Tina,

What a fabulous idea to have a tomato tasting. Please do plant enough for next season for a tomato party! And maybe Vivek and your father in law could delight us with some curry leaf recipes at the party too!

Elizabeth

Hi There Elizabeth! They aren't such great cooks, though my husband is a champion eater. :) It sounds like I need to make it a Curry and Tomato tasting party. Maybe if other people have a lot of tomatoes too....

Try this recipie. I leave out a lot of stuff like the fennel, cinnamon and cardamon, but I might try it their way and see how it tastes. Also, My MIL adds 1/2 tsp sugar so it isn't too tart, but I sometimes add a can of Campbells instead, it thickens it up. I use a lot of garden grown tomatoes so you don't get the canned taste, its just AWESOME!

Here is a link that might be useful: Stewed Tomato Soup

Tina, Elizabeth,

No need to worry, maybe next time we all can have a tomato tasting and since we all plant different varieties we can sample few.

I have been getting ripe the following tomatoes:

One of my favorites beefsteaks Hungarian Giant, rich tomato flavor.

The hearts German Red Strawberry and Monoka's Hat

Indian Stripe, good flavor similar to Cherokee Purple but more productive.

Estiva, a no fail saladette/ medium producer good tasting and production.

Kumato that I have is sweet and smoky green/ yellow when ripe.

I tried a new paste banani, not impressed with the flavor or color more like a golden/ green hard to see when ripe, I had few ripe and on the mulch.

On the cherries:

Sweet Olive, very productive, nice flavor

Yellow Submarine, early, productive good for a yellow.

Sungold always good and productive

Tomatoberry, has a long shelf life, very productive, early and Cheryl said it keeps well in her salads without falling apart.

And one of the best is a dwarf Tiger, plant is really small the tomatoes are bigger than cherry.

Other one is a dwarf Champion a yellow cherry/ saladette, a mild flavor

This morning tomatoes, I have to pick more when the sun goes down a little bit.

Silvia

Tina - Nice! That recipe sounds FAB and I will definately make. Yes, lets have a tomato / curry party soon!

Silvia - Wow as always with incredible tomatoes. Beautiful and bountiful!

Ok - 2 big questions. When do we start our fall tomato sprouts and will you share some of the seeds from Toms you listed? :-)

Elizabeth

Elizabeth aren't you near Daytona?! I am in between Largo and Seminole in Pinellas County! If i had a party you would have to drive for four hours to get here!

Elizabeth

Of course I will share the tomato seeds that are open pollinated and that are doing well, most of them are not ripe yet, I have a lot to sample yet, I planted about 45 tomatoes different varieties. I like to save seeds at the end of the season when the tomatoes are the ripest.

It is a good idea that before planting we have tomato transplants that are about 4-6 weeks old, so the time to start them should be around July, I will keep on eye on the weather and let you know when I am starting mine. Every year is a little bit different sometimes sooner and sometimes later.

Silvia

What kind of staking system do you use Silvia? Your tomatoes look so well-behaved :)

Amber, they look well behaved but are not.:) I use a cattle panel trellis and planted tomatoes on both sides, one side is easy to access than the other. And they are planted in 2 places in the garden with tomato fruit all over.

I have them holding with chairs, plastic bins, old t-shirts, etc to the bamboo sticks on the cattle panel, it works for me.

I will give you another view of some of the tomatoes.

Back side supported by green metal chairs and green plastic bins

The side that is easy to water

{{gwi:47932}}

The other side is not

Other part of the tomato garden

The other side

And here you can see the cattle panel

Silvia

Wow, that's a lot of tomato mass to contain. You are really a master at making everything in your garden look pretty and contained. I bet you'd be a good food designer for commercials and such too.

Yes, Silvia is the master!

I am using a system that I read about on the tomato forum, I have a cattle panel on the one side and about a foot parallel a double stack of garden fencing. It has worked well for containing/trellising the tomatoes. Though, I will be replacing the garden fencing with cattle panel for fall.

~dianne

Wow Silvia, those tomatoes are gorgeous and wild and dramatic and contained all at the same time! I would be most pleased to try some of your seeds at the end of season. Funny I've been trying to save Tom seeds but they are too small right now.

Tina - I'd happily drive 4 hours for a curry and tomato party! Would be time well spent! :-)

Elizabeth

Thank you Ladies, you are so sweet, but this season I am not doing as well as last summer, by now I had a full harvest. I think is a number of reasons for me, first I had family visiting and I was delayed in setting out the tomatoes with the building of the greenhouse.

Last May about this time harvest, those who came to the house for the party, remember the table?

{{gwi:50014}}

Silvia

this year we get almost no rain at all and my tomatoes look healthy.

Cherokee purple set many toms but stopped because of the heat.

for last 2 weeks we picked: San Marzano, Sungold, Black krim, juliets, cherokees.

ana

This is my first year with growing tomatoes and I like heritage seeds so I tried Cherokee Purple, Jubilee and Goldy. Cherokees are huge and so tasty. Goldy's are just starting to ripen (had only a few to germinate) and Jubilee much slower. I also tried Va Sweet Bicolor and they are several weeks behind and just starting to bloom and set fruit. Can't wait to try all the flavors. I do have a few volunteers in the garden from company throwing out scraps into garden area.

My gosh those are beautiful tomatoes! I wish more of mine would ripen..they are bigger than baseballs but just not ripening yet.

My Purple Peppers

That is lovely. Can you show a pic of the plant? Thinking purple peppers in the front yard!

Dianne

Hi Dianne! It is totally surrounded by tomatoes but it looks just like the ones in my photos at the top as the fruit is green until it starts to mature. Then it turns purple and finally red. It's called Purple Beauty and I got it from the Burpee Sweet Mix pack.