2011 season Wyoming & Mexico

[brokenbar]

Home for a few days so wanted to post some info on my 2011 growing season and my Son's season in Wyoming both growing same varieties.

I had previously mentioned that I would be trialing "Venetian Marketplace" with seeds I saved from a big, ugly paste tomato bought at the old market in Venice.

WOW! Plants loaded top to bottom! Red-red, big, averaging 1.5 lbs in my Mexico garden and 1.0 pound in my Son's Wyoming garden. Plants were huge, lush and held the tomatoes snugly on branches. Stems on fruit were thick and I had to cut stems to remove ripe tomatoes.

Only about 30 seeds per tomato and very dense flesh. Dry-ish but not as dry as some others I grow. My Son emailed me a photo but I have nowhere to post it to link back to and I guess you cannot directly upload photos from your computer to the forum? I do not own a camera, do not take pictures and have no pictures in my home so I can claim "photo technique" ignorance!

Nile River Egyptian- HUGE classical heart-shape (had 2 that were more than 2 lbs) very red, few seeds and dry. I originally got these seeds from an SSE member (who brought them home from Egypt) and she said her production was lousy and never offered them again. This was my third year growing these and they did equally well in my Wyoming garden. One of my first to ripen in my Wyoming garden and ditto for Mexico. These are on my "Top 10" list of favorite tomatoes, grown for my particular needs and criteria () Dense flesh and hardly any juice or seeds.

Zapotec, one of the most underrated tomatoes IMHO and absolutely on my top 10. NEVER fails to produce a HUGE crop of big tomatoes. Considered a "stuffing" tomato, they really are only about 1/2 hollow. They also have a fine, zingy flavor. Perfect for drying and I love to stuff these with pasta salad. In Mexico, they use this tomato almost entirely for making their salsa because it has little juice.

Chico Grande- Seeds from SSE member 3 years ago. Big paste tomato that really is not a heart and is not a plum looking type. Has a very definite point on the bottom. I have grown these three years, both locations and they put out a massive crop of 1/2 to 3/4 lb pointed red paste tomatoes. Excellent tangy flavor and they seemed to take whatever Mother Nature handed out. These are one of the driest fleshed tomatoes I grow.

Mushroom Basket-Russian, seed from Baker Creek. BIG ruffled/fluted/ribbed tomato. Dense flesh. Sweeter variety. A little too sweet and a little to wet for my needs but certainly a wonderful tomato. Only one glitch...Baker Creek describes this as a "determinate" variety and mine were anything but. Big, tall plants that set fruit throughout the season. They are the correct tomato as mine looked and tasted exactly as Baker Creek's description said they would but definitely not determinate. No matter, my husband will continue growing these as he was impressed with their size and taste. Photo below Baker Creek



These above were my standouts. Federle and Carol Chyko, utterly unremarkable and always did well for me in Wyoming but Mexico, forgetaboutit.

Romeo and Big Momma were at least good enough to grow again.

Cows Tit...not real big tomatoes but these plants were just covered with these crazy looking things. They look like a cayenne pepper (fatter) but really pointy and stick out in all directions from the plant. Probably the zingiest flavor of all the paste types I grew.

One other, I am going to call this "Chorizo Plano". (Flat Sausage) Seeds from Guatemala. 5 to 6" long, bright red and look very like the variety "Sausage" but look like someone put their hand on them and squished them down. 6" long by 1/2 " thick. Weird dudes. These were so prolific, I actually thinned the plants a little and got tired of picking them. I used these almost exclusively for salsa. I am jazzed about this tomato.

Tomatillo- Large Purple from Baker Creek-These were all bigger than a golf ball with many larger than that. I also grew Purple Jalapeno and I made "Salsa Violeta" (Violet sauce) I canned this salsa in 1/2 pints and will send as xmas gifts. Beautiful looking salsa with a bite! Tomatillos were a deep purple and much sweeter than other tomatillos when fully ripe. Purple Jalapenos were pretty darn hot but also very fruity.

