I wish I had space to grow my own tomatoes. My dad had the best homegrown tomatoes I’d ever had. There is just no comparison between homegrown and the store bought crap I’m forced to buy. I need to find a nearby farmers market.
EDIT: Anyway, to answer the question, I love a good BLT and a good fresh salad, I’ve never had fried green tomatoes, but I’d like to try that someday.
Last edited by Panhead John; June 6, 2022, 02:54 PM.
Thanks Finster I do have room on my patio for a few containers, but I’m worried they might not get enough sun. How many hours of sun per day do most varieties need?
Panhead John - tomatoes can get by with less light, but you will get fewer tomatoes. Try one and plant it in a 5 gal bucket. The larger it gets, the more water it will need. Slightly wilted at the end of the day may just be due to the heat. Very wilted means it probably needs water. Wilted in the morning means it probably needs water.
Almost forgot - drill several holes in the bottom of the bucket for drainage.
Actually looking forward to fried GREEN tomatoes! Other than on a burger, I don't eat the ripe tomatoes. My parents always have a bumper crop and pull some green ones off for me...
EDIT: I do love a good BLT, especially with home-made bacon!
CandySueQ - just slice them up, batter and fry! They are a nice appetizer or part of a meal. Down here in Alabama a lot of the meat & 3 sides places have them a side.
Hey jfmorris I grew up with everyone in my family going gaga over sliced tomatoes and I couldn't stand them. Then I grew up and moved next door to my neighbor, Kenny, and he convinced me to try sliced tomatoes with garlic salt sprinkled on there. It was a game changer! Now I LOVE sliced tomatoes from the garden (with garlic salt). Give it a try for Kenny?!? :-)
I wish I had space to grow my own tomatoes. My dad had the best homegrown tomatoes I’d ever had. There is just no comparison between homegrown and the store bought crap I’m forced to buy. I need to find a nearby farmers market.
Here in the Mid Atlantic we get incredible farm tomatoes, especially the Ramapos from New Jersey. But any roadside stand or farmer’s market will be brimming over with Big Boys, Pretty Girls, Ramapos, and an insane variety of heirlooms. These often show up in groceries with a big sign saying "Locally Grown!"
I’ve tried growing them, I have too much shade and what did come up got eaten by the deer. I grew cherry tomatoes on my deck one year, but i picked the wrong kind, and I had no tomatoes, no tomatoes, no tomatoes, and then one day I had 200 little tomatoes. (Determinate tomatoes all ripen at once; indeterminate tomatoes ripen all during the growing season.)
RonB I miss those incredible Hanover tomatoes! Sliced with a little salt and pepper, ooooowweeee!
I for one am looking forward to a big 'ol tomato pie myself.
I have a friend who's entire family raise and sell Hanover tomatoes. He was always braggin' about how great they were. I took him a couple that I grew. After tasting my tomato he stopped bragging about Hanover tomatoes.
The thing is that Hanover farmers grow them to be early and large. Neither one of those things are necessary for a great tasting tomato. It's the variety that determines flavor and I grow Celebrity. Try them if you can find them.
RonB I like to try different varieties each year but always plant at least one Celebrity and one Husky Cherry. They're both just wonderful tomatoes in my opinion.
jerrybell - I am the opposite. Celebrity is my main crop, but I usually try one or two other varieties too. I am now looking for blight resistant varieties because, after almost forty years in the same area, blight has spread throughout my garden.
I guess I look forward to that first "T" sandwich (sure, I like the B and the L too but ....). There's nothing like that first fresh, ripe tomato sandwich, sliced about a half inch thick, sprinkled with salt and pepper, on toasted and buttered wheat bread with a slather of mayo (Duke's). For variety, one can marinate the sliced tomatoes in a vinaigrette for a few minutes and then proceed. But no matter how you do it, it's the best way to start out the summer (for me).
I'm looking forward to standing over the kitchen sink with a freshly plucked tomato and the salt shaker, and eating it like my Grandpa showed me how to do when I was a young'en. Wearing a white T-shirt is a must to catch/wipe any juice that runs down your face.
Working in the garden today I started noticing the little green tomatoes too and actually did dream of future tomato sandwiches. Heavily salted and peppered tomatoes swimming in Dukes mayonnaise on soft white bread and needing to be eaten over the kitchen sink. That actually will be my almost daily lunch soon.
There ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon and lettuce and homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin', out in the garden
Get you a ripe one, don't get a hard one
Plant 'em in the spring, eat 'em in the summer
All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' and diggin'
Every time I go out and pick me a big one
Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
And that's true love and homegrown tomatoes
Well you can go out to eat and that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put 'em in a salad, put 'em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
You can eat 'em with eggs, you can eat 'em with gravy
Eat 'em with beans, pinto or navy
Put 'em on the side, put 'em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle
Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
And that's true love and homegrown tomatoes
Now if I was to change this life I lead
Well I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
'Cause I know what this country needs
It's homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die, don't bury me
In a box in a cementary
Out in the garden would be much better
And I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes
Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
And that's true love and homegrown tomatoes
Homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
And that's true love and homegrown tomatoes
Wow, all of the above. We lived in central GA for 3 years surrounded by some great farms and was really spoiled with the tomatoes. Would take one for breakfast and just cut pieces with my coffee for 45 minutes, they were soooo good. Of course BLT's and burgers go to a much higher level.
My neighbor raises tomatoes and I get all I want. I bought one of those VeggieMix food recyclers and give my neighbor the compost I generate. I am sooooooo looking forward to:
Spaghetti sauce
Salsa
Caprese salads (or any salad with fresh toms)
Tomato toast or sammys
Sliced Toms with EVOO and S&P
cherry toms roasted with Salmon
Toms on burgers and sammys
)
Celebrity is my main crop, but I usually try one or two other varieties too. I am now looking for blight resistant varieties because, after almost forty years in the same area, blight has spread throughout my garden.
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