Myabe you use 2 hands but how many fingers?
After a very bad season my tomatoes have started producing again so will reserve judgement on what's good & what's not but I will definitely be growing Verna Orange again as everyone (including the cat) liked it so much. I'll also be putting in a few San Marzano as they stood up to the humidity better than anything else.
Also getting a guernsey for next year will be College Challenger, first to produce in my garden & got in quite a few fruit before the fruit fly attacked. Hopefully they will be joined by a few of their College cousins via Ray.
I'll be looking for a few different cherries to grow in pots up a trellis, the kids love them & they make an interesting screen.
Sarah

Hi,
Can I ask you expert tomato growers which you think is the best cherry type tomato to grow? I just want an ordinary one I can buy in the shops. I had Sweetbite this year but I really felt they were lacking a good tomato taste and weren't very juicy. They were okay but I know I've had better...I just can't remember what! Help!
Cheers,
Dee.

Best for me were:

Mama Mia, supposedly a hybrid but have saved seed for several generations with no change. Beautiful BIG pink sauce tomatoes with no juice and very few seeds. Skin is so thin it disappears when cooking... They did well in the GH, but stopped setting fruit after they were carrying 12 kilos or so. Second crop coming on now.

Legend, an early determinate with big meaty fruit. Nice flavour and very early, as they are parthenogenetic.

Ones I won't try again:

Oregon spring, small yield of so-so tasting smallish tomatoes.

Reggae: supposedly a Roma hybrid and being sold for paste. Good yield and the healthiest plant in the greenhouse with falling light levels, still ripening lots of smallish fruit. The taste is ok, but they are too juicy for sauce and too tough-skinned for eting raw. Bad Blossom end rot.

Golden Jubilee, I like this tomato best of all, but keep getting only one or two fruit per plant. Supposedly a tall plant, mine struggle to reach 1 meter, and look unhealthy very early on. Shocking BER problems. I think I might have dud seed as other people have done well with this one.

Undecided: Tommy toe. I like the flavour, they dry well and the yield is good, but I tend not to eat a lot of cherry types. Too big for a single bite and too small to serve sliced. However they make a good grafting rootstock.

Any thoughts on chillies, I like hot but tasty.

Cheers,
Manuel.

My tomato report. Very mixed-up coz I got a lot of wrong seeds.

1.Box Car Willie: Not true to form but a glorious ribbed red.
2. Cherokee Purple: Good flavour but few fruit.
3. Coustralee: A great red but erratic production.
4. Camp Joy: Good red cherry, nothing dynamic.
5. Dr Carolyn: Excellent hyper yellow cherry.
6. Ethel Watkins Best: Prolific mainsteam pink.
7. Eva Purple Ball: Wrong, ugly pink, tart nothing.
8. Green Grape: Oodles of green asparagus balls.
9. GregoriÂs Altai: A terrific early large pink.

10. Novichok: An early, butno good.
11. Pearly Pink Cherry: Early flavourless cherry.
12. PrudenÂs Purple: Not a fruit.
13. Paul Robeson: A few fruits and delicious.
14. Silvery Fir Tree: Tart and so-so.
15. Volgorad: Early and not for my climate.
16. Whippersnapper: Early cherry and not coming back. Bland.
17. Stupice: Not a bad early.
18. Soldacki: Superb, prolific, large fruit prone to cracking. Pick it early or b4 rain.
19. Giordane: Prolific but blan.
20. FinbarÂs Unidentified Orange Cherry: Funky later in the season. Like an orange.
21. A Cherokee Chocolate overwintered clone: Died on my but I like this one.
22. Three Patios: Not bad for a hybrid in a pot.
23. A RL seedling that came up in the tray months after a failed sow. One of 10 possibilities. Should be fun. Ended up being a Sun-something hybrid hard as a rock and ordinary tasting.
    And a volunteer Green Zebra or Tommy Toe: RIP

To which you can now add 10 more seedlings sent to my by Dear Patrina. The flew interstate overnight and look good. They include:

