Another tomato thread

16 years ago

I grew up absolutely hating raw tomatoes. I started forcing myself to eat them a couple years ago to be polite and got to the point where I actually like them. This summer I finally accepted offerings from friends' and family's gardens, and now finally appreciate the big deal about fresh tomatoes in season. I've been having appetizers of tomato, fresh mozz, basil, EVOO and red wine vinegar on baguette for a couple weeks now. Stuffed tomatoes are in the oven as I write. I just had the jungle that I called a back yard cleared to where I look forward to cutting out a herb/vegetable garden next summer. Can't wait.

My question is - Are there any successful methods for growing tomatoes indoors, year round? I think I've lost my taste for those pale, hard impostors at the grocery store.

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Comments (6)

lindac
16 years ago
Nope.....the answer it to pay for the hot house ones....not really "good" but enough to keep the wolf from the door between seasons.
Look at it this way....if you could get wonderful fresh garedn tomatoes year around, we wouldn't enjoy those first fresh ones in August nearly as much.
Linda c....simmering as we speak.
bunnyman
16 years ago
I still ain't no fan of raw tomatoes. Cook all mine and add hot peppers to most of them.

Michigan has a short growing season so I start mine indoors. Probably not really necessary. I've seen a forum for growing things under lights somewhere on this site but never had time or need to hang there. My first employer, old Mr. Purdy, grew vegtables in his basement under regular floresent lights with a electric fan for artifical wind.

If I buy canned tomatoes I always try to get Red Gold brand. Their tomato juice in particular is much better then any other brand.

: )
lyra
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Danni girl, I'm so glad you had such a great harvest and were able to put up so many tomatoes. That is just wonderful, and especially in a year with such challenging weather. I do slice the bite-sized tomatoes in half, but I leave the two halves attached to one another by a thin piece of skin so I only have to pick up and move half as many from the cutting board to the cookie sheet. For years I processed tomatoes the hard way and then, finally, last summer I broke down and purchased a Roma/Villaware strainer. I should have bought one 20 years ago. It is AMAZING how quickly it removes all the skins and seeds. I always thought of a strainer as a 'frivolous' purchase, but it saved me tons and tons of time. I don't understand why your dehydrator isn't drying the tomatoes more evenly. Is it on a fixed temperature or can you change it? Farmgardener, You're welcome. 'Me' is the only person I know how to be, and it is getting scarey. I am turning into my grandmother. (My mom didn't garden or can.) I like to think that my mammaw would be proud of the gardener and food preserver I've become. I still can't grow strawberries here in our clay like she could grow in her sandier soil, though. I like knowing where our food came from and how it was grown and processed. I like knowing I don't put chemicals on it. I like knowing it isn't contaminated by salmonella or e. coli and I especially like knowing our food traveled 100' from the garden to the house, and not 1500 miles across the country. And I like freaking out people who say things like "you grew it yourself?" or "you make your own pickles ( or salsa or jelly or whaever)". I don't even mind when they tell me that I'm a 'dying breed' and that the home food growing and preservation arts are becoming a "lost art". I, by the way, do not agree with that. I see both edible gardening and home food preservation coming back into vogue again. See, some of us have been doing all this food raising/food preserving for so long that we're back in style. LOL Megan, As you can imagine, it took me a while to type it up but I wanted to be as thorough as possible. I used to help my dad can his tomatoes and salsa in the 1970s (I was just a kid) so I knew it took oodles of tomatoes to boil down into a sauce and still, the very first time I turned 40 or 50 pounds of fresh tomatoes into canned sauce, I was shocked at how relatively little sauce I had to show for all that work and all those tomatoes! I had dabbled with dried tomatoes for a few years before a friend of mine here in Oklahoma conviced me to get more serious about it, and now I'm hooked on it. With the comvection oven, I can dry six cookie sheets of tomatoes at once. Finally y'all, I ought to stress that the garden and the processing of all the produce is possible only because I'm a stay-at-home wife/mom whose child is an adult and can take care of himself. I could NEVER do everything I do if I worked at a paying job or if I had young children, with young being anyone under at least the age of 16. Once they can drive themselves places, parents regain a certain amount of their freedom. Even though I do things on a larger scale, lots of folks here also raise enough tomatoes and other veggies to can them and freeze them and put them up for the non-gardening season. Sometimes on long, hot days when I've been in the kitchen seemingly all day, I get tired and frustrated because it seems like 'it's never gonna end'. Then, after the last freeze hits and the growing season is basically over, I feel really sad like 'I can't believe it is over'. And, of course, in the winter time, that's the real payoff...when you can do your 'grocery shopping' from the pantry, the freezer and the root cellar. Dawn
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Daisyduckworth
16 years ago
We get fresh tomatoes all year round, and several different varieties of them, too. We just don't think about it - couldn't imagine NOT being able to buy them whenever we want to.

