Tomato time

[TBark]

Picking a percentage of our Russian heart tomatoes today.
With decent weather coming up this week hoping the ones that are still green or just turning, continue to turn red in the next few weeks.

I’m not sure if they compared to a beefsteak tomato or not, but some of these are close to 2 pounds.

TBark

[Savage Bacon]

Looking good! What are you going to do with them?

Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

[Howard Hutchinson]

Beauties there! Great job growing those monsters.

[TBark]

I LT canning/ jars last week for the first 12 or so tomatoes.
But wife figures it’s a bit much to process that way.

Likely now blanch to peel, then into freezer bags.
And uses, nothing special, sauces, stews, salsa.

And gotta find a use for the green ones that won’t ripen by Sept.
Could can or freez those too.

Tried a green tomato stew / fry with salmon a few weeks ago.
The tart-ness went well instead of lemon or vinegar.

TBark

[pitw]

Them look lovely but are a mite big for sammy's.

[WayneChristie]

I usually end up harvesting mostly green tomatos, if you put them in a cardboard box with a ripe one they will ripen quick, I hate doing them all at once so I keep the green ones in separate boxes until Im ready for more, then just add a couple ripe ones to get them going,

[owlhoot]

Nice Tomato's,
I grow Beefstake, we canned about 15 quarts of whole tomato's so far, they are Great mixed with elbow macaroni and fresh pharm for a quick easy dish.
Have a lot of sweet banana peppers so we made Hungarian Pepper Stew, Lecso, Tomato, peppers onion and garlic, easy and real good.
The green tomato's make a nice chunky salsa

[South west trappin RG]

The last four years before first frost we pick all the ones starting to turn a shade past green put in cardboard box an leave the green ones on the plant. Pull the plant up by the roots shake off the dirt and hang upside down in my garage they ripen slowly but we will have tomatoes into January. I have only done this with smaller variety of tomatoes

[BEL]

Hi Greg. Just wondering where you got the plants or seeds? They look marvelous. Barry

[Sitkaspruce]

We use bananas to help ripen the green ones. Box up the green, add a few bananas and wait. Pick as they turn red and once the banana is past due, it goes into the freezer for other things. Add another couple bananas and repeat.

I am going to try the hanging plant trick and see if we get some of the green to turn red.

Cheers

SS

[TBark]

Yes, I'll try the up-side-down thing maybe around mid Sept.

Sent you a PM BEL.

TBark

[TBark]

Anyone getting a head-start on seedlings?

I have about 50 starters under grow lamps and hope to see sprouts in about 5-6 days.

Hoping to better the beast from last year at 1 lbs. 12 oz.
And yes, seeds are from the beast.

TBark

[Drewski Canuck]

We have seeds from our monster Tomatoes from last year. IFFF you can find any of this variety, and I have been looking, try ROMANESCO Tomatoes. These are an Indeterminate Tomato meaning that the vine will keep growing as long as possible.

The actual tomatoes have few seeds, are meaty, and have a good skin. They often grow over 1 pound, so set up the plant in a location where you can get boxes and upside down stacked pails to support the bigger tomatoes. Too many big unsupported tomatoes and the plant will be split on the stalk, so other than pruning a bunch of buds off to limit production, supporting the fruit is necessary.

Final plug for this variety. This is a heritage tomato that most of the Beefsteak Variants derived from. This variety still has flavour, which is what makes it desirable. Because it is indeterminate, you will have no choice but to stake the plant (4 foot lath boards work great). This is the downside.

Drewski