It’s time to think about tomatoes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2022 (1548 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

By BARB SHIELDS

One of the best things about summer is the chance to enjoy fresh produce from our gardens — and tomatoes are at the top of the list. Toasted bacon-and-tomato sandwiches, cream of tomato soup and cherry tomatoes picked right off the plants to eat while gardening. And then there are the salads, salsas and spaghetti sauces.

If you want to maximize your potential tomato eating pleasures, here are a few suggestions:

1. Tomato plants come in two basic size varieties — determinate and indeterminate. Determinate tomato plants are basically shrub plants that bush out to a certain size. They probably won’t need staking. Indeterminate plants are the big climbers that can be trained-up on tomato spirals, stakes and other supports. Indeterminates are usually preferred because they generally produce more fruit (and yes, strictly speaking, tomatoes are fruit).

2. Tomatoes mature at different times. Early girl usually produces fruit within 50 days of planting while brandywine ripens at around 90 days. Unless you want to be inundated with tomatoes for a briefer period of time, you should select a series of tomato plants with staggered maturity dates.

3. Tomatoes come in a broad range of sizes and shapes. Beefsteak are perfect for hamburgers and BLTs, romas are dense and flavourful and wonderful in salsas and sauces. Cherry tomatoes are great for snacking, in salads, and tossed in cooked pasta. Shopping for plants is a good time to think about having a variety of options at dinner time.

4. Tomatoes are not limited to red in colour. For an attractive alternative for salads, vegetable platters, and snacking generally, you might want to try out orange, yellow and pink varieties such as lemon drop (yellow), jubilee (orange) and brandywine (pink). Many of the non-red varieties are lower in acidity than the traditional reds, making them a sweeter and, probably for some, healthier alternative.

Finally – you might like to try some of the heirloom variety of tomatoes such a Brandywine, Cherokee apple, and mortgage lifter. Mortgage lifter is an indeterminate tomato that matures in 80 days and produces large numbers of pinkish red beefsteak tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes are prized for the quality and sweetness of their flesh.