Homegrown tomatoes on the dinner table last night

[BOSSHOG]

Harvested our first tomatoes (Creoles) yesterday. Wow, incredible taste. I plan on having tomatoes all summer long, creoles, better bush and Arkansas Travelers later in the year.

And on the menu tonight - BLT's with our tomatoes, romaine lettuce and crispy bacon, I'll be in Hog Heaven.

9 June - the French Market Creole Tomato Festival in New Orleans with food booths selling every conceivable tomato based food concoction possible. Ya'll come on down.

[japple]

1. I'm so jealous I could spit. We should be having our first

tomatoes in about 3 weeks. Squash will start coming in next week. We're just finishing off the english peas, which were spotty this year due to high heat and drought. Our peppers are looking good, though, and the sunflowers are doing great. We'll have to water everything on our designated days, though. No rain since April 1st.

[BOSSHOG]

2. No rain in two months - Wow!

We are a little behind for the yearly average but we got a good soaking all day yesterday (South Mississippi) with more in the forecast for the next few days. We've been eating Cayenne and Jalapenos but I usually just plant those for show. I got them in pots on the patio for some nice foliage. Our favorite (Pepperoncini) I haven't planted yet; had to order seeds from Florida. I picked up some Gypsy Chile Dulce Sweet Pepper Plants at the nursery this morning. Never tried them before. They are supposed to be good for frying and salads. I hope you all get some rain soon.

[LiberalEsto]

3. I just planted mine

Congratulations on your early harvest!

Here in Maryland I had to dig 15 inches down into hard red clay in order to prepare the planting bed for square foot gardening. With almost no rain for weeks, it was not easy, and I could only work on it during the early morning hours. There were also tree roots that had to be removed -- why bother to amend the soil if the trees are going to suck out all the nutrients.

Finally I managed to finish the digging and install hardware cloth around the perimeter to discourage roots. Today I piled in the peat moss, coarse vermiculite, compost, manure and lime, mixed it up thoroughly, and put in the tomatos and eggplants. Gave them a good soaking, and now I'll just have to wait and hope the harvest makes up for the planting delay.

The varieties I planted: Rutgers, Brandywine, Red Beefsteak, Pink Beefsteak, Beefmaster, Homestead and Celebrity.

[BOSSHOG]

4. I planted Brandywine from seed

Grew like weeds but not one tomato on them. I heard they were really good, but I have a rather brutal policy, if you don't perform, your into the compost pile. I planted some better bush and they are monsters in just a few weeks. I'm trying to figure out when to plant the Arkansas Traveler Seeds for best production. Our growing season will go through at least Halloween and probably beyond. I'll probably be sick of tomtatoes soon, but they are always good to give to neighbors.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Brandywine is incredibly good

I'm sorry to hear yours didn't produce. I wonder why.

One year I made the mistake of planting a Brandywine next to two of my roses because I had heard the plants do well together. The tomato plant grew like mad and nearly smothered the rosebushes. There were lots of yummy Brandywines, but some were hard to pick because of those rose thorns.

The tomatoes self-seeded for a couple of years, but I got tired of seeing them cover the rosebushes and yanked out all the seedlings one summer. Now I keep Brandywine in the vegetable bed where it belongs. It tends to get out of hand, but it's worth it.

I hope you try it again and have better luck with it.

[blueworld]

6. Congratulations!

I also am green-eyed jealous! I still have a few weeks to go for my BLT'S, but you inspire me.

[BOSSHOG]

7. A belated welcome Blueworld and thanks

I'm a tad bit paranoid this year. We have lots of plants and all of them are extremely healthy but I'd say no more then 60% are producing veggies. Tomato plants, Okra, squash and some peppers have absolutely nothing on them. And yet I have tomato plants that are producing better then any I've had in years. In years past we have had the occasional "sterile" plant but they were the exception, this year they are the rule. I hope you have a bumper crop.

[bearfan454]

8. I will have to look for Creole tomatoes next year BOSSHOG

I've never seen them around here.

[BOSSHOG]

9. You may have to get seeds online

We live 50 miles northeast of New Orleans and I always thought that you could only get creoles in Plaquemines and St Bernard Parishs south of New Orleans where the soil was supposedly ideal for them. But the local nurseries carry them here in South Mississippi. They are quite acidic and have a nice tang to them. They are worshiped in and around New Orleans and used for a ton of recipes.

The attached is about the New Orleans tomato fest which occurred this past weekend:

http://www.neworleansonline.com/news/2007/May/tomatofest07.html

[Imalittleteapot]

10. Still waiting for mine to ripen.

From seed I have Black Krim, Black Cherry and Flamme. All have green fruit. The squirrels are enjoying the Black Cherries. Argh.

[BOSSHOG]

11. They are well worth the wait

We have a real long growing season so I will be reseeding in about a month. We'll have tomatoes till Halloween.

[Kolesar]

12. Do you think I can pick tomatoes unripe and take them on a vacation?

How many tomatoes do you know that saw Mt. Rushmore as a kid?

Seriously, though, my big experiment for this year was early tomatoes. I have "vines" of green, undersized tomatoes all over my plants. Problem is that I have to leave for a three week vacation on Saturday morning. I was thinking of picking them underripe and then taking them with us.

The stores in winter have greenhouse-grown tomatoes that they advertise as "ripened on the vine". I was thinking of cutting off a bunch and watching to see if they ripen sitting in our cooler for a week or so. Most of them are half sized and still hard. I only have one full sized fruit and it is "almost red" right now. Do you think this will work, or should I just leave them for the neighbors to lust after?

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Okay, since you're serious about this...

Don't put them in the cooler unless you're traveling in extremely hot areas. Anytime tomatoes are exposed to 50 degree or lower temperatures the ripening process can switch off.

First, select the ones that are starting to show some yellowish tint. That's a sign that they're a little bit closer to ripening. They look all green, but some may be less green than others. If all you have are solid green tomatoes, they may not ripen during a 3 week vacation. After you select the bunch, Put them in a paper bag for traveling and try to keep them at room temperature. They should start to ripen up within a week. Better yet is to wrap each one individually before putting them in the bag.

If you are spending most of that vacation in one place, unwrap the tomatoes and put them on the counter or near a sunny window. That's how my mother used to ripen them.

[Kolesar]

14. Room temperature.

I think I am going to have some trouble manage this in a campground where you are supposed to hide things from the bears. I could put them in a little papoose on my daypack while I go out hiking in the mountain meadows. Hey, you knew this was eccentric. Thanks for your advice :hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

16. Camping!

D'oh!. If you're hanging food include the tomatoes. Coolers don't offer much protection against bears any how. I've camped in places where food has to be stored in bear boxes.

You do have my sympathy. I had to leave on a two week vacation just as my tomatoes were starting to ripen. I called my friends and told them to come over and glean.

[bearfan454]

15. Most of mine ripen on the kitchen counter.

The very first time I see some lighter green/yellowish color beginning to show I pick them and bring them in the house. If I don't the goshdarn birds get to them. I usually lose at least 1/4th of my tomatoes from the birds. I really need to get some kind of netting.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. Jays are the annoying birds for me.

They poke one hole and move on to the next one. Same deal with my plums. I wouldn't mind it so much if they actually ate the whole thing.

on edit: Have you tried flash tape? That seems to help.