Earlier in the month, I had the best tasting and strangest looking BLT ever!
Yes those are green tomatoes, but they are ripe tomatoes. They are slices from the heirloom tomato, Aunt Ruby's German Green and they were delicious! This was the first year for me growing this variety, and it has earned itself a spot in next year's lineup! This first year was hard for me since I never knew when the tomatoes were ripe. I kept waiting too long to pick them and the raccoons and groundhog would get them instead. Finally I was able to harvest some late in the season and made these funny looking but great tasting BLT sandwiches.
The weather has been unusual all of 2007. January and February were warm but then we had a record cold March and April with much snowfall. Since then we've had the worst drought in my lifetime and the hottest Summer and Fall. It was difficult to keep the garden watered, but the tomato plants that made it have still been giving me ripe tomatoes even in October! Here is my most recent Fall tomato assortment:
These are slices from three of my heirlooms; Caspian Pink, Black Krim, and Aunt Ruby's German Green. I planted many heirloom tomatoes this year but not all of them did well. Soon I will post a 2007 report card for each veggie variety I grew. A tomato that I know will get a positive grade is my extra-early Early Girl tomato. Not only did I pick the first ripe tomato on June 15th, but these plants kept producing all year. Today, on October 21st, I was able to pick a few last Early Girls!
That's over four full months of Early Girl Tomato picking! Maybe I even could have gotten more since frost is still not in the 10-day forecast. The only reason October 21st is the last official day is because I worked in the garden today and cleared out all of the tomato plants. I also built a makeshift compost bin and planted garlic and Kenny's Potato Onions today. I will tell you more about all of that in other posts this week. For now, I am just happy to be back in the garden and back to blogging.
hey marc! you have got to have the freakiest looking tomatoes EVER! those green ones remind me of avacado.
welcome back - we missed you.
Posted by: October 22, 2007 at 04:36 AM
Hi Marc - I thought I'd leave a note on your blog and say that I never knew that Early Girls were tomatoes! Now I know what the Early Girl Eatery restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina is named after! I thought it was just a cute little name!
Posted by: Nikki (your cousin!) | October 22, 2007 at 07:51 AM
Like you, our early girl tomatoes produced first--and we're still picking! I prefer hybrids because there is so much more variety, but you can't beat the production of an early girl! I will always have one, just so that I can enjoy the tomatoes as long as possible.
--Robin (Bumblebee)
Posted by: October 23, 2007 at 04:07 PM
Green tomatoes...wow....with the price of tomatoes here I'm growing several plants to feed my addiction now. However, there might be some more room : )
Posted by: October 25, 2007 at 05:44 PM
My conditioning is still telling my brain that those are not ripe enough to eat......
Posted by: October 28, 2007 at 08:26 AM
Wow, "Early Girl" is also late girl...cool. That green tomato looks very delicous and meaty. Is there a difference in the acid content like with yellow tomatoes?
Posted by: November 01, 2007 at 07:52 PM
We didn’t grow any green varieties this year, but we did grow some yellow ones. Our beefsteak tomatoes were huge last year, but the inclement weather this summer (a lot of rain) didn’t help matters. Some of them did get big though and very, very tasty!
Sara and I do our gardening on Gabriola Island on the mild West Coast of Canada. Sara grows the flowers, I tend the vegetables. This year we grew squash, zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers, as well as kale, peas, and beans.
We feed our plants a 100% organic diet. A Canadian company makes an outstanding fertilizer called Iguana Juice, Grow and Bloom. We also use some of their other products to inoculate our plants against pathogens and diseases (Scorpion Juice) and strengthen our roots with beneficial fungi and bacteria (Piranha and Tarantula).
Don’t be put off by the exotic names. These products are great! Visit our blog and see the pictures, if you don’t believe me!
Happy Autumn,
Tim and Sara
Posted by: November 03, 2007 at 01:42 AM
Those tomatoes look soooo good! But, I have to ask...where is the mayo on that sandwich??!
I really like Caspian Pink...hope it did well for you (that one in the pictures looks pretty yum!).
Hmmm, I will have to rethink Early Girl...especially as she is so productive for such a long time!
Take care now.
Posted by: November 16, 2007 at 05:16 AM