Today’s sandwich is wholesome with a capital W.
Rye bread, lightly toasted, spread with curd cheese, topped with slices of avocado and tomato, lightly sprinkled with flaked almonds and popped under a gentle grill to warm through.
It’s messy to eat – messier even than a sugary, jammy doughnut but much, much more virtuous….
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The beginnings of this year’s tomato extravaganza. Two packets of seeds purchased from the garden centre on a wet, grey, cold day.
The purchase of which puts me right back to where I was this time last year; searching for faith. Faith to believe that from the tiny contents of these packets, plants will grow and from those plants I will harvest tomatoes. Lots of .
Last year I attributed this to it being my first year; I thought it went with beginner’s territory – much as I hoped luck did…
But here I am again – facing the same crisis of confidence….I need to remind myself that although I’ve a part to play….most of the doing gets done by Nature; a consummate designer and producer.
And if what she delivers feels like a miracle each time it happens –from seed to sandwich in a few short months…..then enjoying it unfold before my eyes is part of the pleasure .
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There’s nothing like making your decision, acting on it and then not a day later, bringing it into question !
Seeing it in the supermarket today, I couldn’t resist a flick through the February issue of Gardener’s World Magazine, in which top gardening experts make their recommendations for the top 100 vegetable varieties.
Naturally I turned straight to the tomato selection. 7 varieties made the grade, of those 2 - Sungold and Rosada are on my list . Still it’s good to strike out !?
So which were the super 7:
Alisa Craig: traditional red, round, standard, indeterminate tomato, bred in Scotland around 100 years ago. It’s longevity due to a pleasing combination of shape, size, colour and flavour and prolific nature which delivers under glass or outside .
Black Krim: An indeterminate medium large beefsteak from Russia. Very good, rich flavour dark brownish/red in colour and slightly flattened shape. It got 2 endorsements – Sarah Raven and Monty Don. And if I were looking for a 2nd dark tomato this would be the one. ( But I’m not – at least that’s what I keep telling myself.)
Gardeners Delight: Indeterminate cherry. Always earns a mention as someone’s favourite (here from Alan Titchmarsh) and is a RHS AGM winner. I grew it last year but don’t think I got the best from it. So we’ll take Alan’s word over mine.
Rosada: I’m so looking forward to picking my first of this variety. I’ve yet to see it mentioned without a mighty truss of superlatives attached.
Shirley: Another traditional red, round standard indeterminate that likes life indoors, either in a heated or unheated greenhouse. Liked for quality and quantity of fruit.
Sungold: The star of my patch last year; returning as the one to beat!
Yellow Pear: Indeterminate, pear shaped cherry tomato, very cheery yellow in colour. Good, sweet flavour. Has something about it that makes me think it would have an endearing nature ( very untechnical I know - it’s just I find some tomatoes invoke a fondness which other’s don’t & I’ve a feeling this one has endearment potential!)
So from this list, to add to my fantasy tomato team, would be Black Krim, Yellow Pear – and if I wasn’t plumping for blight resistance in the standards, I’d give Alisa Craig a centenary reel….
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I’ve managed to commit to a further 6. With yesterday’s 4, this makes my Ten for 2010.
I’m already thinking of reasons why 10 varieties won’t be enough. I’m sure a few extra will sneak in somewhere but these are my ‘for starters’.
First – head over heart. And if there’s a place for sensible it should lie with the standards. Last year my standard, red, rounds were Alicante and Moneymaker. This year I’m picking two, Legend and Ferline with a valuable built in extra – blight resistance.
Legend is a determinate/bush, outdoor planting tomato with round, red, juicy, sweet fruit and low seed content.
Ferline is indeterminate, deep red fruit, excellent flavour and a heavy outdoor cropper.
Second, the pantone brigade.
Green Zebra; this year’s Tigerella. Swapping red and orange hues for dark green stripes on a light green background. An indeterminate which can be grown outdoors if warm . More betting on this being a glorious summer !
