Suburban Tomato

I have been writing a series of posts spotlighting specific varieties of edible plants.  I’m loving the series but lately I have been struggling for varieties I feel passionate (or particularly knowledgeable) about .  As a result I’m not going to write a spotlight every week – only when I have something I really want to spotlight.  I would love it if others continue to spotlight good varieties though.  Like Live in the Yard has done with Rainbow Carrots this week.  A great post by a blogger I hadn’t come across prior to receiving the link.  Thankyou!

If you do write a post please continue to let me know and I will add it to the index.  I will also link to it in my Monday Harvest post if I haven’t written a Spotlight in that week.

Anyway enough of the housekeeping and on to what I wanted to write about today:  Tomatoes – lots of varieties.

I have chosen to grow mainly, but not solely, apricot sized varieties this year.  This is partially because my parents usually have incredibly prolific plants that supply most of my saucing needs and partially because I find the apricot sized ones the most useful for eating fresh.  My kids like them that size and I enjoy them in combinations in salads etc.  I figure by concentrating on just one main size of tomato I should be able to figure out which ones I like best and will grow in future.

So this year I am growing: Juane Flame, Green Zebra, Purple Cherokee and Yellow Pear (all thanks to Yvonne for the seed), Tommy Toe, Tiny Tim, Tigerella (thanks to Diana for the seed ), Black Cherry, Tomatoberry (thanks to Nina), and Rouge de Marmande.  I might plant a few more but just reading this list is making me feel a little overwhelmed….

I sowed my seed at the start of July and the seedlings are well a truly up and looking good.  This is what the majority of varieties looked like at the end of July:

They are about double that size now and look a lot sturdier.  Interestingly the ones I put outside in the ‘Bunnings special’ mini greenhouse seem to be growing better than those on my daughters window sill.  Perhaps they get more light.

The only variety which hasn’t done well so far is Green Zebra – only one came up and it isn’t looking super healthy so I think a resowing is in order.  I suspect they prefer slightly warmer conditions.

I plan to pot my seedlings up at least once, possibly twice before I plant them out in the garden – probably during October if our Spring is reasonably warm.  Hopefully the rodents stay away from this year and I get a bumper crop.

Which tomato varieties are you growing this year?  Any apricot sized varieties I have missed that you would recommend?

Only a month of winter to go.  I feel that this winter has passed relatively quickly – although that may have as much to do with our 2 degrees above average July than anything else….  The slightly warmer weather seems to be bringing signs of Spring along a little earlier than usual too.  For instance my parsley is beginning to flower already.  As a result I think I need to make sure I enjoy the winter crops while they last.  This is what I enjoyed this week.

I have started to harvest from my Eureka lemon.  I have also had to prune it quite hard as it has quite a bit of citrus gall wasp and I am hoping that hard pruning it will prompt enough new growth that some might avoid wasp attack this year.

The smaller fruit above is a Tahitian Lime.

My next harvest wasn’t entirely intentional.  The chooks dug these up and have been banished to their pen ever since.  They are cylindrical beetroot and became a salad not long after this photo was taken.

These de Napa turnips were pulled by me, rather than the feathered friends, and were used in a nice hearty barley and vegetable soup.

The calabrese is still producing handfuls of shoots.  These few went into a frittata I made with our lovely fresh eggs.

I have a few remaining peppers still ripening and I am trying to cut them as soon as I notice them to give the plants a bit more energy to both fight the cold and also put on new growth as soon as Spring truly comes.

And finally for this week, I realised that despite using quite a few sticks of celery each week I rarely feature it in my harvest photos.  I harvested this particular stalk because I fancied a snack – I am particularly partial to celery filled with cream cheese.

And that’s it from me harvest-wise this week.  For more harvests head over to Daphne’s Dandelions.