Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Tasting Notes: Tomatoes

Tomatoes kill brain cells. How else to explain the fact that I started this post at the end of August, and now can't remember most of what I intended to write? We've been eating a lot of tomatoes - that must be it.

So then, this is an abbreviated summary of the tomatoes I grew this year, in order of size:

Ildi - A yellow pear tomato. It was definitely the most prolific tomato I grew. That's probably the nicest thing I can say about it - the skin was unpleasantly tough and the flavor was average. While I was cleaning up the garden, I tossed some of these on the ground and left them there for a few days and they were untouched by any wild critters. What does that tell you? I won't grow this one again.

Black Cherry - A round cherry tomato of middling size, it ripens to those green/red/purple colors that usually mean good flavor (see Black Russian below). That flavor was was I was after when I bought the seeds. Unfortunately, I didn't find that flavor, and I wouldn't grow this one again.

Thai Pink - A small plum tomato, rather firm when ripe, but juicy rather than meaty. I wasn't all that keen on this one until I found a recipe that suited it exactly - Tomatoes in Spicy Yogurt Sauce - which calls for whole peeled tomatoes. I'm not sure what else 'Thai Pink' is good for, but the taste and size are just perfect in that dish. I may grow it again just for that - we really liked the recipe. On the other hand, I think a tomato like 'Juliet' would work just as well. And I've never grown 'Juliet', so I may rotate that one in and 'Thai Pink' out.

Bonito Ojo - A small round tomato (> golf ball, < tennis ball). A huge quantity of fruit ripened simultaneously early in the season. The flavor was very tart, good for salsa, but I don't need/want that many small tomatoes all at once. It was also prone to cracking. I probably won't grow it again.

Eva Purple Ball - Eva is the beauty contest winner - almost no cracking or blemishes; nice sized (> baseball, < softball) with pink skin over red flesh. The flavor is only OK. If you must have perfect-looking tomatoes, this is a good choice. If you want perfect-tasting tomatoes...well, I think there are better ones.

Striped Roman - A long, thick 'Roma' type; very meaty. It has a marvelous sweet-tart flavor tending toward the tart side. This has been a favorite for several years now, and I expect I'll be growing it as long as I'm gardening.

Black Russian - A large green/purple/brown/dark red tomato. This is my favorite for flavor - a deep, dark, almost smoky, essence of tomato flavor. The downside is the disappointment at how many I lost to cracking and rotting. I'll grow this again next year, but if I could find a variety with the same flavor and less cracking, I'd evict 'Black Russian'.

Cherokee Purple - A large pink/purple beefsteak type tomato. The flavor is notably sweet; I was expecting something more like Black Russian, but it's not at all like that - much sweeter. This will probably be invited back next year, but if I end up with too long a list of new ones to try, then maybe not.

Kellogg's Breakfast - This wins the prize for size; the yellow-orange tomatoes are very large, and incidentally, this was the first of the large ones to ripen. The flavor is surprising for a yellow tomato - quite flavorful and sweet; I'm wondering how similar this is to Persimmon, which some other bloggers have written about this year. I'll grow this one again next year.

Updated 5:15 pm with link to recipe for Tomatoes in Spicy Yogurt Sauce.

Labels: potager, tomatoes, vegetables

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Enjoying the Harvest

I have an old cookbook entitled Too Many Tomatoes - a Cookbook for When Your Garden Explodes, and that about sums up what I've been doing lately. One of these days, I'm going to write up my thoughts on the tomato and pepper varieties I grew this year (so I don't forget by next January), but until then I'll be writing up what I'm cooking with them. The Striped Romans yielded a great fresh tomato puree for Gazpacho last night, and some fresh red mildly hot chile peppers provided a little kick and depth of flavor that made it really outstanding. Some of the same peppers went into a gussied-up version of pepper and egg sandwiches, but I haven't written that recipe up yet. Soon.

Labels: peppers, tomatoes

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Tomato Triage

...Rain. Rai-ai-ai-ain...
-Bonnie Bramlett/Eric Clapton, Let It Rain.