24. Golden Oxheart (Craig) Â93: Not a lot of flavour.
    25: Heatherington Pink (Bruce B: Great early on but died soon after. A highly-strung mater.
25. Large Dark Purple 93 (Craig): Great tasting, sporadic productivity.
26. Sochulak Â94 (Craig): Nice, unusual, different. Nothing outstanding.
27. Yellow Paragon Â93 (Craig):RIP.
28. Indian Moon (Aunty Carolyn): Very plain and hollow.
29. German Queen: Excellent tasting tomato and would grow again. Not that productive, thouÂ.
    Dr C:
30. Airyleaf (Aunty Carolyn): Died.
31. Paragon (Aunty Carolyn): Nice prolific red with a strange taste kind of chemical-like.
32. Big Yellow Â95 (Craig): A real beauty but so few fruits. Not enough to warrant a resow.
33. Dwarf Green Grape: see Green Grape.
34. Regina Yellow: Terrific fruit salad tomato w/ zip acid and an almost mango taste. Fruit fly loved it too!
35. Erika dÂAustralia: Great big reds but very late and not enough fruits to warrant a regrow.
36. Burwood Prize: A beaut little ball. Will grow again, for sure.
37. Nepal: A beaut prolific red with sharp taste of medium size. Will grow again, I think.
38. MariannaÂs Peace: Ripper.
39. Dr Neal: Ripper.
    41: Sudduth: The very best taste.

All for now.

Ciao, Grub.

Grub good to here you liked Gregoris Altai and Nepal as they are in my list for next year. Actually have a Nepal in a pot that I sowed very late that is about to set fruit. Don't know if I will get one to maturity.

Cheers
Mantis

Dee,

Re cherries: everyone will have their favourites. The best I've come across is Camp Joy. Grub refers to it in his post. I probably like it more than he does. It's also known as Chadwick's Cherry. Grows in clusters of 6 to 8, nice tomato taste, extremely prolific, and a very vigorous plant. It will take over the garden. This year I also grew Sungold F1, a hybrid gold/orange cherry. It's very popular in the States, but, to my taste, verges on too sweet.

My thoughts on this season:

1. SOLDACKI - Pink beefsteak. Wonderful tomato, rich taste, meaty texture, produces well. And the most handsome plant in the garden - very tall, very elegant PL. Very highly recommended.

2. ANNA RUSSIAN - Pink heart. I always grow it. Juicy, nice complex flavour, slightly sweet. There are probably richer tasting tomatoes around, but it just about qualifies as an early because, for me, it produces ripe fruit around 65 days from planting out. And it's prolific for a heart.

3. SUNGOLD F1 - Prolific, but I found them a bit too sweet.

4. SAINTE LUCIE - Large red beefsteak. Late variety, quite prolific, lovely rich flavour, on the sweet side. I wouldn't grow it every year.

5. CAMP JOY - See above.

6. CHEROKEE PURPLE - Always a terrific tomato. My production was low this year.

7. BRANDYWINE OTV - Red beefsteak. Delicious. Earlier, more complex taste and more productive than, say, Sainte Lucie. Highly recommended.

8. GIORDANE - Medium round red. Prolific, pleasant taste. Wouldn't grow it again in a hurry.

9. JAUNE NEGIB - The surprise for me this season. Like Anna Russian, it falls into my early-ish category. And, frankly, my early-ish category knocks any of the true earlies - Stupice, etc - into the rubbish bin. I'd much rather wait 10 to 15 days for a tomato real taste. This one produces ripe fruit around 65 days. Oblate yellow, pleasant mild taste with a deliciously creamy aftertaste. HIghly recommended for an early-ish variety.

10. LARGE DARK PURPLE - Nice tomato, but nothing really to set it apart from a lot of other pink beefsteaks.

11. EVA'S PURPLE BALL - Another nice tomato. I wouldn't grow it every year.

12. AIRYLEAF - Nondescript for me. Wouldn't grow it again.

13. MARIANNA'S PEACE - Classic pink beefsteak. Absolutely delicious. Very highly recommended.

14. CHEROKEE CHOCOLATE - Great tomato. Like its sister, it wasn't productive for me this season, but something I'd grow every year.

