Grub Update

[KCMO_Don]

What was the DTM for you on this one Grub?

[Grub]

DTM on AKW

So very sorry but I don't count the days. It was in my slow patch where everything was at least a month if not six weeks late. Some serious stalling early on.

Having said that, it's late season for sure. In the same patch Box Car Willie, Mule Team, Mortgage Lifter and Earl's Faux all beat it to maturity.

But AKW is nice and prolific and there is a mater there which I haven't yet picked that will be my biggest for the season. Fancy a big one so late

We shared a nice big Earl's Faux on toast this morning. Sliced, of course :wink: And AKW is delicious.

Now here come my first Marianna's Peace for the season. The Green Giant after that

Best wishes for a great season Up Over and in Hawaii

[Grub]

I wish I could share some around with y'all. This is getting beyond a joke... :p

Golden Queen was very leafy early on, as though it tapped into a cow patty, but now its yellows are everywhere.

Same ol' story, diferent day.

[jerseyjohn61]

Grub, your killin' me. Many of us have 3 to 5
months to go before we can enjoy such bounty!
Enjoy fella....JJ61

[Mantis]

Great stuff Grub. I wish I had spaced my plantings out more like you did. I promise I will next season LOL
Still getting enough Nepal X Tommy Toes for cooking and fresh eating but and buckets of basil.
Did chicken breasts that I marinated with a coating of fresh pesto overnight in the oven. After 15 mins I put slices of mozzerela cheese and tomatoe on top and then another 10 mins. YUM

[Grub]

Sounds great Manto. Bet it's better grub at your joint than at a local restaurant. And my basil is starting to die-off. Boo hoo.

But I've been making some nice green-tomato sauces with wine and have simmered stuffed veal tornados in the sauce with great results.

Had a huge amount of rain overnight. Picked the giant Aker's West Virginia. Only about 1lb. To my horror, a large babied Marianna's Peace, my first, had split. So it's here in the office now for lunch

Bad weather on the way for the weekend and the new stove gets fitted tomorrow so I'll just have to cook up a storm. Tomato sauce and slow oven-roasted tomatoes with garden herbs, the leftovers of which will be blended into a different tasting sauce.

Also, yellow tomato salsa for snackin'.

Have quite enjoyed a late run of Yasha Yugoslavians, but Wes is better and Grandather Ashlock has some real depth for a pink. Oodles of Sungold, Matts, Broad Ripple.

Thanks for saving seed for GMG PL. You can eat some now if there are any left. And if you like the idea of a green

Need to see your seed list next

[Mantis]

Those veal tornados sound good. Do you buy them prepared or make your own?? If you do your own what do you stuff them with??

[nctomatoman]

So, Grub - any results on Green Giant yet? I am anxious to hear what you think!

[Grub]

Craig,
Green Giant put on a late growth spurt and there are really good fruits hanging on the vine. I think it’s only a matter of a week till I get my first one. It’s turning paler and more white on the underside. Don't want to pick them unripe. Chasing full flavour. Can’t wait to report back.

Today’s Marianna’s Peace was great, but the plant is too frugal again.

Manto,

I just make it up.

1. Make your tomato sauce with leek, garlic and OPs. Do NOT season. Cook till not too watery. Set aside.

2. Get grater out. Mix grated zucchini (courgette), grated mushroom, grated parmesan, chopped or grated lean bacon or ham, breadcrumbs from blended day-old slice, finely chopped leek and green capsicum (sweet bell pepper) and herbs from garden in bowl with one backyard egg.

3. Beat veal or skirt steak to make nice and thin, using a mallet, hammer or suchlike, a cutting board and double thickness of plastic wrap.

4. Get toothpicks.

5. Lay stuffing on meat, roll up, toothpick one end and the side, hold upright and push some more stuffing inside. Seal top with tooth picks.

6. Sweat a little left over leek or finely chopped onion and garlic in pan with touch of olive oil. Brown tornados or tornadoes or cyclones (timely dish) in pan. Add a cup or so of white wine, (pour a glass for yourself) drop in a few anchovies and heat to boiling and deglaze. Now add reserved tomato sauce and any leftover stuffing. A few capers are good too. Fresh cracked pepper now.

The tornados should sit snug in the pot and just covered. Important you put the lid on. Simmer on low for an hour or so to let flavours meld. Remove lid and simmer till sauce is desired thickness. Remove tornadoes now or while thickening sauce and remove all toothpicks. Slice on the diagonal and lay on plates. Spoon over sauce. Serve with green veggies on side, little sliced bread and more wine.

Sounds like a lot of effort but it ain’t. You can just experiment with stuffing tornadoes or veal scaloppinis or beaten chicken breasts or whatever with whatever you think goes. Brown them, use liquid to deglaze, add a cooking sauce, simmer then slice and serve. Easy game. Braise away :wink:

[Mantis]

They sound gosh darnoodley good. I will give them a try on the weekend when I have more time. Thanks for that.
My mum used to make something similar, I think she called them beef olives. I do remember they were yum yum.

