We’ve been nibbling at bits and bobs of ripe fruit for much of July but as August begins, the majority of the tomatoes are starting to come right…
I picked a ‘tasting tray’ for a neighbour and here’s a little snap of it..
From left to right…
- Santa. This is (I believe) an F1 hybrid… we grew these from saved seed from some tomatoes a visitor brought over when they came on holiday here last year.. it’s come (almost) true to the parent fruit but has a much more distinct Italian plum tomato shape/taste/feel. A nice cherry style hybrid.
- Gardeners Delight. Very sweet with tough skins. Huge tresses of fruit. Makes great salsa.
- Golden Sunrise. A little bit blond, nice to look at, not much substance.
- Money maker. Excellent flavour, bit pippy, bit watery.
- Tigerella. An RHS gongwinner with excellent flavour with good acidity, stands up really well in a simple salad with a robust dressing.
- Roma. (Top right) A little bit difficult to see in this snap, better picture of them in the foreground of the photo below. They are the classic fruit in tins of Italian plum tomatoes. We’ve got tons of these. Very few pips, loads of flesh, not much juice. Will be the backbone of the sauces that get made to see us through the winter and a fave for making sundried tomatoes
- Marmande (Bottom right). Second (and final) year I’ll be growing these. These have great flavour but for it to develop they really must be left on the vine until the last minute and the best tasting ones won’t be ready for a month or more. Good for late season fruits.
There are more.. we’ve grown (I think) nine varieties this year.. ‘Ailsa Craig’ and ‘Aunty Madge’ aren’t quite ready yet. This lot are all outdoor grown, all raised from seed we’ve saved/bought and started off in late January indoors. I’ve not used any tomato feed on them at all.. just a smattering of ‘nettle soup’ as the plant was growing up, seems to do the trick and as we’ve 70+ plants we’ve more than enough to be going on with.
Now thats a LOT of tomato’s
The new camera is doing the business too, the colours are excellent.
Heh! yeah.. it is a lot.. we don’t weigh what we get but it’s got to be around the quarter of a tonne mark. We’re not using any artificial fertilizer at all – we just make up for the fact with planting more plants.
It does mean that we can be very liberal with cooking them and can knock up some great recipes. I’ll blog later in the year our “Ten Quid Ketchup” which is quite simply outrageous!
The camera is just about the bottom of the range of Canon point-and-shoot cheapies.. we’re still getting to grips with it a little bit but the photos it takes are far superior to our aged Fuji.
Best £93 I ever spent!
Mindyou, I said that about the Fuji… but in 1999 it was ‘the best £575+VAT I ever spent’. Technology moves on.
Technolgy certainly moves on. My new phone is 3.2mp. My first digital camera, a Fuji, was 1.3mp.