, etc.

JayPoc · Fri Jul 22, 2016 4:54 pm

applestar wrote:Which varieties of cherries, JayPoc? Looking really good --

Well....ummm....

I'm not exactly sure. These are from saved OVG seeds from last year. I didn't bag any blossoms...so obviously something mixed in. I also grew supersweet100s last year. Of the plants I started from those seeds, one seems to be a true OVG, and then there is this one. They taste great, and are absolutely the most productive cherry type I've ever had.

It's sort of funny, irritating, exciting, etc...but I have several interesting surprises this year from carelessly saved seeds. If you notice in the original pic, I also seem to have an ox heart variety. I didn't plant any seeds from any ox heart varieties. Lol....

applestar · Fri Jul 22, 2016 5:23 pm

Those are the best surprises imho. Keep saving seeds from the best ones, selecting for traits you like, and you'll have stabilized your own variety in about 7 generations.

JayPoc · Fri Jul 22, 2016 6:09 pm

Riiigggght....I can't save seed properly one year in a row, and you want me to shoot for seven?

JayPoc · Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:58 pm

Getting a steady supply of large tomatoes now, along with a steady stream of the little ones as well....

KitchenGardener · Sun Jul 31, 2016 5:23 pm

JP: question for you: is there a reason you are picking them at what appears to be the blush stage rather than the red ripe stage? Have you found that there is not a difference in taste between picking early and ripening them indoors and picking when ripe? Its always a gamble here to leave them on the vines until fully ripe for fear that some critter or other might decide that they want a mater sammich...

JayPoc · Sun Jul 31, 2016 5:55 pm

yeah...the great minds here have assured me there is no detriment to the final flavor if you pick at the blush stage. Part of it is practical. I'll just pick anything close when I take the trouble to get in there and pick. Part of it is for fear of losing them to critters of some sort or another. Also, some of those are actually pretty ripe, just with green shoulders...and one is from a fully green truss that I accidentally broke off.

KitchenGardener · Sun Jul 31, 2016 6:39 pm

Totally makes sense - exactly the answer I was hoping for, as there is nothing more disappointing than having your eye on some maters waiting for them to color up, only to come out one morning to find that someone had a snack.

applestar · Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:36 pm

Nice haul, JayPoc

JayPoc · Thu Aug 11, 2016 10:22 am

thanks!

To follow up on a post earlier in the thread, here is a pic of one of my unintentional oxhearts. It didn't make the cut for the "biggest" thread, so I figured I'd post it here. It's less heart shaped than most of the others on the plant, but you still get the idea....

I believe Bob Ross would refer to this as a "happy accident"...