15. DOCTOR NEAL - A well-kept secret. Delicious tomato. Highly recommended.

16. BELGIAN BEAUTY - Falls into the Large Dark Purple for me.

17. GOLDEN QUEEN - The USDA strain, from Carolyn. Deep golden colour with a pink blush at the blossom end and mild scalloping around the shoulders. Delicious rich flavour. Very highly recommended.

18. JAUNE FLAMMÃE - Great tomato, a real flavour kick. Very highly recommended.

And this coming season? I'll be fitting as many containers into my Italian front courtyard...

Thanks Finbar.
Dee.

Can I be the lone voice for that old standard Grosse Lisse.
I helped my neighbor plannt her first vegetable garden and she came home with six GL plants.
They didn't get much by way of fertiiliser and the soil was scored from drainage works so it was nice and deep stuff.
We just watered them regularly and have had some of the biggest tomatoes ever, (860 gram).We made chutney ,sauce ,green tomato pickle,gave them away and they kept coming.Even the chooks got sick of them after a while.
She wants to try more exotic ones for next year so this post will be a good one for her to see.
It is great to eat tomatoes that look and taste like they should!.

860 Gram Grosse Lisse, thats a whopper. She must have some really good soil there. If you send me your address via email I could put a sample pack of some different ones together for you with short descriptions re colour, flavour and size.

Cheers
Mantis

Well we certainly didn't grow anywhere near the varieties that y'all have, but here's our experience.

Good:
Principe Borghese. Lovely not too small oval shaped fruit, great for drying (we did ours in the oven mostly semi-dried and you only have to halve them). Freezes well semi-dried and extremely good in oil with garlic & herbs. Had a lot of these straight off the vine on toast - fiddly but very nice. Will put these in again. Yield so far approx 4kg/plant but they aren't finished yet.

Tommy Toe - since PBs will fulfill the cherry needs even though the yield is higher in the TTs (approx 5kg/plant and still coming) I won't plant any next year. Taste is also v nice but I couldn't tell the difference between the two raw, so I'll stick to the PBs which I felt dried better. PBs flavour was more concentrated on drying than the TTs.

Bad:

Amish Paste. Sandy texture and bland when raw. OK when cooked but didn't produce anywhere near the quantity to make them a worthwhile paste yield is 2kg/plant and they're pretty much finished now. V disappointed in this one, perhaps not suited to our climate... shape and size varied considerably, they are far more attractive to grub (nothing on the other two, heaps on the APs) however they skin easily for cooking.

Looking for a good paste variety for next year and am trying to convince my partner to do a few more varieties. I like the sound of the Kellogs Breakfast... I really want to big slicing tom next year.

I planted Grosse lisse and had a lot of success with them, large and very tasty. I am still getting two or three a week even now.
I planted some of those Don Burke tomatoes. Results were very good, taste is superb,but i found that when fully ripe the tended to be a little soft.
I also planted one sweet bite, plenty of fruit,but i didn't go the taste much.

Would some varieties present better (texture, etc.), vary in flavour, size, sugar content and colour depending on the climate or conditions the are grown in?

I know grape, apple etc. varieties differ greatly according to these considerations.

Spot on, Robert. Different climate and conditions can produce marked differences in tomatoes, especially in texture, size and flavour.

Some ratings according to taste: (5 is the highest)

Herman's Yellow - 5
Kellog's Breakfast - 5
Marianna's Peace - 5
Debarao - 5
Black Cherry - 5
Earl's Faux (Brandywine) - 5
Brandywine Sudduth - 4.75
Purple Calabash - 4.5
Yellow Perfection - 4.25
Big Yellow - 4.25
Black Early - 4
Soldacki - 4
Polish - 4
Jaune Flamme - 4
Kotlas - 4
Pink Ponderosa - 4
Cherokee Chocolate - 4

Rating according to production: (in grams)

Black Early 9955
Herman's Yellow 7483
Red Cloud (2 plants) 6136
Soldacki 5583
Polish 5523
Heatherington Pink 5510
Kellog's Breakfast 5236
Lemon Boy 4968
Marianna's Peace 4672
Broad Ripple Yellow Currant 4385
Rouge de Marmande 4349
Aunt Gertie's Gold 4168
Grosse Lisse 4126
Geswein's Purple Bonny Best 3962
Jaune Flamme 3919
Paul Robeson 3917
German Queen 3843
Kotlas 3337

The bottom 3 of the taste sheet, with 0 points and the comment, 'Yuk':

Heatherington Pink
Pearly Pink Cherry
Paragon

Some of the big producers will not come back next season. They were at the bottom of the taste sheet.

