Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Tomato Patch


Tomato Patch 2013


And they are still growing. Soon I will top them so that they will cease to grow upwards and concentrate on ripening fruit. Lots of tomatoes but ripening slowly as the temperatures have been unseasonably cool here. We are hoping for enough warm weather to get them all ripe. 


Right now we are dealing mostly with Brandywine tomatoes as they are the first to ripen. Not known for their heavy yields but Oh what a taste! This potato leafed, open pollinated, indeterminate heirloom makes a beautiful stocky bush that I have seen reach 7 foot in my garden on a good year. My start of these seeds I originally purchased years ago from Seed Savers Exchange when they first started.  


These are a determinate, potato leafed, paste tomato that I purchased years ago from an Amish vendor at a local fruit stand. I saved seeds and am assuming they are a variety similar to Amish Paste. An extremely heavy crop of medium paste type tomatoes that ripen all at one time.



I have never seen these bushes get over 3 feet tall.


Boy they can pump out the fruit though.


These tomatoes I bought at a farmers market last year. The Mennonite called them Oxheart tomatoes. Said they were and indeterminate heirloom. The taste of the original tomatoes was excellent so I saved the seeds. They came up well by my gosh those plants were puny and spindly compared to the others. At first O Wise One wanted to pitch them. But I kept them. In the garden again they seemed spindly and I wondered how in the world they would support fruit.  

They are indeterminate and many have already topped 6 foot. They have a traditional tomato cut leaf and seem like a very wispy plant. The fruit was somewhat slow to set. But when it finally did set look out. They are loaded with the biggest tomatoes in my garden. You do have to be somewhat vigilant about tying them up so that the fruit does not break the branches. We cut a green one open the other day that a possum had been gnawing on and they are meaty with very small seed cavities like a paste tomato.  I think this variety may be a keeper : )


Lord give me patience : )



And a strong back!!!!



Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

10 comments:

  1. Great looking tomato patch. I am envious that you can ripen tomatoes outside, mine are grown in a greenhouse to stand a chance of them 1.avoiding blight. 2. Ripening! Ah the joys of living in England.
    We shared our first ripe tomato yesterday & it was tasty.
    I am hoping to be enough fruit to save some for winter. You have inspired me to have a go at using the hot water bath canning method instead of the usual freezer route.

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  2. What the heck?! That is one crazy, sweet tomato patch.

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  3. Our tomatoes are so behind as well. I'm going to lop heads off today, after it dries up. I've had to enclose the eggplants in hopes that I get some to ripen. It's been a tough season for a number of things I normally don't have a problem with. :(

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  4. I'd love to take some of those buckets off your hands.. but since I live in Ohio it wouldnt be too easy a task to do... Sigh.. you do make it all look so beautiful..
    I know its a lot of hard hot work to get those beauties.
    Yes, I've heard OxHeart are awesome.. never grew them though.. I'd love to have seed for that paste tomato though.. This year I grew Parks's Giant Paste tomato and one plant gave me 3 whole tomatoes. Yes, they're jumbos, but 3? shesh. Maybe this just isnt the year to judge.. everything is horrible in my garden this year. I'll try again next year...

    Have a great weekend!! Thanks for sharing your beauty!

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  5. What is the variety of the tomatoes on the freezer? Brandywine? And in the bucket?
    Inquiring minds would love to know.
    Blessings!

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  6. I have never heard of topping the plants. Wish I could try that, but once again, my tomatoes have died. Each year for several years, my plants have grown and put on green tomatoes, then one by one, keel over in a day and die. Old timers have said it's something in the soil you can't get rid of except by moving garden to a different place. One said needed calcium. This year, I planted $4.00 a plant hybrids, thinking they would be less disease resistant and added manure and drip irrigation and straw mulch and they did the same thing. Tomatoes from the garden are my favorite thing I grow, or can't grow anymore.

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    Replies
    1. It has to be some sort of blight in your soil. Have your soil tested and see what it says!

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  7. I am learning about all the different tomatoes and uses for them I have Brandywine in my garden this year they are huge like the size of my hands put together are they good for canning and what is your favorite tomato for canning thanks for sharing
    amber

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    Replies
    1. Brandywine is a mainstay in my garden. I can these things by the 5 gallon bucket full.
      For eating I live a big yellow tricolor slicer called BIG RAINBOW. These little determinate p[ste that I am working with are a close second. I love those things!

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