Cherokee Purple; this year’s Carbon. A pre-1890 heritage tomato. Deep,dusky, purple-pink, large fruit, sweet flavour.
Lemon Tree; finding inspiration for its shape, colour and sharp taste from its lemony namesake.
Balconi Yellow; this years Tumbler. Bred with hanging baskets in mind.
Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, Ferline, Lemon Tree are available from Nicky’s Seeds. Legend and Balconi from Thompson & Morgan. ( Although Legend is out of stock online so I’m hoping to find it in the Garden Centre.)
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Decisions are being made. Colours pinned to masts, I have the first fab four!
I’ve started with the smaller fruits, which will be dual purpose. Providing tangy flavour and freshness for salads and summer bites but also destined for roasting. Roasted cherry tomatoes became my favourite thing to emerge from the oven last summer.
So (as they say)… in no particular order, the tomatoes going through to the 2010 Tomato Lover Patch are :
Floridity F1
Bright red, early to ripen, indeterminate mini plum; described by a RHS tasting panel as ‘outstanding flavour, fleshy and juicy, with the perfect acid/sugar balance’. Average yield is 150 fruits.
It also holds an AGM (award for garden merit).
On the seed website it’s described as ‘best grown under glass’ but also as indoor/outdoor variety so I’m going to hope for a Style Council inspired Long Hot Summer…..and going to plant it out.
Snowberry
Oval, creamy yellow cherry, indeterminate tomato; described by the same panel as ‘long lasting clean flavour with citrus notes,good acid/sugar balance, juicy and fleshy’.
Again I’m going to need good weather to make this a wise choice as it’s described as suitable for a greenhouse/plastic tunnel or outdoors in a warm area.
Rosada F1
Red, cherry plum tomato. Described as ‘sweet flavour,beautiful balance of sweetness and acidity’.
And a gambling on the weather theme emerging here ‘Indoors or out in a sunny protected site….’
And then a returner, the star of last year in terms of quantity, flavour and all round gutsy , go grow attitude…. Sungold F1.
(All these varieties are available from Nicky’s Nursery)
Greed also led me to consider Ildi. It’s small in size (it’s referred to as a cocktail tomato) but large in number. In the RHS trials each Ildi plant averaged over 650 fruit ! If ever there’s such a thing as a jackpot on a tomato fruit machine that has to be it.
It ’s on the reserve list .
More deep breaths and dividing lines tomorrow.
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This is the week for deciding my final line up for 2010. Which is making me very nervous.
I’m beginning to panic about how I can narrow my choice down to 10 varieties. There are so many ways to think about it. The eating part is a big consideration.
But last year I also enjoyed growing varieties that weren’t necessarily the most productive or useful in the kitchen but which had character enough to make them interesting just to have in the garden. Carbon and Cream Sausage come to mind.
A couple of tomato varieties featured in a Daily Telegraph photo gallery of vegetables new for this year.
I particularly liked the look of Highlander; a stripy cherry tomato from Plants of Distinction. It reminded me how beautiful my two stripy choices – Darby Stripe and Tigerella were last year. So the final 10 has to feature a stripe. ( Although it won’t be Highlander as that’s out of stock.)
Also featured is Chocolate Cherry from Marshalls. Which looks like a dead ringer for Black Cherry. I want to grow a dark tomato again this year but haven’t decided which one.
Last year’s were Carbon, a beefsteak which suffered from vertical split and the Black Cherry. Both of which were late and not that productive – but interesting to have and grow. So I’d like to see if I can find one which gives all the intrigue but a little earlier and a little more generously!
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Sounds like a gossipy Sunday Scandal headline.
But is in fact the fastest way I know to a flavour and texture hit.
Baguette torn open, Boursin smeared all over the doughy white bread, cherry tomatoes quartered and scattered, the crusty top pressed firmly down.
Mischief in moments but no aftermath…..
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Looking at the disorders this week reminded me it’s not just the critical 3 - Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium which plants need. There are 10 other nutrients required for healthy growth .