Home for a few days then off to Cozumel to lay on my posterior with a Margarita and my Kindle and do nothing for a week. Will then be flying to London to see my Brother for the first time in 23 years. Son coming down in October and he will be shipping out seeds I offer in November. Mexican Postal Service is a nightmare. To Rome to catch a cruise in November that will hit several cool ports in the Mediterranean (Morocco!) & eventually cross the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale. Upon return, will be time to start my plants.
!

I have watched the news detailing all of the terrible weather all over the US and the destruction of the fires. My heart goes out to all of you trying to garden in such adverse conditions.

I am enjoying our new life immensely and love that I can see what others are growing as we travel country to country.

Thanks to Suze who told me how to upload it! Click on it for full size.

[fortyonenorth]

Great to hear such a colorful description of your bi-lateral gardening this year, Brokenbar. Sounds like you found some new winners. I grew Nile River Egyptian this year and liked it a lot. Great for sauce, but also great taste. Production was good, but not great for me here in the lower Great Lakes.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

Great to hear such a colorful description of your bi-lateral gardening this year, Brokenbar. Sounds like you found some new winners. I grew Nile River Egyptian this year and liked it a lot. Great for sauce, but also great taste. Production was good, but not great for me here in the lower Great Lakes.

I definitely had better overall production in Mexico for NRE. I really like this tomato a lot. Has a great consistency and was one of the meatiest I dried. It was equally precocious in Wyoming compared to Mexico and always had the first ripe tomato of my mid-season variety garden. I was REALLY BUMMED about Federle which has always been a mainstay in my drying business. It HATED Mexico...late fruit set, smaller fruit and was not as dry...Opalka was also kind of mediocre...I will say this...every plant I grew was nearly double the size (height) than in Wyoming. They all really loved the humidity. I had several plants that outgrew their 7' T Post and I had to wire a longer 2X4 to the T post. Seemed like I was tying plants up twice a day! I am still getting used to this "azzbackwards" growing season...All August I felt like I should be DOING SOMETHING!

[fortyonenorth]

Have you tried Wessell's Purple Pride? It was my fave saucer this year. It's a cross between Cherokee Purple and Green Sausage. Excellent production of elongated purplish fruit, most in the 8-10 oz. range, but I had a handful of doubles up to a pound. Great flavor and beautiful to boot.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by brokenbar

Home for a few days so wanted to post some info on my 2011 growing season and my Son's season in Wyoming both growing same varieties.

There is a lot of climate variation in Wyoming [g] -- where is your sons garden? (Area/elevation -- not home address)

In the Bighorn foothills, we find quite a bit of difference in temp/snow just between our location and our post office a mile and a half away -- both locations in the same sheltered valley, but we are a about 5400 ft while they are about 5000 ft and we are closer to the mountains -- we can have snow when they have flowers -- but we also often have rain when they are dry.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by JLJ_

There is a lot of climate variation in Wyoming [g] -- where is your sons garden? (Area/elevation -- not home address)

In the Bighorn foothills, we find quite a bit of difference in temp/snow just between our location and our post office a mile and a half away -- both locations in the same sheltered valley, but we are a about 5400 ft while they are about 5000 ft and we are closer to the mountains -- we can have snow when they have flowers -- but we also often have rain when they are dry.

Almost on the Montana/Wyoming border at the base of Big Horns and Pryor Mountains. We were pretty much surrounded by mountains on three sides so very, very little snow (4500' elev)
And like you, you could get snow and down the road 1 mile, nothing...And there could be a 10 degree temp variation between house and our P.O in town...Wyoming is a darn hard place to garden!

[delltraveller]

If I was guessing, I'd guess that you grow for drying, salsa and sauce.

It's nice to hear some positive feedback on Zapotec. It's one I'm thinking about trying.

