Tomato Taste Test - again!

If it were Italy they would be sun dried, but this is the 51st State of the USA, so we have to put them on the dashboard before they go mouldy:(

Works a treat & makes the car smell like Pizza. Gives hitchikers a false sense of security too

 

Koralik - they survived blight (I don't know for how much longer - I didn't spray as I thought that would defeat the object of checking their blight resistance). I thought they tasted rather bland:




Phil's Fantastic - polytunnel grown, but planted a little too late. Now it's completed I'm sure I'll better the paltry 2 lbs I managed this year. To be used for passata:




Monster - These can grow very big, but I didn't restrict the number of fruits to 2 per truss like I did with the Phil's, so got about 3 - 4lbs of much smaller fruits per truss. These will also be used for passata (but I might try some of these in the dehydrator):

 

Hi John.

Just a little update. The Ferline are still producing, albeit not much now. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that they have been affected by blight, but whereas in the past when blight struck the toms were totally wiped out, that hasn't happened this time. Indeed, only a few toms lost to blight, and the plants generally seem unaffected, surprising. Just to add, I only sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture twice, first time middle of July, and again a month later, as I recall.

Cheers...Freddy.

 

Almost finalised my tomato growing list for 2012:

Outdoors

Koralik
Red Alert
Brasero
Sweet Million
Sungold


Poly Tunnels & Greenhouse

Red Alert
Sungold
Sweet Million
Purple Calabash
German Red Strawberry
Phil's Fantastic
Big Zac
Giant Belgium
Delicious
Mortgage Lifter
Monster

Window boxes & garden containers

Balconi (Red & Yellow)

I'm considering growing Sungella in a poly tunnel, but there's conflicting reports on this thread:

 

1.67 kg (3 lbs 11 ozs) of toms cooked (slow cooker, but preferably oven roasted with garlic), put through a passata machine and strained will produce 1 litre of tomato sauce. We get through (at least) a litre a week so that's almost 200 lbs accounted for + loads of my garlic.

We cook everything from scratch, so when they are in season they get used in curries/casseroles/ratatouille, stuffed, on top of lasagnas/pizzas, fried for breakfast, etc., so that's at least another 100 lbs p.a. I'll very often eat a handful when I have home made pâté on toast for breakfast, then again with salad which we eat every day so again >100 lbs p.a. And some get dehydrated.

I prefer to have plenty of toms at the beginning and end of season, so if there's a glut in the middle I've got some spare to give to friends, neighbours, relatives, re-pay favours, etc. Our hens also love really ripe toms (although they actually prefer them cooked and served with pasta and a cheesy topping). Hmmm, I'm starting to think I don't grow enough ......

Sungolds are my favourites, but as the seeds are so expensive I save seeds from them and grow mainly Sungold F2 which will throw up a few plants with odd coloured/sized fruits, but they all taste the same to me and I've checked the sugar content with a refractometer and can't see any difference. So one bought pkt (preferably 75% off at Wilkos or 10/20p at a car boot sale) every 2-3 years enables me to grow a lot of 'Sungolds' every year. I do exactly the same with Red Alerts, my favourite early bush tom.

The more 'exotic' varieties are a bit of fun as gardening is my main hobby.

So I hope that was an easy question to answer. I could also explain how I manage to cope with 2,000 lbs of apples p.a., or vast quantities of potatoes, garlic, marrows & courgettes. The amount flowers I grow are probably excessive, but any excess is giveaways as above.

 

A litre of tomato sauce a week

Man thats an awful lot of burgers :-)

Personal question and obviously you have no need whatsoever to answer
Is it for family or do you run an Organic restaruant/chain off restaraunts ?

Jack McH

 

Are you thinking of tomato ketchup, rather than sauce (used for pasta, etc.) - like this stuff?

 

You are correct
I was thinking of what is now called Ketchup, though a litre of sauce is still a lot of tomatoie meals

Jack McH

 

If home made tomato sauce doesn't have basil added it can also be used a base for home made curry sauce which tastes less tomatoie.

 

I've subsequently gone slightly berserk with tom seeds for next year and have now either bought or ordered:

Striped Stuffer
Pink Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain)
Black Prince
Orange Banana
Auld Sod
Omar's Lebanese
Marianna's Peace

P.S. I've emboldened all the non-F1s.