The Tomato Thread
 

Call me weird... I HATE tomatoes... but I can eat tomatoes in most other forms.

OUT
-- Whole tomatoes
-- Sliced tomatoes
-- Juice

IN - Everything else!
-- Pico de gallo
-- Salsa
-- Bruschetta
-- Sauces
-- Soup
-- Fried and green.

I'm weird.

I know other people that way. You're not as weird as you think.

To me, there's nothing better than a good fresh picked tomato with a little salt... unless it's sliced onto a BLT!!

I love a good, fresh tomato (on a sub, in a salad, with mozzarella cheese) & tomato sauces. Doing anything else with a tomato is wrong (soup, catsup, ketchup, salsa, etc.). Also, don't give me a cherry or grape tomato - they are just not the same.

I feel the same way about peanuts! A whole peanut (roasted please, not boiled - yuk) is a treat, please do not turn it into peanut butter.

This is funny! I am sitting here eating a small bowl of cherry tomatoes "on-the-vine" and saw this thread.

I love tomatoes! I always wanted to make a fresh tomato tart. Pastry topped with some ricotta/gruyere/parmesan/mozza cheese or whatever, and then a layer of fresh tomatoes. Basil, garlic, shallots, or onions, perhaps. Maybe a swift spray of olive oil and then bake. I see recipes for this type of tart from time to time and it sounds so good, but I wonder how they actually turn out.

AMEN, I do as well, anyway/anyhow, bring them on.

I just had a tomato tart while traveling, can't recall where. No cheese, just flakey pastry, delicious sliced slightly softened tomatoes, with a bit of fresh basil and olive oil. YUM !!!

By the way seeing as it getting to be garden time, anyone use an upside down tomato planter? I've seen a few types, one example here: http://www.gardengrapevine.com/TomatoUpsideDown.html


--

Was it served hot or cold, by the way? Would you have enjoyed it as much the other way?

I'd never heard of this, but when I Googled it, I see it seems quite popular. It looks like quite a bit of work, though, to make your own pots for larger tomato plants. I have grown cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets but that's pretty tame, in comparison. :)

Tomatoes rule !

Whole, sliced, baked, cooked, whichever way is good !

On the other hand I know a guy who's actually *scared* of tomatoes... :eek: :D

Mmmm... Spanish tomates, rows of them growing on bamboo frames, the smell of sun warmed earth and vines, and tearing off huge, bulbous deliciously uneven fruit, as big as my fist, streaked with green, gold, orange-red, perhaps some flecks of white. And eaten then and there, with just a touch of salt, seeds and juices dribbling down my chin, smearing my fingers. I don't think I'll ever grow out of this pleasure, even hand picked grapes, strawberries and peaches pale in comparison to my delight in the freshest tomatoes.

I never understood why the tomatoes in England were always so lucklustre and insipid, wraithlike even, and then I found out that very few of those that are sold commercially here ever got the chance to spread their roots and feed on real soil.
They're almost all grown hydroponically in this stuff:td:

Oh how I'm going to gorge on tomates next time I'm in Spain in July....

Being part of the plant family that contains belladonna/deadly night shade, tomatoes are always controversial.

We grow them year-round and I love them.

http://www.tomatoesareevil.com/tomatohealth.htm

"Red is the colour of a tomato but also the shade most associated with blood and death - coincidence?"

Yep, that belladonna family includes potatoes - and they're obviously evil, being white and all :rolleyes:

Nobody who's picked more than a handful of tomatoes would even think of having anything to do with the vines - it's where most of the 'tomato' fragrance is, but prolonged contact isn't recommended. Not nice to handle. (Although if you put some cleaned vine in with cooked cold tomato sauce and leave them in the fridge together for a couple of hours, the sauce will become more 'tomatoey' and you can then remove the vine and reheat the sauce - it won't work if you just drop the vine into hot sauce though)

I LOVE tomatoes!

