On 18/11/2014 22:24, Bigal wrote:
I have wondered why tomatoes used to be called love apples. The shape
offers a clue, and perhaps being 'rosy'. Then the squidginess of them
takes that away. But last year I bought some beef tomatoes from Lidls.
They were firm and tasty , so out of curiosity I saved some seeds and
this year grew two plants in my greenhouse. One plant produced beef
tomatoes, but not a big crop. Most of those ended up frozen (chopped)
for curries etc. The other plant produced one beef tomato with the rest
of them being standard sized. I found them slow to ripen, and it was
the end of the season before I got around to doing much with them. The
grandchildren had the earlier ones. To me, they tasted better than any
other that I have grown. They were firm, solid and meaty, and retained
that for about six weeks before starting to soften. I can understand
those being called love apples. The firmness wasn't quite up to that
of an apple. The original tomato must have been F1, but I am saving
some seeds and hoping that they will produce some again next year. I
took a late cutting and wonder if I can save it through the winter.
Strange how life gets more interesting as you get older.





These little experiments are such good fun! Let us know what happens to
the tomato cutting.....