In case you forgot, this is what a tomato is supposed to look like.

[tk2kewl]

[Brickbat]

1. Some, yes. The ones I grew myself this year were beautiful bright-red globes.

[tk2kewl]

2. I had some nice round ones too...

but I see you get the point. :hi:

[haikugal]

5. They look like mine...and tasty they were too!

[Brickbat]

8. What, grow your own? It's not for everybody.

I got three batches of sauce (which I don't eat) and two batches of salsa (which I do) out of my crop, hardly enough for sustenance. It's a fun and annoying hobby, but my grandparents and parents worked hard to make sure I don't have to do it unless I want to.

[taught_me_patience]

3. Looks great.

The last of my tomatoes was harvested this weekend. Two plants on my condo balcony produced plenty of tomatoes all summer.

[ellenfl]

26. condo balcony? you mean i can grow them too? details, please. eom

[Lucinda]

32. Tomatoes can grow well in pots or as hanging plants in the

upside down planters. You have to take care with the watering since potted plants dry out fast unless they have an irrigation system installed. People say that bush tomatoes are better suited for pots, but you can grow vine type tomatoes too, they just take more work.

[taught_me_patience]

33. I grew them in pots with a wire cage around them

It was real easy. I watered them once or once every other day depending on the moisture of the plants with a small planter waterer. I fertilized them about once every other week. As the plants grew, the wire cage helped support the tomatoes so they weren't falling all over the ground. Nothing beats the taste of fresh grown tomatoes... I'd pull em off the vine and eat em right there on the balcony.

[ellenfl]

38. thank you both. i might have to try it. eom

[Luminous Animal]

4. Those are the kind of tomatoes I eat (and grow) and they are delicious.

Each variety has a distinctive taste and I've learned how to use one variety over another to make the best tomato dishes possible!

I only eat tomatoes in season and I so look forward to tomato season!

[robdogbucky]

6. If you only are interested in heirloom varieties, which humans developed.

...There are around 7500 tomato varieties grown for various purposes. Heirloom tomatoes are becoming increasingly popular, particularly among home gardeners and organic producers, since they tend to produce more interesting and flavorful crops at the cost of disease resistance and productivity.<13>

Hybrid plants remain common, since they tend to be heavier producers, and sometimes combine unusual characteristics of heirloom tomatoes with the ruggedness of conventional commercial tomatoes.

Tomato varieties are roughly divided into several categories, based mostly on shape and size.
"Slicing" or "globe" tomatoes are the usual tomatoes of commerce, used for a wide variety of processing and fresh eating.

Beefsteak, Plum tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, etc., etc., etc.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Varieties

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. and here I was hoping for brigdet bardot.

Last year was miserable for the home tomatoes. This year, fair to good. But the raspberries? AMAZING. we've had our 4th crop from one group, with each crop being larger, sweeter, and more flavorful than the previous one. Peppers started late and are doing their best to make up for lost time. the Ginger and Garlic are kicking butt.

Grapes? never had as many as this year. GREAT TASTING.

On the bad side, pears and peaches were few and far between.

[Lucinda]

9. Not bad...but these are my fav:

Green Zebras. Tomato-iest tomato evah.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

18. SECONDED!

Planted one plant late in the season, had 3-4 tomatoes, kept waiting for them to ripen (go red), gave one a squeeze, had that ripe feel, plucked it, cut it open, blam! Dee-luscious. Recommended.

[Lucinda]

21. I like Emerald Evergreens too...but you cannot beat the flavor of the Green Zebra!

We have found that the green and yellow heirlooms we have tried growing produce the best tomato flavor.

I'm surprised you had such a low yield. :( We didn't grow any at all this year, but in years past they are usually loaded with yummy green gems. Did you have unusual weather? Or maybe the problem was from the late start?

[A-Schwarzenegger]

23. Yes, it was the late start.

We have great yields in summer, but I
always plant a second crop, which I put in even
later than usual. I didn't even know what I'd
planted. I don't remember if it was even labeled.
The little place I buy my plants from only had
a few left & I didn't even know the name of this
variety until you posted.

