Where to get tomatoes?

[mb7o]

Alright, bought some more Pence peaches today and they're still good but not great. Now onto the real unavailable food in the Pacific Northwest: Good tomatoes.

Every supermarket seems to carry hothouse tomatoes now, even at the end of august. They're not all cardboard, but they don't have much flavor either. A few years ago I made the mistake of buying 'heirloom tomatoes' at $5 or $10/lb. Very pretty but that magical cardboard taste made me say 'never again'.

Any good bets on finding good real tomatoes? Maybe neighborhood farmer's markets, or the guys from Yakima at Pike Place sometimes.

[malarkey]

IMO if you want good tomatoes you must drive over to Yakima and get them there. Along Lateral "A" you'll find a bunch of vegetable stands and lots of them sell tomatoes for ~$5 a flat.

They are always better than what you find over here. Make a day of it and have lunch at El Gallito ;-)

[tsquare]

Seattle tomatoes are just starting to color - but I picked 7 dozen this weekend! Two years ago, local tomatoes beat out Eastern Washington grown tomatoes hands down at the Tilth Harvest Festival taste-off. (Great place to try produce and celebrate the harvest - this year on September 14 at the Good Shephard's Center in Wallingford.) Both food professionals/chefs and the public selected locally grown as better tasting, so don't dismiss Western Washington so quickly. That said, try Farmer's Markets in the next few weeks. Pike Place, Wednesday and Sunday, has organic and local produce on the street stands as well.

[malarkey]

Two years ago, local tomatoes beat out Eastern Washington grown tomatoes hands down at the Tilth Harvest Festival taste-off.

no kidding?! well woohooo! I can believe that yummy toms can come from here, but our mild summers usually don't bode too well for certain varieties. I must pencil this event into my schedule...

I just like going to Yakima in September ;-) and eating yummy mexican food and gathering peppers and tomatoes and other lovely things for putting in my freezer.

I've had some great tomatoes this year, don't know if they were local or not. I suspect the heirlooms in the finer grocery stores are from Calif??

[col klink]

Have you tried growing your own? In my garden they're the only thing growing like gangbusters. They're not as good as the one my parents grow in Upper Michigan where the iron content is through the roof, but they're better than Hot House and easy to grow. No garden say ye? Throw dirt in a bucket or a planter and they'll do fine.

[Blue Heron]

I'm sorry to report that this year is the worst year ever for tomatoes in our garden. We got a very late start planting, and now they are late to ripen. And they are not as sweet as previous years (even the sungolds aren't as sweet). Very disappointing. But I'm bringing some of our tomatoes, sad as they are, to the olive oil tasting party tomorrow and hope Jim's olive oil will enhance them.

[tsquare]

Blue,

Not to worry - last year my tomatoes did not start ripening until the second week of September - and almost all of them ended ripe - only a small bag of greenines went to a green tomato chutney maker (hey, I never did get a portion!) Here's my report, to date:

I've had a few deep orange Yellow Brandywines (1) this year - great flavor and color, but too many surface imperfections, and low production, to be happy with their growing style. Also, the Tiger-like (2), so reliable the past few years, are lacking much flavor and substance! Camp Joy (3), a cherry type, continues to harbor great taste and a deep red color. The last of my Jubilee(4) seeds yielded one plant - the fruits are suffering from blossom end rot, as are many of the dull Romas (5). Costoluto Genovese (6) and Principe Borghese (7) are just starting to be picked - they look good. The unknown Master Caruso (8) turns out to be a nicely sized, very consistent red tomato, but nothing to sing about. The red pears (no yellow, after-all)are better sized this year - but also in a better growing location. It looks like the season is already ending for Isis Candy (9)- an early well flavored yellow tomato - not really a cherry, but fairly small. And, oddly, Oregon Spring (10) has yet to ripen! I have enjoyed a light harvest of Toma Verde tomatillos as well.

[Blue Heron]

tsquare, thanks for the report, and also for the words of hope!

I didn't recognize most of your tomato names as ones I have seen in the nurseries I shopped at, but seem to recall you grow many of yours from seeds. Do you start them out with special grow lights, or have a green house?

