"Phil L" wrote in message
...
Pam Moore wrote:
:: On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 22:57:12 +0100, Sacha
:: wrote:
::
::: I'm the least likely member of this group to discuss food growing
::: but has anyone else noticed that tomatoes are watery and
::: flavourless this year? Our are grown in large pots in a mix of
::: soil and compost, in a large glass house. Each year, until this
::: one, they have tasted sublime. This year they ripened late,
::: cropped poorly and taste of nothing much at all. ;-(
::
:: Mine are delicious!! Grown in the open on my allotment, but this
:: year I am cuttiing them green, and ripening them on trays at home
:: because I am so worried about blight, which has not yet srrived!
:: As soon as a truss begins to colour I pick them. Today I even
:: picked some quite green.
:: The skins are slightly tough, but this is because they have been
:: grown hard, and not had as mucn water as previous years,9 because
:: I can no longer drive and rely on lifts). The flavour is
:: excellent. (assorted varieties)
:: Cannot compare with those grown under glass as I have no
:: greenhouse.
::
:: Pam in Bristol

This was my favourite way of eating them, still a bit green around the
seeds
so that they were *very* tangy! - excellent with cheese...droooool.
Also we used to get tiny ones ripening, Ive seen cherry tomatoes and
they
were about this size but reeeaaally sweet...the other toms on the same
plant
would grow to full size, just the odd one or two here and there.

******
I planted too many this year, - had some given to me, you see.
They are now ripening quickly and I am giving a lot of them them away
because I haven't the time to freeze them. The taste this year, -
despite a complete change of the compost-based soil in the
raised-beds, - is disappointing. It could be that I have not doctored
them this year with a pale straw- coloured application of what my Dad
used to call "Sheepsh", (a small sack bag of sheepsh in a bucket of
water, then watered down again for application..)
I have some of last year's bucket still available but have hesitated to
use it because I don't know what chemical changes might have taken
place, - so I've chucked it all down the sewer gully.
The Gardener's Delight are cropping heavily, but what has happened to
the taste of this once-sweet tomato?. They are not sweet anymore.
The others are Shirley,