Tomatoes done November 2023

Dec2

We just finished eating the last tomatoes picked in October before a frost. The last ones pictured on the left, were Large Barred Boar.

I had 6 bags of green tomatoes that ripened inside. Pretty good having homegrown tomatoes through end of November. Bittersweet in that I am glad the season is over but sad there will be no more wonderful tomatoes till next July.

I start the season in March growing out the seeds inside under lights-8 months is a long time. I won’t eat a store bought or restaurant tomato so now it’s a long wait. I have made plain tomato sauce, roasted them, dried them, used them in tomato soup, and made pasta sauces using them. My friends have given me tomato tapenade and tomato chutney they made too. Nice!

During wintertime, I will review my notes about which tomatoes did well, which had problems, which had low production, and which new ones I liked or not and why. I don’t rule out anything that didn’t do well, especially this season with no water and intense heat but will give many tomatoes a second chance. I will research the internet looking for possible new varieties to try for next year. I have a stable of tomatoes I grow every year and always try a few new ones as well.

Tomatoes just starting to come in!

Aug19

I live for my tomatoes out of my garden each year!

Most of my tomatoes are just starting to ripen. There are many more on the vine in various stages of green! So every few days I get a few ripe tomatoes. Just enough for a Caprese salad every few nites. I’m in heaven!

I have many standard tomatoes but a couple of new ones that are suppose to take 70-80 days are already ripening at 60 days. I love them all so far. They may make my all-star tomato list at the end of the season which is really hard to do as I am really, really picky-they must be VERY flavorful. Here are some new varieties that have ripened so far..

New to me is Large Barred Boar (from Wild Boar Farms) which is much larger than their regular Barred Boar with the same great flavor. It is burgundy color with green stripes. It has a really rich complex flavor.

Another new tomato is Grosse Verte Rose (from Secret Seed Cartel seed company) which is a dusky pink color and sweet, sweet, sweet and about 12-14 oz big. A winner for sure.

Tonite I got the first two Cherokee Carbon tomatoes and they look beautiful. No cracks, smooth skin and a cross between a Purple Cherokee and the Carbon tomato. I normally grow heirlooms or open-pollinated varieties but I’m not against hybrids if they taste great. This one is a hybrid and I’ll let you know later how the taste is. They are about 14-16 oz and look beautiful.

Also new to me is a tomato named Santorini from the Greek Island of Santorini. (duh). They were one of the first to ripen and are a smaller bright red tomato with the flavor of an old-fashion tomato. I like them and the fact that they were so early is good too. Sorry I don’t have a pic-I ate them all.

So that’s the report so far on the NEW varieties of tomatoes that have started to ripen. There are many different varieties that are still green and for those of you waiting, don’t despair. With this heat I’m sure they will be ripening soon.

If you don’t recognize these varieties it’s because I try tomatoes from many different places and like to turn people on to new varieties that are awesome! If your local nurseries doesn’t carry them next year, you’ll have to start them from seed.

I’ll post later as I have more to report on. Let’s hope for a long warm fall where all of them will ripen!

I’m finished with tomatoes for the year 2015!

Nov13

Finally this week there are no more tomatoes sitting around in the house! FINITO! NONE! DONE! Nice to see the kitchen table again! This week I made the last batch of tomato tapenade and the last batch of raw tomato sauce (24 frozen gallon bags of raw tomato sauce). Phew! As a friend Deborah says, ‘That’s the part no one tells you about’-preserving your produce. It goes on and on and on for months. Soon before Christmas, I will have to can some spaghetti sauce from some of the bags of frozen sauce. But not now-I’m gonna take a week off!

In fact right now I’m on a flyfishing trip on the San Juan River below Navajo Dam in our cozy SCAMP trailer. It’s cold outside tonight-going to get down to a lovely 20F° but the trailer is nice and warm inside (thanks Nevan for getting that great heater!) and do you believe it, we have internet access which is great as you want to be inside by dark because of the cold and going to bed at 6pm is a little early for me. Tomorrow we start fishing for some big ol’ trout HOGS. The fishing shops said today the dry fly fishing has been great. So I hope to catch some montrous fish and get some R&R while here for a few days. Better get some sleep (what me?!), although I don’t plant (freudian slip meant to say plan) to be out too early tomorrow…

500 lbs of tomatoes..

Oct10

There must be 500 lbs of tomatoes all over the house in different states of ripeness now. Little paths throughout the house to walk around! With all the freeze scares each day for the nights, I went out and picked almost all the tomatoes that can finish ripening. I started picking hard on Wednesday and then my good friend Mernie came over and helped picked the rest on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I had one of my best days ever at the Farmers Market as “The Tomato Lady’. It has been cold and had rained in Santa Fe and snowing on our mountain and I think everyone started thinking OMG- the tomato season is almost over! It was like a shark frenzy. My patrons didn’t want anything else-only tomatoes. I completely sold out. Now I just have to manage the remaining tomatoes in the house to make sure they ripen nicely. While I’m gone on Saturday at the giant pumpkin weigh-off, Caleb will be ‘The Tomato Lady’ again and then I will be back the following Saturday!