Ripening Happens

[kath]

These are the latest to ripen and will be tasted soon. For the most part, the first one off the vine for each variety gets photographed, not necessarily the best specimen. I'm also posting the ones that seem questionable in terms of color, etc. so if you've grown these before and something doesn't seem right, please let me know.

Picking and tasting has been lots of fun and I've found an ample number of potential keepers already, despite the incredible inedible mealiness found so far in most, so I'm a happy camper at this point. Haven't been finding time to spray or even patrol for beasties, but for now there's plenty of fruit out there!

Pic 1, top: Hays (19.6 oz), 1884 Purple (largest so far at 24.5oz)
bottom: Russian Pink Heart, African Queen, Work Release Paste

Pic 2, top: Herman's Yellow, Brandysweet Plum-Not, Amish Potato Leaf
bottom: Carol Chyko's Big Red Paste, Amana Orange, Boondocks

Pic 3, top: Donskoi, Lithuanian, Maiden's Gold
bottom: Chocolate Beefsteak, Phil's Fantastic, Guker's Special

Pic 4, top: Pantano Romanesco, Shirley S, Sakharnyi Pudovichok
bottom: Gillogly Pink, Mammoth German Gold, Brandysweet Plum-Not (larger specimen)

Hays is an outstanding tomato! Absolutely gorgeous sliced with a bright red interior and very small seeds; juicy and fantastic flavor- so much so that I forgot to photograph and just ate the whole thing!

Time to save some more seed, eat some tomatoes for brunch and get out to the garden. Enjoy your day~

Kath

[Firstcrush]

Wow! Stunning! I don't have a single one that you harvested, so I can't comment. Still waiting to harvest. Enjoy!
Donna

[husker nana]

Kath, loving all the pictures of your tomatoes. I did notice that you have Shirley S and what I have is just Shirley so you will have to let me know how yours tasted. Mine was sweet and oh so good. Perfectly round with no ribbing. Where did you get your seed for Shirley S?

I'm glad to see that your getting so many tomatoes even though you have reported some problems with your plants. How are your peppers doing?

We'll be waiting for your next batch of tomatoe pictures and reporting on taste.

[kath]

Originally Posted by husker nana

Where did you get your seed for Shirley S?

How are your peppers doing?

The Shirley S seed came from Marianna's Heirloom Seeds- I'm not growing Shirley.

The peppers are really slow, I think. I only eat ripe ones and I haven't harvested more than one sweet pepper from any one plant- maybe a total of 6 altogether from over 2 dozen plants. The hot peppers have been producing more abundantly, though; but only one of those has red ones.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by kath

A lot of the tomatoes so far are so mealy that I can't even taste them- do they have any value in sauce or do they just ruin it? So far they're just being added to the compost pile.

i'd make sauce from them, you're missing out on something great.

last summer i had a few varieties that i did not think were that good to eat even when the tomatoes didn't have bad spots. they were mealy and not flavorful. some had bad spots and were rotting. some were sour. all i did was cut off bad spots, blanched to remove the skins and made sauce. now by later sept to mid october most of these tomatoes were compost pile crap, and i do mean crap, yet they made an excellent sauce!

i was shocked as i never cared much for sauce made from garden tomatoes but this was probably THE best sauce i ever made! it was a mix of red, pink, black and some yellow tomatoes. i froze 12+ pints and finished the last one a month ago. every time i had this sauce was was struck by how darned good it was especially when it was made from tomatoes that were so lousy i wouldn't make sandwiches from them.

tom

[ScottinAtlanta]

Which of the blacks did you prefer, Kath?

[kath]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Which of the blacks did you prefer, Kath?

It's way too early to say because the quality of many fruits is still not that good. The blacks seem to have had much less mealiness that the other colors, though. Most of them seem to be outgrowing it already. JD's Special C-Tex has been my favorite black for a couple of years now, so it's the one to beat. So far, Doubloon-Not, Chocolate Beefsteak and Amazon Chocolate PL, in that order, are the best contenders for me, taste-wise. That's not addressing production, disease, etc.

What I like and what happens to grow well for me this year in my garden might be the worst one for someone else next year- I cringe a bit when asked to recommend one variety over another.

[Heritage]

Kath,

Is that Brandysweet Plum (larger version) off of the same plant as the other Brandysweet Plum? If so, does it taste the same?

Beautiful display!

Steve

[kath]

Originally Posted by tjg911

i'd make sauce from them, you're missing out on something great.

last summer i had a few varieties that i did not think were that good to eat even when the tomatoes didn't have bad spots. they were mealy and not flavorful. some had bad spots and were rotting. some were sour. all i did was cut off bad spots, blanched to remove the skins and made sauce. now by later sept to mid october most of these tomatoes were compost pile crap, and i do mean crap, yet they made an excellent sauce!

i was shocked as i never cared much for sauce made from garden tomatoes but this was probably THE best sauce i ever made! it was a mix of red, pink, black and some yellow tomatoes. i froze 12+ pints and finished the last one a month ago. every time i had this sauce was was struck by how darned good it was especially when it was made from tomatoes that were so lousy i wouldn't make sandwiches from them.

tom

Thanks, Tom- that's what I needed to know. Unfortunately, I've got zero freezer space for tomatoes, so I'll have to incorporate canning into the weekly routine. There's no way I should be putting a bucket of tomatoes on the compost heap every day if I could be filling up the empty canning jars in the basement with sauce for the winter. Something has to give time-wise, though, because I'm trying to do to much. Sadly, I think taking pictures of every variety as it ripens is going to have to go.

[kath]

Originally Posted by Heritage

Kath,

Is that Brandysweet Plum (larger version) off of the same plant as the other Brandysweet Plum? If so, does it taste the same?

Beautiful display!

Steve

Thanks, Steve- yes, I've only got one plant and they taste just the same. The fruits (7 so far) have ranged in weight from 1.7 to 7.5oz.

[kath]

Ok, so I can't help myself- I have about 10 minutes before the peach crisp comes out of the oven so I couldn't help but take a pic of these big boys.

Top: Ashleigh (22.2 oz), George's Greek Beefsteak (18.2 oz)
Center: Sara's Galapagos (0.1oz)
Bottom: Giant Belgium (17 oz), Bill's Berkeley Pink (13.1 oz)

Ok, back to work...there'll be a whole lotta taste-testing/sauce starting this evening.

[kath]

Rushing to get downstairs- here it is:

[kath]

Less mealiness, more great tasting maters, diseases not progressing much and no caterpillars in 2 days despite my lack of spraying...it doesn't get much better. No picking today- we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Pic 1, top: Sakharnyi Zheltyi (25 oz), Couilles de Tareau, Orange Minsk
middle: Sakharnyi Pudovichok, Captain Lucky-Not, DeWeese Streaked
bottom: Orange Minsk, Korol Gigantov, West Virginia Straw

Pic 2, top: Flathead Monster Pink (20 oz), Nicky Crain, Marizol Gold
bottom: Hawaiian Pineapple, German Pink, Henderson's Ponderosa

[Buck7762]

Great Pictures Kath,

Everything is still green here. Flathead is definitely a grow and see what might pop up tomato. I've got 5 going just to see what happens. 3 Potato, 2 regular leaf. Once I start seeing some color I'll get some pix up. You might have the first Red one tho. Sakharnyi looks great!

Good luck, and talk to you later,

Buck

[salix]

Kath, wonderful pictures you have been posting. I am wondering if you are having any trouble deciding which ones will make the cut in your quest of narrowing the field to "the Chosen Ones"? They all look good and sounds like a lot are tasting pretty good as well, now that growing conditions are improving.