Experimental Tomato Harvest Technique

Hi guys,

I have some wild tomatoes that just sprouted spontaneously in my front yard in a weed pile. Anyways, I tasted the first batch and they were kinda bland, so I did an experiment. For the next harvest batch, I purposely did not water them for three hot, sunny Texas days. It did not rain for 3 days. I reasoned that witholding water for 3 days before harvest will concentrate the flavor. I then harvested my tomatoes.

Next, I purchased some medium sized tomatoes from Costco (the best tomatoey tasting tomatoes I know of) and some grape tomatoes (the sweetest tomatoes I know of).

Then, I poured a cup of filtered water to rinse my mouth out between tastings.

Finally, I tasted my tomato, sipped water, tasted the Costco tomato, sipped water, tasted the grape tomato, sipped water, then tasted my tomato again.

The grape tomatoes were sweetest, but the skin was kinda tough. It did not have much tomatoey flavor.

The Costco tomatoes had thinner skin and was a bit more juicy than the grape tomato. It had a stronger tomatoey flavor but was not very sweet.

The home grown tomato had a slightly stronger tomatoey flavor with some sweetness to it. It was not a sweet as the grape tomato, but it was about 80% as sweet. It was juicier than both the Costco and the grape tomato. It's taste was in-between the Costco and the grape tomato in terms of acid-sweet balance, but it had a much more stronger in taste. In other words, it was more flavorful and more juicy. These home-grown wild tomatoes were vine-ripened to full ripeness and were about 1-2 inches in diameter. They were smaller than the Costco tomatoes but bigger than the grape tomatoes. They were about the size of golf balls, some slightly larger or smaller. The color was dark orange-red.

I had no idea home-grown tomatoes were this good!

My wife is still suspicious that these are poisonous nightshade, so she still hasn't eaten any yet. Oh well, more for me! These are too big to be nightshade and too sweet, too. Poinsonous plants are bitter.

I guess that's why a lot of people dig homegrown tomatoes. I haven't grown them yet but as soon as I get the vegatable bed done, there will be tomates, corn, squash, you name it.. I can't wait.

I believe you've got what's known as a "volunteer" tomato plant. I've read that tomato seeds are extremely rugged, and can still germinate after passing through a chicken's digestive system (lord knows where I read that or who did the experimenting...), so extra plants tend to pop up in various places; I've always got a couple in my compost pile. And no kidding on the flavor! I can't even buy tomatoes from the store anymore, because they've got no taste. I've only had a garden for the past few years, so I'm still learning lots, but last year I took all the "extra" tomatoes that we couldn't eat before they'd spoil, chopped them coarsely, put them in tupperware containers in the freezer, and we were able to have occasional batches of salsa all winter. I used the last of them a couple of months ago, now I'm anxiously awaiting my next crop!
Yay to homegrown tomatoes! You and your wife need to start a garden!

"There's just two things that money can't buy / And that's true love and home-grown tomatoes." (old country-western song) I read on some culinary site somewhere that the varieties of cherry, grape, and roma tomatoes one gets most often in the grocery store are grown for their shippability, i.e. tough skins, and not for flavor. You want decent cherries or grapes? Gotta grow your own.

And then there's what you discovered: even home-grown isn't all that good unless you grow a great variety and treat it right. I ate lunch at a local restaurant yesterday; it's famous for buying local produce. The menu said it was using "heirloom tomatoes". The tomato on my sandwich was bland and mushy: it may have been an heirloom variety and locally grown, but it had been ripened in a paper bag instead of on the vine.

I selected all 3 of my varieties based on flavor, flavor, flavor! I'm now harvesting 'Ladybug' cherry tomatoes and each one packs a major punch of true tomato flavor -- not sugary at all. My 'Sweet Pea' currant (or wild) (i.e. the species pimpinellifolia) tomatoes are just starting to ripen and as the packet says they can sit on the vine fully ripe for as long as a month I haven't tried them yet. The local squirrels are crazy about my 'Brandywine' heirloom tomatoes even though they haven't started to ripen yet.

