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life from the ground up

Real living in a processed world.

Tomato 2011 review, part I: minis

By: Gabe2 Comments

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Since everyone’s interested in tomatoes and there as sooo many different varieties, I’m going to help you all (and myself) out and review the tomatoes that I grew this year.

2011 was not ideal tomato weather. We started with daily rain, then in late June/July, went several weeks without any noticeable precipitation, then it rained quite a bit again starting in August and it continues to be very wet (I think we’re something like twenty inches above normal for the year). Temperatures also fluctuated wildly, with a good solid week of mid- and upper-90s mixed in with some seasonally cool weather. I was actually reading an article the other day in the local paper about how the weather this summer affected the flavor of tomatoes (negatively). Pretty interesting.

But anyway, I’ll do the best with what I have. I’m starting with the small tomatoes today.

Blondkopfchen – average-sized cherry tomato, yellow-orange color. Good tomato flavor, sweet, and had the largest clusters (dozens) of any of the cherry tomatoes. Did split some with all the late-season rain.

Sungold – this lived up to its sweet billing, definitely the sweetest of the bunch; orange color, a little darker than Blondkopfchen. It was also the first to ripen and produced lots of clusters of about 8-10 fruits. Also prone to splitting.

Mexico Midget  – smallest tomato I grew, closer to marble-size. Good flavor, red color, good production; one of the worst for splitting.

L to R: Sungold, Mexico Midget, Blondkopfchen

Green Grape – these were bigger than I expected, more like small plum tomatoes. Green-yellow in color, flavor was typical of green tomatoes – a little tangier than red, not quite as sweet. Some splitting; low production – I only got maybe a couple dozen off of two plants, so whether it was the weather or not, I may look for a different green cherry variety next year.

Green Grape

 Overall production wasn’t too bad, as the smaller tomatoes usually have more margin for error, and produce pretty well regardless. I’d do three of the four again, and I’m still up in the air with the Green Grape. Splitting was an issue this year for everything, but it does hit the smaller ones harder.

Homemade pizza with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella

By: Gabecomment

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No explanation necessary. Just take some fresh dough (or a premade crust), roll it out, brush on some olive oil, and toss some tomato slice, mozzarella chunks, and shredded basil on top. Bake at about 425 F for 12-15 minutes.

Let it cool if you can and try not to down the entire thing – it hits the spot on a cool fall evening.

Sun-dried tomatoes

By: Gabecomment

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Okay, not quite. Tomatoes don’t dry well when the weather’s constantly in the 60s and rainy, which is par for the course here over the last week and a half. But if we pretend the toaster oven is a mini replica of a star, we can indeed have homemade sun-dried tomatoes. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with SDT, so I’m not sure why my sudden interest. I have them in dishes at restaurants occasionally, but it’s nothing that I’ve ever come away thinking “Wow, I need to get me some more of those SDT.” But I didn’t let that stop me. I saw some nice seeds for Principe Borghese tomatoes in the spring, and I had some room for a couple plants, so I picked them up. Principe Borghese are supposedly what they use for SDT in Italy, and Italy knows tomatoes, right?

I just cut the tomatoes in half (they’re about golf ball size) laid them face up on a baking sheet and sprinkled with some olive oil and salt. Then pop ’em in the oven at about 200 F for six or so hours, or until they get kinda leathery – they shouldn’t be crispy.

When they’re finished, they have a nicely concentrated tomato flavor. These ones look a little seedy, but I’m not sure that makes a difference for cooking. Now the questions is, will I actually cook with them? I tend to have lots of big aspirations that sometimes don’t pan out the way I expect. Anybody have any good recipes using SDT?

Tomatoes 2011

By: Gabe1 Comment

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Ahh, the long-awaited tomato post. Both to enlighten my many readers and help me keep track of these things in future years, I’m going to list all the varieties that I’m going to grow, or try to. Some I’ve grown before, many are new. As I’ve mentioned before, I love colorful food, so I’m covering most of my bases as far as tomato colors go. It definitely adds an extra element when you have a beautiful dish, and you know that much of it was grown right outside. Anyways, the list.

Green Grape – Unique olive yellow 1″ cherry tomatoes on very productive plants. Addictive spicy sweet flavor.
New one for me, but I like cherries, and I’m intrigued by the flavor – I’ve done the Green Zebra tomatoes in the past and they’re almost… tangy?
Mexico Midget – Hundreds of ½-¾” dark red cherry tomatoes on each plant. Huge tomato flavor for such small fruits.
This one takes the award for Politically Incorrect Tomato of 2011.
Blondkopfchen – Small golden yellow 1″ fruits borne in giant clusters, excellent sweet taste.
A good German tomato.
Sungold – One of the premier varieties of cherry tomatoes. The Sungold ripens to a golden orange, with a very sweet flavor.
I’ve heard good things about this one as being very sweet. I like some tomato flavor with my sweetness, so we’ll see how the balance works out.
Giant Syrian – Heavy yields of heart-shaped pink fruits with green shoulders that rarely crack. Meaty fruits often exceed one pound in weight. Excellent flavor.
I wanted a larger variety, and this one sounded interesting.
Japanese Black Trifele – High yields of blemish-free fruits that rarely crack. Rich full flavor, great for canning.
Again, interested in the flavor – I’ve heard that black tomatoes taste a little earthy?
Moonglow – Uniform bright orange globes with solid flesh, few seeds, and mild sweetness.
This one’s mostly for the color – an orange slicer. But the taste had better be good too if it wants a repeat performance.
Opalka – Phenomenal set of 3″ by 6″ red paste tomatoes on vigorous wispy vines. Excellent flavor and very few seeds make this a perfect processing tomato.
One of two past tomatoes – this one got good accolades.
San Marzano – Compact and prolific producer of bright-red, slim, 2-3 inch, plum-type, fruit over a long season.
THE paste tomato, according to many people. I’m excited to see how it performs here.
Redfield Beauty – Flattened pink 3-4″ fruits with excellent full flavor.
An average size, red slicing tomato.
Principe Borghese – Prolifically yield big clusters of 1-2 oz. red, plum shaped, crack-resistant paste tomatoes… prized for drying because they retain more flavor than most other drying varieties.
I got these because of word-of-mouth. I’d like to dry my own tomatoes for the long, long Northeast Ohio winters.
Costoluto Genovese – Large, juicy Italian heirloom tomato with an acidic-tart full-tomato flavor well suited for slicing and serving fresh or cooking.
I’ve also grown these before, and they taste good, but I really like the appearance too – on the flatter side and very lobed/ruffled.

So there’s the current list. As usual, I’ve started too many from seed, but that’s par for the course. As  you can see (okay, maybe not – I wouldn’t know most of them either), I definitely like to go the heirloom route. I like the tradition and history of the many different varieties (and not just limited to tomatoes), like knowing that this particular one was grown by Thomas Jefferson. And I especially love the multitude of shapes, colors, sizes, and flavors that you can get.

Anybody have any suggestions that aren’t on this list? What’s your favorite tomato?

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