One of the problems in our planting tomatoes late this year, was that it seemed the nurseries also received their starts late too, and the variety of tomatoes was really limited. I would have liked to purchase Stupice, which was our earliest tomato last year, but this year was not at our nursery...but I will look for it next year. I will also look to buy Champion, which was our biggest w/good flavor tomato last year, too, but never saw them this year. As it is, I think we ended up with Early Girl, Celebrity, Romas, Sweet 100's, and Sungold cherries. Some of our tomatoes have blossom end rot (I think from uneven watering?), and now that the weather looks like it will be more moist, I hope that doesn't mean blight is far behind (we've been pretty lucky in that dept. in past years, but there always seems to be a bit of blight).

Has anyone been eating the tomatoes from Queen Ann or Admiral Thriftways? I saw some yesterday, but they did not look all that good. How are tomatoes at the farmer's markets this year? Eastern WA should have some really good tomatoes, I would think.

[tsquare]

BH-

I start seeds in a seed flat on a table in my kitchen, with a south facing window - March 24, this year. The flat has a clear plastic cover. That's it - no lights, on heating devices. I transplant most of them into 2" pots and keep them indoors for awhile. When it warms up a little, they go onto the partially glassed in back porch. When they get too leggy for their little pots, they go into the ground - usually by mid-May - the 18th, this year. The starts are way too small to look like they will survive - or thrive - but they always do! I think I may have lost one to slugs in all these years. I sometimes do a good job of planting - digging a deep hole, amending it with good stuff like compost and fertilizer, giving it a good soak...but this year they went into the ground unamended! I have broadcast dry organics and liquid fish fertilizer a couple of times each over the past 4 months. I prefer to stake and tie up plants rather than use cages. If they are left to run free (free-range tomatoes?), they tend to rot or get eaten where they touch the ground. If the supply holds out, I'll bring some of whatever is plentiful to the Tilth Festival taste-off. After the "professional" judging is done, the tasting is opened up to the public (at least in past years.) Come sample.

[Blue Heron]

That's a good idea to go to the Tilth Festival that you mentioned on Sept. 14. We've never been, and I think we'd enjoy it.

We use cages for out tomatoes, but don't pinch off any of the branches, so the plants get quite dense, as well as they seem to get planted too close together, so all that adds up to not enough light & air circulation as I would like. I keep asking my hubby to space them farther apart. We usually have about 30 plants planted. How many plants do you have?

[tsquare]

26 (?) plus 7 starts I gave to my neighbor...she thinks it will be too many for her, but they are growing. Oh yeah, I let them grow as much as they want, no pinching, always too crowded by the time they mature. One year I had a cherry type plant - maybe Sweet 100's? - that I could stretch out a good 20 feet easily. Interestingly, I did not get any self sown tomatoes this year, except some tomatillos.

[tsquare]

Just heard today that the Tomato Taste-Off at Tilth is not happening this year! The focus is on donating produce to food banks. Sorry - I was unaware of the change. Still encourage everyone to go to the Harvest Festival. There is always something interesting to see/buy/eat.

[col klink]

Today I tried the first celebrity tomato from my garden and sweet merciful Lord was it good. I was only going to use half of it for my omlet this morning but after trying it, I had to throw the whole thing in. This was one of the best tomatos I've ever had. I sauteed some garlic, fresh basil and tomato chunks and added a stinky goat cheese that I picked up at PFI this weekend. Damn it was good.

For the other tomato, I'm going to Fred Meyer's and picking up their spectacular deli bacon (the best in the city imo) and I'm making BLT's. Oops, it's hard to type when there's drool all over the keyboard.

[tsquare]

Now that we are getting into (or are into) the too many fresh tomatoes time - what are you doing with them? I've given away dozens, eaten them like candy, made dinners for friends, sauced 'em for the freezer, and will probably roast reduce some. Am I forgetting something I should try while they are abundant?

[girl chow]

Fresh salsa has been my answer to the 10 plus pounds of tomatoes I've acquired in the last two weeks. I've made batch after batch and I plan on using up my last bag of tomatoes for a big bowl of salsa for a party I'm hosting tomorrow.

My recipe is pretty simple: lots of tomatoes, the juice from 1 or 2 limes, onions, garlic and whatever spices you like to make it punchy (I like cayenne and dried ancho chile powder). I try to throw in a few jalapenos and maybe a habanero if hubby is eating it. The peppers also add nice color.

I'm getting sick of tomatoes. I hate saying that knowing that the next time I'll see a good tomato will be months away, but this year I really got way too many of them.

