On Tue, 18 Nov 2014 23:24:52 +0100, 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.

Good luck. You could be into something big in more ways than one!