Some of the lousiest producers, such as Brandywine Sudduth (2 tomatoes) will get another go.

This summer was a strange one, so it may not be fair to skip some of the tomatoes next season. They may get another chance in a year or two.

Thanks Spatz for your considered opinions and diligent report. I appreciate your efforts; I'm yet to find the time to surmise my (p)lot. I've now logged your Herman's Yellow as a must-have based on the aforesaid taste and production account. Not sure if I have seeds. Will check it out soonish and post a big seed offer from the oodles I saved last season. Almost make-a-list tomato time. But where's my surrogate seed-raiser, Finbar? - ;)grub.

Ciao, Grub. Bring over the seeds, hang around in Tuscany for six or seven weeks eating and drinking and enjoying yourself while I raise the seedlings for you, take the seedlings home with you. Where's the problem?

I'm tempted. But where's the nearest boat so I can return with a column? Got a river, dam or aquaduct nearby?

The Adriatic's only just across the mountains. Maybe 100km away.

Verna Orange for me.......and maybe a couple of others, just to be polite.

Hi,

What follows is a summation of the 2005 tomato-growing season in my suburban Sydney backyard in the coastal suburb of Manly.

I have now sampled all the tomato varieties listed below and subsequently saved seeds from most of them, except Yellow Paragon and Airyleaf, which didnÂt make it, and Prudens Purple, which is a miser.

Also an overwintered Cherokee Chocolate was trampled to death, but I can report from my experience with this tomato in 03 that it is a delicious and productive mahogany fruit. I think the Cherokee Purple from Eden Seeds isnÂt in the same league, but more on this later.

The Weather
While it was a mighty humid summer, it was an excellent one in my patch. I had better fruit-set than last year and, though we had traditional November rains, nothing suffered from blandness or mushiness.

In fact, I watered my tomatoes three times only throughout summer. How is that possible? I use newspaper or a very thick layer of sugarcane mulch and my soil is very moisture retentive but friable thanks to homemade compost and manures. The tomatoes in pots were watered more often, of course.

I did learn the hard way, however, about the problems that come from leaving fruits on the vine during heavy rains far outway the flavour enhancements from total vine ripening. I lost a lot of fruit that were showing colour after heavy rains. The subsequent cracking invited disease and bugs inside. Next time heavy rains are forecast IÂm doing the rounds and bringing in anything and everything with even the barest hint of colour.

Pests & Diseases
Tomato growing in coastal Sydney can be challenging with regard to foliage diseases, namely Early Blight (EB), which starts with yellowing leaves that show small lesions and quickly spreads along the plant until it is defoliated and unable to photosynthesize.

I used Daconil, a chemical with a one-day withholding period, and routinely sprayed the foliage each week. Okay, I got slack in late summer but by then humidity that encourages EB had retreated. To the Daconil I often mixed Pyrethrum concentrate, a natural insecticide.

My spraying routine prevented my tomato plants from dying, helped control whitefly and protected the fruit to some degree from fruit fly and grubs. In fact, grubs were not even a problem this year. The residual pyrethrum on the fruit and leaves saw to that.

However, fruit fly has emerged as a real concern. I lost as many as 20 large fruits (8-10kg of tomatoes) to blown fruit and I have observed the striped fruit fly at work. A black dot on the skin would generally indicate maggots feasting inside. Sometimes I would get half a fruit but it wasnÂt quite the same tucking into those slices. The fruit fly seemed to get very smart and avoid the Pyrethrum residue by stinging under the green inedible collar attached to the stem (donÂt have the name for this part of the fruit).

Birds were a problem early on and late in the season. I observed a young...

Nice work, Grub. You should be a journalist. I remember you saying your Dr Neals were smaller than mine. I gave you the seedling, didn't I? I wonder what the difference was. Nice tomato, but.

