Friday 25 September 2020

AT LAST!!



It's late September, and we are only just picking our own Tomatoes.

After a disappointing start to the growing year, we are now harvesting some very large and tasty fruits from the two grafted, and very expensive, plants that Lady M purchased to replace all our diseased one's.

We have had about three Tomatoes so far, and all have been over 500 gms. They are of the 'Marmande' type; solid, with no wet mess of pips in the middle. Perfect for slicing; about half of one of these makes a good salad for two. The bushes are loaded.

I'm now wondering if I'm going to have a sudden glut. If I do, I'll do more bottling; we can never have too many jars of Ratatouille.

 

40 comments:

  1. That looks so good. A while yet before we plant any.

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    1. They taste so good too. The two plants collapsed yesterday under the weight. I had to prop them up again.

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  2. Very impressive. I remember being amused to see some beef tomatoes supported in what looked like net curtain tied to fence wire. Perhaps it's worth considering even if folk do laugh.

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    1. Some of the ones still on the plants could use a Hammock; they are probably well over 600 gms.

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  3. Replies
    1. Luckily we had a kind neighbour who gave us free access to her Tomatoes through the Summer, but it's wonderful to have our own; even at this late stage.

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  4. I know you lost everything to Blight earlier on didn't you? We had a storm here which blew all the blight spores around and into the polytunnel and lost all ours, tomatoes and all. Irksome!

    Your toms look worth the growing anyway.

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    1. It's a wretched disease, and can stay in the ground for years. Luckily it doesn't affect our winter greens, beans, squashes, etc; but for next year we shall have to plant our Toms elsewhere.

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  5. Crikey .... that tomato could feed a small village 🤣
    It looks wonderful ..... I love beef tomatoes. When you get a good tomato I can just eat it on it’s own with a little salt sprinkled over. ... lovely. XXXX

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    1. They are wonderful. It makes those small round watery indoor-grown red things seem like a different vegetable altogether.

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  6. I currently have several bowls of (greenhouse) tomatoes sitting, waiting. I've roasted loads with onions and courgettes with chilli flakes, frozen in single portions. A kind of ratatouille, but I'm not keen on aubergine!

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    1. I'm an Aubergine fanatic; I love them. They make an excellent vegetarian curry too.

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  7. Already at the ratatouille stage here in Italy. We’ve had an exceptional year for the ingredients but our neighbour lost all his crop. We’ve kept him and others supplied, he’d do the same for us.

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    1. Sounds like here; my kind neighbour has kept me going.

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  8. Isn't Ratatouille a cartoon character? How cruel to consign him to a jar.

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    1. Aren't you thinking of Rat-a-go-go; which I believe is a Yorkshire clog dance.

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  9. You and your dammed tomatoes. Thank goodness for the sensible Lady M who bought 'expensive' tomato plants and you won't be without delicious red fruit.
    PS We buy cherry tomatoes at the supermarket, in spite of me pointing out to R that if he looks at the per kilo price of AU$22, they are terribly expensive.

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    1. Tomatoes, mushrooms, swimming, mowing, log cutting. What a wonderful life we lead. 22 bucks sounds a lot for cherry toms; they grow like weeds here (usually).

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  10. Huge tomatoes all right. And tasty too. Really nice to have such a good crop at this time of the year. You can still enjoy that joy of f summer

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    1. They are so good. We drool over them every lunchtime. I feel sorry for people who've never tasted real outdoor Tomatoes.

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  11. Lucky you! Homegrown tomatoes are nectar of the gods. And better late than never!

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    1. The sticks holding-up the plants collapsed yesterday; they are over-filled with big heavy fruits. Lovely.

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  12. They might have been expensive but worth the price. I am still picking toms but they are much smaller than usual. I had some very large ones earlier in the season. I bought some Burpee grafted tomatoes a few years ago for my son but never asked him how well they grew. Seeing your luck, I might try them next year.

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    1. They were a good idea here because they were guaranteed to be disease resistant (which they were).

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  13. I too love ratatouille but have no idea how I would preserve it for winter. Could you tell me please.

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    1. Goodness. I cook the combination of vegetables (Toms, Courgettes, Peppers, and Aubergines), then bottle in 400gm Le Parfait jars, and sterilise for an hour. It's possibly a tad more complicated than that, but I do it without thinking.

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  14. I grow from seeds, Heirloom Brandywine, they are late but worth waiting for. The taste is unreal, the flesh in the middle is very firm, they need to be eaten when dark pink for best taste. I too have about 15 kg on my plants left. The biggest so far, weight 630 grams. I make a lot of chili sauce, but mostly we eat a lot of Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches.

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    1. It's the 'pinkness' that separates them from the rubbish, red, wet, indoor-grown, stuff that they sell in the shops. I like simple fried Tomatoes on toast for breakfast; sensational.

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  15. We are always all right for tomatoes but we are just wondering whether to pick our first ever aubergine or whether it still has time to grow a bit more. Decisions, decisions!

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    1. Don't leave them too long, because they tend to become filled with discoloured pips. Pick them whilst the skin is nice and shiny.

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  16. My three bushes I put in the compost heap are laden with fruit. I think will have to pick them green to ripen indoors. Not such a big variety as your ones, a mixture.

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    1. Sounds like we're all in the same boat. They do ripen well indoors!

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  17. We've had a reasonable crop of tomatoes this year. I am really not looking forward to eating supermarket tomatoes this winter.

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    1. If you really have to buy Toms through the winter, buy the Cherry Toms, they usually have some flavour.

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  18. Beautiful, beautiful tomatoes. My sister has fielded a decent crop, but then, her husband came home with twenty four plants. He was sent for two tomato plants, but lost track when he was at the nursery. Better safe, he decided.

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    1. Safety in numbers! I thought I'd done much the same back in April, but sadly they all died.

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  19. Replies
    1. And now it looks as if I'll have a glut. I already have a large pile building-up in the kitchen.

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  20. Very nice tomatoes. So many gardens are invaded by blight and the plants are destroyed. To what do you attribute this success to?

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    1. They were very expensive grafted plants; hence us only having two. But at least they did what it said on the pack, and were disease resistant.

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