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Grow Tomatoes Review: Pineapple Tomato

August 12th, 2009 | Author: Dot

NOTE: DoT has been posting from Honolulu since late July when she left California to help her mother through some medical procedures. She will be doing so until she can return to Orange County

Pineapple Heirloom Beefsteak Tomatoes, July 16, 2009

DoT’s Thot: “Pizza with pineapple, that’s a cake…Pizza with cucumber, it’s an insult. — (Alessio Vinci ).

Pineapple Tomato — that’s a winner.– (DoT)

Pineapple Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato Characteristics

The Pineapple tomato was listed as an heirloom beefsteak tomato with maturity date of 85 days. It is an indeterminate (I) heirloom tomato plant.

The pineapple tomato is bicolored, red and yellow and reputed to weigh up to 2 pounds. The flavor is rich, sweet, and fruity.

Pineapple Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato Review

Slices of Pineapple Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato 20 July 2009

Our Pineapple Tomato plant yielded it’s first tomato on July 16, 2009, having been put into the ground as a seedling in mid-March. It was definitely one of our late tomatoes which makes this beefsteak tomato appealing from the point of view of extending the heirloom tomato season as much as possible, since we enjoy these fruits so very much.

Our garden’s Pineapple heirloom beefsteak tomato plant did not yield the very large tomatoes I would have liked. The tomatoes were more in the range of 1/2 to 3/4 pounds.

They are beautiful tomatoes that show little cracking (a real plus here with our periodic heat waves). Though the tomatoes were smaller, there was an abundance of tomatoes and the harvest has been good. I think I need to learn to prune my tomato plants — this is definitely the resolution for what to do differently next season.

Distinctive Red Edging on Pineapple Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato Slices

The pineapple tomato itself is bursting with juicy flavor, very meaty, and a beautiful golden yellow orange with red mottling in the flesh. This is a very sweet tomato. If you look closely at the Pineapple Tomato slices, you can see the unusual and distinctive red edge that the skin provides against the mottled flesh. It is quite unique and beautiful.

Pineapple Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato Harvest on 17 July 2009

Grow Tomatoes Review Bottom Line for the Pineapple Tomato:

This heirloom tomato goes on the list for next year. A late season beefsteak tomato, it is plentiful and beautiful, tasty and yields tomatoes not prone to cracking which is a real plus in our Southern California garden.

Aloha, DoT

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Earl of Edgecombe Heirloom Tomato

August 7th, 2009 | Author: Dot

Salad Plate with Earl of Edgecombe Heirlom Tomato

DoT’s Thot: Home is where tomatoes grow in the garden. I do believe this is one reason I feel so happy when the tomatoes go into the ground in the backyard. This point in the year has come to be a tradition and a marker in our lives at home. Here is a tomato that found its way to us from New Zealand and frankly, I want to give this heirloom tomato a permanent spot in our backyard tomato garden.

Beautiful Golden Orange Earl of Edgecombe Tomato

Earl of Edgecombe Heirloom Tomato Description

Earl of Edgecombe heirloom tomato is an indeterminate tomato plant that hails from New Zealand. When the Sixth Earl of Edgecombe died in the 1960’s, the relative and heir to the title lived in New Zealand as a sheep farmer. He went to England to claim his title and brought this tomato to England and it became the Earl of Edgecombe tomato.

The plant is surprisingly disease free and is resistant to blossom end rot, cracking, and other diseases. It has a lot of foliage and provides good cover for the developing fruit. This is a very good trait for my Southern California garden, because some other tomato plants with fewer leaves sometimes develop “sunburned” fruit with faded white spots on them.

The fruit are slicer sized, about 3 inched in diameter and are a gorgeous orange-gold color, very uniform in appearance, without any green shoulders. The plant was listed as 73 days to maturity. The seedling planted in the ground in early March yielded the first fruit on July 5, 2009 in our garden.

I was impressed with how well the plant did and how very beautiful the fruit were. Next we need to review the taste of this smooth-skinned, lovely heirloom tomato.

DoT's Earl of Edgecombe Tomato -- Two Slices with Top

Grow Tomatoes Review of the Earl of Edgecombe Tomato

We sliced our tomatoes and first just tasted some plain. Yum. Not only was the external skin an unblemished rich orange-gold, but the internal flesh was again uniformly colored, somewhat lighter in color, but what a beautiful yellow-gold. Firm, but not crunchy, the tomato is very tasty, juicy, not watery, and leaves a nice tomatoey aftertaste.

Then we made a caprese salad out of this heirloom tomato, fresh mozarella cheese, fresh basil leaves. I picture the salad here before adding the salt and pepper, and balsamic vinegar and fine extra virgin olive oil. This was one of the finest heirloom tomato salads we have had this summer.

Earl of Edgecombe Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

Bottom Line: Earl of Edgecombe Heirloom Tomato One of the Best

My bottom line conclusion is that this is an excellent tomato, one of the best of the season. I will most definitely want to plant Earl of Edgecombe Heirloom Tomatoes again next year, because of the excellent balanced flavor, the meatiness, firm, yet creamy texture, beautiful deep orange medium sized fruit.

