Sorry your experience was so frustrating.
I wouldn't give him a single thing either!!
Wish we could share with each other here! At least it would be highly appreciated!

Hope you can enjoy some of those for yourself. Can you keep sharing with others at work just to "rub it in" a bit?

Grrrr.....people like that ought to be slapped!

Deanna

I agree with Deanna - only instead of slapped I'd hit him with a bag of tomatoes - the really big over-ripe ones that you can't use!!! Better yet - got any tomato hornworms? ;)

Some people can be real jerks (to put it politely ;).

Dave

You are absolutely right. He's an unappreciative sod. Not to mention people throwing tomatoes. That kind of waste is terrible.

If I were you I'd make sure he never got another homegrown tomato of any sort. If he wants hydroponic perfection he can buy it.

Is there a food bank or senior center that serves lunch accessible to you? Because I know there are people out there who would love those wonderful homegrown tomatoes.

Carol

Ken,

Sheesh! What I wouldn't give for a neighbor like you. (I have no desire to go back to work... LOL) Those perfect looking determinate cluster types is what I've been buying for salsa. Supposedly ripened "On The Vine". Just barely better than the ones we get in stores wintertime. Because of long hot spell and drought there just aren't many local grown available and they are $$.

What an ingrate!

Ugly and cat-faced wouldn't bother me at all. And I so want to make some of that peach salsa.

Illegitimi non carborundum!

jt

What an ingrate - really can't write anything else for fear I'll get kicked off the site.

Boy have I got a thread for you! This is a nice long rant-fest from the tomato growers forum. I enjoyed reading it and I hope you do too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Folks Want! But Folks won't grow nothin'?

That is terrible! I would be so appreciative of someone giving me the plants. Even after you were nice enough to grow them for him then he acts like that!

Take solice in knowing that the other people you gave them to are most likely very appreciative. I would steer clear of this guy as he seems to be a whiney brat.

Ken,

I think you got confused. Those sound like beautiful tomatoes, just an UGLY person.

Sorry for your experience.

Rd

Ken, I'm sorry your efforts went unappreciated. Unless you're talking to another gardener (which this "fellow" is obviously not), they just don't know the time and effort that is put into it.

I curse him to eat flavorless tomatoes from the grocery store for the rest of his life!

John, love your Latin! LOL!

Yes, they are quite ugly and I ate one last night, and only needed to cut away a little bit of the skin and a few split areas. Needless to say a Beefsteak has some really juicy taste. None of these are suitabel for my home canning, but at least others can enjoy them. I plan to have another garage sale this weekend so many will be out there for sale too.

This morning, while putting out my trash, I heard my freezer alarm going off in the basement. Opened the door and discovered that a lot of food is now thawing out.. OUCH! I was running up and down staires to put as much as I could in my upstairs freezer fridge combo. Must now run out and buy a new freezer, and get it here TODAY, or I lose a LOT of food! Like 60 pounds of meat for sausage making, all my garden veggies, you know the rest.. What a nightmare..

Ken,

I am glad that you have a freezer alarm. My sis and bil had their freezer fail when they had a quarter of beef they just got in the freezer. Hope you find a good deal to save your meat and veggies.

As for the ungrateful coworker, if you get mad enough, you could pepper the front of his house with tomatoes:)

Stacie

I do take tomatoes to the local food place that gives it away for free to the needy people. They really appreciate the donations. They do not get good home grown tomatoes to pass out.

Best to find out what day and time they pass out the food. Then I pick it fresh and take it to them while they are passing it out. The people get the real fresh picked home grown tomatoes that way.

It is just a little bit that I can do to help other less fortunate good people out.

My dau lost a freezer full of food (including a large stash of bluegills we had been saving for a fish fry) a couple weeks ago when one of the kids left the door open on their upright. It probably wasn't open more than 12 hours. Another good argument to get a chest-type.

Well, I'm kinda on topic for a change...

There are a number of possible reasons for catfacing. I think poor pollination is probable reason in my photos. Some varieties are more susceptible than others. This next one probably wouldn't be acceptable either:

And this one probably wouldn't be either:

And I've seen a lot uglier tomatoes in my little patch.

jt

Well, the freezer stuff was saved, due to that alarm, even if it was quietly beeping all night long. I was back up and running with a new greezer by 11:30 am, but still had to run it about 6 hours to get it cold enough to be freezing things again. Odd, its whole exterior got very hot, that is the sides and top were quite hot. This is due to the fact that the evaporator is the whole outside of it. Its 20 Cuft. GE, but I had no choice in brands or models, as I would have opted for one with built in freezer alarm. Bought it as a clarance floor model at Home Depot, as well as having to rent obe fo their trucks to haul it home. Luckily I had a hand truck and the forethought to remove the besement door off its hinges to get it into my basement.

The next tomato that the, now just coworker, 'friend', will have will be perfectly round tomato mounted on a small marble slab, with a nice pink bow attached to it.. Thats all he gets now..

LOVE those photos John, looks like some of mine are prettier than those! Hope you goat that worm, before he got his last meal..

With the growing season getting cooler, my tomatoes are starting to show major signs of a reduction in production. One very unusual plant has been growing some very unusual shaped tomatoes. They look like light bulbs without the metal sockets. Round on top at the stem end, elongated and smaller at the blossom end. I have never seen such a shape and there are several of these on that single plant. A few are now getting orange color and I plan to save its seeds to see if it produces next year. Its almost like a cross between a regular round tomato and a plum type tomato. As far as I can tell all of them are from a single plant and there were no plum tomatoes grown this year in my garden, except for some very small cherry types and some small oval grape sized ones, of which were from seed packets that didn't indicate these types. Most all of my tomatoes this year were beefsteaks, and big boy types, so these odd shaped ones are really a novelty. If they are meaty and flavorful, I may try them in a sauce to see how well they keep their flavor and texture. Ugly they are not, but are really an interesting shape.

