2014 Tomato Growing

Are we going to get a prepper thread?

https://www.google.com/search?q=pre...eAH&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1438&bih=675&dpr=0.95

 

@colne ....that tomato flower looks like a Mega bloom,were 2 or more flowers fuse together,I've had them before on my Beef tomatoes but I don't know what the cause it.Usually results in a big one
Great video by the way

 

I remember going to Cornwall with parents when I was 7 or 8 and seeing some enterprising lads selling bags of Cornish Air, and also Topless-&-Bottomless Bikinis Sadly don't' remember seeing anyone wearing one of those, although I'm certain I looked carefully

 

Interesting reading the various points of view regarding food production. I am sort of in agreement with Shiney in that it is in many ways better to not know too much about how food is produced. I used to work for a subsidiary of a multi national Dutch company and saw a top secret document about how to artificially colour all sorts of food including seeing photos live chickens with green flesh yuk yuk and yuk. I, like many presumed brown eggs were healthier ....shell colour in chickens can be altered depending on the food given. Even the farmed salmon I dealt with was artificially coloured pink via dye in the feed. If the feed batches varied you ended up with stripped salmon! Daughter hauls meat and therefore is around abattoirs quite a lot. We all like to think animals are correctly slaughtered after being stunned etc, unfortunately in reality this is not always the case.
Just as well however that we do have alternatives to growing your own as unless the weather here warms up my greenhouse grown Tomatoes just might be bearing fruit by Christmas!

 

A brand of cheap tinned toms 'East End' http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesc...nd_Chopped_Tomatoes_in_Tomato_Juice_400g.html is very often s0ld for 25p/can/400g (62.5p/Kg), even cheaper if bought in a supermarket using one of their regular, widely available £5 0ff £35 spend vouchers, getting the cost down to 54p/Kg.

If buying a say 50p packet of tomato seeds from Lidl, spending £1 on compost and pots/seed tray, plus another £2 for a cheap row bag, 30p for bamboo canes, say £1.50 per plant total, that would mean each plant you grow would need to produce over 2.5Kg/five and a half lbs of toms per plant to make growing your own stuff 'worthwhile' having all the hassle of growing them.

 

A great place to salvage some tomatoes is a sewage treatment facility. I have been on a fair number of them and in odd nooks and crannies there always sprout tomatoes. The seeds are happy to go - I believe through us - then through the system and still be viable. The problem is inevitably they are some sort of cherry tomato because that is common in the second generation hybrids.

I have had discussions about this with my wife (the real cost of keeping a closet full of junk). Say the house costs X to buy - amortized over the years occupied. Then the costs to pay tax, maintenance, climate control, per square foot - then the cost of the property surrounding the building too.... well you can get the real cost of the use of a unit. A house in London like my parent's - with 1000 sq foot of garden and walkway amortized and taxed and maintained - rates too, well; excluding the labour - well.........say five hundred pounds a can of home grown tomatoes. Best go off to the sewer treatment plant with your blackberry picking basket and gloves and save some serious cash.

 

OK - sorry, will stay on track.



So in the vein of yeti photos it is all out of focus; but there it is, the giant tomato flower. The flower is attractive, very firm, and all together different from a tomato flower. Look at the tiny - normal - flowers to the lower left of the monster one.

 

Thankyou loofah, I am proud of my leaves. I just cannot decide where one last tomato goes - it keeps getting really large but looks good - and in all the messing about with different seeds, and some bought ones - and I try to buy ones with multiple tomatoes in a clump that I pull apart and put in better pots.............. I have no idea what anything is. I think it is either a goliath, creole, or better boy.

But I sometimes think I will have masses of tomatoes and have sort of decided to make ketchup! 5 to 1 reduction so lots of tomatoes, not much shelf space. And I do like ketchup, being a fisherman I have fish and chips (baked or microwaved, not fried - from potatoes not frozen) and use a bit of it.

 

Just been driven in from my tomato planting by a sudden shower :(

Returning to the subject of preserving toms, Just wanted to say that every tomato I don't eat or cook fresh goes whole, into the freezer. Hence why we are now still eating homegrown tomato soup and using them in stews and in a very nice cherry tomato and olive bread that I make when Im feeling Nigella like. The skins slip off a treat when they've defrosted

Stopped raining - back to my tomatoes

 

I am growing big daddy, Moneymaker (courtesy of my neighbor) and Manx marvel tomatoes (courtesy of john) :D

 

This:

Tomato Catsup
2 1/2 qt ripe tomatoes (measure after removing skins,
seeds, core, green parts)
1 (3-inch) piece stick cinnamon
2 tsp mustard seeds
3 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp whole cloves
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 large garlic clove, chopped (optional)
1 cup cider vinegar, 5% acidity
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Simmer tomatoes for about 20 minutes and press
through a colander, food mill, or a fine sieve to
remove seeds. If you have a blender, blend cooked
tomatoes before straining to get more pulp. Heat
strained tomato pulp to a boil and continue boiling
until the volume is reduced by about half. Stir often to
prevent sticking and scorching.
Place cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and
whole cloves on a thin, clean white cloth. Tie cloth to
make spice bag. Add spice bag to boiling pulp and
simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove bag. Tie onion
and garlic, if used, in a thin cloth bag and add to pulp
when you add spices. Cook for 20 minutes and
remove this bag.
Add the mixture of vinegar, sugar, salt, paprika, and
cayenne pepper to the tomato-spice mixture. Boil rapidly,
stirring constantly, from 5 to no more than 10
minutes.
Pour hot catsup into clean, hot pint jars, leaving 1-inch
headspace. Seal with properly prepared canning lids.
Process in pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure for
10 minutes. Yield: 2 pints.


This is from a USA government recipe - they produce constant studies on food preservation for the house, and so it always works if fallowed - will last a couple years on the shelf.

But it is also kind of a nostalgic thing, as a child living in places where ketchup was not available, nor was getting some from elsewhere, my father would make some - probably like this, his mother used to make it when he was a child as well - and then make chips to dip in it - and hamburgers to have it on. It is still stuck in my memories fifty years later.

 

I think I made something similar last year (More Chilli, less cloves) - its interesting how tastes have changed, 'cos whilst its good & I will probably make some more this year its not what I would consider ketchup, my tastebuds expecting the red sweet stuff that Heinz make & nothing else.

Getting back on track - planed out the other side of the new greenhouse with 8 tomato plants - theres Mortgage lifter, Red Cherry, Tlacolula, Brandywine Red, Delicious, Maskotka & a couple more that Ive forgotten.

--
Should be putting the same sort of mix of plants into the other greenhouse once Ive evicted the overwintering squatters - I think that theres some Jersey Devil plants somewhere too but I couldnt find them !

 

I don't grow many tomatoes but what I have are coming on nicely. Shirley, Golden Pearl, Gardeners Delight and two Manx Marvel outside.