My 70-year-old tomato and other treasures

Summertime for a gardener is synonymous is amazing Mediterranean crops – basil, eggplants, capsicums, and above all, tomatoes. Once you've tasted home-grown tomatoes, you’ll never want to buy a commercial tomato again – I know I haven’t bought a single one in three years.

From left to right - A Roma, from a plant that produced only grape-sized, flavour packed tomatoes; self-sown cherry tomatoes; the stunning, early-harvest Violet Jasper; one of my favourites for flavour and versatility, the Jaune Flammee; normal-sized Roma’s; Mortgage Lifter, and the amazing 1944 Bullheart tomato.

I cropped over 100 kgs of tomatoes last year, which was far, far too much. I force-fed kilos of tomatoes to my colleagues, friends, and neighbours, and still have a dozen jars of 2014-vintage passata and pasta sauce in the pantry despite using a jar every week or so throughout the year.

So late last Winter, I promised myself I’d grow eight tomato plants, max. I sowed the following seeds:

• A 2014 self-seeder - Roma or perhaps San Marzano – a great sauce tomato anyway, with tiny unobtrusive seeds.
• Violet Jasper, a stunning dark maroon tomato with green stripes – not the best for flavour but a very early and enthusiastic cropper – from seed saved from a friend’s 2014 crop. 
• Jaune Flammee, a spectacularly zesty flavoured tomato that’s great raw, in soup or sauces – from my own saved seed.
• Opa’s Brandywine – mega, meaty tomatoes, the seed given to me by Sue Parsons, garden columnist for the Canberra Times. My largest Brandywine weighed in at a whopping 445 grams, although the fables tell of a 673gm tomato grown by a Canberran last year.
• Gold Fleck – seed saved from a Big Red tomato plant grown in 2014 that produced amazing gold-flecked tomatoes. Big, fruity tomatoes with metallic-gold shooting stars across the skin.

The gorgeous Violet Jasper.

Forty-six tomatoes seedlings grew, and suddenly colleagues, friends, and neighbours found themselves being strongly encouraged to adopt a plant or three for the summer. I planted ten plants into my community garden plot.

But still more tomatoes came my way, including the imaginatively named Mortgage Lifter from another local gardening guru met through the Canberra Organic Growers Society. Two more tomato plants appeared of their own accord in the plot, producing cherry tomatoes and sweet round tomatoes the size of golf balls.

Suddenly, I had 13 tomato plants – more than last summer! But the milder summer produced a far more reasonable  crop, around 70 kgs. Many kilos were eaten or given away, and many more were bottled as passata or an amazing roasted pasta sauce (recipe in my next post!).
 

But it wasn’t over yet. In mid-summer, I was absolutely privileged to be gifted with seeds from a Bullheart tomato plant that grew from a 70-year-old seed, the single successful germinator from an envelope of seeds found in an box of black and white photos; a true heirloom. I raised 11 seedlings, gifting nine to other gardeners who would appreciate the significance of the plants. I planted the remaining two in my backyard where they’d be less likely to cross-pollinate with other tomato varieties. 

When they finally fruited, the 1944 tomatoes were stunning – around 500 grams each, heart shaped, and almost all flesh with few seeds. They were quite literally a rich, dense, filling meal in themselves. They were the last seedlings to be planted by several weeks, and are now the only plants still producing fruit. I haven’t yet cooked any as I’m too busy enjoying them raw, sometimes with a dollop of home-made pesto.

A mid-summer harvest - who needs the supermarket!

I'd love to hear from you - what are your favourite ways to eat, cook or preserve tomatoes?