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Grow Tomatoes Review: Golden Pineapple Beefsteak – “Guacamole Salsa”

July 18th, 2009 | Author: Dot

DoT’s Thot: I generally like my guacamole very simple — only avocado, lemon juice, salt, and cilantro. However, when tomato season is on, I cannot help but throw some delightful tomato chunks in the mix.

Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato with Other Ingredients

Journal Entry: 4 July 2009, Independence Day Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato “Guacamole Salsa”

The Golden Pineapple Beefsteak tomato is a lovely golden yellow tomato with red striping on the skin and beautiful pink streaks in the flesh. Firm, meaty, and mild with the firm, smooth texture that is so complementary to avocado, I keep planting this tomato despite its tendency to crack a little more than some of the other heirloom tomatoes I plant. That says a lot for the tomato. One of the reasons I do not mind the cracking is because of dishes like the one I am going to describe where I can lop off all the cracked parts and take the good parts and eat them in the yummy dish.

For a great side dish, these ingredients are few and simple, relying more on the freshness and innate goodness of the ingredients themselves. First, use really good chunks of tomato. Often, with homegrowers, we will have some not so pretty results, where there are some cracks or some not so well shaped tomatoes or (as I am gradually learning about pruning, etc.) tomatoes of various sizes from the same tomato plant. These still have lots of good tomato flesh and the same great flavor. Don’t waste those — besides cooking and canning, fresh dishes where you chop the tomato chunks, like this one, are great.

Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato Characteristics

The Golden Pineapple beefsteak tomato pieces in my picture resulted from my cutting up a large beefsteak tomato that had a large blossom end and a few deep cracks. This has been a very nice continuing member of the garden this year. As mentioned above, Golden Pineapple Beefsteak produces meaty tomatoes which are a nice yellow with red streaks. It is very pretty in a dish like this and it’s mild, sweet taste melds so well with avocado and lime. The flesh is firm, but has a creamy, not mushy texture. There are few seeds and you can see how visually appealing the tomato slices and chunks are, especially so in this dish.

Tomatoes and Avocado Chopped and Lime Juice Applied

Other Ingredients

You will need a ripe, creamy textured, but firm avocado. The cilantro should be fresh and bright green. Use either lime juice or lemon juice, but always fresh-squeezed. Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper finish the dish. Seasoned salt is always an option, if you prefer. If doing that, I like the variety with cracked black pepper in it.

The Process of Making the Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato “Guacamole Salsa”

Clean all the ingredients. Remove the skin and seed from the avocado. Chop the avocado into nice half inch chunks. Remove any bad parts of the tomatoes (see above). Remove the stem and blossom ends. Chop the tomato, again into chunks about a half inch or less, if you like.

Place the avocado and tomato into a bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lime or lemon (about 1 to 2 tablespoons) over all and gently mix together.

Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato "Guacamole Salsa" Served in Pretty Bowls

Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and mix gently again. Put the mixture into pretty bowls. Chop the cilantro (again, use what you feel like eating — some people (like me) like a lot, some people like less and mix it in )– reserve a tablespoon of cilantro for each bowl as a topping. Finally put the results in pretty bowls, top with the reserved cilantro and serve it.

Suggested Uses for this Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato Dish

If you like, use this as a side dish or pile it on chopped lettuce instead of dressing. You will find it goes well on top of short chunks of celery or flat ovoids of carrots or cucumber or with your favorite tortilla chips or whole grain crackers. Then again,sometimes, I just take the bowl and get a spoon.

Enjoy and Aloha, DoT

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Journal Entry – Early Tomatoes Were Hybrids in Pots

July 16th, 2009 | Author: Dot

DoT’s Thot: I love heirloom tomatoes and the vast majority of the crop planted in 2009 are heirloom plants with the fruit anxiously awaited, since we know that to eat the best tasting tomatoes, we have to grow our own. However, the plants that show up early in the home improvement and garden shops are often the hybrid tomatoes, rather than the heirlooms.

Early Tomatoes, 23 June 2009, Celebrity and Roma

Roma and Celebrity Tomatoes Sliced

This year, I also had the misfortune of being out of town during one of the best tomato plant sales at one of the colleges. I have not gotten the hang of growing tomatoes from seeds — so, currently I rely on the good gardeners who apply their talents to keeping the heirlooms viable. Fortunately, there are enough tomato nuts to support the efforts of several horticultural departments and we all benefit. Hence, being a tomato lover I planted some fair size hybrids in pots some time in late February.

