I thought it would be nice to feature some of our new varieties on the blog. De Colgar tomatoes are storage tomatoes, in fact the name means 'to hang up'. We also have a variety called Longkeeper, which does the same thing. However in my opinion De Colgar has a far superior flavour. One of the projects I would like to do this year, but probably won't get around to, is to compare the keeping qualities of some of our old favourites, with these varieties. I think Moneymaker would do well, I have often been picking tomatoes out in the polytunnel until Christmas, and Moneymaker Gardeners Delight seem to hang in there very well. In fact the polytunnel seems to be the best place to store tomatoes unless we get serious frost like we did this year which is not good for tomatoes. They also seem to store best on the vine. Again I want to look at this more closely, but putting them in a drawer doesn't seem to work very well. I usually discover a gooey mess sometime later, a windowsill suits me better, and I am more likely to remember them. (Note to self, I need more windowsills.) Has anybody got any tomato storage tips?
The top picture I found on the internet which shows vines hanging up under a roof, somewhere that I expect doesn't get much frost.
De Colgar produces tall vines easily reaching the top of the polytunnel. The fruit are mediu sized and hard even when ripe with a high dry matter content. They are good sliced with a sweet tomato flavour, not much acid, and make a thick sauce.
Another one that might be worth trying is Principe Borghese. Usually the whole plant is uprooted and the tomatoes are allowed to shrivel a bit. It's often used for sun dried tomatoes, but makes good paste too. I think the seeds are available commercially.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Owen, I will check them out.
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