tomatoes

[orflo]

By orflo, shot with DiMAGE A2 at 2007-09-03
Marizol bratka,
good producer of 6-10 cms big tomatoes, pink-red colour, midseason over here, production is good, I grow this for the good taste, potato leaf variety, indeterminate

[Rebsie]

Douce de Picardie, a white French heirloom

Well, white means pale yellow, but I did have some a little whiter than this.

Douce de Picardie a very big and quite primitive looking plant, with a slightly odd smell. It likes to sprawl and take root along the ground, and although it copes fine with being cordoned upright it still produces roots all up the stem which dangle uselessly in the air like spaghetti.

The medium-sized fruits are smooth and apple-shaped on the outside but the flesh is quite coarse and mealy. It's very dry inside and the seed gel doesn't actually make contact with the outer flesh, as you can just about see in the photo. Flavour is pleasant enough, sweet and and quite strong. It holds its shape when cooked and the flesh remains firm and grainy, kind of peach-like.

It's a matter of taste whether you'd like this tomato or not. It doesn't suit my palette, but I'm more into tangy flavours. The yield was reasonably good and it ripened readily in a crap British summer.

It originated in the Picardy region of northern France and my seeds came from Association Kokopelli. When I eventually get round to sorting out my swapsies list I'll have a few packs of it available, if anyone wants to try it.

[johno]

i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_0803.jpg

Blackfoot

Seeds originally collected by Melody (Tomatoville, SSE forums) from a friend of the Darnell family in KY.

This tomato was grown by a man of Blackfoot descent, though likely not a Native American variety. It is heart-shaped, usually quite prolific, and fairly large. It is very good for fresh use, and would be good for canning/sauce (though I haven't done that yet) - meaty but not too juicy, not too many seeds.

[johno]

i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_0779.jpg

Vorlon

An open-pollinated cross between Cherokee Purple and Pruden's Purple, this tomato has typical "black" taste and appearance. That's a very good thing! Also, it was my most productive full-size tomato by far in 2008. I think it's possible this is due at least in part to better disease tolerance than the others (disease pressure is high in my location). Weights averaged around 8 ounces.

[grungy]

Johno,
Please consider us some seeds of Blackfoot tomatoes,
Cheers,
Val

[johno]

Sent them a while back, Val! They should be there soon.

[grungy]

Thanks,
grungy

[lycoperson]

Johno,
I would love to have some BlackFoot seeds if you can spare some.
Lycoperson
48244 Wesley Chapel Road
Richfield, NC 28137

[sammyqc]

Dec 8, 2008 19:06:04 GMT -5 grungy said:

Johno,
Please consider us some seeds of Blackfoot tomatoes,
Cheers,
Val

Val

You are a seed of Blackfoot tomato.

;D ;D

[grungy]

Amongst other things. LOL Now did I put Sammyqc on my list of places to dump seeds? Let's see there was Michel, and Bunkie, and Telsing. Ah yes just found her name on my list. (And you guys only thought Santa Claus kept lists. Hah!)

[ceara]

Someone save some Blackfoot for me next season? I'm at my tomato limit after we get Guido from grungy. But would love to try it next year.

It's kind of a private joke here and hubby even made a joke song out of it. I like to go barefoot in summer and often end up with "black" feet and get teased about it a lot. It would be fun to grow that next year and say, "See honey? A Blackfoot tomato for your Blackfoot tribe girl." haha

[PatrickW]

Silvery Fir Tree

This is a Russian variety that's been floating around Europe for some years now.

First, I'll have to admit, the taste is only a little above average and the tomatoes are a very boring red color.



For those of us who like to grow really cool plants however, this is an interesting one. We all know the normal and potato leaved varieties, but this one is 'carrot leaved':



for comparison, here's a picture of a normal tomato plant:



This plant is early and disease resistant, and it's also incredibly wind resistant, because the leaves just flutter gently in the wind. It's also a pretty small plant and suitable for growing in a container. Considering it's size, it's a pretty productive plant. Saving seeds can be a bit of a challenge, because the tomatoes don't have many.

[MikeM]

Patrick, That's not a boring red, that's an awesomely beautiful red! Pretty looking bush, too.

[Emerald]

If you don't mind a picture and comparison of one of my new favorite paste tomatoes that did very well for me-- The Opalka- very meaty and good tasting for just a slicer too- very dry so not much cooking down to get rich thick sauce- it also dried very well and was very flavorful dry.
In the picture you will see three types of tomatoes from left to right the ones on the left of the dollar bill are Jersey Giant the ones on the right of the bill are the Opalkas and that little one on top is the first of the Black Brandywines(it was also the smallest! The rest were quite big) Now the Jersey Giants just did not live up to the hype- the plants were very susceptible to blight and did not set well and were not very big for a "Giant" The Opalka tomatoes were to die for- The bushes were loaded with fruit and while we had a very cool summer and took forever to ripen they are now planted in this garden too.

Now there was a bit of BER but I don't think it was the garden soil on the Opalkas- I noticed that the blooms didn't always drop off the pointy tip and that held a bit of water- so I did go out and pluck those blooms and then they didn't have anymore rotty tips.