Tuesday, August 18, 2009

tomatoes gone wild

"Only two things that money can't buy, That's true love and homegrown tomatoes"- Guy Clark



And I couldn't agree more! I love my tomato patch, it's wild and unruly,home to bugs and weeds as well as the tomato plants. I always seem to plant them to close together, that little 2" plant quickly grows to 3ft tall! They are to me the essences of summer. I love the smell of all the plants together, brings me right back to my childhood, popping warm tomatoes into my mouth as I wondered in the garden. I love growing tomatoes because the are so easy to grow here. Put them in the ground at the end of may, water, lots of sunshine, the odd conversation with your plants and Voila! A fabulous reward of summer filled with tomatoes! I like growing all the really weird kinds that you can't get the supermarket. Here's a little tour around my patch of what I've grown this year.

Yellow pear tomatoes, the size of a cherry, great for snacks and good in salads. Sweet taste, low acid.


Lemon boy tomatoes, the size of a large plum. Great in almost anything salsas, tomato sandwiches, tomato sauce, salads... I made yellow ketchup with these last year and it turned out great.

Roma tomatoes, the size of plum. I use these mostly in tomato sauce, I use them fresh in sauce now and in a few weeks when the glut of tomatoes arrive, I make a canned tomato sauce for the winter months.


Fresh picked tomatoes ready to be made into a salad. Pineapple tomatoes, this is an heirloom tomato and my first year growing it and haven't tried it yet. It's almost ripe, so will report back on it soon. It's the size of an apple.

A patio tomato, always good for early tomatoes and easy to grow in a pot.

The patio tomato full view. I also grew a ton of cherry tomatoes, sweet 100's but forgot to take a picture of them. They are a sweet small tomato great for eating as snacks, in salads and salsas.


Simple tomato salad with basil, olive oil and salt and pepper. The perfect companion to any summer dinner.

7 comments:

meplusmolly said...

Fab, love your tomato patch! and your salad looks yummy ;0

Devonia said...

thanks for the comment! salad was very tasty!! xx

Mrs B said...

oh I am green with envy! You should see the v v v v sorry specimens that I have produced, we pick three red tomatoes off it, had one each and sighed! I long for that tomato salad! x

Devonia said...

you will have to come for a visit one summer and we can have tomato feast!! x

Mrs B said...

I would love love love that!! x

positivelycupcakes said...

I have one tomato plant this year, the tomatoes are just starting to turn red. Next year I'd like to plant some different kinds~your plants (and your salad!) look awesome and you've given me some great ideas for next year!

Anonymous said...

Hey Devon,

You were a lot better off than we were this year with tomatoes. The ones Alicia had planted are way overgrown and we didn't get ONE tomato off of them the entire year. Last year we had them in another spot and had tons of them, but had to move them this year.

-Jake