Of course. I wouldn't try growing them otherwise. One year I will succeed!
There are limits to my madness, Cal!
Gazpacho is one of them.
So is Heinz 57.
My mayo is always sugar less.. and the moutard is Dijon, not Yellow... Zut Alors... mon ami du West!
Gazpacho brings out the flavors of the fresh ingredients, it's not cooked, you see? In many dishes you can cover up the ingredients by cooking, but in some dishes, like uni, toro, gazpacho, fresh green salads, you can NOT short change it.
Heck, might as well microwave a burger and use some Safeway brand ketchup.... yuck.
OK, I do admit that yellow mustard and pastrami go together nicely.
Gormey kitchen... heck, I like that.... fancy. I wonder if they sell fancy bottles for the ketchup.
Story time.... when I was a kid, at Christmas we'd get gift baskets loaded with fruits, sweets and good whiskey. My grandmother and mother would drink the whiskey.... then, instead of tossing the bottles away, my grandmother would send me down to the corner bar and have the owner there refill the fancy bottle with whatever whisky he had in a barrel.
Same thing when we went to see my wife's Old World family for the first time. We brought with us two cases of good scotch whiskey. We took one bottle to each uncle, their eyes lit up, they put the brand new bottle away, brought an open bottle and poured. I swear, they had refilled that bottle from the local bar's barrel.
You can't judge a whiskey by it's bottle...
... but you can judge a gazpacho by the quality of the tomatoes that went in.
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I mean the seeds, silly. You got to grow them. In Barcelona you can buy those tomatoes at the supermarket... I have never seen them in North America.
But for real, follow the link. These tomatoes will last for up to six months. They use them to make pa amb tomaquet.... where you rub the tomatoes into the bread instead of using mayo.
Here.... my kind of soul food. You keep your salmon and your moutard Anglaise.... I'll take this, with some chorizo and a good wine.
I kid you not... at the restaurants - and people's homes- they were bringing trays of toasted bread slices with fresh tomatoes at our table. You rub the tomato into the bread yourself, drizzle olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. The bread is a light french bagette with a crust to dream of ( if you like bread.... it's called Pa de cristal ).
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pan-de-cristal-recipe
It was absolutely the best summer dish I could imagine.
Hint... hell no, we were not having gazpacho.... we're self respecting Catalans, you know? Gazpacho if for the gipsies in Andaluzia.
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I've been pinching the flower buds now for five weeks.... keeps the plants growing until they are about two feet tall. You don't want the plants to start fruiting too soon.
I'm getting serious again, growing them on the upstairs deck keeps the rodents from eating them up.
We usually start growing around early March. With due care, you can keep getting tomatoes until Christmas... when we get those hot days in October (!!), I pollinate the flowers with a battery toothbrush, then I harvest the tomatoes in December, still green because it's too cold for them to ripen them outside. Bring the green tomatoes indoors, put them in a paper bag with a banana and you got yourself fresh Christmas tomatoes.
In a good year, we keep getting crops from late May to October. This year we started late. The "hanging tomatoes" are finally picking up their growth, theyr'e now about ten inches. We started those from seed.... The other plants, my wife bought, are about two feet tall now.
Then you got the year I grew.... you know, it's legal in California. Tomatoes and #### plants. It was quite a jungle on our upstairs deck.
I do, however, remember getting excellent crops of green peas and later green beans in my mother's garden when I lived up there. I used the same trellises for sequential crops. Tomatoes were always iffy on the Puget Sound as it's too cloudy and cool until July and August... so you're lucky to get more than one crop.
MInd you, down here in coastal SoCal, May Grey and June Gloom are not too conducive for tomatoes... but at least they grow big and by the end of June you start getting buckets of gazpacho ready tomatoes. Assuming you're a gipsy, that is. ;-)
"Then you got the year I grew.... you know, it's legal in California."
That's how I became interested in vegetable gardening... its a gateway plant.
It's also where I learned to clone plants. Tomato plants are one of the easiest plants to root. I like to air-layer sucker branches but they'll root quickly in a jar of water too.
That's how I became interested in vegetable gardening... its a gateway plant.
It's also where I learned to clone plants. Tomato plants are one of the easiest plants to root. I like to air-layer sucker branches but they'll root quickly in a jar of water too.
You should try, it is uncomparable.
The sugar taste was so intense that everyone was asking if i've putted some sucrose in the soup... not at all.
I suspect some manipulations from the seeds providers, and it must taking in account for the pizzas preparations.
I think we have a language breakdown here. I have grown tomatoes every year for the last decade. Just this year with no cold frame I've been late getting them going. I moved last year and haven't got the veggie patch running yet.
All commercial. 2 heritage varieties. I did used to get seeds straight from a heritage seedbank years ago but those were the days when I had no children so time and money 🙂
Sadly about a month late starting the seeds off, but still have a chance of a crop...
Sadly about a month late starting the seeds off, but still have a chance of a crop...
Depending of the region where you live you can crop a long time... theses ones were recolted on the 14-08-2021 and i've made a pizza the same day :
And a huge pizza that fill all the oven, will be cutted in small parts, you have to personalize your own part with your own melted cheese !
The same as previous (hi rez)
The same as previous (hi rez)
Nice.
Interesting... so you trim the plants to a single, or two stalks, and then let them grow until they get tall on the pole?
What kind of tomatoes are those?
I grow our tomatoes in big, 5 foot, cages, because I find that they keep fruiting for months that way. So, I keep trimming them to ensure plenty of sunlight within the plant and I keep getting growth from below.
Also, my tomatoes are grown in ten gallon black plastic Home Depot pots, That way I can grow them upstairs and keep the root ball warmer -that's the trick to keep getting tomatoes late into the fall.. KEEP THE ROOT BALL WARM. If you plant them in the ground, the will stop production in October -in SoCal.
I've been thinking of putting an eight by 4 trellis between pots ( two on either end ) and that way dressing four tomatoes plants that way.
BTW, I use a spray of Neem oil if I see anything untoward like white flies or fungus. I've also sprayed BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) when I see hornworms.
The biggest issue I've run into is necrosis shock... when the plant looks great one day and the next day it starts to die off from the bottom up. I've stopped growing the Ukrainian Black tomatoes ( Black Krim ) in our crop because they tend to do that around August... even though they are great tasting.
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Are those marigolds planted with your tomatoes as companion plants?
Also, the trellis set up is very nice. Bravo
Also, the trellis set up is very nice. Bravo
I first tried marigolds as a companion plant about 30 years ago based on a recommendation in a book I must re-read sometime. Didn't work for me as the slugs just ate all the marigolds THEN ate my other plants. Wind forward and wife really likes marigolds so I started planting them again. This time the rabbits got there first, so had to grow them in pots. Moved somewhere with no rabbits so will see.
Just to add insult to injury something ate half my cavalo nero overnight. Hey ho, gardening is a lifetime of things not working 🙂 If I can work out how to get some sort of crop of beets, spinach, chard and kale this year it'll be successful.
At least we don't have gophers in england!
Just to add insult to injury something ate half my cavalo nero overnight. Hey ho, gardening is a lifetime of things not working 🙂 If I can work out how to get some sort of crop of beets, spinach, chard and kale this year it'll be successful.
At least we don't have gophers in england!