Monday, February 25, 2013

you say tomato, i say..

 delicious!

if there is one type of produce that i insist on having homegrown or local grown it's definitely tomatoes. the ones you find in the grocery store just don't cut it. they're too acidic, the texture isn't right, they're certainly not ripened on the vine. tomatoes are so easy to grow and i swear you can taste the sun if you take a bite straight off the vine.
i love how there are so many different species each with their own unique flavours and uses. with a dozen or so plants, a few ripe ones can be picked almost daily to be used in salads or sandwiches. Mmmm fresh toasted tomato is a classic favourite.
 last year we tried some 'tiny tim' tomatoes, and they were... well.. tiny! we put them in the ground but they most definitely would have done well as a potted plant on a balcony or in a window. some of their fruits were fully ripe at just over a centimeter wide. they were so sweet!

..and of course the classic beefsteak tomatoes. yum... during the second garden year i was working down the street at the garden center, and i had enough time to come home for lunch and pick something from the garden to eat. i'd go for one of these and toast up some fresh thick sliced bread and sprinkle with pepper and a little sea salt. yuuum!

though tomatoes are usually planted as an annual in this part of the world, we had a couple random plants successfully seed and regrow the next season two years in a row. they were both smaller varieties, cherry and grape tomatoes. it was accidental, the plants from the previous year had been tossed into the wood pile, and they grew back as enormous bushes behind the garage. these are some species we hope to help naturalize in our 'forest gardens' in the future.

...all this tomato talk has me horribly excited for planting season.... hurry spring!






1 comment:

  1. Those have to be the prettiest tomatoes I've ever seen! Thanks so much for this information! I have been only getting tomatoes from shipping in Ontario, and this has been really informative! Thanks.

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