Cooking and Gardening with Sam: Tomatoes

I have been thinking about planting a garden next year in my backyard.

I have told about how I need to start now removing the grass and getting it ready for the fall. I hope to have that done so I can have fall mustard and turnip greens – I could eat a bushel at any time with cornbread and pepper sauce, the kind you make with the pepper from the garden: washed, packed in a jar and hot vinegar poured over and let set for about three months. That is some good eating.

This year I have one big boy tomato plant and five pepper plants – all kinds – so maybe I can pack a jar or two for the turnip greens.

As we all know, it has been so hot, things are not producing like they should, but we have lot of grass, and the shrubs are going like weeds. I had some gravel poured on the driveway, and in about four weeks, the lime in the gravel gave the grass a jumping start, so here we go to poison the grass. What a summer we have had in the yard.

I was doing research on tomatoes and trying to decide which ones I want to plant next year. Well here goes: with all the varieties, what do I do?

• Cherokee purple – rich in flavor, great for salads and sandwiches
• Anna Russian – tart and sweet, about 3 inches across and heart-shaped early producers
• Azoyckka – hailing from Russia, bland yellow, it attacks the tastebuds with a rush of tartness
• Brandywine – the heirloom tomato: there is no tomato to equal it for flavor. Large, sweet and will take a hammer to your tastebuds
• Cherokee Chocolate – this is one of the so-called black varieties, which retain a bit of green chlorophyll after they ripen
• Kellogg Breakfast – a weak-looking seedling but large, sweet fruits
• Lillian Yellow Heirloom – pale, meaty and solid
• Lucky Cross – red and yellow swirled, snappy blend of acids and sugars
• Mortgage Lifter – largest tomato, sometimes two pounds each! Sweet and delicious
• Speckled Roman – good sliced or cooked into a sauce
• Sun Gold – little orange is worthy exception; it produces a ton, and its sweetness is unmatched
• Ferris wheel – large, intensely sweet heirloom; great with mayo and white bread
• Green Giant – full flavor; ripe fruits are green with a pink blush; fried and laid to the side, mmmmm good
• Yellow Oxheart – pale orange, heart-shaped with super meaty, mild flavor.

With all these, I think I will plant Big Boys because that’s what my mother and dad planted, with some little Tommy Toes. Why can’t we make it simple?

When planting, set deep in soil, well-drained. Mulch the plants; don’t crowd the plants. They need six hours of sun, and wilting foliage means plants need water.

Enjoy your garden,

Sam