I'm introducing the locals to Marianna's Peace, Anna Russian, Kellogg's Breakfast and Pink Gaetano this year. I only started that many because I knew I didn't have the growing space. Then, along came the nice English lady with the 5-acre olive farm who offered me as much growing space as I wanted. Getting a bit late to start any more later varieties, unfortunately, but I might start some more mid-seasons ASAP.

Finbar, are there any local varieties available as seed? Or should we send you a little emergency tomato seed package?

In exchange for some wonderful, gorgeous Italian food. :)

Grub, great list, thanks for the report.

Big Yellow (plant from Patrina) was very small. Nothing big about it. Cute shape. Taste? Can't remember. Must have a look in my notes later.

Spatz, I haven't seen any local tommy seeds but there are baby plants for sale at the weekly street market. They're only identified as bistecca or cuore with no more detail. There are stacks of local vegie seeds.

Garden Centres, or Nurseries, as we know them, are rare things here. I've been to several in the local area and they seem to specialise more in trees. I wasn't able to find anything remotely resembling seed raising mix. I had to make do with a version of potting mix to start my seeds. I had 100% germination with the potting mix which was a relief. Unless I find somewhere that sells tomato stakes, I think I'll have to fashion my own.

Finbar,
Sounds like your Italian blood is rising to the surface. Soon you will be a hirsute farmer, redolent of garlic, growing grapes, making wine and singing with the locals. Great news about the surrogate tomato patch. I canÂt wait to hear how they taste from one of the worldÂs greatest tomato regions. (Hey, btw, I have a thing for pulses at the moment. Do they cook any great (dried) bean dished in your area?)

Dr Neal tasted as almost as intense as MariannaÂs Peace for me, only the fruits were small and quite gnarled in the end. I think it might have been the soil or that treated pine border nearby. I got the plant from you. IÂm keen to add OTV Brandywine to my grow list this season. I have seeds from Mantis for this one. Will be trying Red Brandywine from Mark (Korney) and the tasty wrong red Box Car Willie I saved seeds from.

Hi Spatz,
My Big Yellow from PP (where is she now?) was a huge plant with at least two tomatoes that weighed over 1lb  there just werenÂt that many of them. And I liked their flavour, though it was typically yellow. I need to do some work on narrowing down the yellows but your Broad Ripple Yellow is getting a run, along with Jaune Negib and Hughs.

BTW: There are plenny typos in the above tomato report; as usual I just got lazy.

I enjoyed reading the summaries of others so I thought I'd share my experiences of last season. Keep in mind that we rented the house (and backyard) in September, so I had very little time to prepare the beds where tomatoes were planted.

1. Cherokee Purple
Not having grown anything other than red tomatoes I was very impressed with the colour and flavour of CP. I really think the descriptions of its taste as smoky are a cross-modal interaction effect (put red food colour in white wine and all but the most experienced oenophiles will describe it with red wine characteristics) due to its colour. Lovely texture in your mouth. Good productivity but had problems with cracking around the stem and concentric cracking (possibly due to the occasional big downpours we had last summer). Definitely try again.

2. Black Krim
Flavour seemed a bit weaker than Cherokee Purple but still good. Slightly more productive than CP, and overall the toms were larger in size. Probably wont try again. Had similar problems with cracking.

3. Stupice
Marginally earlier but nothing to write home about. Much smaller than I had imagined, only slightly bigger than cherry size. Used mainly in sandwiches where the tartness was probably lost in other flavours. Not particularly productive, particularly for the size of the Toms. May give one more try.

4. Tommy Toe
I've grown it a few times and am always suprised by the hardiness and longevity of the plants. Maybe not the best flavour, but certainly still producing in late april when few others cope. I usually grow one plant just to have cherries for salads late in autumn.

5. Rouge de Marmande
When we first moved in I bought these from a nearby nursery to get plants in the ground while my seedlings (grown from Eden Seeds) caught up. Quite productive, very prone to cracking, quite pithy inside. Probably wont bother again.

Thinking of trying a different early tom this year, and maybe a green tomato to see if I can trick the birds.

Cheers

Grub, Broad Ripple Yellow Currant is a very prolific producer. I ripped mine out yesterday and it was still laden with tons of fruit. Threw the plant over the fence and the sheep liked the little tomatoes.

