This is that time of year when every person with a home vegetable garden — and there are more in this pandemic-influenced year than ever — are asking one of two questions:
1. Are my tomatoes ever going to ripen?
2. What am I going to do with all of these tomatoes?
Typically, these are not the same people.
Lucky for you — and for us, to be honest — we were able to pick the brains (not literally; we’re not zombies) of two experienced tomato growers to get answers to both of those questions:
Carl Barney, owner of Uncle Wayne’s Tomatoes in Eagle Creek (Wayne was the uncle who first whetted Carl’s tomato appetite); and Sarah Smith, who grows every vegetable from A (artichoke) to Z (zucchini). Between them, they have more than 40 years of tomato-growing experience.
And both were gracious enough to spend hours with us at Uncle Wayne’s Tomatoes while preparing for the first of consecutive extremely hot days, which tomatoes don’t care for any more than we do.
Carl is part folksy sayings, part tomato expert, while Sarah (also featured in the Aug. 15 pickling column) studies and charts every vegetable plant she grows (you can find her offerings online under Sarah’s Market Garden).
Not surprisingly, they agree on a lot when it comes to that tasty red fruit.
Yes, tomatoes are a fruit, but, as Carl points out, that doesn’t mean you should put them in a smoothie.
I told you he was folksy.
But back to those questions.
Tomatoes don’t need to turn red/yellow for you to pick them (see tips). Once they are no longer shiny, you can pick them and ripen them inside, if weather is a concern.
And that talk about heat speeding the ripening? Anything over 85 degrees is as uncomfortable for the tomatoes as it is for you, even if they don’t complain as loudly.
For those of you with more tomatoes than we know what to do with, both Sarah and Carl are full of ideas about how to get the most out of your bumper crop and shared them with expertise, good will and enthusiasm for the subject at hand. More than anything, they want others to find the same joy in tomatoes as they do.
As Carl likes to say, “May all your tomatoes ripen.”
The Pecks turned their driveway into a garden of potted vegetables.Marcia Westcott Peck
Marcia: May all your tomatoes ripen, indeed!
We have 50 tomato plants in our garden this year. Let me get out my calculator. That’s 50 x a lot = a gazillion! One of the varieties is even called ‘Sweet Million,’ so I’m pretty sure the numbers add up.
I’ve got three words for you: to-ma-toes!
Yep, that’s right, our daughter planted 50 tomato plants, which includes 15 varieties in four different spots in our 1/4-acre garden. She even squeezed in 40 pepper plants, 30 cucumbers, 20 basil, countless squash and various other fruits and veggies.
I’m so amazed at how she managed to fit everything in. She filled our raised beds that we built last year, amended and filled up a bed where we had cut down three large, diseased birch trees, tucked some in among the perennials (yes, we still have our existing garden) and covered our driveway with potted veggies.
We’re practically a farm! All we need are chickens and overalls and maybe goats and a greenhouse (just a small one) and of course a workshop (that can be small, too) and one of those metal triangle things you hit to call everyone to dinner and a rototiller and a scarecrow and one of those cool cannons that scares off birds and ...
I’d really like to move out to the country, in case you hadn’t noticed.
When we met with Sarah at Carl’s tomato nursery/farm, I couldn’t help but think it was paradise. The greenhouses and tomato fields were surrounded by oak savanna. The only thing missing were the goats, but they’d undoubtedly eat the tomatoes.
I’m sure Sarah feels blessed to lease land among Carl’s tomato fields while she grows everything under the sun.
All the different tomato varieties were just on the cusp of turning from green to red and gold as we wandered through the fields and discussed all things tomato.
We learned all kinds of tomato stuff, which we condensed into the tips section.
I was also intrigued by the dry farming method being used to grow some of the tomatoes. Apparently, if planted early enough you can grow tomatoes without much — or any — additional water for the whole season.
Carl even had a patch of about 30 ‘Early Girl’ tomato plants, under the shade of the oaks, no less, to test out the practice. They were thriving!
Oregon State is researching dry farming, which sounds like an interesting column idea for next year.
And with that I will channel my inner Carl by repeating one of his favorite sayings — “May all your tomatoes ripen” — and drop the mic.
The wit and wisdom of Carl Barney
After more than two decades growing tomatoes, Carl Barney’s home-spun, farmer-dad humor makes him sound like a cross between Mark Twain and some famous tomato person (Mr. Heinz?). Here are some examples.
“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”
“Some customers think only heirloom tomatoes are good. I tell them old tomatoes are like old people. Some are fascinating and some are just old. Hybrid tomatoes are like teenagers. Some are irritating and some are fascinating.”
“Taste is like beauty. It’s in the palate of the beholder.”
“Like people, tomato plants are comfortable up to 85 degrees.”
Sarah in Carl's dry-farmed tomato patch.Marcia Westcott Peck
From Sarah Smith and Carl Barney
1. Decide which types of tomatoes you want to grow. Check the seed package or plant tag to see whether the tomato is good for slicing, sauce, snacking (think cherry), early or late ripening, large or small fruit, acid or sweet or a balanced flavor profile, disease resistance, heirloom or hybrid, size and growing habit, determinate or indeterminate (see tip No. 3), cold hardiness, grafted, color, seedless and how long it takes to ripen (Dennis: That must be one HUGE tag).
