Rutgers/NJ - Tomato Tasting event
Comments (9)
8 years ago
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
OT - Rutgers Tomatoes?
Comments (10)Rutgers is a classic 3R tomato, it's round, red, and reliable. It's been grown for nearly 70 years, making it an heirloom type simply because of its longevity as a favorite for home growers and farmers too. Any tomato can be cooked but choosing them are based on your preferences. DETs are varieties which have an expected or determinable height, they crop the majority of their fruits all at once, flowering and fruiting drops dramatically after that and so, just for convenience, you can yank the plants after you crop them and give the ground over to another plant. INDs have an indetermined length, they just keep growing and growing and flowering and fruiting along their stems until the plant is killed by frost or disease. Pastes and beefsteaks generally are meaty fruits, not as juicy, drippy, slurpy as others and do quite well for sauce or slicing. Globes or Oblates (slightly flattened fruits) are all-purpose and do well for salad, slice or stuffing--baked or fresh. Small fruited tomatoes are nice for salad or tossing into a saute pan. They can be cooked whole or just slice in half to prepare them. Hubs likes cherries, they're convenient snack-sized tomatoes, juicy and sweet. He's also fond of tomato salad made by chunking up something ripe off the vine and stirring in just a dibdab of mayo. Heirlooms or heritage types can be red, but a good many are not. They come in all colors of the rainbow--the purple or black types aren't really purple or black, but are shades of brick. White tomatoes aren't white, they're cream to pale yellow in color. There are GWRs--which are Green when Ripe--they don't have a color gene and just ripen to green hue, some, like most tomatoes, will develop a rosy blush as they ripen and sweeten. And there are bi-colors too, which may have more than two colors, like Berkeley Tie Die, Black and Red Boar, or Striped German--to name a few. Shapes are varied. Currants, cherries, grapes, saladettes, round, oblate, beefsteak, ruffled, pear-shaped, plums (which can also be elongated). Some tomatoes have shoulders, some have nipples (giggety), some have a few cavities where seeds develop and some have more but smaller cavities where their seeds develop, and some seem to be all wall--and these are nice for stuffing--that's a trait called Puffiness. And then there's different foliage types--there's one called Silvery Fir Tree which makes really odd leaves which you can gather from the name. Strangeness is part of the passion of growing heirlooms--they're not all 3Rs, and flavor is part of the love. If you're new to growing tomatoes from seed then selection of what you want to grow can be overwhelming. It's akin to walking into a wine store and wanting something that tastes good but you don't know where to begin. So, because of the overwhelming amount of choices I am happy to select for people--I understand that it's tough to decide if you're new to the hobby. At WinterSown.Org there's an order form which you fill out with your choices and defaults--people who want me to choose for them just send in the blank form. I look at the address that the seeds are going to and I use locality as a guide for beginning the selection process. If someone lives in North Dakota then it doesn't make sense for me to select a tomato that will mature in 90 days after being set out into the garden--they need a tomato which will ripen before their first freeze in later summer or very early Autumn. And conversely, people who live in the deep hot south will also need fast maturing varieties because hot, hot summer weather causes malformation of blossom and fruiting is very, very difficult until the cooler weather comes along. If you're in zone 6 and 7 and 8 you can grow just about any tomato in your climate and expect a success, you may still have your local disease pressures, but growing season nice and long. Zones 9 and 10, Zones 5 and 4, are going to need fast cropping tomatoes....See MoreRutger's Tomato Tasting Festival
Comments (6)Well, the news is good. The tomato festival is back on. They handed out the flyers today at the extension center though is sounded like it would be scaled back. "Join us in this unique opportunity to taste over 70 tomato varieties (including heirlooms and hybrids), some amazing apples, and take a wagon tour highlighting today's research at out NJAES farm." The date is August 30th from 3pm til dusk. The cost is $4 for adults. Children under 18 free. RSVP (?) is (908) 713-8980 The place is the Snyder Research and Extension Farm Website is www.snyderfarm.rutgers.edu/ Directions: From North: Take Rt. 78 to exit 15. Turn left (South) at bottom of exit ramp onto Pittstown Road (Route 513S). Stay on Pittstown Road for approximately 6 miles (Do not turn when Route 513 bears right). Turn left onto Locust Grove Road at Rutgers sign. Snyder Farm is 1/2 mile on the left. From South: Take Route 202/31 North to the Flemington traffic circle. Take Route 12 West at circle. Go approximately 5 miles to Pittstown Road (second right after Shell Gas Station). Turn right (north )and go 3.5 miles to Locust Grove Road (look for Rutgers sign) and turn right. Snyder Farm is 1/2 mile on the left. I'm going to start another post and link here just so more people know....See MoreRutgers Ag Days Tomato Tasting...How was it?
