Well. This year my tomato garden didn’t suck.

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boomchakabowwow

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Historically, I can’t grow tomatoes. This year was okay. I didn’t grow big tomatoes. Well, none grew big tomatoes. But they didn’t die.

so I have a lot of smaller fruit. Now what? I can only eat so much Shashuka. I don’t can tomatoes. And they are too small anyways. tomato-beef chow mein for sure.

I need to burn thru some tomatoes folks! How are your gardens doing?
 
This was this mornings sweep. A small harvest since we raided the plants two days ago. My big red tomatoes are not much bigger than my yellow cherry tomatoes. :(

braised tomato omelette was breakfast.
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IME you just have to experiment with a bunch of different varieties to see what likes your climate and soils. I suggest trying some in pots (big pots!) as well. Since I've mostly gardened in cooler climates finding cool weather friendly tomatoes has been a challenge. Stupice is an indeterminate Czech variety that has worked well for me. They are neither very large nor are they the most flavorful tomatoes I've grown (still beating most grocery store tomatoes) but the are very early, always the first tomato to produce for me. French market varieties like Carmello or Dona have had a good balance of attributes. Most of the traditional American heirloom varieties have been a bit iffy IME - most of them have excellent flavor but they tend to be slow, sometimes producing few but enormous tomatoes, and they tend to be more blight prone than more modern hybrids. For cherry tomatoes I really like Camp Joy when the stars align but it is open pollinated and I have found quite a bit of difference among different sources and different years.
 
Salsa and tomato sauce come to mind. Sauce freezes well too.

Here are a few from the other day. I also picked a few blueberries...

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This was this mornings sweep. A small harvest since we raided the plants two days ago. My big red tomatoes are not much bigger than my yellow cherry tomatoes. :(

braised tomato omelette was breakfast.
View attachment 89408
A quick pasta sauce with some olive oil, chili flake, garlic and saute those just until they burst with a splash of starchy pasta water. Salt to taste.
 
A quick pasta sauce with some olive oil, chili flake, garlic and saute those just until they burst with a splash of starchy pasta water. Salt to taste.
Yum!

any hints for a red clam sauce?
 
or just crudaiolo; quarter the small Tomatoes, plenty good (grassy) olive oil, some ripped basil, some salt pepper and some salted ricotta flakes and cacio flakes, and put that in a dish, cook the spaghetti (or linguini) al dente and mix together with some buffel mozzarella
 
Yum!

any hints for a red clam sauce?
Live or shell out? If live, add them before the tomatoes with some dry white wine, lemon juice and some tomato sauce, about 1/4 cup or so and cover. If you can get the timing right, add the tomatoes right before the clams open, otherwise just add them when you see the first clam open. Finish with some parsley, olive oil and salt.
 
Live or shell out? If live, add them before the tomatoes with some dry white wine, lemon juice and some tomato sauce, about 1/4 cup or so and cover. If you can get the timing right, add the tomatoes right before the clams open, otherwise just add them when you see the first clam open. Finish with some parsley, olive oil and salt.
Awesome. Thanks. The timing gets me.
 
I’ve been growing tomatoes in the Seattle area for about 20 years. Not sure where you live but for cooler weather the Russian heirlooms work well. There are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years that make for a successful crop. Here are a few.

1.Use as big a pot as possible.
2. use good store bought dirt.
3. fertilize every two weeks. I go organic so use Dr. earth which is a dry fertilizer with blood meal, bone meal, seaweed and a bunch of other stuff. And I use fish fertilizer which I can’t recommend enough.
4. Get a moisture meter. When watering soak the plant well, then wait until the dirt has little water left, then repeat. (DON’T over water) if the lower leaves are turning yellow and dying you’re over watering.
5. Use an electric toothbrush to pollinate. The cheap ones that are not rechargeable. They last a couple seasons. Tomatoes are self pollinating so the flowers pollinate themselves. Set the toothbrush on the back of the stem next to the flower and you will see the pollin expload into the air.
6. some tomatoes that will grow in cooler weather. Black Krem (Russian) Sun gold (US), Stupice (Italian), Momotaro (Japanese). There are many others including the common US varieties.
My plants grow to about 10’ each year so they do well for the area that I live. This is them currently.
 

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Tomato harvest kicked into gear this past weekend -- a few weeks later than normal. Figs just started ripening a couple days ago as well. Plenty of squash, but who the fark cares about that? :cool:
 
I go through this every second summer or so. The crops are not as good on some years due to fruit fly or the weather.

You could also try:

Ragu.
Tomato salad.
Green tomato pickle (a kind of relish made with not quite ripe tomatoes).
Tomato on surdough toast with butter, basil, salt and pepper is sublime. Kimda like bruschetta, I guess.

Tomatoes dehydrate well, taking up much less room than in a can. These can be put to good use in a braise.

Edit. Almost forgot... passata
 
Pic is from last year. My plants are doing horrible this year.
 

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Fire roasted salsa. One year I made about 15 lbs.
I need to try this. There was a restaurant I used to go to that had the most amazing fire roasted salsa I have ever tried. We would go there just for the chips and salsa. It’s been out of business for years now. I would love to learn how to make that salsa.
 
I've got a few myself, a little mozzarella, fresh basil and a touch of balsamic.


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What type of tomatoes are these? They look like sungold but I can’t believe how long the clusters are.
 
They are sungolds, as mentioned above I give them a dose of a good 2-4-4 fertilizer + a 1/2 teaspoon of epsom salt every other week.
Where do you live Bear? My sun golds will get up to 12’ tall this year but I don’t get the strings like you have here in Seattle.
 
I’ve been growing tomatoes in the Seattle area for about 20 years. Not sure where you live but for cooler weather the Russian heirlooms work well. There are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years that make for a successful crop. Here are a few.

1.Use as big a pot as possible.
2. use good store bought dirt.
3. fertilize every two weeks. I go organic so use Dr. earth which is a dry fertilizer with blood meal, bone meal, seaweed and a bunch of other stuff. And I use fish fertilizer which I can’t recommend enough.
4. Get a moisture meter. When watering soak the plant well, then wait until the dirt has little water left, then repeat. (DON’T over water) if the lower leaves are turning yellow and dying you’re over watering.
5. Use an electric toothbrush to pollinate. The cheap ones that are not rechargeable. They last a couple seasons. Tomatoes are self pollinating so the flowers pollinate themselves. Set the toothbrush on the back of the stem next to the flower and you will see the pollin expload into the air.
6. some tomatoes that will grow in cooler weather. Black Krem (Russian) Sun gold (US), Stupice (Italian), Momotaro (Japanese). There are many others including the common US varieties.
My plants grow to about 10’ each year so they do well for the area that I live. This is them currently.
I have been curious about the fish fertilizer. Do you make your own? I currently use a modified version of Mel's mix dressed with azomite, blood meal and 95%calcium limestone 303 pulverized. It works a bit better for me than bone meal.
 
My wife takes most of the pics of our garden and puts them out IG page. I will need to take some to post though. Here's the link if you want to see what we are doing.
Feather Hollow (@featherhollow) • Instagram photos and videos

We have 5ea 8x3 beds and 2ea 4x9 beds.
 

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