The Homegrown Tomato

I live in the South. We grow tomatoes. We grow them indoors, outdoors, on our patios, in our greenhouses, we grow them. Lots of varieties. We love them. I love them.

Everybody grows at least ONE tomato plant here. Even my neighbor that rarely goes outside or gardens, even she plants one lone solitary tomato just outside her back porch.

One tomato plant. That is putting all your eggs in one basket. Livin’ on the edge. I could not survive with one tomato plant.

I guess that is because we have so many uses for them. We make our own pizza and spaghetti sauce and then pressure can batches to last through the fall and winter. We also make our own salsas. LB loves to pick fresh peppers and tomatoes, and he whips up the BEST homemade salsa. For supper in the summer, we often just have chips and salsa along with a taco or small salad. I’ll be sure to toss out some of those salsa recipes.

Tomatoes do great things: they make things like

• just plain sliced and salted
• sliced and salted and dipped in mayo
• halved, balsamic vinegar, basil, and mozzarella melt
• sliced on a plate, sprinkle with salt, basil, and vinegar, let marinate, then EAT
• tomato sauce
• spaghetti sauce
• relish, jam, chutney
• stuffed tomatoes
• tomatoes and cottage cheese
• homemade ketchup
• macaroni pasta and fresh tomato sauce
• tomato bread
• baked or broiled halves with mozzarella or asiago cheese
• gazpacho ( I LOVE fresh gazpacho!)
• quiche
• pizza sauce
• The Rancher’s Daughter Tomato Sandwich
• My Liver Cheese Sandwich
• Great Salads
• Sliced and Totally Alone
• marinara sauce over angel hair
• Fried Green Tomatoes
• Pica de Gallo
• Homemade Salsa
• Chili Mix in a Jar
• chili, stew, soup, gumbo
• Chow Chow
• Piccalilli
• Mexican and Tex Mex

THIS could go on forever. Tomatoes are wonderful; I don’t want to go into the “is it a fruit or is it a vegetable” issue cause I’ve read up on that on BOTH sides, and right now I just don’t care.

We have a Bonnie’s Sweet 100 on the back patio growing in a pot. I meant to plant that one in the garden tho. I just got so excited when I planted them, around Easter I think,you know getting my hands in the dirt and thinking of all the gardening glory to come this summer, that I had already stuck it in the pot and watered it, and did not want to move it.

Reason is, those are not determinate, they are really indeterminate and last year I first got LB to make me some tall stakes. I put them in the pot, staked the plants, but those things grew almost to the roof. Finally I got him to put a nail on the fascia and I just tied them up that way.

Determinate plants: easier to work with, shorter, bushier, more compact, they set fruit once then they stop. Don’t require as much staking, so LB likes them. LB does not love gardening as much as I do. He does it, tho, cause I ask him to help sometimes and we like to do things together.

Indeterminate: require staking, they sprawl out all over the place, these will keep putting out fruit until the frost comes, so I like those. These give you a longer growing season.

If you are container gardening, probably best to stick to determinate varieties. Or you can be stubborn like me and plant an indeterminate in a pot anyway. I’m not talking about some little bitty pots here. They are not HUGE, but they are pretty large. They are on roller trays so we can move them around freely.

We have both, about half and half I’d say. I usually put the determinate tomato plants in the pots and the indeterminate varieties out in the garden. I move those pots on the back porch around a lot so once they are tied to the roof, that is where they’ll stay.

Anyway, the Sweet 100 is already covered in green fruit, it has always been a big producer for us. Those are those small little tomatoes for salads and plain snacking.

My Bush Goliath has some really pretty green tomatoes on it already, they are looking very healthy.

A note about plant varieties: there are varieties of vegetables that might work well in my area, but not in yours. Usually, your local feed and seed is a great source of information. Use varieties that perform well in your location. We have really hot summers here, often with hardly any water.

Tomatoes needs lots of sun and plenty of water. If it does not rain, I have to hand water. I don’t mind it, tho, it is just more time I get to spend around my plants. What I do hate are the mosquitoes, and we have plenty of those here. They need fertilizer too.

The only real pest we have with our tomatoes is the big green tomato horn worm. These suckers are ugly. They can eat a lot of foliage in a very short time, and even take a bite out of your fruit. They can be PRETTY hard to see too, they blend in really well with the tomato vine colors.

When I see evidence of one, which is pretty obvious, (chewed leaves, stressed plant), I just stare really hard and take my time, eventually I’ll see him, and just get rid of him, kill him right then and there. You know those pictures in the newspaper, where you look at it and see one thing? And you are supposed to stare at it and hopefully eventually see something else? I don’t know what you call those pictures. Anyway, finding a tomato horn worm is like that. Just stare, keep refocusing, you will see him. He is really sneaky.

I just check my plants daily, sometimes twice, but at least once, and as Barney Fife says on the Andy Griffith Show, “Nip it in the bud. Just nip it!”

More tomato fun later.

We’ll be picking tomatoes really soon. During the times we are waiting for our tomatoes to come in, we are really lucky to know the Harman Family, and that is a story to be served up all by itself. It is a great story, don’t miss it.

Happy Memorial Day! the Rancher’s Daughter