Brandy Boy Hybrid

[clkeiper]

it sure is beautiful!

[Redbaron]

Thanks Hudson. I will try that for sure!

[NarnianGarden]

The color of the juice is as beatiful as the fruit.. Impressive.

[Hudson_WY]

Another harvest of Brandy Boy! My neighbor calls them pumpkins when he walks in the house and sees them all lined up on the trays. There are many large ones. I get lazy and am not as diligent in vibrating the blossoms as the season progresses - I can see the result when harvesting! The vibrated blossom produce much larger fruit!

[Hudson_WY]

More Brandy Boys! The fruit size is awesome! Did we mention how great they taste!!

[My Foot Smells]

Wow. You are rolling. Nice harvest and steady supply. Amazing. The juice looks great too.

[zipcode]

Those look amazing! How many plants do you have? And what is the average size of those?
Also, it's not clear how you store those jars of juice, since they're not boiled.

[Hudson_WY]

Originally Posted by zipcode

Those look amazing! How many plants do you have? And what is the average size of those?
Also, it's not clear how you store those jars of juice, since they're not boiled.

Thanks for the comments! Someone else asked me that question so I went out to the GH to count for sure - we have 12 Brandy Boy plants that are producing strong right now. The larger fruit in the photo (which there are many) weigh 14-22 oz. Brandy Boy produces a lot of around 16 oz fruit for us.

The photo of the Tomato Juice was just before my wife put on the lids and processed them with the water bath canning method. She said the acidic level of the Brandy Boys is high enough that they do not have to be canned in a pressure cooker. She is a long time food processing professional (from experience) and we have never gotten sick on anything she processes for long term storage so I totally trust her judgement! But - be sure to can your tomato juice the way you feel it is safe for your family!!

[Hudson_WY]

My wife pulls the Tupperware out of the freezer that was partially filled several days ago. She adds more ripe tomatoes until she has two full frozen bowls of cut-up ripe tomatoes that have been frozen for several days. Then she places the two frozen bowls of tomatoes on the counter to thaw. You can see the almost clear liquid around the inside perimeter of the bowl that releases from the tomatoes as they thaw. She removes two cups of the watery liquid (there is more) from each bowl before bringing them to a boil and running them through her juicer. Then she fills the bottles and processes them with the water bath method for storage. Freezing the tomatoes is convenient to collect the tomatoes as they ripen. Removing the liquid makes the juice a little thicker and concentrates the wonderful tomato taste!! I hope this gives clarity to those of you that had questions.

[pecker88]

The taste of BB's is amazing, had the first one ever last night on a BLT. I think I found the go-to variety that works for me.

outdoor BB's
First harvest was 5 July, transplanted 5 May. They got pretty cracked and beat up by 2 different hailstorms. I've been aggressively pruning them, but bacterial leaf spot is setting in. Classic black spots with yellow hallow around it, even on the fruit.

The 7 plants will produce atleast 30 more 16oz + sized toms before the virus kills them, so no worries. Maybe burpee's seed that I ordered was infected with this virus?

greenhouse BB's
First harvest was 22 June, transplanted mid April. Only 1 plant in a walmart fabric shopping bag. Toms are perfectly shaped, no cracking. No bacterial leaf spot at all. No hail, no cracking, no bacterial leaf spot....must be the dif. between climate controlled greenhouse vs. outside in the elements.

Pic here: http://tomatoville.com/showpost.php?...&postcount=267

greenhouse 4th of July and Early Girl, 4oz size
I have 6 total plants of these varieties, first harvest was 1 June, transplanted 15 March. I'm about ready to pull them out of the greenhouse. They're 10+ ft tall and product LOADS of small 4oz fruit. The taste is OK, but I hate how the seeds are still green'ish when cutting them. And, they're a pain to can with, who wants to blanch/peel/core 40 or more small tomatoes.

I really just wanted to see how early I could get toms, so I planted these 2 short season varieties. Sure is easy to give away toms in early June though...

[Hudson_WY]

Your Brandy Boys look great - Pecker88! Tomatoes grown in a GH always have a better appearance than those grown in a garden!

We had out-of-town family over today that really wanted to taste our Brandy Boy tomatoes. We fried up some bacon, baked some home made bread and fixed BLT's. They had plenty to say without asking for a response - "The best tomatoes I have ever tasted" was the most common response!

[Salsacharley]

Glorious BLT stuff! Does your wife add anything like salt to the tomato juice for the canning?

[Hudson_WY]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

Glorious BLT stuff! Does your wife add anything like salt to the tomato juice for the canning?

Hi Salsacharley - the canning book says to add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart of juice but we don't like that much salt so my wife adds a little more than a 1/2 teaspoon of salt per quart. Some like a little sugar but we prefer the strong tomato taste so she does not add any sugar.

[mjc]

Originally Posted by Hudson_WY

Hi Salsacharley - the canning book says to add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart of juice but we don't like that much salt so my wife adds a little more than a 1/2 teaspoon of salt per quart. Some like a little sugar but we prefer the strong tomato taste so she does not add any sugar.

Salt is not needed for preservation purposes...it's just for flavor, so it's fully adjustable.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by pecker88

The taste of BB's is amazing, had the first one ever last night on a BLT. I think I found the go-to variety that works for me.

outdoor BB's
First harvest was 5 July, transplanted 5 May. They got pretty cracked and beat up by 2 different hailstorms. I've been aggressively pruning them, but bacterial leaf spot is setting in. Classic black spots with yellow hallow around it, even on the fruit.

The 7 plants will produce atleast 30 more 16oz + sized toms before the virus kills them, so no worries. Maybe burpee's seed that I ordered was infected with this virus?

greenhouse BB's
First harvest was 22 June, transplanted mid April. Only 1 plant in a walmart fabric shopping bag. Toms are perfectly shaped, no cracking. No bacterial leaf spot at all. No hail, no cracking, no bacterial leaf spot....must be the dif. between climate controlled greenhouse vs. outside in the elements. and my phone is broke so I can't take any pictures. otherwise I would post one.

this is interesting... our outside tomatoes look rather nasty compared to any other year at this point. little black spots on the veins of the stems and on the petioles and they just look like they are struggling. I am afraid they won't produce much. the inside tomatoes look fantastic. My husband visited with a neighbor about a mile up the road and they have a farm market that supports 9 families... that is a lot of produce... 10 acres worth... they said their outside tomatoes look bad, too. even they aren't sure what is going on. we have all sprayed with a fungicide before there was even a hint of an issue. and my phone is broke otherwise I would post a picture.