Both the skin and flesh are a gorgeouis even deep color. The tomatoes on my plant were also smooth textured and less showed very few cracks. Productivity was not as high as some, yet most satisfying. This is an exceptional tomato.

Aloha, DoT

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Vintage Wine Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato

July 27th, 2009 | Author: Dot

Ripe Vintage Wine Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato in DoT's Hand 14 July 2009

DoT’s Thot: What’s in a name? It appears that this tomato was well-named. I bought it because Vintage Wine Beefsteak had a nice ring to it; my friends can remember this tomato by name, and it performed well.

Vintage Wine Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Has Performed Well in 2009

This tomato has produced many fruits and yields very pretty, truly striped tomatoes. When I gave some tomatoes away, I had very positive feedback.

I did have to net the tomatoes in July, because the birds realized what a great find the tomato rows were. I also had some critter attacks on ripening fruit — we have lots of trees in our city and I have seen an occasional coyote, a raccoon, and several opossums. My neighbor’s dog had a run-in with a skunk, though I never saw it; I did smell it. Of course, we battle gophers and an occasional ground squirrel.

Vintage Wine Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Plant with Green Tomatoes - 13 June 2009

Vintage Wine Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Ripening on the Vine 25 June 2009

Description of Vintage Wine Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Plant

This is a potato leaf indeterminate (I) tomatoplant recently introduced. It is a bicolor tomato which was listed as 85 days to maturity. It is considered somewhat rare, because of the unique striping of the fruit. Bought in early March, the plants (only variety that got duplicated) were in the ground no more than 2 weeks later. By mid-June there were many green tomatoes on the plants. By the end of June we were eating ripe tomatoes.

The plants produced an abundance of succulent tomatoes throughout July. So far, we have harvested at least 25 pounds of Vintage Wine heirloom tomatoes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Grow Tomatoes Review: My Mortgage Lifter Beefsteak Heirloom Experience in 2009

July 25th, 2009 | Author: Dot

Mortgage Lifter Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Slices

DoT’s Thot: “There’s only two things that money can’t buy/That’s true love and home grown tomatoes.” — [MUSIC: Guy Clark "Home Grown Tomato" from 'Keepers' (Sugar Hill Records – 1997]

Mortgage Lifter Plant is Green and Vigorous June 13, 2009

The Mortgage Lifter Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Story Summary

Few tomatoes have such a wonderful story as Mortgage Lifter Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato. I had heard a vague reference to the story about “Radiator” Charlie, but was delighted to find more details on posts on the internet. It is a great depression era story and I have to admit to wanting to plant this heirloom tomato because of its name. If you are intrigued by the name, take the time to visit the referenced site and enjoy it.

MC Byles worked for seven years to develop this strain of tomato back in the depression days and sold the seeds to pay down his mortgage. He bred 5 tomatoes until he was satisfied with the stable strain that became “Mortgage Lifter”. It was not a fluke, but a good idea persistently pursued and a keen sense of business that gave us this beloved tomato to grow.

Mortgage Lifter Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato Flowers 13 June 2009

My Experience in Growing Mortgage Lifter Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato in 2009

This year, the tomato plant went in late in March and following the excellent advice of old-time tomato growers at the Fullerton Arboretum who volunteered at the tomato sale we stripped off most of the early growth and buried 80% of the Mortgage Lifter beefsteak tomato plant. It grew lustily and into a hefty vine, supported by 2 tomato cages and a number of bamboo stakes. What I have not understood is why that one particular tomato plant has not fruited well.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Journal Entry – Pink Thai Egg Tomato Volunteer

July 9th, 2009 | Author: Dot

Thai Pink Egg Tomato Hunt

Dot’s Thot: How many Easter eggs can you put in an empty basket?
Only one – after that it’s not empty any more! — author unknown

Early June 2009: Volunteer Pink Thai Egg heirloom tomato plant self-seeded from 2008.

Don’t these look like little white, pink, and green easter eggs hanging on a tomato plant? Thot to show you a photo of that volunteer Pink Thai Egg plant that produced the very first tomato this season. It is suitable for pot or container gardening and is an heirloom tomato that self-seeded true to form from last year’s crop.

The plant is prolific and fills with small egg-shaped ovoids in light green, white, light pink, and finally, rosy pink colors. Picking the ripe fruit is very much like an Easter egg hunt. You have to reach in and between to get to the ripe ones. These are mild in flavor, a pretty color. Even though they are not acidic enough for my taste and lack a lot of flavor, although

Clusters of Pink Thai Egg Heirloom Tomatoes in Early June Promise the Fun of the "Thai Pink Easter Egg Hunt" Later

the plant and fruit offer the benefit of being a real looker and at peak last year was so loaded with fuit ast to be an outstanding tomato producer — for much of the season. the plant did resemble an Easter egg tree.

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