September 5, 2014 by Born To Organize

Tomato Swan Song

This weeks tomato harvest

The heirloom tomato plants pumped out fruit all summer long. We ate them raw and in salads, sliced between sandwiches and Mike made the surplus into salsa. Oh yum.

Alas, tomatoes are a summer annual and they’ve come to an end. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, fall is just a couple of weeks away. It’s time for the tomato swan song.

The plant is still pumping out fruit, but the lower leaves are browning and the fruit isn’t nearly as sweet.

Ripening vignette

Tomato plant in decline

I collected a huge bowl earlier this week, washed them and popped them in the freezer. We’ll be able to enjoy them in another salsa or sauce. I harvested some green tomatoes as well, and put them in a paper bag. If green tomatoes have released a gas called ethylene then they’ll continue to turn red. Otherwise they’ll remain green. The bag simply traps the gas and allows nature to follow its course.

Here’s an excerpt from Garden Know How:

The main determiner in how fast a tomato turns red is the variety. It will determine how long it takes for a tomato to reach the mature green stage. Tomatoes cannot turn red, even forced by modern technology, unless it has reached the mature green stage.

Another factor is the outside temperature. Tomatoes will only produce lycopene and carotene, two substances that help a tomato turn red, between the temperatures of 50 and 85 F. (10-29 C.) If it is any cooler that 50 F./10 C., those tomatoes will stay a stubborn green. Any warmer than 85 F./29 C., and the process that produces lycopene and carotene comes to a screeching halt.

Tomatoes are triggered to turn red by a chemical called ethylene. Ethylene is odorless, tasteless and invisible to the naked eye. When the tomato reaches the proper green mature stage, it starts to produce ethylene. The ethylene then interacts with the tomato fruit to start the ripening process. Consistent winds can carry the ethylene gas away from the fruit and slow the ripening process.

If you find that your tomatoes fall off the vine, either knocked off or due to frost, before they turn red, you can place the unripe tomatoes in a paper bag. Provided that the green tomatoes have reached the mature green stage, the paper bag will trap the ethylene and will help to ripen the tomatoes.

This year’s crop planted themselves. I call them ‘volunteers’, seeds unintentionally planted thanks to the wind or a bird dropping seed. They’re often the healthiest plants in the garden. So while I’ve saved some seeds, I’m also lobbing the occasional tomato back into the veggie box, hoping they’ll plant themselves again next year. Sometimes, a gardener just needs to get out-of-the-way.

Tomato Plants: the long view Dear Reader, I wish you were here! This is a recent shot of my tomato plants. I’ve been harvesting tomatoes all summer long and putting them to good use. If you were here we could make a salad together while we caught up on our news. Until recently, that ugly pipe was hidden with cherry tomatoes. Just behind the tomato plants are the recently pruned raspberry vines. Let’s catch up soon. Cheers, Alys

July 24, 2014 by Born To Organize

Heirloom Tomatoes: My Garden Darlings

If you’ve been following along, you know that I didn’t plant a single tomato plant this year. Hard to believe, eh?

Self-seeded or Volunteer Tomatoes

Last year my friend Doug gave me several varieties of Baker Creek Heirloom tomato seeds. I planted them in my City Picker but they were slow to grow. I hedged my bets with an organic nursery plant and finished off the summer with tomatoes to spare.

This year the heirloom tomatoes self-seeded one box over. Further, a variety of tiny cherry tomatoes flourished out of the bottom of the rotating compost bin. Two additional plants showed up in the gravel walkway, a larger cherry tomato and another heirloom. What a bounty!

April 9, 2014

Tiny Cherry Tomatoes

Mini cherry tomatoes

Since a speck of a tomato seed managed to sprout through a crack in the rotating composter, I felt compelled to let it grow. I staked the plant when it showed signs of surviving the season, and eventually it produced small, bright red fruit, just like you see in the grocery store. Of course the problem with most tomatoes from the store isn’t the appearance but the taste. These tiny tomatoes are flavorless. What a disappointment.

Cherry Tomatoes: The Sequel

More cherry tomatoes

At the back of the garden, leaning up against the house, is another volunteer. This one produced larger cherry tomatoes, also a brilliant red. They’re a bit sweeter than the tiny cherry, but again bred for appearance and not flavor.

Baker Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomatoes

Tomato gold! These are the sweetest, juiciest and most prolific tomatoes in the garden. Honestly, there is no turning back once you’ve tasted them. What luck to have an entire crop of these delicious fruits. I sliced open several today for seed saving, but plan to do all my vegetable seed purchasing from them in the future. In case you’re interested, check out Rare Seeds Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

From there About page:

The family works extensively to supply free seeds to many of the world’s poorest countries, as well as here at home in school gardens and other educational projects. It is their goal to educate everyone about a better, safer food supply and fight gene-altered, Frankenfood and the companies that support it.

