My 2013 heirloom tomato garden

[efisakov]

I started with 38 varieties, 48 plants in total: 44 in ground and 4 in containers. 10 plants have died too early. Few more at about the same point, I am letting tomatoes to start showing some color to be picked and than the plants will have to go. Old German grew to be huge plant that refuses to set fruit, same thing was last year. I guess our season is to short for it. The most productive are Purple Dog Creek, Black Master, Sara Black, MARLOWE CHARLESTON, Carbon, Black Cherry, Egyptian (in container). Pretty good were/are Indian Stripe, JD's Special C-Tex, Anna Russian (now almost dead), German Queen (gave quiet few big maters but got sick, got pulled), Omar’s Lebanese, BARLOW JAP (same as German Q), Brad’s Black Heart. The rest of them are not too many tomatoes per plant. I started counting pounds than gave up.
Purple Dog Creek, Black Master, Sara Black, MARLOWE CHARLESTON gave easily 10 pounds each.
KBX is not as productive for me this year (3 tomatoes so far) as it's RL brother was last year, I did plant it in a different location with a bit less sun.

[efisakov]

Today and tomorrow we expect to have rain, therefor I had to pick some tomatoes early.
3 Egyptian, 1 Depp's Pink Firefly, 3 Purple Dog Creek, 2 Taxi, 1 Old Time Purple, 1 JD's Special C-Tex, 1 Black Master, 3 Cowlick, and few Black Cherry.

[efisakov]

Depp's Pink Firefly was 14.1 ounces.

[efisakov]

The Old Time Purple was 21.9 ounces. Old Time Purple sims to be late season variety. It has couple more green tomatoes in the above one pound range and 5 less that a pound. I need to put bigger stake to support this one, it is 7 feet already.

[Delerium]

Awesome! How does it taste and you going to show us a slice?

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Delerium

Awesome! How does it taste and you going to show us a slice?

I will, it needs few more days to ripen. In a meantime I was tasting and comparing Purple Dog Creek and Cowlick. I liked the taste of both, sweet and has some complexity to it. Purple Dog Creek is a bit firmer with even taste and Cowlick is a bit softer, juicier and within one tomato the slices have variations of the taste from sweeter to a hint of sour but not too much. Now, tasting with salt: Purple Dog Creek tastes like a pink tomato should and Cowlick is getting that black tomato smoky tone to its taste.
(Cowlick on the left, PDC on the right)

[efisakov]

All self-explanatory. Sautéing sweet pepper, onions, eggplants. Chopping parsley, garlic. Adding salt and 1tsp. vinegar/lemon juice. If I was to refrigirate it for a couple of weeks that would be it, if I want to eat it soon (1-3 days), I add sliced tomato for fresh taste (better acidic type). Mix all together and enjoy with a slice of toasted rye bread.

P.S. I salt everything as I fry.

[kath]

So many varieties still coming in for you, Ella! They look good, even on the bottoms!

I'm also noticing that the tomato flavor isn't as good as times goes by and thinking it might be the rain. We got another 1.3" early today.

kath

[efisakov]

Old time purple was ripening unevenly, I had to slice it early. Black Cherry is next to it. The taste is sweet and acid at the same time. Salt makes it better.

Kath, we had almost as much rain, that is why I had to pick some tomatoes much earlier and yes the taste does suffer from it.

[efisakov]

Tomatoes are still setting but not as much as a month ago. I have mites and other bugs infestation. Spraying again (organically: dish detergent, baking powder, Epsom salt). The good sign is that, despite all, there are some new fruit setting on Carbon, KBX, Black Master, Cowlick, JD's Special C-Tex, Purple Dog Creek, Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Red Barn and others. There are still few big green maters on an Old Time Purple.
Today harvest is very limited.
2 Purple Dog Creek
1 Black Master
few Egyptian
few Blondkopfchen (volunteer tomato)

[efisakov]

I have a vase of gladioli in my house for about a month now. The stems keep on braking because of a rain or a high wind and they end up in the vase. The colors keep on changing. I love gladioli.

[pinklady5]

Ella,

Did you get to taste Red Barn yet? I'm wondering what you think it because unfortunately I find mine to have virtually no flavor and what a disappointment, it is the most productive red variety in my garden.

[Alfredo]

Very pretty Gladioli Efisakov (Ella).

~Alfredo

[efisakov]

pinklady5, my tomatoes this year were not consistent in anything, including the taste. During the rainy period they were a bit more acidic for my taste, during the dry spell they were perfect.
Red Barn on the left and Indian Stripe on the right. Tasted without salt: Red Barn is acidic with a sweet undertone and Indian Stripe is sweet with acidic undertone. Tasted with salt: Red Barn gains sweetness and Indian Stripe loses acidic undertone. To me Red Barn would be perfect for BLT, salsa, salad.
If I were you, I would give it another chance. Next year may be a dry and hot one, you never know. Plus, it was productive in your garden.

[pinklady5]

Originally Posted by efisakov

pinklady5, my tomatoes this year were not consistent in anything, including the taste. During the rainy period they were a bit more acidic for my taste, during the dry spell they were perfect.
Red Barn on the left and Indian Stripe on the right. Tasted without salt: Red Barn is acidic with a sweet undertone and Indian Stripe is sweet with acidic undertone. Tasted with salt: Red Barn gains sweetness and Indian Stripe loses acidic undertone. To me Red Barn would be perfect for BLT, salsa, salad.
If I were you, I would give it another chance. Next year may be a dry and hot one, you never know. Plus, it was productive in your garden.

Thank you for the detailed reply. Maybe I'll give it a try again next year given that this year was not a normal growing season. Just a little perplexed when all of my other varieties are still on track with appealing and correct flavor. (cuostralee, nar, kbx, terhune...)