Art, I'll be growing a green tomato for the first time this season, too. Can't wait. Have you decided on which one it's going to be?

Would anyone have a few spare seeds for Aunt Gertie's Gold? I have heard so many wonderful things about it and I would like to put her in my aunties garden. Last season's plant (from Patrina) was a cross. So now I'd like to try the 'real' auntie.

Spatz,
I have some seeds saved from a truly tremendous unidentified green that was supposed to be a black. Just mail me if you would like some. I don't think I have seeds for AGG but will check tonight.

Art,
If you would like any seeds just mail me. Plenty on offer. FOC.

Grub, thanks for going to the trouble of posting a very inspiring read. I can tell I am going to have to recruit some more garden space from unsuspecting neigbours, friends and rellies! I really was going to try and restrict myself to about a dozen different varieties but I think its going to be a struggle! I didn't grow as many varieties last year as I could've, due to losing a whole bunch of seedlings on one very hot day, so I am looking forward to more success in the season ahead, I'm also quite inspired to do my first lot of seed saving too.
ArtVanderlay (Seinfeld fan?) it was good to hear you enjoyed your non-red tomato experiences. I caused a few raised eyebrow's at work munching on one of the bright yellow varieties that I smuggled out of Spatz place, no one had ever seen a tomato like it! Delicious, I have no idea which one it was though!

cheers all, mudlark

Grub. Tuscany is the home of (dried) bean dishes. In fact, the other regions refer disparagingly to Tuscans as "bean eaters". Naturally, Tuscans refer to the other regions equally as disparagingly. Probably one of the best known (not to mention, nicest) dishes using them is Ribollita, or Re-cooked (or Twice-Cooked) Soup. Perfect winter dish. You've probably got a recipe for it somewhere, but here's one anyway. It serves 4 or 5 people:

125g cannelini or borlotti beans (cooked, with cooking water reserved)
Large bunch of Italian parsley, chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 head of celery, chopped
250g carrots, peeled and chopped
2 med red onions, peeled and chopped
3 tbsps good olive oil
400g tinned peeled plum tomatoes, drained
1 kg cavalo nero, stalks removed, leaves coarsely chopped*
Load of stale ciabatta bread, crusts removed, sliced and torn up
Salt and pepper
EVOO

*Cavalo Nero is the traditional ingredient and I saw it appearing in our supermarket before we left. It's heartier and a bit more pungent than, say, silver beet. But if you can't get CN, silver beet will do.

Sweat the parsley, garlic, celery, carrot and onion in the oil until soft and the flavours have combined. About 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and continue to cook on a gentle heat for another 20 minutes. Add the Cavolo Nero and half the beans with enough of their cooking water to cover them. Simmer for half an hour.

Puree the other half of the beans in a food processor, add the puree to the soup with just enough boiling water to make the soup liquid. Add the bread, a generous slurp of EVOO, and salt and pepper. The end result should be thick but not solid. There should be just enough liquid for it to be called a soup.

Reheat the next day (preferably not earlier, hence the soup's name) and pig out.

Hi Mudlark,
I agree. We all need to grow more tomatoes this season! A dozen, twice that many, hey, one can't have too many tomatoes. In any case, I have to get in early to stir you southerners; I hope Mantis returns for his annual visual lashing.

Finbar,
That seems perfectly healthy. IÂve got a few Tuscan cook books here, the usual ones, but IÂm going to try your recipe first. Seems nice and wholesome. Apparently, we all need to eat more pulses and I got inspired by all these sacks of wonderful dried beans I tripped over at a nearby deli. Beans of all shapes and sizes and colours crying out to be soaked, slow-cooked and scoffed. Waiting till the second night will be torture. But thanks. And best wishes to Mrs Finbar, whose probably hiding behind an easel somewhere, and the dog-gone mutts.

:grub, almost ready to perform a tomato-seed stocktake.

Yes Mudlark, always loved Seinfeld.

Spatz, I've only considered what Eden are offering, which seems to be down to two choices: Green Zebra or Aunt Rubys Green. I've read good reports about both, although I remember that the Diggers club used to promote Green Zebra as being very productive, so may try this year with it and next year with Aunt Rubys Green. Anyone else got a suggestion for a green tomato?