For a red tomato, you can't beat the Roma for flavour. And I like them because they're just right for one person when bought small enough. I also like a yellow tomato. Generally leave cherry tomatoes for other people, though I'll eat them when they're served to me. Too seedy for me, really.

Even though most times they're readily available and relatively cheap to buy, I reckon the flavour of bought tomatoes leaves much to be desired. It's when you grow your own that you realise just how flavoursome tomatoes can be. It's like the difference between a frozen TV dinner and a home-cooked meal. Chalk and cheese.
loagiehoagie
16 years ago
Linda c hit the nail on the head. It is very difficult to grow tomatoes indoors. Believe me...I have tried. Considering the effort and electricity I think each cherry tomato cost me $22.42 LOL. There are some dwarf cherry plants (Red Robin/Yellow Canary) that you can grow under most any type of light or near a window, but that would be more for the fun of it than to get any 'volume'.

Enjoy them in season and spend the winter plotting your garden and browsing seed catalogues!

Duane
lpinkmountain
16 years ago
From one of my favorite songs:
"There's only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes."

If you plant them in the garden, you can have fresh tomatoes around my way from July-Oct. Don't know what growing conditions are like in your zone. My good friend in FLA says there are two tomato seasons there, just like the two strawberry seasons in CA.

I was like you, I didn't like fresh tomatoes until I got desperate looking in the fridge for something to eat one day as a teenager. Just about all we had was a bag of homegrown tomatoes that someone had given my dad at work. I made a tomato on rye sandwich, and have been hooked ever since. I eat the little cherry ones like candy.

However, the store bought ones are NOT even close. Same shape and color, that is all.
msafirstein
16 years ago
I've been drying tomatoes lately and boy are they good. You might try drying some and this may keep your taste buds in check for Winter.

Oven dried tomatoes (posted by Patris)

In large bowl combine:
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tsp. Lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh chopped (or dried) Parsley (I skipped)
1 Tbl. chopped Rosemary (I skipped)
Dried Pepper flacks to your taste, oppt. (I used Hungarian Hot Paprika)
Salt & Pepper to taste (I skipped the salt)

1. Take out any seeds.

2. Leave skin on and cut tomatoes in to bite size pieces. (I cut in 1/8" slices and leave whole)

3. Place tomatoes in the mixture and refrg. for at least 2 hours. (I put mine in closed tupperware and then I could turn it over periodically to distribute the marinate. And I left mine in the frig over night)

4. Set oven on lowest temp. Max. 200 degrees.

5. Take tomatoes out of mixture and spread on cookie sheet.

6. It's OK if they touch.

8. They will need to Oven dry for about 14 to 16 hours. Size of pieces will determine time. (I set my temp at 200 degrees and mine were dried in about 4-5 hours.)

9. Amount of tomatoes is up to you.

I tried cutting the slices 1/4" wide but it took almost 8 hours to dry and they turned out the same size as the ones I cut 1/8" wide. So save the energy and cut 1/8" wide slices. Also I used plum tomatoes.

Michelle

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lindac

bunnyman

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