ToMaTo TuEsDaY! Western mountains & high plains!

I love looking at all of the different tomatoes shared on this Topic. I don't have any neat tomato photos to share. But . . . I did collect seeds from quite a few unusual (to me) tomatoes from the buckets of culls I collected from the Farmers' Market. Red, orange, yellow, yellow pear-shaped, red with green, red with black. I hope next year, with new compost and more experience, that I will be able to share on this topic. I did make some salsa with my small harvest of Homestead, Roma and Early Girl, and a few red skinny peppers (Cayenne or over ripe green chilis), and petite garlic I grew.

I haven't made salsa in years Sanderson!  Maybe this year!  It looks like the tomatoes and peppers will be done at the same time, can you believe such a thing!  You should post a picture of your salsa, that sounds wonderful!

Tricia,  I didn't take a pic of the salsa but it looked just like the salsa in this topic:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16265-round-3-canning-salsa?highlight=salsa

The recipe is the one I used.  I actually held a copy of the photo up to my pan to show my husband!!

Oh yummy, I can't wait to make salsa!  I have to wait until the tomatoes at my local greenhouse are ready though, mine got taken out by a hail storm  a few weeks ago!

This weekends pickings minus those eaten.
We grilled one of the Striped Roman tomatoes and some zuccini and some stuffed with cheese peppers for dinner.

Oh wow Turan, looks delicious!!  Nice pickins!

Very nice, Turan! And I love those pattypan squashes. All I'm getting are male flowers on almost all my squashes, unfortunately.

Thanks you guys!
Marc, those male squash flowers are great to stuff, or just throw in a stir fry.  Very yummy.

What do you stuff them with?

I tried one the other day just off the plant, and it didn't really taste like anything.

Well it is my MIL that stuffs them, usually with bread crumbs and parm cheese.  She sometimes fritters them as well.  I just toss them in stir fry at the end.  DH loves them any way you can think up.

Turan,  very nice!

Turan,  Yummy pickens!!

Nice pickens Turan  

Great haul!  Can't wait until this heat wave ripens my 'maters!

GG

Amazing how a week in the 30s can slow down tomato ripening. I have put a small space heater in the greenhouse to keep it above freezing on the nights that go into the 20s. I could go pick everything left and let them ripen on the counters but am curious to see how long the greenhouse can hold out. I am no longer watering in there through and have brought the peppers inside.

This year I had more tomato plants than I have ever grown, 20 plants of 12 varieties. So now seems like a good point to do a sum up of the season. All plants were in either a greenhouse or cold frame so I do not know how much my observations will help those of you with out such protections.

Sungold~ wonderful taste, rambunctious grower, ripening early and keeps on trucking. Growing again.

Sweet Million~ we have grown this for years but it was blown out of the water by the Sungold and is being replace next year by Sungold.

Oregon Spring~ disapointing. It did not set fruit terribly early or ripen early and those are supposed to be its strengths.

Stupice~ first tomatos set, first ripened (7/4), produced all season and I just picked the last ones (10/6). We like the flavor. They are a small golf ball size. Definite repeat.

Cherokee Purple~ yup we continue to love these and will grow again next year.

Big Beef~ yup still love these too. A BB and a CP cubed with some onion slivers and basil make a wonderful salad, and to put it over the top add fresh warm mozzarella.

Mortage Lifter~ not as good flavor as BB. Cracks a lot. Not worth the bother.

Purple Russian Paste~ interesting but the flavor was pretty bland even cooked.

Striped Roman~ power house of sauce/paste tomatoes. Great flavor fresh and cooked. I could see growing only these except that would be boring.

Cuore di Bue~ they were late taking off on the setting fruit part and still have lots of fruit on hte vines. If I have to bring in green tomatoes this fall most will be these. However the fruit has a wonderful flavor fresh and cooked. They roast wonderfully. I think they would like some place a zone warmer, even with the greenhouse. The jury is still out. Maybe I will grow only 1plant instead of 3 next year.

Principe Borghese~ I was told it was a bush and it is now 8 feet tall. It started ripening early, right after Stupice, and is still loaded. The fruits are golf ball size and hang in big trusses. They are a better cooking tomato than fresh eating. I'll grow one plant again next year and give it plenty of room.

Oroma~ the only plants in the cold frame. They set and ripened later than the others and then ripened with in a couple weeks. There was a lot of tomatoes from 5 short plants stuffed into a 3X4 cold frame. The flavor is acceptable for sauce.

I tried out both cages and twine and cages with twine extensions. All worked well. I am thinking that clean up will be so much easier with the twine that I might just go all that way next year. I had planted every 18" in 2 staggered rows thus fitting 15 plants into a 2.5X12 bed in a greenhouse. The plants all had enough room but getting to them could be a pain. I did some pruning, not my favorite thing. Next year I will go back to 24" spacings and the plants in the second row lined up with the first row. And the Principe Borghese gets the whole back corner to be rambunctious in  

So far we have 30 pints of tomato sauce/paste canned and a bunch of salsa. Lots more eaten fresh and in cooking these last months. There is more to come on the vine. If they can ripen that is one last canning batch but we will see. Maybe they will just trickle along giving us ripe tomatoes for another month......

All in all this has been the most productive tomato year since I moved back home to Montana. I owe much of this success to this community's ideas/ cheerleading/ infectious enthusiasm for gardening.
Thank you.

I love this post! You gave me a good idea of some new tomatoes to try next year (Sungold and Striped Roman)! I would love so be able to put up that much sauce!! Are you still having any luck in the green house or did you pick the green ones?

I picked everything 2 weeks ago. The cold was slowly seeping in even with the heater in there. It seemed like the reserves of warmth in the soil were being exhausted and I was not willing to turn the heater up enough. So I picked 5 boxes (single layers) of green tomatoes and put everything with color on the counter. I have been cooking and freezing the tomatoes that are not eaten quickly. So far that is about 3 gallons of sauce. When they are all through ripening I will thaw all the batches and cook them down a bit more, add garlic and vinegar, and can them in quarts. Most of the green tomatoes are the Coure Di Bue and they ripen in a box with pretty good flavor.

Well that is awesome Turan!  I might just surprise you with a visit just to demand sauce!  You're making me hungry!!

Turan, Thanks for the breakdown/ sum up of your tomatoes this year its awesome!!! Like Cheyannarach  I too will be adding the Sungold and Striped Roman to my list for next year. And since I live in Montana too maybe I will get similar results, maybe lol