"Tomatoes...they consume you before it's the other way around." ~ KHT

I believe I may be going 'round the bend.

I can't stop obsessing about the garden and in particular the TOMATOES.

I was minding my own business today, lurking in the Blotanical Pick Lists and began following a thread of tomato leads which ultimately led to me ordering five more varieties of tomato seeds!

Even without the veggie porn (few pictures), I was enchanted by the names. Besides, I was concerned over the lack of solid red in our tomato patch and they made me buy them...

Cuor di Bue
This Oxheart type Italian heirloom has been a favorite in Italy for many years. Beautiful 12 oz. fruit have a delicious sweet taste, similar to the shape of a heart, great for fresh eating or cooking. Large vigorous vines. Hard to find.

Cosmonaut Volkov
A smooth and attractive, medium-large red tomato that has a full, rich flavor. The productive vines yield well even in hot weather, perfect for canning or slicing. This variety is from Dniepropetrousk, Ukraine, and was named after the first Russian Cosmonaut. In response to many requests, we are pleased to add this variety to the catalog.

Tatar of Mongolistan
We were sent this rare tomato in the late 1970's by Iraqi seed collector, Aziz Nail, who was living in France. Medium-sized fruit are very flavorful, red, and flattened in shape. These have become popular with seed savers since we introduced it about 5 years ago. We are glad to have this tasty type back. Great fresh or dried.

Bloody Butcher
A small 3-4 oz ‘cluster’ tomato. Fruit are deep red in color and have a nice tomato flavor. Production is really good, but where this open-pollinated tomato really shines is its earliness. It ripens in only about 60 days, making it ripen about the same time as Early Girl, but this tomato is much tastier.

So if you don't want to go crazy (like me) whatever you do, do NOT go to visit Rare Seeds.com

If you think you can remain sensible, DO go to visit:

Garden Desk: The Pros and Cons of Heirloom Tomatoes a wonderful and informative post about what it says it's about...

and

Garden Desk: White Tomesol Heirloom Tomato which contains an impressive list of 20 kinds of Heirloom varieties, in addition to 13 hybrids that Garden Desk writer is growing this season.

I'm increasingly amazed at how much there is to know even on the most basic levels of gardening.

This being only my second season, I am truly nuts to try to do this so totally, having no experience, and I am likely in for some huge disappointments; but I can't help myself. The whole process is downright addicting.

Every day I learn about ten new things. Today I learned (don't laugh) the difference between hybrids and heirlooms (thanks Garden Desk). I learned that I should expect lower yields from my heirlooms and that I'm going to have to do battle with the buggers - but I figure we didn't have fantastic tomato yields last year anyway, and I'm growing so many varieties, some of them are going to work and whatever didn't I will have learned from the experience and will try to improve next season.

Best case scenario, I have so many tomatoes, I'll be a slave to preservation and sales - I plan to sell some veg this year at (hopefully) The Old North End Farmer's Market and also (maybe) to some local restaurants.

Worst Case Scenario: I get few tomatoes and I study harder next time and learn from my mistakes. I will still have an exciting array of seed varieties to play with and I can perhaps enlist a mentor for insurance.

All this talk about it has give me the urge to go look at the babies. The kale needs transplant already because it's in the germination tray and not under light. It's leggy and is crying for a different situation.

Also, my daughter is going to sign up for a plot so she'll be on hand to take the stragglers on. With all that going for us, I'm pretty sure we're going to be buried in delicious veggie goodness by July.

Mmmm, mmmmm, good.
XXKHT
*veggie descriptions lifted straight from rareseeds.com

Comments

[Marc @ Garden Desk]

Those sound like great tomatoes! There are just way too many heirloom tomatoes out there. I wish we could try them all!

I'm glad to see your obsession with tomatoes - it makes me feel not quite as weird to know I'm not alone.

Thanks for the Garden Desk mentions. I'm glad I could help you learn some things. That is what is so great about garden blogs - we all learn from one another! You have a great blog going here and I have added you to my blogroll. I can't wait to read more about what you are doing. Your potato idea sounds great.

Happy Gardening!

[jodi]

I love heritage tomatoes! a small nursery is propagating a few flats of a number of different heritage varieties, and is putting aside one plant each of about 10 different varieties for me to grow in our little greenhouse. So yes, I know the feeling...it's an obsession!

[Linda]

I don't have a sunny spot for tomatoes now, but I remember one year I took huge bowls of extra tomatoes to give away at work almost every day for more than a month due to a combination of maybe going a teensy bit overboard on the number of plants, and Tomatoes Alive (from Gardens Alive) fertilizer.

I've never had so many tomatoes in my life. If I'd preserved them all I'd probably still have jars left now, five years later.

I moved after that summer and haven't had tomato plants since then. I don't know if it was just a fluke and a really good year for tomatoes, or if there was really something special in that fertilizer, since I haven't had a chance to try it again.