Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Tomatoes, Tomahtoes. Green Stripey Ones!

Memorial Day, after three counts to confirm, we tallied 88 tomato plants in our garden. After a typical Upstate New York chicken barbecue, FarmBoy and my Dad headed out to Natureberry farm where they were given free plants, seconds if you will, that could not be sold due to some relatively minor frostbite.

You can't not adopt a homeless, frost-touched plant start - it's unAmerican!  So FarmBoy brought oodles of plants home. A dozen went to a Mennonite family who saw their own covered plants frost killed and were delighted to see replacements. Others went to villagers in our neighborhood who had bare spots in their gardens.

We now have over 145 planted tomato plants in more varieties than I could ever name. They came in green zebra, black, brown, purple, red, pink, yellow, orange, as well as currant, grape, cherry, plum, and beefsteak sized tomatoes.  I'm most excited to see the currant sized tomatoes for the first time.

My 9 year old Sarah absolutely loves the green zebra tomato. 
These are actually a little on the overripe side, with the yellowing, but are even better at a stone cold green. They have a slightly more complex flavor, like a ketchup spice flavor, rather than just plain tomato. Sarah claims it's the only tomato she likes.  Bring on the bacon, I'm going to have lots of tomatoes for salads and sandwiches.  And canning sassy salsa, and lots of paste tomatoes for bottling for sauce, freshly made on the stove. 

In fact, I think I'll go to my Mennonite friend Mrs. Stauffer's farm stand.  She's located on Ferguson Corner's road if you're local here in New York. She has hothouse tomatoes ready now, and I think I need a bacon tomato sandwich for lunch. Immediately. More on the why on Friday.

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