"Monsters"- from a Portuguese market.

[michael johnson]

I have just returned from a very nice visit of portugal, which was primarily a bit of a pilgrimage to see the Shrine of Fatima in northern Portugal-which was indeed well worth seeing-wonderous and awe inspiring to say the least-very beautifull especialy the main Basilica with the statue of our Lady on top wearing a crown of real gold that shone in the sunlight for miles to see,apparently all the women of portugal gave small pieces of gold jewelry towards making the crown itself- I came away from the visit feeling spiritualy uplifted, but humbled by it all- I could recomend it to anyone.

We were based in the Algarve area of portugal and had to make long coach excursions from there to any place we fancied during our stay, the main problem with the Algarve is total lack of shops close by where you can purchase your basic daily needs,theres just hot crowded beaches- beautifull sea and temp raging in the 35 degrees region day after day, between the beach and where the main shops start is usualy about four miles inland,so every itme its a trip by minibus just to shop.


One day we decided to take a trip to Loule market which had a bustling gypsy market where all the usual leather goods and clothing can be bought and bartered for, them we decided to try and find the local Fruit Market, after about half an hour we eventualy found it- inside was a real husstle busstle of activity going on- local traders and small holders were selling their products on long lines of stalls-my wife shreiked look at that monster-I turned and looked-only to find she was refering to a huge 30lb watermelon,walking a bit further I suddenly spotted some more monsters-but this time they were tomatoes-I said to my wife-just look at these monsters-and there were four of the biggest tomatoes I have ever seen-a woman just pipped me at the post for the very biggest one which must have topped 5 -1/2 lb easily, but I managed to secure one of around a touch over 4-1/2lb when they weighed it, and another around 3-1/2 lb.I asked the owner what variety they were and with an interpreter we managed to gather that he didnt know what they called them but they were originaly from seed of his grandfather gave him which he saves every year for them to grow more, I also purchased some very sweet long roma type tomatoes- of which I can only describe the flavour as being like tomato ketchup in a skin- very nice indeed-smooth firm flesh with juicy tangy seeds and gel a very good general purpose tomato,-the large monster tomatoes turned out to have a very good flavour also-they were so huge when you put them on a flat surface their own weight started to squash the base in a bit, a bit further on I bought a couple more of the monters from another stall holder who had simular ones of over 3lb in weight.

Apparently -all the tomatoes on sale there are grown in impoverished local soil outside in the open in fields or plots, with no added fertiliser at all- just think that with the right culture and plenty of good fertiliser I can visulise 6lb'ers a possibilty in forthcoming seasons,we went on to buy 3 kilos of ripe figs--which we ate all of on the way back home to the appartment- (but thats another story" of a fast sprint to be first indoors ) and my wife would insist on buying this huge 30lb watermelon she saw-we eventualy carried it back to the coach by making a hammock for it out of a large plastic bag and grabbing two corners each and carrying it between us in 100 yard stops and starts the half mile back to the coach-what an effort in 36 degrees of hot sun.

Needless to say when I got back to the apartment I hunted around for a plastic tea strainer, and some polythene clear food bags, and feverishly set about de-seeding the tomatoes and cleaning them in the strainer under a running tap of cold water, and putting them to dry on the polythene bags, which they did beautifully- and where done to a turn in about five days,and then bagged up seperatly and named roughly which was which etc.

If anyone wants to have a go and try some of these unusual seeds for next season they are quite welcome to try some, as I shall have about 20 pkts of around ten seeds in each to spare, and a few pkts of the roma type if anyone wants to give them a go- just let me know around early sept and place your order, for some suitable exchange with another seed variety, or failing that and you just want to try a few with no exchange thats perfectly ok too.

I am entering the Portuguese giant -seeds, and the roma type on my exchange list also in the other TV exchanges section. :wink:

[Little_Rhody]

Hi Michael,

Sounds like you had a rewarding trip. I'm interested in trying your seeds. I'm not sure how to find the exchange lists here but I'll pm you next month.Thanks for sharing your experience!

[carolyn137]

Carolyn, not meself, LOL

Scroll down thru the Forums and you'll come to a Forum for Varieties Wanted and then a Forum for Varieties Available.

Michael indicates he'll be offering the seeds in the Varieties Available Forum.

[bigcheef]

Michael,

I would love to try both!

I looked over in the "Available for Trade" forum and did not see a coresponding thread so just want to make sure I get in line.

