Finbar,
I'm interested to see what you think of Dr Neal. My faux Dr Neal or environmentally-screwed medium-sized dark-pink ribbed beefsteaks are delicious but more fruity and zippy than the sweeter ones.

Is your Soldacki still going strong? Mine is oustanding.

Grub, I'll look forward to trying the Dr Neal. It took forever - 107 days - but then its spot doesn't get as much sun as the others. Yes, Soldacki is still battling along. It went into the ground on August 10, so it's earning its keep, despite EB's best efforts. I've got two more almost ripe and a couple coming along behind them.

Remind me to distribute Golden Queen seeds. It's a great tomato.

Will either of you, Grub or Finbar that is, have seeds for Soldacki at some point?

My daughter and I had sandwiches for lunch with yellow and red tomatoes, and 2 types of lettuces from my garden plus mayo.... forgot to take a pic before we ate them, sorry!

PP

If you can get a Cherokee Green cutting to sprout then I'd gladly give that a whirl. But I'm not putting in an Autumn crop since I think many of mine will do a Lazarus and take over the space of those that don't bounce back.

So no worries coz I can get CG from OS for next season. I'm keen for round-shouldered MPs for next season, too.

CP from Eden is good but a little strange in terms of both fruit production and the colour of the shoulders (too light). I think Mantis mentioned that before. I'm adding the real CP to the list for next season.

So don't stress out with any of them for my sake as I'm just enjoying what I've got and stopping ot smell the roses rather than worrying about maintenance, new plantings and suchlike. Enjoying the ol' fruit of my labour.

BTW: I read the Aussie accent is losing its strine. Headline of next Baby Post, No. 20, will strive to correct that.

Forget to mention Heatherington Pink. Got seeds for them, too.

BTW: Who is bagging this season?

Very tasty to me (my daughter thought it was too strong), and definitely it's not a tomato you can ignore once it's in your mouth!

PP

Here's a pic of sliced fruits that I'm about to post over in the Tomato Forum as well - link below

They were all processed for seeds, but since they are quite meaty I was able to cut out the centres of the large ones and coarsely dice them for a tomato salad. Dressed the salad with finely chopped lemon basil, a little balsamic vinegar with olive oil, ground pepper and sea salt.

The large tomatoes in the pic are Lucky Cross (a yellow/pink bi-colour), Brandywine in the centre, and the other large pink is Marianna's Peace.

We enjoyed our salad! *understatement*

But in a few days I'll have some pice to share.... Principe Borghese are the first to ripen, we've got about 200g so far and they're quite small. The ones coming next are bigger, but I couldn't wait to try drying them in the oven and I have some going right now. We have 10 of these planted, because the Digger's table said their average yield was 2.9kg... so despite the low yield we thought we'd have to try them because they're meant to be the best for drying.... well I think the 2.9k was a misprint! There are WAY more than that on each plant, and further research has shown wildly different yields - some people quoting 15kg... we are going to be up to our ears in them. Think I'll have to get that dehydrator real quick :-)

We also have two Tommy Toes, as we grew them last year and they were delicious.

The other variety we're growing is Amish Paste for sauce, although I am told they're delicious eating raw as well. These are a medium so they say, but there are some pretty big ones on our bushes - about tennis-ball size! Is that medium? This is only our second year of home veggie growing, so we're still learning and experimenting. We have 8 of these and they're fruiting quite prolifically, despite their funny leaves that always look like they need a drink!

Last year we grew Tigerella - nice but small and no point having them and Tommy Toes, one cherry is enough.

My partner doesn't eat tommies raw, so its just me and one of the kids who doesn't even live at home, LOL. 20 plants in all and in hindsight a little close together and suffering from the humidity this week in Melbourne - a few fungal diseases although only sporadic at present so we madly removing the branches and I will try the yoghurt and milk spray I saw recommended here.

We have scads of basil growing amongst the tommies. Last year it was very strong as a result and so far this year is also proving to be a gorgeous aniseedy flavour. My pesto rocks :-)

Pics soon, even though I already have quite an inferiority complex next to some of you :-)

Unbelievably tasty!

PP

Patrina, are you saving seed for further grow outs? Keep us posted on the results!

My Amish Paste year produced a mixture of sizes but mainly what I would call medium. In the tomato scheme of things, I'd call tennis ball-size a medium, with large reserved for the toms that grow closer to a kilogram.

I'm only just starting to get a few ripe ones too 'cos we had a really late frost that set me back six weeks. The fruit is really starting to set now and I'm itching to start preserving...

Amanda

Can you imagine what your garden would look like if you suddenly left it for six weeks?

Thankfully my major project before Christmas was getting the drip system going and making sure all the newer trees were on it. I thought I was working for an easier summer - little did I know! I did lose a few things to blocked drippers but nothing like it could have been.

