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Post by canadamike on Aug 13, 2010 17:03:15 GMT -5
A couple of days ago, I had a bolognese sauce to make. Since I had 8 different kinds of meat in it, I wanted good tomatoes, so I went through a lot of mason jars to try to find smaller canned maters. I found 2 jars of smallish tomatoes, larger than cherries though, canned with basil and greek oregano. My friend and I opened the jars and tasted them. wow!!! None of us had EVER tasted such perfect and exquisite canned tomatoes, actually '' better than fresh ones '' was our common comment. And so sweet and without any acidity, a common problem with home canned tomatoes. I was wondering what cultivar could they have been, given the number of them I grow, when I remembered that by the end of the season, I was mostly left with Martin's Wisconsin 55, Japanese Black Trifele, Black Pineapple and a few other big ones, along with many BLOODY BUTCHER, which I had put in a bag of their own to can them together. Good thing I did it. I swear to God, there will be a LOT of Bloody Butcher tomatoes growing in my garden next year. They were so delicious we considered eating them alone as a meal in themselves. Full of goodness and umami. I URGE THE CANNERS IN THE GROUP TO GIVE THEM A BIG TRY. We all already know about their good taste fresh anyway...
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Post by ozarklady on Aug 13, 2010 17:13:32 GMT -5
Sounds great, which seed company stocks the seeds, or does someone have some?
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Post by wildseed57 on Aug 13, 2010 22:19:05 GMT -5
Maybe that is one I need to get a some point, I've been wanting a good flavored tomato that I could snack on and can up, I usually grow Jersey Devil and Howard German for sauces and canning they are pretty good, but sometimes I like to use a mix of tomatoes especially if I make up a big batch of tomato juice. Bloody Butcher is fairly early about 60 days and produces pretty good too. I live just down the road some from Baker's Creek and they cary the seeds so I might try them next year if I have room. George W.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 13, 2010 22:32:32 GMT -5
I grew it several years ago and it is a production fool. It's one of a number of smallish types which are often overlooked but eating raw but great for canning whole. As can be seen in Mike's photo, they are not a dry salad type but have a lot seed gel and that's where much of the flavor is.
Martin
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Post by wildseed57 on Sept 5, 2010 22:19:11 GMT -5
One nice surprise for me was a tomato that is called San Francisco Fog which I will grow again especially for fresh eating, I like the flavor of this small ping pong ball size tomatoes over the red cherry types, for one it produced well even though we were going through a long heatwave that lasted two months. While some of my bigger tomatoes failed to set fruit, San Francisco Fog continued to make small very sweet tomatoes even though it should have dried up and died, as it was developed for cool coastal weather and wet cool nights, which was a far cry from the 80F to 100F day temps and 73F. to 85F. night temps with high humidity. It didn't produce real heavy, but it did produce enough that at times it would beat out the red cherry that I was growing that went belly up in the worst heat that we had. So next year I will plant more of them in my main garden. And if I get moved and settled in my next apartment by next spring, I might even grow some there too. Thanks Dan this tomato is a winner in my books. George W.
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Post by canadamike on Sept 5, 2010 22:56:24 GMT -5
Wildseeds, the more I learn from others experience here the more I am convinced that tomatoes bred for certain kind of extreme situations are in fact surprizingly adaptable. It is only an intuition, but I think the ''set'' of genes that permit one tomato to overcome certain situations are in fact valuable in other circumstances. I'll call them ''adaptability genes'' for the purpose of this discussion. I think extreme situations ask for the most adaptive genes to expres themselves more and they can then be useful elsewhere. Most of those who have been around for a while here know about Kokopelli, the great french seed saving organization. What most don't know is that they have antennas in many countries in the developing world. They ship a lot of seeds all over the planet in poor countries. It turns out that they send a lot of lettuce seeds in Africa. At first, the people did not grow them. They were ''winter lettuces''. Yep, the best ones to grow in winter. Some even growing under the snow. They are also the best performers in Africa. So they still ship them but change the names, getting rid of the ''winter'' bit. The more we talk together here, the more I discover it is true with a lot of veggies. This is way more than species related. I THINK WE SHOULD EXPLORE THAT ADAPTABILITY THING MUCH MORE, maybe even create some chart or database of our observations around this phenomenon. I don't think it applies to melons though
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Post by peppereater on Sept 5, 2010 23:02:38 GMT -5
Bloody Butcher has been a must grow in my garden since I first tried it 5 or 6 years ago. It's often the earliest fruit to ripen, and has a reasonably good flavor, it's fantastic when you haven't had a garden tomato in months...I tend to get tired of it after I start getting nice big slicers later in the season, but it is one hell of a producer, the vines ramble everywhere, overtaking some of it's neighbors, I think some vines have sprawled out of confinement to the point of reaching 5 or 6 feet to either side, and often continue to fruit for 3 months or more. I'm sure I've used some in salsa I've canned, but I have yet to can just tomatoes. It would be a good way to avoid wasting them, which happens when I have a couple of dozen maters like Cherokee Purple, Brandywine and others ripening and ready for BLT's or slicing and eating. I can see how BB would be a great canning tomato, especially since they're a nece size to pop into jars whole. Mike, you mentioned the umami flavor...I never thought of tomatoes as having the umami essensce, is that from the herbs you use, or the tomatoes themselves? BB is very commonly grown, it seems, and so there should be plenty of people with seed to share. I think I have enough from seed I received last year to share some out next season, say 2 or 3 packs of 6 seeds, or probably more, I'd have to check. That is, if anyone doesn't mind seed that is a couple of years old, it has spent alot of time refrigerated and should be fine. As I say, though, I think plenty of people grow it and should have nice fresh seed, my garden suffered from severe neglect and adverse weather this year, and I didn't save seed. I did get some nice tomatoes from BB early on, but ate the ones that prospered...lucky thing I did, as I didn't get much chance to garden on through most of the summer.
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Post by garnetmoth on Sept 5, 2010 23:19:19 GMT -5
Youve got me convinced to try it next year! Id love some seed Dave- can I offer a trade or SASE?
I was really excited about Kokopelli and sent them some of the plethora of seeds I saved last year (CHOPTAG folks are awesome generous, and had lots to share last year) and sent to their US address, and the package got sent back, never picked up. Was wondering if anyone is still working at their US branch
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Post by peppereater on Sept 5, 2010 23:22:17 GMT -5
No problem, garnet, I'll pm you. Let me check on how many I have, I should still have enough for another grower or 2.
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Post by ozarklady on Sept 5, 2010 23:48:43 GMT -5
May I offer a suggestion? When you don't have enough excess to can the tomatoes... dehydrate them!
I am not fond of the taste of dehydrated tomatoes, some folks do like them.
But, I hate recipes that say... add a Tablespoon tomato paste, or sauce... what do you do with the rest? So, I dehydrate the odd ball tomato, potato or Okra, and then I can just smash up the dried tomatoes, and use it in recipes... to boost tomato flavor or to add that crazy Tablespoon of tomato!
I kept losing the extra tomato when I bought a six pack, or when I picked too many for fresh eating, and not enough to can up... dehydrate, even one tomato... store in a baggy in your spices! I know, I am a tight wad... but food is expensive and saving bucks, plus flavor is why most of us garden!
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Post by canadamike on Sept 6, 2010 11:24:14 GMT -5
Kokopelli is not really active in the USA, you should send the seeds to the french organization, or to me, I have a shipment to send them anyway...whatever you decide, pm me and I'll provide you with an adress.
And Ozark is right about dehydrating. I dehydrate a lot of veggies that I then often powder to give flavor and thicken sauces and such.
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