White Tomatoes?

I have been gardening for most of my adult life and my favorite thing to grow has always been tomatoes. A few years ago I began playing with heirloom tomatoes that ripen in colors other than red. I've always known there were yellow tomatoes and orange tomatoes, and last year I discovered black tomatoes and tomatoes that stay green when ripe. This year's new tomato color is White. This Spring when I wrote about the whitest of white tomatoes called White Tomesol there was quite a bit of interest. I think I even helped Baker Creek Seeds sell out of them. Not many places sell these seeds but I was still able to get some. I grew White Tomesol and Great White this year, and they are indeed pretty white.

As usual when I try a new color of tomato, I'm never quite sure when to pick them. I think I harvested some of them a bit early because when sliced they still had a bit of green color to them.

The flavor seems to be the same no matter how ripe they are. So what about the flavor? A little different from "red" tomatoes but not as unusual as I expected. The seed catalogs tout them as tropical tasting. I expected these white tomatoes to taste more like melon than the Kentucky Beefsteaks. Here's the odd thing; eating a whole white tomato slice tastes pretty much like a tomato, but if I take a bite out of the meaty part only - that is where the unique taste occurs. It took me a while to figure this out. Take away the gel and seed part and the meaty tomato part tastes kind of nutty and not at all like a tomato. As an entire package however, you are back to tasting like a tomato. strange.

There isn't a big difference in taste between White Tomesol and Great White, but the color of Great White is a bit more of a cream color.

If you are looking for a true white color tomato, White Tomesol is the one for you.

As for me and my family, the verdict is still out for whether or not we want to add white tomatoes to our permanent list. They are pretty cool and a great novelty, but maybe just maybe they are a little too weird for even me. After eating a few more it is possible that they will win me over. We'll see.

Do you think white tomatoes are too weird? Have you ever eaten one? I'm sure there is a better description of the flavor than I have given. I'd love to know what everyone thinks!

Olympic Sized Pink Tomatoes and Purple Beans!

Matron at Down on the Allotment posted a very creative vegetable olympic rings logo, and asked which veggies in your garden are worthy of the olympics. She asked which ones are FASTER, HIGHER or STRONGER than any others? Well I'd like to add BIGGER to that list and nominate my Glick's Brandywine tomatoes and my Chinese Red Noodle Beans.

My brandywines are more than a pound each!

This one weighed in at 1.8 pounds - a monster!

They are not supposed to weigh that much so I don't know what happened. They sure are big and delicious!

Even crazier than that are these Chinese Red Noodle Beans:

These beans are two feet long!

Look at them growing on the trellis compared to the Kentucky Wonder Beans next to them.

I measured them and they really are 24 inch pods!

It was hard to measure them accurately because our kitten Maggie kept playing with them and pulling the beans away.

I'm not really sure how to eat these Chinese Red Noodle beans. I'm going to try some smaller 18 inch pods in stir fry or simply sauteed. The only problem is that Maggie may eat them all before I can cook them. :)

Glick's Brandywine and Chinese Red Noodle Beans; Veggies of Olympic proportions!

Great post idea, Matron.

My Cherry Tomato Rainbow!

The cherry tomatoes are all producing well now. I always used to grow only red cherry tomatoes. Last year I added orange and really liked them, so this year I decided to add many more colors and grow a Cherry Tomato Rainbow!

Okay, okay, I realize that the colors don't exactly match the Crayola versions. My yellow tomatoes are more of a pale orange, my black tomatoes are more of a dark purple and my white tomatoes are more of a pale yellow, but aren't they pretty cool anyway?

Going left to right up the rainbow we have Sun Sugar as our orange variety, Gardener's Delight (my favorite red cherry), and Aunt Ruby's German Cherry as our green variety. I highly recommend all three of these tomato varieties. Sun Sugar and Gardener's Delight used to be the only two that I grew.

Sun Sugar is probably the sweetest tomato there is. My kids like to eat them when they are still yellow before they ripen all the way. At that stage, they are really sour like those war-head sour candies. Last year my youngest daughter aptly named them the Sweet-Tart Tomatoes. You get really sour or really sweet - your choice.

Last year I added Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes to my list of favorite odd heirloom tomatoes. The bigger Aunt Ruby's Green is a late tomato, but these Aunt Ruby's German Cherries mature early and taste and look just like their bigger cousins. Yum!

Next we have Egg Yolk tomatoes. My daughter picked these from the Baker Creek catalog just for the novelty. In Baker Creek's pictures, they look exactly like egg yolks. My Egg Yolks just look like yellowish cherry tomatoes. They do have pretty good flavor though.

The next one is one of my new favorites, Black Cherry. They are just like miniature Black Krim tomatoes!

Lastly, as our white tomato we have Italian Ice - the only hybrid in the rainbow. I have Kimberly from Life of a Garden blog to thank for these. She saw that I was growing White Tomesol and Great White heirloom tomatoes and thought I would like to try a white cherry tomato, so she sent me some seeds. It does add to the rainbow nicely. Its flavor is, well, different. It almost doesn't taste like a tomato. I'll hold my judgement until I get to eat a few more. I'm also excited to try those White Tomesols.

I am growing two each of last year's favorites, Gardener's Delight and Sun Sugar. For the other colors, I only have one plant each. Eight cherry tomato plants will produce an almost infinite amount of cherry tomatoes! They are growing nicely on my tomato trellis.

With all of this good tomato eatin', life is just a bowl of cherries!