We're catching a break from the heat and drought here, and now I don't have to fret about watering (or not watering). That frees me up to fret about tomatoes cracking and rotting instead. I just picked a small basketful, and picked out the ones that I had to use or lose. Those are cooking on the stove right now, destined for the freezer. The next ones - the ones that have some problems, but not too bad for fresh use - are going into salsa for tonight's dinner. Lunch was tomato sandwiches with fresh mozzarella and basil. Last night I didn't cook, but yesterday's lunch was chicken fajitas with, um, salsa. We like salsa.

A couple of weeks ago I started a post over on my food blog about all the ways we were using the tomatoes, but I never finished it. It was too long and I decided to break it up, but didn't get around to it. But I mentioned in a comment to Blackswamp Girl that I was going to make our favorite potato and tomato dish as soon as the weather was cool enough to turn on the oven, and last weekend I did just that. The recipe is now posted on my food blog.

What's your favorite tomato recipe? Maybe we could start a Garden Bloggers' Cookbook.

Labels: tomatoes

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Tomatoes!

Need I say more?

Labels: potager, tomatoes, vegetables

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

More Things to Do While the Tomatoes Ripen

Eat potatoes.

They're a variety called Cranberry Red, or at least that's what they are called by Territorial Seed. There is some controversy. Oh, and I also dug up a couple of the russet ones (forgot the name), but I was more interested in the pink ones. We've been buying the pink ones or similar for several years at the Arlington Farmer's Market, and we liked them to the point of being disappointed when they weren't available. So they were one of the first things on my list when deciding what to grow in the new central Virginia vegetable garden.

I harvested just a few last weekend, and you wouldn't believe the fluorescent highlighter pink color of the skin. The picture doesn't quite capture the luminescent quality. Since these were the first ones, I cooked them very simply to see if they were any good. They were, but maybe not as good as the ones we were getting from the farmer's market. Or else I've magnified the taste of those in my memory. These seem more watery, and I wonder if it's because I grew them in straw and gave them plenty of water when it didn't rain.

But if you just can't wait to see some ripe tomatoes....come to the county fair with me.

Having been disappointed by county fairs in northern Virginia, we thought we'd see what central Virginia has to offer. Last weekend we attended the Orange County Fair. Weeeeelllll.......what to say? I sure wish I was in the Midwest at fair time. My biggest disappointment was no poultry exhibit; there was a statewide ban on poultry exhibits until July 31. We may try the Albemarle County Fair this weekend. I hope I can see chickens. Tomatoes? I should have my own by this weekend.

Labels: county fair, potager, potatoes, tomatoes

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Things to Do While the Tomatoes Ripen

I really hoped we would have a ripe tomato or two last weekend, but.......not yet. In fact, we arrived to find all the tomato ladders more horizontal than vertical. There must have been a powerful storm while we were gone, because a small (dead) tree nearby was snapped off. (I was thinking of turning that tree into a bottle tree, or training vines over it, but never mind.) Last weekend we swathed the tomato plants in plastic netting, hoping to keep the tomatoes in and the critters out. The netting doesn't do a darned thing to keep out hornworms, but I still think we'll have plenty of tomatoes.

So then, while we're waiting for that day when we can get out the satin pillow, the rosewood platter, or the stylish tasting notes, what to do?

Cook with herbs. For the last couple of weekends, we switched from breakfast burritos (our usual weekend lunch) to herb omelette and toast.

Or make fried green tomatoes. I've been doing this for the last two weekends as well.

Labels: herbs, potager, tomatoes

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Potager Progress

Just for the record, I want it known that the potager did produce tomatoes this year. Now, they're not ripe yet, and that's the issue. If the deer get to them before I do, at least I'll have the pictures of what might have been. Deer damage has been light, up to this point. They nibbled on a Salvia argentea and sampled a pepper plant, but that's it. This is still a work in progress, but I'm very pleased the with progress so far. The soil there is some of the best I've ever gardened. It's sandy and deep - a welcome change from all the clay I'm used to. Lucky, lucky, lucky. So far. Keeping my fingers crossed....

Labels: potager, tomatoes

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