Saturday, July 27, 2013

What Kind of Tomatoes do you Grow?




Our garden is growing in leaps and bounds - and lots of overgrown weeds!

All day yesterday we cut and weed whacked the garden. At the moment I am a little sick of our garden. I wish you could just plant and pick. But there is so much more to do.

We have tiny tomatoes, regular tomatoes and what I call Whoppers! The whoppers are heirloom tomatoes our neighbors keep the seeds from every year. They are delicious.



The tomato on the left is approximately 2 lbs. It is nowhere near the world's largest tomato that weighed 7lb 12oz. Can you imagine a tomato that large?

I never realized how large and spindly a cherry tomato plant can get. They are driving us crazy trying to keep them tied up. I was letting most of this one just lay on the ground, but when we were cleaning up the garden yesterday, my husband wanted it tied up.


These are the tall plants the whoppers grow on. They are taller than I am (which my cousin jokingly said, 'that wouldn't have to be very tall').






I sliced a tomato for breakfast this morning. I ate so many slices that I had to slice two tomatoes. They are so good!


I peel, cut up and cook my tomatoes for 20 minutes, then cool and put in freezer bags. When I have lots, I also make spaghetti sauce and salsa out of them and freeze. I then use my frozen tomatoes to put in soup and chili. I make breakfast tomato gravy with them, I have a recipe where I mix chopped up tomatoes, cooked cubed squash, sauteed onions and a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper in the skillet and simmer for 15 minutes. I make tomato and mayo sandwiches, tomato cucumber and mayo sandwiches. And best of all, I eat them fresh off the vine.

How do you eat your tomatoes?

What kind do you grow?

Posted by Janet Smart  on Writing in the Blackberry Patch.



10 comments:

  1. Is it o.k. if I'm jealous? No garden on this farm this year :( The girls have given us a few tomatoes but not enough to satisfy the taste for them. We are fond of the Arkansas Traveler; it doesn't get real big but has a smooth skin. I always like to eat tomatoes straight off the vine, sun-kissed, and maybe a little dirt on it :)

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    1. I like that Lil Red Hen - sun-kissed and a little dirt on it. I've picked them straight from the garden before and ate them. Yum. I've never heard of the Arkansas Traveler before.

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  2. Janet,
    Those tomatoes bring back memories of our gardens at home. We always had lots of tomatoes.
    They look so good.
    We have two tomato plants in containers on our patio and they look sick. WE have three tomatoes between the two plants. Still not ripe yet. I can't wait til they ripen. Meanwhile, we are getting tomatoes at the Amish farm down the road. I believe they aren't their tomatoes but some they bought at market as it's just now time for them to start ripening. I used to love mayo and tomato sandwiches and my mother always made what she called stewed tomatoes. I'm sure it's what you are calling tomato gravy. It's thicked and has milk in it. Delicious over biscuits.
    Enjoy that garden - it will be gone soon!

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    1. Hi Barbara. I'm sorry your tomatoes are doing any better than they are. Yes, the stewed tomatoes and tomato gravy are probably the same thing. We crumble up dropped biscuits on our plate, my son then puts big pats of butter on his biscuits and then we spoon the thickened gravy on top. Really good!

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  3. There's nothing like eating a tomato, fresh off the vine.

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  4. Nothing like a freshly sliced tomato on whole wheat bread with a sprinkle of salt and olive oil! Together they spell summer for me. -- barbara

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    1. Never heard of the olive oil part, but I bet it's good.

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  5. We have an abundance of Big Boys and oh my are they delicious at breakfast...lunch or dinner.

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    1. There sure are, Linda. Nothing beats a juicy tomato.

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