Magnesium, Calcium, Sulphur count as part of the Major nutrient group and the rest as Minor nutrients. Minor means minute amounts but still essential.
Here are the first 5.
Magnesium: As we’ve seen when a plant has too little magnesium it loses the green sheen from its leaves. This is because magnesium builds chlorophyll, the pigment which makes plants green.
Calcium: As demonstrated by Blossom End Rot calcium is important in building cell walls. Its lack is especially noticeable in fruit. Apples for example suffer from Bitter Pit.
Sulphur: An important component of protein. Therefore an essential part of plant growth and deficieny can show up in yellowing leaves. But whereas with magnesium this was first made apparent in the older leaves, sulphur deficiency is seen by the yellowing of younger leaves.
Iron: Again used in the making of chorophyll so more yellow leaves – and as with sulphur – it is the younger ones. It’s presence is affected by calcium. Large amounts of calcium in a soil = too litte iron. So iron deficiency is more prevalent in alkaline soils.
Manganese: Yes – you’ve guessed . Part of chlorophyll formation. So again yellow leaves but older ones first this time.
(The yellowing of plant tissue is known as chlorosis. The foremost place this shows up is in the leaves. So is often refered to as Intervein chlorosis. What this means is that the veins of the leaf remain green but the other parts of the leaf turn yellow.)
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A week of disorder is plenty so today’s the last day for looking at what can go wrong from a physiological standpoint.
Today’s disorder duo relate to mineral deficiencies but as previously seen, other factors can play a part.
1st up – Blotchy Ripening. Yesterday we looked at Greenback – where the tomato doesn’t ripen in a specific area, at the top, around the stalk area.
This is the same effect; yellow or green hard patches where the fruit has not ripened but instead of being restricted to specific location, these patches appear randomly on the fully grown fruit.
The likely cause is insufficient potassium but too little water to and around the plant as well as overly high greenhouse temperatures may also play a part.
So in addition to addressing water and temperature levels, meeting potassium requirements in the form of a high potash feed, should be part of the routine for the fruiting period.
Magnesium deficiency
This deficiency shows up as discoloured leaves. The remedy a dose of salts; Epsom Salts.
The link is magnesium sulphate. Insufficient magnesium causes a leaf to lose green pigment; the effect of which is whilst the veins of the leaf remain green, the ‘leafy’ bit turns yellow.
Nature (being keen on a contingency plan) will on detecting a lack of magnesium, take from the old to give to the young, meaning the yellow will be most noticeable on older leaves lower down the plant.
The deficiency can result from magnesium being removed from the soil, washed out as a result of heavy rain or watering.
But, in a neat lesson about the importance of getting the balance right (part of Nature’s core curriculum), magnesium can be in the soil but if there along with overly high levels of potassium (high potash feed anyone?) then this overload of one nutrient (potassium) can leave another (magnesium) locked up in the soil and not available for take up by the plant.
Which is why ( I guess) that the recommended remedy is a foliar feed of Espom salts solution. A foliar feeds bypass the soil and root system and delivers what’s needed straight to the leaf.
So I think that brings us to the end of disorders. Being prepared is good, so hopefully diligence will be rewarded by it all remaining text book only stuff!
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If blossom end rot is something going awry at the base of the fruit, Greenback is something going wrong at the stalk end.
But unlike BER which can affect indoor and outdoor plants Greenback is a disorder which manifests itself in greenhouse grown tomatoes.
The symptoms are that whilst the rest of the tomato ripens, the area around the stalk does not. It remains resolutely green or yellow and tougher in texture.
A combination of factors including too little potassium and phosphorous and too much direct sunlight and high heat are to blame.
The solution lies in addressing the plant’s feeding regime and greenhouse set up. Shade can be provided by external blinds or the application of a product such as Cool Glass and vents and doors opened to bring in cooler air and lower the temperature.
Or approaching from a different angle there are tomato varieties bred not to succumb to this disorder including Shirley, one of the UK’s top 10 classic tomatoes varieties.
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