[col klink]

I've been eating them sliced with sea salt, cracked black pepper and a little olive oil. Mmmmm good. The salsa is a good idea too. However my preferred way to eat them is with a couple slices of deli bacon and lettuce on toasted bread with mayo or Miracle Whip. I'm told this is called a BLT. What better honor can you bestow a perfect tomato than with pork fat?

OK, maybe if you find duck or goose bacon, possibly, or even salmon bacon. But does anyone make those? If somebody does, please let me know!

[SparrowsFall]

Cream of Tomato soup. One cup of cream sauce (2Tbsb butter, 2 Tbsp flour, one cup milk) absorbs an *amazing* amount of tomatoes. Just cook the tomatoes enough to squeeze through a seive or food mill. A little salt.

I freeze it in ziplocs with all the air out (freeze 'em flat to optimize freezer space), and you actually get a lot of that sweet fragrant summer tomato flavor in the middle of winter. Great with grilled cheese.

[col klink]

Great idea! I'll do that with my excess Romas.

[tsquare]

Oh yes, salsa. Been using the tomatillos for that. Why is it I never have cilantro at the same time as ripe tomatoes! At least the hot peppers are ready.

I thought freezing cream soups didn't work all that well - no problems? Do you sieve the tomatoes before or after combining with the cream sauce?

[girl chow]

Doh! I forgot to add that I put copious amounts of cilantro in my salsa. How could I forget to type that in? That's the pulse of the salsa man.

Valley Harvest in South King County (two ethnic grocery stores in Kent) have had cilantro and limes on sale this week, which has made my life wonderful. Now, if only eggplant would go on sale...

I am soooo going to give that cream of tomato soup recipe a try. I sincerely doubt it will make it to the freezer, so no worries there. I love soup. Soup rules.

Hey, I have a mess of basil leftover from a carrot basil soup I made earlier this week. I think I'll add that to the cream of tomato soup. I can never get enough of the tomato basil combo :)

[Blue Heron]

I also never get the timing right to have cilantro in my garden the same time as my tomatoes are ripe...arggg. This year I was very bad and didn't even have basil. It is really painful to have to *buy* basil when one is used to having it in the garden (or window sill), but that's what I've been doing. I hate that one has to buy it in a bag for $3+ when I really only want a few leaves at a time for my salads, and then it gets brown in the bag so quickly. I must get my act together better next year.

I've been mostly eating my tomatoes like Colonel Klink... with some of Jim Dixon's olive oil, sea salt, and sometimes cracked black pepper & a touch of balsamic. This morning I made a Greek Salad by adding some sliced Walla Walla onions, cucumbers, Kalamata olives & crumbled Feta and a sprinkling of oregano. mmmm.

I'm also making sun dried tomatoes. I have an American Harvest dehydrator that has worked well over the years. I slice my romas into slices and in about 24 hours they are done (or less depending on how dry you want them. I make mine really dry, because I then put them in baggies and pop them into the freezer for later on).

[heyjude]

I've been using Evert-Fresh green bags that I buy at Whole foods to store produce. It extends veggie life by about half. As a test, I put a bunch of parsley in a bag following the directions and it is still fresh 9 days later. I think one of the supermarket brands like Glad or Reynolds has a similar product.

[snowangel]

Why is it I never have cilantro at the same time as ripe tomatoes! At least the hot peppers are ready.

Because cilantro does better when it's cooler (bolts in heat) and tomatos and hot peppers require hot weather to grow, bloom and ripen.

Try planting your cilantro later, and on the north side of the garden so it doesn't get so much heat and sun.

[SparrowsFall]

I thought freezing cream soups didn't work all that well - no problems? Do you sieve the tomatoes before or after combining with the cream sauce?

Mixed results. Sometimes when it comes out I have to run it through the blender or food processor to smooth it out.

I make the cream sauce then sieve the tomatoes into it. Stir.

If the tomatoes are not the perfect sweet things we all dream of, I have been known to add a touch of sugar to offset the acid.

[tsquare]

Blue Heron - another plug for PCC - they sell basil in bulk - buy one leaf if that's what you need. Think you could get to know a produce vendor at the market well enough to do this as well.

Snowangel - the cilantro question was rhetorical, but thanks for the explanation anyway.

sfroth - thanks. What do you think of oven roasting the tomatoes before adding them to the soup? Too much?