Amanda

Cheers
Mantis

You mentioned the foliage on your Amish Paste. It's a heart-shaped variety (often referred to as oxheart) and many hearts have very distinctive droopy foliage, and ropey limbs. It can look quite ungainly at times and has a tendency to loll about, draping itself on whatever's nearby. Anna Russian is another classic in this regard, which produces much bigger fruit on average, though often far fewer than Amish Paste. They remind me of Greta Garbo!

Can't remember everything we had anymore, but the clear winner was Cherokee Chocolate. I want heaps of those in my garden. Soon.

This is Mudlark's creation. Don't you wish you had been there?

Thanks for showing us around your neck of the woods Mudlark. I think Finbar could just as well move here than go all the way to Italy, hey!

PP

Yeah, but it was obviously in the wrong part of South Australia Finbar!

PP, enjoying the fact that she got to tease Finbar, the Great Tease for a change

Thanks again!
mudlark

PS: Spatz, I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering why that Oregon Spring was absent from our taste test??

Auntie P, I was probably within about 5 miles of where you live, given that if I'd been more than 5 miles from where you live, I'd've been either in the ocean or the desert.

mudlark, I'll be interested to see what you think of the Pink Gaetano. I've now grown a number of large pink beefsteaks and I reckon PG holds its own against most of the above-average large pink beefsteaks. Oh, and I did avail myself of the local liquid treasure, believe me. I wore tracks in the roads to McLaren Vale and the Clare Valley. The latter, I think, remains much under-appreciated.

I'll let you know how the PG tastes, shouldn't be too long now, it is such a healthy, vigourous looking plant with fruit in abundance, I can't wait to taste it!

cheers, mudlark

The Clare Valley has fantastic wines. I've only been there once. Say the word, we are keen to go there again. *winks*

Old Vine Grenache. That'll be a drop for a special occasion. I can't believe how the little tasting sip went straight to my head!

Sarah, my first ones were quite cherry-like, but the ones almost ripening now are a better size although I'd still class them as small. Very convenient for drying I expect, you only need to halve them...

Ozmantis - you store dried tomatoes either in an airtight container (only if they're truly dry and leathery) or cover in oil... I may try using mostly balsamic and only a little oil and see how that goes too. It works nicely with my roasted tomatoes, but you have to eat them within 4 weeks.

Isn't this fun? Yeah...

PP

Thanks for the tomato pics, Spatx and Mabb. Hopefully, there are plenty more to come from all you southerners.

Finbar,
What tomatoes did you share with the lads on the weekend and what was the consensus?

Actually, one of the two chooks, the old girl which didn't moult properly and had bare patches, has a bare area that's turning a bit red. So I'm not sure what's wrong with her. She's happy and laying and hungry though. They both have very good diets.

Thanks to your excellent fence-making advice the new run is standing tall something like a brick outhouse. Had to laugh with one detail, though. After going to all that hardwork I kicked back the next day only to see a mynah pull its body throughthe chicken wire and promptly eat some chook food and take a drink of water before escaping. I had to clad the whole thing in bird netting after that. Now nothing can get in. Or out.

The extra space was given over to a few pots and some grass. I've now got a few heirloom zucchinis coming up in the area. But the plan is to create a new raised bed over the winter. I might devote that bed to growing things that go with tomatoes during their season, ie, celery, cukes, leeks (ex winter), that kind of thing. At least that's the plan.

I'm thinking of getting some old sleepers delivered to create the raised beds. Problem: Only have a handsaw. Anyway, how are your tommys and the chook house? Best, Grub.

Meantime, I posted this pic Up Over. A quartet of Erika d'Australie. First new specimens. Top weight 440g.

Back Left: Regina's Yellow, a bicolour weighing 450g/16.07oz (ex Carolyn)
Back Right: Big Yellow weighing 490g/17.5oz (ex Craig 1995 seed stock)
Front Left: Golden Oxheart 250g/8.9285714oz (ex Craig 1993 seed stock). Not sure if it is an oxheart in shape.
From Right: Two Indian Moons 120g/4.28oz (from Carolyn)

Great pictures, thanks. :)

I'm worried if I eat the one in the middle I'll grow an extra buttock or something. I think it's three sort of fused together. Is that possible?

Mantis *personaly believing that it is allready*

Mantis

Unfortunately, the weather has cooled down significantly. We had rain, hail, wind, occasional sunshine and maybe 15C today. Night temps around 8C! I'm not sure I'll have (m)any tomatoes by mid February.

Mixture from the garden

Cherokee Purple

Australian Red

Peron

Jaune Flamme (when will the fruit stop!!)

Ah ... pipe dreams.

And another box ready to go to a good home:

Half of my plants are slowly winding down (the early-maturing ones), the other half is still going mad. I'm surprised we still have friends and family who don't mind us visiting (with boxes of tomatoes) or even coming up to pick up some boxes. Amazing. :)

Akers West Virginia still going strong

Pepper Patch booming

PP

PP