I wonder how your "Chorizo Plano" would do here in the Midwest...

I'm looking for some nice sized drier varieties to grow for my aunt, who likes a meaty, dry tomato for her BLTs. She doesn't like her bread to get soggy.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by delltraveller

If I was guessing, I'd guess that you grow for drying, salsa and sauce.

It's nice to hear some positive feedback on Zapotec. It's one I'm thinking about trying.

I wonder how your "Chorizo Plano" would do here in the Midwest...

I'm looking for some nice sized drier varieties to grow for my aunt, who likes a meaty, dry tomato for her BLTs. She doesn't like her bread to get soggy.

In Wyoming I had a sun dried tomato business selling to Chefs in Wyoming and Montana so that explains my list! (My Husband grows all the "weird" tomatoes...every color under the sun, huge, miniscule, ultra early, etc.)

I will have seeds for Chorizo Plano in November. They were about 80 days for me so I do not see why they would not do alright for you. Zapotec...honestly, I have grown it for more than 20 years and it is still a favorite. Always puts out a huge crop of big ruffled tomatoes for me. Plants get pretty tall also. They did just great for me in Wyoming. I always took these stuffed with a pasta salad when I had to bring a "dish" and everyone always ooed and ahhed over them.
They take wind and heat and even cooler temps and nothing seems to phase them.

For Marinara sauce, as I have said on this forum many, many times, no tomato but Costoluto Genovese will do. These have done really well in Mexico. I did 48 quarts of Marinara, much of which will be xmas gifts. I akways make 5 or 6 quarts of Marinara using tomatoes I am trialing but none has ever been as good as CG.

My Husband makes fresh salsa every single day we are home. He wants extremely dry tomatoes for that. He eats salsa on everything and also inhales Salsa Verde like it's tequila. He and two of our Mexican neighbors had a hot pepper eating (read that as ★★★★ing) contest and I thought they were all going to pass out! Sweat poring off their heads and their eyes bulging out of the sockets!

He grows all the peppers,some 40 varieties this year. He dries them and pickles them and gives tons away. Here in Mexico, you do not see a lot of variety in the peppers grown so they love all his weird ones.

I will make sure and PM you when my Son gets ready to send out seeds in November. I really likes the Chorizo Plano.

[Heritage]

brokenbar,

That's an interesting comparison, thanks for posting. I'm surprised Carol Chyko's Big Paste didn't do better for you, it loves the So Cal inland weather.

Somewhere I thought you posted a list of your favorite drying tomatoes but I can't find the thread. Would you mind reposting or point me to the thread. Or was I dreaming?

Thanks,
Steve

[fortyonenorth]

I had one of brokenbar's posts bookmarked here:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ighlight=chyko

[brokenbar]

Drying
Federle
Zapotec
Carol Chyko (Wyoming)
Nile River Egyptian
Chinese
(This makes my top 5 but I somehow overlooked this one when starting seeds last year. Getting old...)
Big Mama
Romeo
Howards German (this is a really late tomato but a great one)
Opalka
Chico Grande
Quaro D Toro

I want them big, dry, few seeds and indeterminate

I also grow Brads Black Heart and an un-named big black heart because chefs were willing to pay double for black sun-dried tomatoes (HAHAHAHAHAHA) and I was willing to let them do it.

Sauce
Costoluto Genovese
Russo Sicilian Togeta

I want dry, really zingy. These two take practically no cooking down.

It is also a matter of taste (mine) on the drying tomatoes. I have grown more than a hundred varieties over the years and those above are what did best for me, meeting my criteria and doing well in my growing conditions in Wyoming. Who knows...I may go back and try some of the varieties I gave the "thumbs down" to because they may do great in Mexico.

[Heritage]

ah... thanks, that's the thread I was imagining...

and thanks brokenbar, great info.

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

I had one of brokenbar's posts bookmarked here:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ighlight=chyko