If you read Martyn’s Saturday post you will know that this week we harvested our very first red tomatoes.
One was a cherry tomato called Gardener’s Delight which has a delicious sweet juicy flavour and the other was German Red Strawberry. If you look at the photograph that Martyn posted on his blog showing this tomato sitting alongside a newly picked strawberry, then you will understand why it has been given this name. It isn’t that it tastes of strawberries and why would we want it to? As we only had one tomato of each variety both were cut in half so that we could have a taster each.
We hadn’t grown German Red Strawberry before so didn’t really know what to expect. It’s a heirloom tomato described as an oxheart variety. The catalogue description claims that it will produce very large tomatoes but this one was much smaller than expected. We weren’t really disappointed as to be honest we had forgotten this claim.
As you can see from the photo the tomato is very ‘meaty’ rather than juicy but we liked the flavour. It is almost seedless too - well this one was! The few tiny seeds that were visible were confined to the small cavity at the top of the fruit.
I wonder whether the seeds develop as the tomato becomes over-ripe, otherwise how do they collect enough seed to sell?
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The German Strawberry one could equally be described as heart-shaped, couldn't it? It ought to be a good one for cooking with, since it hasn't got so many pips.
ReplyDeleteMy first ripe ones were Maskotka, a small red one not unlike Gardeners Delight.
An exciting week for you Sue-first red tomato harvest. I got a strange image at first when I read your post. I imagine that like strawberry this german strawberry have seeds outside on the skin.
ReplyDeleteWhat a romantic you are, Mark it could indeed! I think that it would be a good cooking tomato too.
ReplyDeleteNow that would be an interesting tomato Diana.
You're ahead of me with your tomatoes, no sign of any of mine ripening yet. I hope they hang on for a while longer though now otherwise they'll be ripening whilst we're on holiday. My Gardener's Delights are very leggy this year, I don't know why as they've been grown in exactly the same way as my other two varieties and they're doing very well. The German Red Strawberry looks interesting, I've never heard of that one before.
ReplyDeleteYummy and juicy tomatoes!
ReplyDeleteOur tomato plant varieties all look a bit different, Jo. Moneymaker seems to have the strongest, darkest foliage and some others do look leggy but I think the ones that grow small tomatoes tend to generally look more leggy.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for plenty more Malar
The top photo looks like a painting! Looks great.
ReplyDeleteThe German Strawberry tomato is very interesting. I plant a German variety that is also very meaty and quite flavorful.
ReplyDeleteThe light in the kitchen wasn't really bright enough, Kelli so the added lights made it all a bit shiny!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Germans like meaty tomatoes Robin.
I've grown some of these almost seedless toms before (though not this variety). You will find later in the season that some fruits have a few more seeds in. You then end up alnost gutting the contents of what was to be your lunchtime sandwich!
ReplyDeleteI'll take note VH.
ReplyDeleteI love this time of year, when you finally start to be able to munch home grown tomatoes. The German Strawberry looks interesting, bet it would be good in a sarnie or a burgher. We ate our first three 'Gardener's Delight' toms yesterday, utterly delicious. Now if we could just have a little more sunshine to ripen some of the rest...
ReplyDeleteThat certainly is a strange looking tomato....glad you enjoyed it!!
ReplyDeleteSome later ones of this variety did have a few more seeds Tanya
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