Comments on Jenn A.'s review of Tomatoes - Grow Your Own!
Tomatoes - Grow Your Own!
Description: Really fresh tomatoes.
Grow your own!
Tomatoes are best served homegrown!
There are many types of tomato seedlings available in grocery stores this time of year -- if you don't have yard space, make sure you pick a "determinate" or "semi determinate" variety -- that means that the plant will only grow to a certain size and is more suitable for container gardening. For a container, you can use a black plastic tub from the hardware store or re-use any plastic bucket or wooden bucket of at least 5 gallons -- put some gravel and holes in the bottom for drainage and buy good quality soil for your new plant. Container gardening is great because you can move the plant around to the areas that get the best light where you live -- if it's not doing so well on the patio, you can move it to the balcony (for example).
After buying plants for years, this year I am starting my own seedlings (fingers crossed!). I picked out 18 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds from TomatoFest (www.tomatofest.com) and I'm looking forward to sun drying some tomatoes, making my own tomato sauce for the winter, as well as yellow, white, green, purple, black, orange, red and striped tomatoes from cherries to 5-6 lb beefsteaks this year.
I'll let you know how the "Hawaiian Pineapple" variety turned out in a few months!
Jenn A.'s keywords: tomatoes, gardening, organic produce
Was this review helpful to you?
Ed G. says:
The best way to preserve fresh tomatoes is also the simplest. Take whole, unpeeled tomatoes and put them on a baking sheet. Freeze them solid, then transfer them to plastic bags. The skins will slip right off as they thaw, if you want to peel them, or just run them through a food processor for a tomato sauce that will have the unmistakable tang of fresh tomatoes.
I didn't think this would work until I tried it.
Jenn A. says:
That's a great idea - it's better than scalding them to peel them!
Ed G. says:
Sorry I didn't see this in time, because the gardens are all planted. Mainly Early Girls and Better Boys, although I did get seven Sun Golds.
Not a lot of attempts to use Heirloom varieties. We grew a Striped German last year, and wouldn't plant another. The tomatoes were excellent, but the total yield was maybe five - literally, five tomatoes. The weather is always hot enough for me, but I've been told it's not quite as hot as a tomato would like, which could explain it.
Jenn A. says:
I'm going to have a lot - check my blog (linked from my profile) -- there's a posting with a list of all 18 varieties I'm going to be trying to grow. One of them, Italian Tree, is Indeterminate to 15' and promises to produce bushels of tomatoes.