You can also follow them on Facebook.

What to do with all those tomatoes:

Vegan kabobs for the 4th of July

Made with tomatoes, onions, red peppers and vegan Field Roast ‘sausages‘.

Fresh basil and tomatoes.

Eat them straight from the bowl.

Freeze them, then turn them into salsa

Sarah the Gardener taught me that not only can you freeze tomatoes, but that the skin falls off of them when they’re thawed. Mike made several batches of tasty salsa. Here’s a similar recipe.

And of course share with anyone who’s interested.

How do you like your tomatoes?

Tomato, basil mozzarella salad

November 5, 2013 by Born To Organize

Seeing Red

Roma tomatoes and Chinese Pistache leaves

I’m seeing red.

I like it! The cherry and heirloom tomatoes died back a month ago, but our Roma tomatoes continue to grow unabated.

In November.

This is Silicon Valley after all, originally known for its rich, agricultural roots. But I’m still amazed at the prolific production of this plant. I did a bit of reading and learned that the plant will continue to produce, as long as daytime temps remain about 60F (15C). That explains it. We’ve had a mild autumn so far.

While the Roma happily churns out fruit in the back garden, the Chinese Pistache flashes red outside my kitchen window.

Pistacia chinensis (Chinese pistache)

The Pistache’s slow, beautiful descent into dormancy is under way. The colors are magnificent. I’m grateful to live in this beautiful valley with such optimal growing conditions.

Seeing red

Tomatoes: Last Call

Tomato Goodness

It’s hard to say goodbye to summer tomatoes. Unless you buy heirlooms or ‘cherries’, the tomatoes in the store are flavorless. I used to think I was having a streak of bad luck, until I read that farmers have spent nearly 70 years perfecting the look of the tomato, at the expense of flavor. They’ve removed the sweet, wonderful taste.

We grow our own every summer and enjoy the harvest for a few months. This year we had plenty of orange cherry tomatoes, a few red heirlooms, one or two orange ones and a ton of Roma’s.

It’s mid-October now, and the plants are looking tired. Today I finally pruned away the dying branches on most of them. I’m still seeing one or two small tomatoes a day, so it’s hard to let them go.

Spent tomato plants

The Roma plant is still going strong, pumping out at least a dozen or so a day. Even the garden pests can’t keep up, so we’ve had plenty for salads and salsa.

If you’re a salsa fan, here is my husband’s quick and easy recipe:

6 – 12 tomatoes (we’re using the Roma)
1/2 sweet or yellow onion
a few ounces of Jalapeno peppers (or to taste)

Combine and blend. Serve with corn tortilla chips or as a garnish.

Halloween Countdown:

Halloween at our house

January 15, 2013 by Born To Organize

Gardening with Connections

Tomato Paul Robeson Heirloom Seeds

It pays to have connections. Especially when we’re talking tomatoes. Seeds that is. Heirloom Seeds.

Imagine my delight yesterday to find my mailbox stuffed with a slightly padded manila envelope just screaming to be opened. (I never tire of ‘real’ mail and do my part to keep the post office in business. How about you?)

One of my good friends and occasional garden advisers works at Almaden Valley Nursery. A representative from the Seed Bank in Petaluma came by the nursery and left two complete sets of Heirloom Seeds. My lovely friends sent one of the sets my way. (Thank you!!!)

I am so excited! The fact that they arrived on a bitter-cold winter day makes it all the more sweet. Here’s what I’ll be looking forward to:

Tomato Black Mauri (Black Moor): Described as a sweet, deep chocolate-brown, grape tomato that is sweet, flavorful with a crisp and crunchy texture

Tomato Cherokee Purple: The best for salsa. An old Cherokee heirloom, pre-1890 variety.

Dr. Wyche’s Yellow: One-pound fruit. Oh me oh my!

Black Giant: Big, purple-black fruit grown on “highly productive” vines.

Tomato Paul Robeson: Fascinating! Here’s what the packet says:

“This famous tomato has almost a cult following among seed collectors and tomato connoisseurs. They simply cannot get enough of this variety’s amazing flavor that is so distinctive, sweet and smokey. Named in honor of the famous opera singer star of ‘King Solomon’s Mines’, 1937. Paul Robeson was an Equal Rights Advocate for Blacks in Russia as well as around the world. This Russian heirloom was lovingly named in his honor. We are proud to offer such a wonderful variety.”

Resources:

Seed Bank West coast home of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, housed in a 1920’s historic building in downtown, Petaluma, California.
Almaden Valley Nursery Locally owned garden nursery in San Jose, California.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Offers 1400 heirloom seeds (non GMO).
Paul Robeson: All-American athlete, singer, actor and civil rights advocate for people around the world.