June 23, 2009 — Two Early Hybrid Tomatoes: Celebrity and Roma — Hardy and Firm

Two early tomatoes that came ripe in the third week of June were Celebrity and La Roma. Both tomatoes are hybrids, showed a great deal of hardiness with smooth skins, unblemished, and very firm. Both are a sprightly red color.

While our favorite eating tomatoes are the heirlooms, these are not as easily found in the local garden shops early in the year. These two plants were bought in February and potted in those mega-pots sitting on our patio. Conical tomato cages and bamboo stakes prop up the branches. The hardiness of the plants is noticeable and appreciated.

We frequent the horticulture department sales at local colleges for the heirloom tomato seedlings and have to wait for the sales in March each year. Our main garden tomato seedling purchases are set in the ground en masse in March.

Picked ripe from the large patio pots, these were sweeter than the store-bought tomatoes and since these were the only two ripe tomatoes available on that day, they were simply cut into rounds and wedges and then made into a simple side salad.

Side Salad of Tomatoes and Onions

Tomato and Sweet Red Onion Salad

To serve with chilled slices of sweet red onion. cut little half moon slices of onion and soak for 10 to 15 minutes in some water and ice cubes. Serve the onions along side the tomatoes.

A little squeeze of lemon over the onions and salt and pepper sprinkled over all completed the simple salad side dish.

Better Than Sore-Bought, But Not As Interesting as Heirloom Tomatoes

Decidedly an improvement from store-bought, these tomatoes only whetted my appetite for the heirloom tomatoes to come.

Reading about heirlooom and hybrid plants, it may be a good idea to support the effort to protect the horticultural diversity of this planet. In addition, I find I love the taste of heirloom tomatoes best. I will, for the time-being, do so by buying the plants and seeds of heirlooms that others passionately preserve.

The shapes, colors, and characteristics of heirloom varieties are appealing in their range of differences. In fact, I kept thinking that the Old German heirloom tomato plan somehow reminded me of pumpking and squash vines. Just looking at those twiesting tomato branches made me think of Germany, the Black Forest, and fairy tales. I have to get some pictures and post those. Aloha, DoT

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Tip: Stake Up and Tie Those Stray Tomato Branches with Velcro

July 15th, 2009 | Author: Dot

“Where but in a garden do summer hours pass so quickly?” — author unknown

Stray and Lengthy Tomato Branches

Dot’s Thot:

One of the tasks in the garden is to keep your tomato branches off the ground. I have tried a number of ways and tie-ups and while I’ll tell you my favorite tie-up method, you should use what works for you and suits your situation.

I have tried fabric strips, vegetable ties, roles of plastic coated wire, plastic strips, and finally velcro strips. Vegetable ties deteriorate pretty quickly. Most plastic strips are impossible to untie and retie.

At this time, my favorite tie-ups are strips of velcro that come on a large roll. My reason is that I like the ability to move the strips upward as the plants grow during the season.

While I tie up the branches pretty low in the beginning, the tomato branches quickly grow taller and need staking and tying at a higher point. Often the lower stalk is now thicker and

Velcro Tie to Tomato Cage or to Stake

Circular Tomato Cage Supplemented with Bamboo Stakes Is Convenient Place to Hang the Roll of Velcro and the Scissors You Need.

stronger and no longer needs the tie, so I unzip that velcro and move it higher up the stalk.

With the other things, reuse tends to be problematic. With Velcro, I have a flexible tie-up. When I first cut the strip, I make it a little long so as to be able to handle the growing girth of the branches in later weeks. Depending on the plant and situation, I cut the strips appropriately. Most strips tend to be cut about 3-4 inches long.

The roll I buy at the garden shop or in the garden department of the home improvement store comes in a 45-foot length. I also buy the tallest conical tomato cages I can find and then insert bamboo stakes inside the topmost circle and sink those in the ground around the cage, between the metal legs of the cage. This arrangement makes it convenient to hang the roll of velcro from one of the bamboo stakes, resting on the cage’s top circle. I poke my little scissors through the hole of the roll and this keeps both of them handy for using. I am sure there are lots of other ways to do this right and am just sharing what has worked for me.