I like Dave's (Digdirt) idea, only instead of hornworms (which I don't know) I'd be hoping for fruit-fly maggots in them!

Strike that person off your Christmas card list! And enjoy those BEAUTIFUL tomatoes. Beefsteaks make excellent tomato sauces.

ksrogers: I have one huge bush of Early Girl that has given regular tomatoes all summer. Now that it has cooled down it is producing fruit exactly like you described. I've been wondering where this heart-shaped plum tomato came from. Maybe it's just the cooler weather.... or there was a stray seed in with the Early Girl all along.

Not sure.. The odd shaped ones were only from a sinle plant and it was very late in producing. They are shaped more like a regular light bulb, but with the metal screw in part left off. Usually my plum types are long, slim, and pointed, and as mentioned, I didn't grow ay of them this year. I also didn't plant any early girl types. I was only looking for the biggest sized tomatoes, and the two choices were big boy and beefsteaks. The beefsteaks are 'cat faced' at the bottoms, like some of the photos above. With the cooler weather, they are much slower to ripen, and afew are cracking around the stem area.

There is a new tomato selection at our grocery. They have one of those big clear plastic clamshells filled with different tomato types. Striped, yellow, green, purplish red, etc. Anything except the solid red round tomatoes. They are also selling it at three times the price of regular tomatoes.

When giving a gift - give it away. Allow it to be gone from you and no longer part of you so whatever the receiver does with it no longer matters to you. Otherwise, don't give it away in the first place. That attitude will save you loads of grief when dealing with idiots. There will always be idiots, however many times how they effect you is up to you. Of course, with actions like his, I wouldn't be giving extra garden vegetables specifically to him, but to the office in general would be a nice touch. If he takes some, fine, if not, also fine.

We usually sell our extra produce to the health food store. They in turn, sell it for a premium since it is "organically" grown. Yesterday netted $10 for bananas we wouldn't have been able to eat before they got over-ripe. It isn't much but better than letting the fruit rot. You might inquire of folks selling vegetables if they would consider buying your extras.

Locally there are a few all natural food stores nearby, which I was considering selling to.. When bringing in the last wave of tomatoes to work, one of the managers said that they are attracting flies, so asked me not to leave any in the managers office for the other people there. Interesting to note, the office was originally meant for the regular employees to do on line training without distractions, but for some reason the managers like to 'hide out' there and eat all kinds of fancy breakfasts and other meals. I seriously doubt my tomatoes caused the bug problem. But now, have cut up, and ran through my Villaware, all my ripe ones. They made me over 2 gallons of sauce, most of which I froze this time as I used some olive oil in it. Nothing I grow will ever go there again. To many 'fuss budgets'!

You just can't do some people favors.

It's especially hard to get people who were raised on supermarket vegetable selections to get into some of the odd shapes, occasional "spots" on produce, and even color.

Heck, most of America between the ages of 15-40+ were raised on just 3 kinds of apples to choose from (red delicious, granny smith, golden delicious). Pretty much the same thing for the tomato...red and globed. Even in "gourmet" markets around here their version of a gourmet tomato is clusters of red globes left on the vine (this has been changing in recent years to include "ugly" tomatoes now, though). Nothing about taste, nothing about gas vs. natural ripening, etc. This all seems to be changing for both apples and tomatoes, though...even with the larger grocery chains.

Your "rude coworker" will be cursing his lost opportunity years from now when he gets over himself to actually enjoy a home-grown, naturally ripened tomato that's he's in a market paying $4 a lb. for.

By the way...In my above statement, the "ugly" tomatoes as defined by the grocery store labeling is pretty much any non-red/globe tomato. Cherokee Purple, Beefsteak, etc.

A few have some pretty wide variety, too. Not much "shelf space" devoted to them, but it has been nice to see the modern US produce section expand in variety.

Pretty easy to find 5-10 apple varieties (or more) at most places around here, too, these days.

With a few of small tomato plants I started from seeds, that were supposed to be beef steaks and big boys, the two tiny tomato types were a small cherry and a very small plum type, which are a little larger than oval grape tomatoes. I tasted both well ripened, and I must say the cherry ones were a dissapoinment as to taste, flat and tart tasting. The slightly larger oval grape/plum ones were really very flavorful and sweet. I may decide to save a few of those seeds as they have a much better taste when added whole to a salad. Even the store bought 'cluster' types are flat tasting to me. I have only seen beefsteaks one time in stores, and they were about half the size of mine. Those odd shaped 'light bulb' ones I have are neary ripe now, so I will be picking them just for the seeds, and of course a flavor taste. Next year, it will be no tomatoes here. I found that if I grow them every year, the soil tends to build up a lot of viruses that get into the tomato plants which kill them off very fast. It was two years here, since I planted tomatoes, and they have been growing very well with little losses due to fungus or viruses. Peppers this year, also had some brown masses in the seed area inside, so peppers will not be grown here next year either. Instead, I plan to grow more peas, limas, corn, and brocolli. Its been very mild here lately, with no frosts yet, so most plants are still growing. My single tarragon plant is HUGE (2 feet around). It will get its leaves dried soon, as well as my thyme and rosemary.