My new measuring 'stick' is butter these days. We all know how big one is, so it is a perfect comparison tool. You may recall a few blogs ago I used butter to show the size of our plums, which are nearly finished.
You might also recall that I had a 'plant failure' in June because I'd forgotten to take the cover off the plants one day when it finally warmed up. The plants were 'baked', so to speak, and have taken their time in the recovery room. Today, in this Indian Summer weather, I have picked a bucket of luscious keepers.
I would love to be able to grow Brandywines and Principe Borghese, but they don't do well in the cool summers we endure here at 3000 feet near the mountains in Idaho.
The two favorite keepers in the bowl are the Amish Paste Tomatoes we jokingly call our footballs. They are meaty and flavorful. The Fedco catalog touts them as "prolific, good in drought and wet weather. They were also ranked as the 2nd best-tasting variety at the 2006 Heirloom Tomato Tasting at Decorah, IA." This year I was willing to give space for two plants, and will certainly do that again next year! The Cosmonaut Volkov is the other tomato in the bowl. It is "sweet, rich and fullbodied", says the Fedco Catalog, "always good and occasionally sublime." Both of these tomatoes have passed numerous tests here in the high mountain country where the days are short and cool. The heat of summer is short. We've already had one frost that I know of. And these just keep on tickin'!
You can see the plants have recovered quite well. 
I am getting about 2 1/2 gallons each day right now. And you KNOW what I do with them if you read the last blog on Salsa!
5 comments:
Beautiful plants and tomatoes. Ours have completely slowed down. They just don't want to ripen up. I hoping they'll perk up a little now that we've got some warmer weather during the days.
Your toms are beautiful. So thankful you got a harvest after all....God is good!
They looks great! I am getting tons from my stepmom!
Your tomatoes are lovely! It's now November and the only tomatoes I have left are a flat in my garage which were green when I picked them, but are now all just about ripe. We've really been enjoying them! We enjoyed Rutgers and Brandywines. Unfortunately, my Amish Paste didn't recover from an accidental early freeze in the greenhouse. :( Next year!
Your sticks of butter are shaped much differently from ours in Minnesota--ours are long and skinny. But I can still imagine how big the tomatoes are. :-)
Post a Comment