Tomatoes

Unfortunately the weather is not providing the warmth, sunshine and dry weather that is the ideal for ripening the tomatoes. But even so the plucky little blighters are struggling to maturity. Lets be honest this weather is not unusual, but we have learnt a trick or two to hasten ripeness. We gather the fruit when it is fully grown and ripen it indoors. Putting the green tomatoes into a trug along with some ripe tomatoes encourages them to ripen. Apparently a ripe banana will have a similar effect. All to do with the gases given off by the ripe fruit apparently.

The picture shows a selection of most of the tomatoes we are growing: Costoluto, Black Russian, Tigarella, Yellow and Red Santini and a couple of Purple Calabash at the top right of the picture.

The Costoluto seem to be the most prolific this year. Their ridged appearance is very attractive but the flavour is a little insipid, lacking acidity. But they are a good tomato for a sauce as they readily reduce to a pulp and have a low water content.

The Black Russians are a favourite, great flavour and heavy yield of perfect round tomatoes.

The Santini are cherry tomatoes grown from seeds saved from commercial fruit (these are sold by Marks and Spencer, I couldn't find the seed anywhere). Lovely sweet flavour and the yellow ones give a nice colour contrast.

The Tigarella are an old favourite. A good salad tomato, good yield and very pretty with the bronze stripe on the red fruit.

Purple Calabash sounded great in the seed brochure but turn out to be less attractive version of the Costoluto. We probably won't bother growing these again.