I've only got room for about 12 toms so I need to keep my choices limited. I also like to have 2 plants of each, just to give me a reasoable perspective on each variety.

Cheers

Soooo...who has already finalised their tomato planting list?

I must admit I haven't even thought about it yet. Must do so soon, as I'd like to get the seeds in at the beginning of August or so.

Mudlark, the tomato you smuggled out of my place was a Jaune Flammee. Let me know if you'd like some seeds. This was a really prolific plant, too. Early and yummy. And it produced for a very long time. In fact, I've still got one in the ground with fruit on it.

Grub, thanks for the offer, but I'll have to make my list first, to see whether I can squeeze in another plant. I have had visions of cutting down the number of plants this year. Maybe.

Art, Green Zebra is nice, but not everybody likes it. It can be slightly tart if picked too early. Even when eaten fully ripe it still has a little bit of a zing. :)

Spatz, I'm slowly but surely making a master list. How on earth I streamline this I do not know. More must-grows than ever, it seems. Here we go again :grub

Hi Spatz, thanks for reminding me of the variety, I would love some seeds from Jaune Flamme, I have just been to visit my mum and I'm pretty sure I can scam a bit of space in her garden for some more varieties, though i haven't really told her that yet, ha ha - I managed to get her to grow a broad bean cover crop without having to reveal my sneaky 'surrogate' tomato patch plan *snickers loudly*. I was wondering if I could trouble you for some seeds of some cherry varieties as well? I was going try a few different coloured cherries in pots this year.

I was just looking at Finbars recipe above and noticed the cavalo nero reference, now I have been looking for seeds of this for a while and was talking to the woman at the market who grows heritage seedlings and she informed me that cavalo nero is more often sold as lacinato kale, which I have had seed to all along! Can anyone confirm this for me? I did an internet search, from this I learnt that Cavalo Nero is most definately a type of kale but I'm still not sure if it is actually Lacinato.

cheers, mudlark

I just checked one of my books, mudlark. It says Lacinato Kale is one of the many names for Cavolo Nero, or vice versa. Go for it!

Yippee! Thanks, Finbar!

cheers, mudlark

Finbar, thanks for the recipe. Will you come over and cook it for me, too? :) Mudlark can supply the Cavolo Nero and I'll supply the rest of the ingredients. We can all have a lovely feast together.

Mudlark, you can have as many tomato seeds as you like. Cherries, big ones, medium sized ones, yellow, orange, black, yellow, striped....

And if need be, you can set up a patch of tomatoes and veggies at my place. Just in case your mum is a lot craftier than you think. You'll 'only' have to ensure you have your own supply of water.

I actually made some Ribollita a few weeks when some friends visited us in Marysville. It turned out to be a big hit - very hearty. Didn't look that flash though (a bit murkey) Used borlotti beans instead of cannelloni and spinach as the green. Had it in Tuscany also but I reckon there are a lot of recipe variants around.

Well, it's been an age.
Last year was a bit of a disaster tomato-wise. Planted too many and got hit by disease, nematodes and fruit fly.
Still, I managed to taste some of mine and some others.
Good
Cherokee Purple (pink-purple)
Camp Joy (red cherry - Thanks Finbar)
Fritsche (pink)
Jaune Negib (yellow - Thanks Finbar)
Snow White (ivory/pale yellow cherry)
The rest (45 of them) were wiped out!
I'm not keen on cherries but will definitely grow Camp Joy this year. Most others I'll be growing are all new to me. I'll post a list soon.

Great to see you back, Raymondo!

It'll be interesting to see everybody's tomato list for the coming season.

I won't start my seeds as early as last year. I'll be a bit more patient and wait a few more weeks. :)

If the cuttings in the greenhouse survive the winter, I should be laughing! What a headstart that would be. Yes!

I've actually got about 5 green tomatoes on my Anna Russian plant in the greenhouse. Maybe one day they'll ripen? If the mice don't get at them first.

It's cold and yuk out there. But who cares, spring will come one day again and the mad rush to get seeds and plants into the ground in good time will be here soon enough. :)