Heirloom tomatoes

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Cider123

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Now that the season is just about over around here, I'm already missing one of my favorite things to eat.

I usually grow Brandywines, striped germans or Cherokee purples. My favorite way to eat them is sliced into big slabs and put on soft white bread with some mayo and a little salt. It must turn into a sloppy mess or you didn't make it right.

I also must put in a shout out to my favorite tomato of all time. Surprisingly, it is not a large slicing type but a little round cherry of greatness. It is called the Sungold and if you've never grow them, you must put it on your list. There is no tomato large or small, hybrid or heirloom that matches the taste of these little orange guys. These days I plant around 15 Sungolds so I have hundreds of them by September. I also put in a bunch of large heirlooms so I can make those sandwiches above.

The rest of the year, all I can get is hothouse tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes is to hothouse what homebrew is to BMC

What's your fav tomato and how do you eat em?
 
Aside from the usual favorites, a couple of years ago we found a new variety (not heirloom, sorry!) called "black cherry". They are small dark tomatoes, and they are bursting with sweet tomato flavor. They never get red inside- sort of greenish, so it feels weird at first eating a green tomato- but they ARE ripe and good! They are black/green when they are ripe.

My grandson LOVES these, and picks all the ones he can reach!
 
Any home grown, i don't bother buying from a supermarket, bland, blah. I usually have a couple heirloom that never produce as well as a hybrid but do taste better. I did plant the black cherries this year, to me good, nothing to right home about.
Love grape tomatoes, i'll usually eat a couple handfuls every time i'm in the garden, sweet, convenient, pick and eat, perfect.
 
Box Car Willie. Produced as good if not better than both my Better Boy & Early Girl.
Best tasting tomato I've ever grown.
I did Cherokee Purple last year and did not care for the flavor.
 
Black from Tula is my favorite black tomato. I love persimmon tomatoes (Yellow Tomato.) Rose tomato is my favorite red. All heirloom and all tasty. Honorable mentions are the Peach Tomato (actually has a bit of fuzz, and it is delicious (yellow with a blush of red) Green Zebra ---mmmm

I love heirloom tomatoes! Its a pity that they don't last or keep well.
 
Oh yeah the two part question


Aside from BLT's, salads, diced, and various sauces the absolute best way to eat tomatoes is sliced on a plate with a thick layer of SUGAR and eaten with a fork.

You salt people don't know what your missing.
 
Oh yeah the two part question


Aside from BLT's, salads, diced, and various sauces the absolute best way to eat tomatoes is sliced on a plate with a thick layer of SUGAR and eaten with a fork.

You salt people don't know what your missing.

I don't eat sugar at all, but my favorite way to eat the tomatoes is simply "caprese"- tomatoes, with a bit of basil, some fresh mozzarella, and a drizzle of olive oil. I eat that by the bushel, I swear!
 
I don't eat sugar at all, but my favorite way to eat the tomatoes is simply "caprese"- tomatoes, with a bit of basil, some fresh mozzarella, and a drizzle of olive oil. I eat that by the bushel, I swear!

Skip the oil and put it all on multi grain crackers and you have a winner. ..... could eat it all day
 
I don't eat sugar at all, but my favorite way to eat the tomatoes is simply "caprese"- tomatoes, with a bit of basil, some fresh mozzarella, and a drizzle of olive oil. I eat that by the bushel, I swear!

I have a friend who is allergic to sugar. Fructose, actually, so he can drink beer.
Anyway, he cannot eat tomatoes, ever. Not sauce either. My point is, tomato is a fruit and full of sugars.

BTW, I love a caprese salad (it's my choice when available). I eat tomatoes with salt usually at home. I buy these "vine ripe" tomatoes... in my judgement they are the sweetest for eating raw.

My kids are nuts about slicing tomatoes with Nature's Seasoning on them. They do that with cukes too (with soy sauce). It's been their after-school snack as long as I can remember.
 
I buy these "vine ripe" tomatoes... in my judgement they are the sweetest for eating raw.

Have you ever tried a variety called black krim..... color is red on one half and almost chocolate on the other and are as sweet as most cherry tomatoes..... pick em wipe em off and dig in
 
I have a friend who is allergic to sugar. Fructose, actually, so he can drink beer.
Anyway, he cannot eat tomatoes, ever. Not sauce either. My point is, tomato is a fruit and full of sugars.

Well, yes, fruits have sugars. I only eat a few fruits, but I should have said "I eat no refined sugar, honey, molasses, or other sources of sugar except that which is in a few berries and in tomatoes" but that is sort of cumbersome!

I don't eat fruit, except for a few berries. I haven't had a banana in 5 years. I do eat tomatoes.

I only eat tomatoes in August/September, so I'm pretty sure it's not too much fructose in my life overall! Still, I always eat fat (olive oil in this case) any time I eat fruit to mitigate the sugar load.

Anyway- I love tomatoes! I'd like to grow heirloom varieties, if we could some that had a short growing season to take advantage of the great flavor they have.
 
Have you ever tried a variety called black krim..... color is red on one half and almost chocolate on the other and are as sweet as most cherry tomatoes..... pick em wipe em off and dig in

Nope, never heard of them. I get tomatoes from the grocery, so if that is some rare cultivar then I probably won't run into them.

My brother (In central California) buys his veggies from a farmer's market. I've got to start doing that. Man the stuff he gets there is fantastic.
 
I usually don't grow any Heirlooms as I prefer indefinates for our climate, I did plant one Arkansas Pink variety per my grandpa's wishes. I grew Solar Fires for the first time this year, (they are actually a definate), I planted my Big Boys and Romas as normal, and couple Arkansas Travelers. I got about 30 jars of salsa, along with 5 or 6 jars of canned tomatoes.