Comments (5)The seeds put in a cup of water or one cup per variety, let sit till scum forms a few days later rinse them off , I use a tea strainer and run water from the faucet on them to get any gel etc off them, I let them dry on a paper towel and put them in envelope after they dry. Did this with some tomatoes had this winter and they are now all producing nice tomatoes for me. Those got preped outside in the 20's temps too. They do ferment and do smell so iffy if you want to do this in your house....See MoreWhat is most sweetest, best tasting tomato?
Comments (89)Yeah, CP. This is a 5 year old thread and the QUESTION is always new. The search for the " Best Tasting and the Most Sweetest .." tomato continue. This is a never ending thing. OK. My definition of good tomato taste is not "the sweetest". I like a tomato with a delicate balance of sweetness and acidity, with a juicy texture and nice color when sliced. I have found one such tomato: ANANAS NOIRE (pic below ) Another one is CHEROKEE PURPLE PLE...See More- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Thanks John, here's one more link from the Rutgers' site. I just noticed it wasn't in the last post I did. There is some sort of bug sometimes when I post links, they sometimes get removed when composing the post - and I have to edit to get them back in - sorry about that. This one is the original 1934 full description of the Rutgers cultivar:
Scientific Breeding Gives New Jersey the Rutgers Tomato (link)
Top Honors:
To the man behind the Rutgers tomato I write as a homage since no published articles or web pages seem to exist about him:
We salute Prof. Schermerhorn :-) What a tomato!
Professor Lyman Gibbs Schermerhorn, Sr. (1887-1960)
Born in Massachusetts, Lyman Sr. grew up on a farm and spent time in the city as well. Lyman studied at the Massachusetts Agricultural College where he got his B.S. He took a liking to vegetable culture and breeding as a young college grad. Looking for adventure and family, he married Lillian Tolman (1885-1966) born in New York City, whose family was originally from New England as well.
Lillian grew up in New Brunswick, NJ. She left her work in preparation for the marriage, as Bursar and Typing and Stenography Instructor at the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts she had held for 5 years. Together they moved for his work to Montana when the state was in its infancy and developing from its recent territorial history. It's logical to think Lillian assisted Lyman to put his publication manuscripts in professional form and he did a few in a short time as a junior faculty member. This helped Lyman advance his career quickly.
In Montana, Lyman took a position as an Instructor of Horticulture at the young and newly expanding Agricultural College of the State of Montana in 1910. By 1912 he had also been part of the staff of the Agricultural Experimental Station (Montana State University's present day Taylor Hall) in Bozeman, and then was promoted to become an Assistant Professor of Horticulture at Montana. He published an agricultural manual on how to best cultivate tomatoes in Montana at that time. While Lyman wasn't an outspoken proponent of pruning side shoots, he recommended that when it was done, that they be at most 4 inches long, and preferably smaller.
Shortly thereafter, with the pressures of a newborn baby, the Schermerhorns returned back east to Rutgers College where Lyman was encouraged by a relative on the Board of Trustees, to join the faculty in 1914. World War I had been brewing but this was also the heyday of scientific breeding. Prof. Schermerhorn interacted as a young faculty member with colleagues breeding the Marglobe tomato which was a significant advancement and providing cutting edge excitement as a landmark in American Tomato history.
...And the rest is more wonderful history, Lyman started making selections for the Rutgers tomato in the late 1920's based on improving Marglobe, and it was released in 1934. :-) He also released a tomato variety named Queens (perhaps for the NYC borough?) which was a principal parent of the 1964 variety release from Oregon, Willamette. Additionally he bred a famous asparagus variety named Raritan, for the Raritan River of NJ. Lyman had only one infant who he named Lyman Jr. who attended Rutgers while his father made the selections for the famous Rutgers tomato.
Lyman Sr. retired to live in NYC with his wife. His son was very athletic and participated on the Rutgers' swim team and then the track and field team and accompanied his father on occasion for selections before the release of Rutgers. In his 70's, the younger Lyman had returned to competitive swimming from his home in Bucks County (PA). At 80, the younger Lyman had just won a swim relay race, but sadly passed away before his time about 2 weeks later.
Professor Lyman Gibbs Schermerhorn, Sr. photo credit Rutgers
Respectfully
PC
8 years ago- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
John A