I started lots of seeds this spring, and the tomatoes were the easiest to raise. And boy, was it worth it!

My best-tasting tomato (planted on purpose) was the Arkansas Traveler. But my very best tomato was a volunteer that planted itself in clay soil and in 75% shade. It was in so much shade my daughter kept referring to it as my "fried green tomato" plant because we were sure the fruit wouldn't ripen. Oh, yes, it did ripen, and they are best tomatoes I've tasted in 35 years.

I've got 3 new plants started from the suckers on it. I also saved the seeds from half a dozen of the tomatoes. I will definitely be growing this one next year. Since it is at least an F2 and the ones from seeds next year would be at least F3, they should come true.

Don't let the fact that the one you had this year tasted rather bland stop you from encouraging any volunteers you get in future years. You could be getting a great surprise.

carrieebryan is correct. Commerical field-grown tomatoes are raised for their ability to be picked by machine without damage and for their longer-keeping qualities for the stores -- not for flavor. So, check for different varieties for growing in a home garden and find some that especially appeal to you.

While it is true that the tomato belongs to the nightshade family, as does the potato, which is why only the fruit of the tomato and the tuber of the potato are edible and the rest of the plant is poisonous, neither of these plants look anything at all like the poisonous nightshade plant your wife is thinking of.

Karen

Homegrown tomatoes are the best. I have a daughter who grows hers in her flower beds. She loves them so much.She really knows how to grow them and has tomatoes to give to her neighbors. I raised mine in containers for the last three years. They do not do as well but I have lots of tomatoes. I freeze them and use them for stews, dumplings, and soup. I also like tomatoes and rice. Tomatoes are good fresh from the garden.

Just had my last, maybe, (sob) homegrown tomato salad for lunch. 'Brandywine' heirloom tomatoes ripened up very nicely and tasted wonderful. 'Ladybug' cherry tomatoes I enthused about earlier; I ended up giving away about 3 quarts of them because I couldn't eat them fast enough. My boss liked them so much she wanted to pay for them! The 'Sweet Pea' currant tomatoes also were quite yummy, especially by the handful in tuna salad. (It's fun to watch people's expressions when I say I put about 30 tomatoes in my tuna salad and now I'm looking for dessert.) Our fall weather has started, so production has suddenly fallen off; and we will have frost in about a month, so it's just as well.

The only problem I had was that the 11 tomato plants grew so enthusiastically they overshadowed everything else. The chard went away as if someone had pulled them out bodily. The marigolds and bachelor buttons on the edges of the bed survived but it's all bare dirt everywhere else. And I had to abandon my plans to sow fall bok choi and lettuces. Next year I hope to plant fewer tomato plants and prune suckers assiduously! Maybe 4 'Brandywine', 2 'Ladybug', and 1 'Sweet Pea' will be just right. Or, of course, some other tomato will sing its siren song and I will have to splurge the $2.25 for its seeds, just to find out if it really does beat all the others hollow.

I sympathize with your "last" tomato. There are several of the newer varieties that are more "cold" hardy. You can harvest them green and store in boxes covered with newspapers. We were eating fresh maters until late Jan last year. Burpee is where I got the seed, just drawing a blank on the variety as the moment, sigh...another senior moment! LOL

You have just discovered what nature meant us to eat, that is, fresh from the soil, home grown, and wonderful textured food, dont be put off by the taste being a bit bland, there are hundreds of different varieties of tomato to grow, the one you have was from a seed that a bird ate, it then dropped it in the weed bed, the best bit being, the bird already wrapped the seed in a little packet of manure (bird poo) so give some seeds a go next spring, selecting the ones for taste, for harvest, for size, but most of all, because you know know how easy they are to grow, for your wife to get confidence in the tomato's you should let her smell the foliage from the plant, it sure smells like heavenly tomato, but the nightshade will actually make her pull her nose away because you just know it is poisonous, it's putrid, good luck, get your tomato seeds started indoors Feb if you have the room, you will love it. Good luck. WeeNel.