Thanks, and great find!

(I'll be looking for pics of Portugal in the Conversations or Photo Gallery forums :wink: )

RIK

[sirtanon]

Amazing! I can only wonder how big this variety might grow in a big raised bed full of richly amended soil

...patiently waiting until september to make his request...

[VGary]

Michael, Sounds like you had a wonderful trip.
You have mail!
Gary/Louisville

[Little_Rhody]

Thanks Carolyn. Guess I just didn't scroll down that far. I was looking for a link in a member's profile

[Rena]

You have a PM!! I would of skipped the 30lb melon and loaded up 30lbs of soil LOL!!! Sounds like a very happy adventure...OH to travel like that would be very very cool!!-
Rena

[michael johnson]

Hi-Folks, May I say first off- thank you to all of you that either e-mailed me or Pm'ed me regarding the Portuguese tomato seed, it is impossible for me to reply to all at this moment because there was quite a lot of response- but rest assured to all of you -your names are definatly on the list to receive some-I shall share them out as fairly as possible, so I shall keep the list on hand ready to post out to everyone in early sept.

The reason I am not posting any out just at this moment in time-is because even though they seemed to be well dried and done to a turn whilst I was in portugal, I just want to lay them out on poly sheets again for a further couple of weeks-just to make doubly sure they are absolutly dried out for the same length of time I usualy give them over here in the UK, as I would hate to think that any developed storage problems afterwards through a bit of damp still present.

Someone asked me -who e-mailed if I saved any seeds from the 30lb melon as well- as it happens we did", and I shall see that you get a few to try, and believe me there are a heck of a lot of melon seeds in a 30lb melon, we used to cut a sizable chunk each to eat every day about mid afternoon when the sun was at its hottest-marvelous stuff for cooling you down-and sweet with it too, I even managed to save a bunch of fig seeds also- from the pounds of fresh black skinned figs available- absolutly scrumptious and sweet.

The one thing we noticed is that all portuguese fruit out there-seems to be nice and sweet, oranges,plums,melons, etc, which annoys me a bit realy-because all the supermarkets over here in the Uk import millions of tons of fruit from Spain and Portugal and surrounding countries- all of which are only half ripe and not very sweet usualy, melons are usualy useless and you have to throw half of them away as they pick them too young in order to export them before they have developed enough sweetness in them.

Going to visit the shrine of Fatima was indeed well worth the visit, we went to Lourds in northern France earlier this year which again was mysterious and enthralling.

The only thing about the trip to Fatima by coach from the Algarve where we were based, was the length of the journey there and back, five and a half hours each way- I got severe cramp in my legs and hips a time or too during the trip.

Some of the things we saw whilst in Fatima at the actual shrine were unusual and strange to say the least- the burning of the candles for example, as most people usualy burns a candle or two whilst there- but here they have very fast burning candles from abouit a foot long to six foot long, they are burnt outside in the open (not in the chapel or Basilica ) and are placed against a steel firewall and burnt in bunches with flames leaping up four or five feet high with clouds of smoke billowing out into the air, I have never seen anything quite like it before-you could feel the heat from the flames several feet away, there were about 2,000 people there on the giant square when we got there, and they were feeding the flames with about 50 candles a minute all day long.

Another very strange ritual we observed whilst there-that I have never seen anywhere else before is- the giant square leading to the chapel and Basilica has a polished strip of stone paving -straight down the middle of it-about 400yds long, and the ritual (which is probably only local portuguese variation version ) is that women and men (probably some form of penance ) must walk and shuffle on their knees accross the whole 400 yds of the giant square- before entering the chapel and Basilica, it seems to take them an average of three hours to complete on their knees-some dont quite make it and have to give up, some have relatives walk with them encouraging them to complete the journey etc,its all very-very moving and awe inspiring,

Fortunatly - I has a very good relative looking after my tomato plants whilst I was away, watering them and feeding etc, and it realy suprised me how much they had grown and progressed whilst I was away-several of the tomatoes were ripe and ready for pulling so I was very pleased to return and taste the first of my 2006 crop fresh off the vines-absolutly lovely, the Aubergines looked a bit burnt up under the sun though as the bottom leaves where a bit scorched, but the peppers are doing fine- with sizable peppers forming already.