I like my fresh tomatoes simple, I just slice them and eat, maybe salt and black pepper maybe not. When my basil plant is doing good I might go the cheese route. BLTs are good but these days I have to watch my girlish figure.

Those Sungolds will make the BEST salsa ever, just slice the little buggers in half and weigh them out as normal.

I don't really like sugar either, didn't even care for it much as a kid. I won't drink anything sweet such as soft drinks, except on rare occasion. I can't stand coffee or iced tea with sugar. I'll eat certain desserts around the holidays, I guess I don't hate sugar, just don't care for it much.
 
Nope, never heard of them. I get tomatoes from the grocery, so if that is some rare cultivar then I probably won't run into them.

My brother (In central California) buys his veggies from a farmer's market. I've got to start doing that. Man the stuff he gets there is fantastic.

I've never seen the tomatoes sold anywhere but I did find seeds and tried them last year out of curiosity and this year because they were so damn good last year
 
My fav is Beefsteak, I just eat them like an apple, but they're great just sliced & on a plate or better yet, on a burger or a BLT. We've got several other varieties, but I can't remember what they are at the moment. My gf is the tomato grower. She also makes this sweet, green tomato relish that is just out of this world. It's got a lot of sugar in it, but this year she's cut the sugar in half & it's even better; I could eat it out of the jar with a spoon.
Regards, GF.
 
We have grown those- not with great results, though. The turned out "ok", but not with great flavor. We tend to grow indeterminates, and find that 65 days for maturity type of varieties do well for us.

I just canned up the last of the marinara sauce from this year's garden. :ban:

There's that word...determinates....not definates.
 
Not very familiar with the different types. Our ground doesn't grow stuff very good, but I'm hoping next year to make some raised beds and get a few different types going. So far my favorite way to eat tomatoes is on a sandwich, but I'm also known to eat them on a plate with a little salt and a dash of pepper. Maybe some cottage cheese on the side.
 
Have you ever tried a variety called black krim..... color is red on one half and almost chocolate on the other and are as sweet as most cherry tomatoes..... pick em wipe em off and dig in

Just to round off this thread.
I have grown the Black Krim, including this year. They are very good, but this year they never reached their potential.

The Burpee hybirds do grow well for me, but I find the usuals like the B boys don't have the flavor of the heirlooms. The give and take is the heirlooms get beaten down due to lack of resistance. We also have the dreaded tomato worm which is really a big,nasty caterpillar of the tomato moth.

It is the tomato sandwich for me, followed close behind by the tomato, olive oil and mozzerella salad and the big slab of tomato on a burger.

Can't wait until next season.
 
This year I grew black krim, cherokee purple, black cherry, and moon glow.

I may have got the black krim and cherokee purples mixed up.

Is the black krim typically larger than the cherokee purples?
 
They are supposed to be a large tomato, but this year they only came out the size of a medium, early season tomato. I couldn't tell you honestly between the Krims and the CP's. I can see how they could be mixed up, the are pretty close in color (especially for me who is somewhat colorblind). Luckly they both have great taste.
 
I have a friend who is allergic to sugar. Fructose, actually, so he can drink beer.
Anyway, he cannot eat tomatoes, ever. Not sauce either. My point is, tomato is a fruit and full of sugars.

As are cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchinis, other squash, olives, bell and chili peppers, eggplant, etc
 
Not very familiar with the different types. Our ground doesn't grow stuff very good, but I'm hoping next year to make some raised beds and get a few different types going. So far my favorite way to eat tomatoes is on a sandwich, but I'm also known to eat them on a plate with a little salt and a dash of pepper. Maybe some cottage cheese on the side.

Buckets are one way to go if you're like me and have clay soil. But the squirrels have waged war against my tomatoes like never before. I bet they have eaten 70 so far. I'm going to start next year's plants under lights in February.
 
We've got various large planters & the trough shaped ones as well. We got too many ducks,deer,squirrels...thousands of those damn starlings to have a regular garden. so container garden on our small front porch will have to do. We've been saving seed from her New Mexico chili's & jalapeños to start plants inside early next year. Maybe some heirloom tomatoes in the large pots. Herbs in the trough shaped ones.
 
Buckets are one way to go if you're like me and have clay soil. But the squirrels have waged war against my tomatoes like never before. I bet they have eaten 70 so far. I'm going to start next year's plants under lights in February.
I have had a squirrel issue, I think they eat more than me, this year as i also grow hot peppers I took a couple of Habaneros blended with vinegar and water, strained and put in a spray bottle.
In the morning i give the plants a quick spray and my squirrel issues have been dramatically decreased.
 
People in my area have told me that squirrels are more interested in the water and liquid of the tomato plants than the fruit itself. They put out a water source that the squirrels can use to save their tomatoes.

I personally don't have any squirrel issues because I have a ton of feral cats in my neighborhood. I get to deal with cats using my garden as a litter box but no squirrels. There is always a trade off.
 
Sun Gold is a great producer and good quality. I also enjoy the black cherry tomato. They are thick skinned and not the greatest eating alone. But they sauce up nicely.

I like the Japanese Black Trifele tomato which is really stupid considering it's just another russian heirloom black tomato. I like em because they love heat but tolerate cooler climate.

People are highly subjective on tomatoes simply because of yields or luck. Most properly amended soil will produce lots of great tomatoes in any variety.

Some have a strong bias against hybrids. But some hybrids actually work great.
 
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