[Lucinda]

31. What a nice surprise! That would be exciting to see what comes up

(yep, big garden geek here) I hope you get a chance to grow them again. They do well from seeds at home.

Our plot is too tiny to experiment with too many varieties, but we do grow a new tomato every year or so. I think i'll try the Black Krim next that wiggs mentioned. I'm looking around and it seems to get rave reviews for the flavor.

[wiggs]

25. Love Green Zebras. But you've got to give Black Krim a try. Smokey, salty, chocolately

tomato. Nice plant too...mine are just giving up the ghost now and were planted in April.

I always grow Black Krims, Green Zebras, and Sungolds then add two or three more for fun.

[Lucinda]

30. I'll look for them. That smoky quality sounds like a great addition

to sauces and salsas. Thanks for mentioning them!

[Xithras]

10. Well, any of these really....

or



Do keep in mind though the fact that tomatoes are a human developed cultivar. If we really wanted to eat tomatoes the way they're "supposed" to look, we'd be eating these:

Lycopersicon chilense, the ancestor of the modern tomato, which still grow wild in the Chilean mountains today. And yes, they're perfectly edible...they taste like tomatoes. Luckily, the ancient Aztecs knew a thing or two about plant cultivation and bred larger varieties.

[tk2kewl]

12. Very nice!

:thumbsup:

[madokie]

11. Is that a German Johnson by any chance

I grew only heirlooms this year and that looks like one of my German Johnson

[tk2kewl]

13. I don't actually know.

that pic wast one of mine :hide: I grew some "big boys" that looked like that this year. My favorite meal from my wife for a while was margarita pizza with fresh slices of tomato and mozzarella and whole basil leaves.

[Aerows]

20. Oh wow, homemade Margherita pizza

With your own homegrown tomatoes? I'm *jealous*. I'll bet that was delicious. I can't stand raw tomatoes (unless it's in salsa), but cooked homegrown tomatoes are pure heaven.

[icymist]

14. Homegrown

Homegrown, It's a good thing
Homegrown, It's the way it should be
Homegrown, It's a good thing
Plant that seed and let it ring.
~neil young

[AngkorWot]

15. That's a variety of heirloom tomato, yes.

The big round once in grocery stores are also tomatoes. They're usually more resistant to disease as well, which is why more commercial farmers grow them, and why they're cheaper.

[FarLeftFist]

16. My tomato plants are still producing bright red round juicy tomato's here in NY.

[tk2kewl]

17. unfortunately mine were under 3 feet of salt water during Irene

I soaked the plants and ground with fresh water after the tide receded, and that managed to allow the remaining fruit to ripen, but now they're done.

[kestrel91316]

19. That looks sort of like a Zapoteca. Too much streakiness to be a Brandywine.

[WinkyDink]

22. Not all. I grew several types, some small, some round, some yellow.

[woo me with science]

24. I need to grow some of those.

I get angry every time I buy a tomato, because you can't smell them and you can't taste them anymore.

[dionysus]

27. how come the ones i grow are more round?

:P

[chaska]

28. Damn, that's sexy!

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. .

:scared: :scared: :cry: :wow:

[1620rock]

34. Show me a tomato, any tomato, and my mouth waters.

[applegrove]

35. Yeah and they say that because vegetables and fruits have been bread to look so good and

travel to market well and last a long time they've lost all their vitamins.

[MisterP]

36. a good book is Angus Wright's " The Death of Ramón González"

on pesticides and the supermarkets' demand for identical fruit, sorted by size, all of one color, looking like factory products
but of course the "food factories" of High Modernism are sheer fantasy: crops create humans, not vice-versa

[arikara]

37. Those are the ones that melt in your mouth

bursting with flavour. Mine are finished for the year, but someone just gave me some tree ripened pears from their garden. Not pretty to look at and the skins are tough but omigod the flavour is to die for, so juicy and sweet. There is no comparison to the dry hard ones they sell in the stores. I ate at least 5 of them yesterday.