I have included a reference to a video about pruning tomatoes, which is my one resolution for growing tomatoes better next year. The video also includes a demonstration of string trellising around a row of stakes — maybe I will try that another year.

Aloha, Dot

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Grow Tomatoes Journal: Review Update on Omar’s Lebanese Heirloom Beefsteak

July 14th, 2009 | Author: Dot

DoT’s Thot: “I never feel so humbled as when I see what a tomato plant can yield and what nature provides.”

7 July 2009: Bountiful Harvest of Omar’s Lebanese Beefsteak Tomatoes

Omar's Lebanese Heirloom Beefsteak Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) Ready for Harvest

Over Twelve Pounds of Omar's Lebanese Heirloom Beefsteak Tomatoes

Harvested some tomatoes today, including some whopper Omar’s Lebanese Beefsteak tomatoes, several of which have bottomed out my kitchen scale at over 18 ounces each.

I put the harvest in a pan with some dish towels, having zeroed the bathroom scale with the container and towels. The result was over 12 pounds of beautiful rosy pink, huge, meaty heirloom Omar’s Lebanese tomatoes. This means the tomato lives up to its reputation for 1 to 2 pound fruits, since the nine tomatoes weighed over 12 pounds.

The last time I reviewed these tomatioes, there were some beauties as well. I had some on a sunny windowsill that continued to ripen and develop flavor.

July 9, 2009 — Omar’s Lebanese Ripened Tomato Slices for Dinner

Omar's Lebanese Beefsteak Tomato Slices 9 July 09

Taking one of these for side dish for dinner, I sliced one of the large ones and served it up. The flavor had deepened just as the color of the tomato had deepened. Though still not as acidic as my favorite tomatoes, my taste buds upped the notch a bit for this tomato.

I was also pleased to see that the tomatoes did not crack as easily as some other tomatoes and the color has been a rosey-pink that deepens to an intense rosy pink, bordering on red. It is pretty to serve and many tomatoes provide a 1-slice-will-do sandwich.

This is a plant it again tomato and I would put this plant in one of the favored positions in the tomato row. It seemed appropriate to write about this tomato again, since I am enjoying it so much. We did better this year than last year with this plant. Last year, it seems we did not give it sufficient water at some points in time. Aloha, DoT

Grow Tomatoes Journal News: 2009 Late Blight hits East Coast

July 10th, 2009 | Author: Dot

Roma Tomato Displaying Late Blight Effects

“I don’t say my golf game is bad, but if I grew tomatoes they’d come up sliced” — unknown

Dot’s Thot: If our tomato gardening goofs only “sliced” out tomatoes, we would be in BLT heaven.

I was surfing the net again to learn more about tomatoes and came across this news item about a current tomato disease from The Washington Post today. “Late Blight Comes Early, Hitting Tomatoes Hard, Experts Say“. You can follow the link for the full article. If you are growing tomatoes at home here is my quick summary of the news.

Late blight threatens commercial tomato production and can affect the home grower as well. It is a fungal disease that is the same problem that affected the potato crops in Ireland in the 1840s. That caused a potato famine and was the impetus for one of the large migrations to our eastern seaboard. Both tomatoes and potatoes belong to the nightshade family.

The problem is being reported from Maine to South Carolina and even as far west as Ohio. California was not mentioned — and tomatoes are a huge crop out here. The official name for the disease is Phytophthora infestans and there are pesticide sprays for it. However, for organic farmers, neem oil sprays can be used, but must be reapplied weekly.

Usually late blight appears late in the tomato growing season (April to October, according to the article — though we get our seedlings in March here in southern California). This year, because of the more rain and cold weather than usual, the fungus has appeared early.

To see more pictures to help you identify the disease, the article says to go to the Maryland cooperative extension service blog, Grow It, Eat It, at http://www.growit.und.edu. Go to the site above for the full article and go to the site in this paragraph to see more pictures. If you find plants with the disease, you are to put the plants in a plastic bag, seal it and trash the lot; do not compost as the spores from the fungus will continue to spread.

I went to that recommended site and stumbled upon another useful site called the HGIC Plant Diagnostic Web Site (home page) and their page on Spots/Blotches: Late Blight of Tomato and Potato. I have now put that on my list of useful, horticulturally sound information. They endeared themselves to me even more, since I spotted a thumbnail photo of the Monarch Butterfly Caterpiller in their banner; Monarchs are my favorite butterfly.

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