And for you alcoholics, if you are making tomato sauce, add some white wine to it for added flavor, tomatoes contain additional flavors that can only be tasted with presence of alcohol... something I learned on the foodnetwork! :p

It may help enhance the flavor of the food but the actual alcohol burns off... so I must ask, how exactly does this help we alcoholics?

I guess you haven't seen the egg thread. ;)

I adore tomatoes. I have 3 plants in my backyard right now, and I eat the tomatoes regularly.

And fried green tomatoes are my favorite after getting a Southern girlfriend :D

Okay - what do you do to keep the white flies off your plants? I've got somewhat of a green thumb, but those pesky .......s consumed my last harvest.

I probably have 100 plants out by now and a flat of seeds started that I hope will yield late summer tomatoes. I bought one huge plant that already had tomatoes on it, so I have five, but none have started to ripen yet.

We have a bad habit of leaving town for an extended period in June every year. The neighbors don't water the garden enough, so the tomatoes suffer. Last year we had 84 plants and I'm not sure we got 84 tomatoes total. They were finished bearing way too early in the season.

I'm hoping we can plant our baby seedlings in June right before we leave town. If they get enough water, I hope to be harvesting until frost.

Sheila

No better way to ruin anything: burger, sandwich, soft taco, etc. then putting a tomato in it. The nasty taste you cannot escape. It destroys the whole thing. However, herring, pickles, anchovies are all fine. Kitchup is fine though.

Honestly, I'm not sure... my roommate has the green thumb and works as a Horticulturist for Disney. I just know what I like :)

I will ask him though and reply with the answer

^ Cheers.

BTW - join us for dinner in MCO next Wed? Thinking Baldwin Steakhouse.

I'd like to know what home remedies our people use to keep tomato plants healthy. I have been hit with tobacco worms, cutworms, flea beetles, blight(early) and wilt. But I still have tomatoes, even though the vines are pretty sorry looking. I've used ground red peppers,sevin, Daconil(which has been discontinued), and now clorox water, just a little in a full bucket. My tomatoes look and taste great, but they sure have been a lot of work this summer.

That is exactly the way I feel about cheese.

I love to eat tomatoes virtually any way, including eating them as one would an apple. Regarding produce, it is a favorite food of mine. However, try as I may, the exceptions are processed tomato juice or a processed plain tomato soup such as Campbell’s Tomato Soup, as I simply do not enjoy them.

For non-bug problems (blight, wilt, etc), I've found the most effective approach has been to move them every year and to keep water from splashing up on them from the soil (where the contagion resides). The "red plastic mulch" actually works well for this (it's perf'd so that water does soak down). Haven't noticed improved tomato yield (the purpose of the red color), though it does seem to keep them healthier; do have improved pepper and eggplant yields with it.

I've always loved those half-grilled tomatoes. ^

Just at an entire carton of cherry tomato's......too much of a good thing????

I'm like the OP. I like chopped tomatos (salsa) and tomato sauce and the things it goes on: pizza, pasta, etc. I'm not crazy about tomatos in salads. I especially hate the crappy ones they sell at most grocery store produce departments.

But I like:

Tomato sandwiches made with a thick slice of garden fresh tomato, a slice of real american cheese, mayo and squishy soft white bread.

I'm looking for bruschetta recipes today. Anyone have a good one?

Tomatoes are awesome. My favorite kind is the Roma/Plum variety (the kind of long ones).

I <heart> tomatos and will eat them in just about anything, but...

I don't like raw tomatos on sandwiches or burgers. I'll pick them out and eat them separately, though.

My favorite sandwich is basically sliced tomatoes, basil leaves, and mozarella cheese with some good prosciutto and olive oil on ciabatta. Yum :D

Speaking of which, I'm out of tomatoes....time to go to Trader Joe's and grab some.

OP has obviously never tried an Heirloom tomato!

They are the best. :D

You people are weird! :eek:

:D

Right on!

I also like to take the heirloom tomatoes and slice thum on some toasted sourdough, with some applewood smoked bacon and fresh basil. (My version of a BLT) :D

You would not be the first person to call me that...