[akgardengirl]

I enjoyed the fabulous account of your trip Micheal. The only thing that I have seen in the stores imported from Spain are the Clemetine oranges, which are good. I always like to hear about the different varieties of produce/fruits that are grown in other areas of the world (and in the US also).
Sue

[elkwc36]

Mickael I sent an email. JD

[michael johnson]

Unfortunatly I shall have to temporarily close the offer of the Portuguese Monster tomatoes for the time being-until I take stock of the situation a bit, simply because I have had so many requests for them so far I need to have a bit of a stock taking survey and have a bit of a count up and see what I have got left.

But dont worry- everyone who requested seeds for them up until 6am this morning sunday 6th august will definatly get the seeds-thats for sure, but I am sure there will be a few left over and I shall divide these equaly in lots of five seeds to anyone who wants any after that-as I shall realy try not to dissapoint anyone.

Theres one thing for sure- I would imagine for staked support of the plants-one would require something along the lines of the thickness of brush shafts that would be strong enough to support the weight.

As they are an unknown quantity to me-I am not sure if they will be indeterminate or determinate-but I imagine probably indeterminate, the stalk stub seems to be as thick as your middle finger at least, and the colour is a sort of bronzy red with a tinge of purple kreeping into the colour of the tomato-a bit simular to cherokee Purple but not quite so purple.

We shall have to give them a name of some sorts as we dont know the real variety name- so I shall be labeling all the packets of seed that I send out-(Michaels Monster Portuguese).

I sense a bit of a TV competition spirit coming up for the 2007 season from all those who receive my seeds, to see who can grow the biggest specimen of the lot- with a grand champion declared the winner at the end of the season-just for the sheer fun of it all, and believe me from what I saw of the tomatoes over there which dont receive much rain, but a lot of sun,little if any fertiliser in impoverished soil grown outside in open ground, I recon we might see some six pounders or more turning up.


The only problem is-what to do with a five or six pound tomato afterwards-one tomato would feed a family for two or three days at least- in my case after I spent about an hour de-seeding them I heaped all the remaining pulp into a large pan and simmered them down with a dash of olive oil, and was eating fried tomatoes for a good three days along with a little dry toast and a couple of eggs for breakfast most mornings-in the end I had to leave the remainder and throw it away-as you can only eat so many tomatoes at one time before you begin to balk at the thought of more !.


Of course -there is nothing stopping any of you who receive my seeds from sharing them with others and your friends as there will be an average of ten seeds in each pkt and I am sure most people will only need to germinate two or three for themselves to try-and I am sure you will get top class germination from them as they are all fresh seeds.


I myself will be on an equal footing as all the others as my seeds will come as random selection out of the whole bunch and I shall only germinate about half a dozen plants to select perhaps three from those for final planting and for seed production for next years seed saving etc.

The 2007 season should indeed be interesting to see how they progress with perhaps a photo or two as the season progresses.

P/s- I almost forgot to mention- as they are an unknown quantity to me regarding desease resistance and other tollerences-it will be up to each individual to keep a watchfull eye on them for the first season and adjust their culture accordingly-and report back onTV anything they notice that might help others to grow them problem free.

Also from what little info I could gather the portuguese growers dont bother to thin the trusses or prune the trusses to get giant specimens-they just let them grow naturaly come what may!.

[spudleafwillie]

"We shall have to give them a name of some sorts as we dont know the real variety name- so I shall be labeling all the packets of seed that I send out-(Michaels Monster Portuguese)."

Michael,
You have the perfect name above in "Michaels Monster Portuguese" as the name gives the person who first found it proper recognition and describes the tomato's size.

You might want to put an apostrophe between the last two letters, "l" and "s", in Michaels (Michael's) to indicate more clearly that the variety was first found by yourself and not by a person with the last name of Michaels.

The slight change of adding the apostrophe is only a suggestion on my part, as it is your right to name it as you see fit because you were the first one to find it and save seed for the rest of us.

Finally, many, many thanks for taking the time and making the effort to share this new tomato treasure with all of us.

I am looking forward to growing Michaels Monster Portuguese here in the sw desert of New Mexico which has a similar climate as found in Portugal. I will report regularly on T'ville with pics, etc as the 2007 growing season progresses.

Best regards,
Bill Malin (aka Spudleaf Willie)

[michael johnson]

Thanks Spudleaf W, I will probably do just as you suggested and put a ' between the s. just to round it off a bit

[bigcheef]

I can't wait!

Thanks again Michael

RIK