[Grub]

Well, they say good things come to those who wait. And after a long wait I ate my first Green Giant today. A long wait, I say, because it threw out early flowers that coincided with a blistering heatwave and then I had some failed attempts at bagging flowers in the ensuing high humidity.

But now, at last, I have some big trusses of Green Giant, a grass-green fruit with the faintest pinkish-yellow blush on the blossom end when it’s ripe and giving slightly. Fruits are about the size of Brandywine Sudduth and the shape is similar. But before we talk taste, some salient observations about growth habits.

Green Giant is PL and, from my experience this season, very resistant to leaf diseases. It is surrounded by 60-odd plants all on their last legs or throwing out late-season new growth. As has been said elsewhere, the PLs are fairing best. Of the PLs, Green Giant is healthiest by far.

Amid the forest of old dead plants Green Giant is standing tall, with deep-green leaves and new growth that I intend to clone. Its vitality may have something to do with the fact that it is only just bearing ripe fruit, though some other PLs that have given just one or two fruits are in a much worse way.

So I am going to conclude that Green Giant is a late-season variety with a very good tolerance to Early Blight and good production.

Now to taste. Though it in some ways pains me to say it, Green Giant is the most exceptional green-when-ripe fruit I have tasted. Not taking anything away from Grub’s Mystery Green, which is a gourmet green and among the gold-medal relay team. And to me it has more layers of character.

It’s just that Green Giant is in a different league. And though my Autumn/Fall is nothing like yours and very mild it says something that this fruit tastes so great so late. After having just completed an in-depth tasting of a big, dense, fruit that was left to ripen fully on the bush I will explain it this way...

The first thing to hit you is the sweetness. A lot of sweetness. In fact, I was immediately thinking the sweet and slight fruitiness reminded me of Regina’s Yellow (in a good season). A fruit-salad taste. Only green. Like a kiwi fruit. Yeh, that’s it.

Then, while the sweetness lingers, there’s an advancing acidity that balances it in just the most harmonious way. Though there aren’t any earthy, grassy or tomato-foliage flavours — as you will find in Grub's Mystery Green (this comment added after eating some GMG the morning after filing this report) — there is this immense and deep satisfaction from a combination of elementary flavours that performs on your palate like a perfect ballroom-dancing couple.

It's not tomatoey, it's a bit fruity, it's not deep and complex. It's sweet — maybe the closest thing yet to a giant cherry or Sungold sans its funkiness (new comment added after more thought) — a perfect balance like nature itself. Wine lovers would award it.

So I am putting Green Giant on the top shelf with Brandywine Sudduth, though the two aren't comparable. Green Giant is special because it’s green and sweet. A rung back (actually, I'm now thinking on the same shelf) are many superb tomatoes including Grub’s Mystery Green, which was earlier and more prolific for me. And very satisfying in its own more complex way.

I intend to do a head-to-head taste test in the next few days to confirm my opinions and will edit this thread if necessary. (New comments above added after trying two of my GMG the following morning. Head-to-head to come.)

Earl’s Faux was the best red or pink of the year. It remains my partner’s favourite. Reds and pinks always will be, I guess. But for this aficionado green is great. Green Giant, a giant killer, more productive than the three best pinks I have grown.

With the morning’s tasting over and the remaining half-dozen or more Green Giant fruits on the turn, some more big Earl’s Fauxs and Marianna’s Peace to eat, this and that, I pronounce my season over.

Green Giant, Earl’s Faux, Prue — and of course my eponymous Mystery Green — take a bow. You have been selected for the team again next year.

My best season ever Down Under. Weather Gods be good now. Have a great season and do keep me entertained.

Grub, who cleared the bench by spending four hours cooking tomato sauces yesterday.

[Earl]

For God's sake, Grub, you've got me yowling for July/August to hurry up and get here!

[Grub]

Earl,

Is the weather turning? Is the snow or frost off the WOW? And is Kimberly setting some fruits now?

Wishing you the best for the coming season.
Grub

(Forget to mention Black Cherry. It's in the front garden and very very yummy something akin to a real cherry

[nctomatoman]

Grub, we have very similar palates. There is no way I can do any justice to your incredible assessment - suffice to say that I agree with your key points - Green Giant has incredible staying power re plant health (it was the last standing for me last year), the initial shot of sweet/fruit is striking, then the acidity and balance comes in.

Now you need to have a good year and representative sampling of Lucky Cross - the other perennial star of my recent tomato gardens.

Of course, you've only increased the buzz, expectations and general hysteria for Green Giant!

[tjg911]

i had to go back and read about green giant in this thread. sounds like an excellent tomato. grub, you must be a writer? you really can capture and hold my attention!

i remember reading at gw about green giant last summer/fall, i'm sure it was craig's comments. green giant sounded really good, too good, so i ignored what i read! i told myself i don't need to consider this, i have too many to try with limited space so i sure don't need to consider another, especially a green one! i have only grown 1 green tomato, aunt ruby's german green, and i didn't think much of it, ok but nbd. i am strongly baised towards red and pink tomatoes. so once again i'm reading very interesting comments about green giant.

tom who really needs to go to a choptag event and taste all there is without using the garden space!