This morning I harvested and tasted the first heirloom tomato to be “born” in my garden this year! Sweet Baby Girl is the variety and the one ripe tomato was at the very bottom of the vine next to the earth under some stem leaves. I almost missed it. How delicious—I popped it into my mouth without washing it first as I figured that I garden organically –so no pesticides–and there are at least thirty more on the short vine already!
This year I (my gardener, Juan and I) planted twenty heirlooms that I bought at the Tomatomania sale at Tapia Brothers in the San Fernando Valley on March 27th. So Juan and I planted the small plants on April 9th and here it is about 7 weeks into the growing cycle and many tomato flowers appear and quite a few fruit have set! Exciting.
This is year three of my tomato growing mania. The tomatoes have always been heirlooms and the first year I began by choosing eight plants: the second year, we dug up part of the back lawn after removing a huge undesirable takeover mulberry tree that was too large for the area, and planted twelve plants; so this year we planted more.
Heirlooms , as you may know, are from seeds from plants that have at least 50 years to their history. I have harvested some gorgeous striped types as well as some very asymmetrical specimens. They are all delicious and so different from the typical store bought in texture and flavor.
What am I going to do with all of the tomatoes that I plan to harvest? I preserve them by caning, dry roasting, and make relish out of others; eat many in salads, and use them for baking. I look forward to making tomato tarts and using some of the dry roasted cherry tomatoes in bread. Hopefully, we will get lots of baking ideas from our community.
In fact, we will have a contest featuring using tomatoes for baking. How fun is that!