2. Seeds usually are viable for at least three years.
3. There are determinate and indeterminate types of tomatoes. Check the seed packet or plant tag. Determinate tomatoes tend to ripen all at once, which is great if you are canning. Indeterminate ripen over a long period of time, even into mid-October. These are great, Carl says, for “grazers,” people who want tomatoes throughout the growing season.
4. Grafted tomatoes have been in the news lately. The rootstock is chosen for its disease resistance and the scion or above-ground part of the plant is chosen for its foliage and fruit. The grafted plant has the best qualities of both of its parents. They can be spendy, but if you have limited space or extra cash, go for it.
Either bury your tomato vertically in a hole or horizontally in a shallower space.Marcia Westcott Peck
5. Either start your own tomato plants from seeds indoors in late February (OregonLive.com/hg/2014/02/planting_seeds_what_you_need_t.html) or buy starts at your local nursery in spring. Or, order any of the 350 varieties that Uncle Wayne’s Tomatoes offers starting in February and either have them shipped to you or pick them up at the nursery in the spring (unclewaynestomatoes.com).
6. Rotate crops every year, returning them to the same plot every three to four years, because different vegetables consume different nutrients. Also, specific pests and diseases can carry over in the soil to the next year, but if you rotate the crops, they have no host.
7. Most tomatoes need to be staked and most tomato cages aren’t big enough. (Marcia: Go big! We made 8-foot bamboo tripods.). Sarah suggests an ingenious structure she made out of metal stakes, electrical conduit, PVC joints and string which she says you can view on YouTube under the title “A Trellis to Make You Jealous.”
8. Plant your tomato starts outside the second week in May — Carl says Mother’s Day — when there’s little to no threat of frost. This is also the time — the only time — to add fertilizer and, if needed, bonemeal and lime (test your soil to see what it requires).
9. Tomatoes need their leaves kept above 32 degrees or they will die. If cold is forecast, protect your tomatoes by blanketing them with a tarp or wrapping them in newspaper. Or you can make a low tunnel with a row cover to protect your tomatoes from a late frost. Sarah used electric conduit and a hoop bender to fashion the hoops and used office supply binder clips to attach white row cover to the frame for easy removal. Concentrates, Inc., in Milwaukie sells pre-made hoops as well as all kinds of soil amendments.
10. Most tomato varieties need temperatures no lower than 50 degrees at night to set fruit (some, such as ‘Stupice,’ ‘Alaska Fancy’ and ‘Glacier’ can set fruit down to 40 degrees) and none will set fruit when daytime temperatures are over 90 degrees.
11. Tomatoes can be prone to diseases and pests, but if you site, fertilize, water and provide plenty of space between each plant, you’ll undoubtedly be rewarded with lots of tomatoes.
12. If your tomato gets blossom end rot, it’s still edible as long as you cut off the affected area. Blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. Uneven watering prevents the uptake of calcium and can be to blame.
13. When it gets hot (“if you’re uncomfortable, the tomatoes are uncomfortable,” Carl says), do anything you can to give your tomato plants some shade, even if it means putting up a sheet or umbrella, because they can sunburn. Or consider planting your tomatoes in afternoon shade.
'Siberian' tomatoes.Marcia Westcott Peck
14. Cut off suspect leaves, but make sure you don’t expose the fruit to sunburn in the process.
15. If a plant looks awful, get rid of it right away so it doesn’t spread diseases.
16. To avoid spreading diseases, do not touch diseased plants when they’re wet.
17. You do not have to wait until a tomato is red to pick it. If a shiny green tomato has turned a dull green, it’s fine to pick it and take it inside, where it will continue to ripen.
18. To tell if your tomato is ripe on the vine, there’s a little joint where the stem meets the fruit and it should snap off easily when it’s mature.
19. If you plant seeds from an heirloom the following year, you’ll get the same tomato. With hybrids, that’s not necessarily the case.
20. Plant your tomato starts as deep, Carl says, as you emotionally can. Half the height of the tomato start should be planted into the ground, because roots will grow out of each stem/leave nodule. And more roots equals a bigger plant. Just pinch off any shoots and leaves that will be below the surface.
Freeze cherry tomatoes on a cookie sheet and then store them in containers or bags in the freezer. Marcia Westcott Peck
1. Sarah recommends dehydrating and then freezing tomatoes in small freezer bags, then defrosting and using them in pasta dishes. You can also dehydrate tomato slices, then rehydrate them in winter and use them on sandwiches.
2. Freeze them. Wash them, then freeze the entire tomato. When you defrost them, the skin slides right off.
3. Oven roast, then freeze, which is great for marinara sauce in the winter.
4. Make tomato soup and freeze it.
5. Juice them and make tomato juice.
6. Waste not, want not. Save the skins and green bits, put them in a food mill, remove the seeds and cook it down to make a great pizza sauce.
7. Water bath canning is a tried and true method of preserving tomatoes for your pantry. “The Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving” (edition 37) is considered an excellent source.
8. Green tomatoes? There are recipes for fried green tomatoes, green tomato pie and pickle relish with green tomatoes, to name a few.
Regarding his preference, Carl tells customers, “My favorite tomato is the one you’re buying because, for me, the rest are worthless.” And when he’s not selling, he says he likes “the one that’s ripe that I’m closest to.”
When pressed, though, both he and Sarah had some recommendations.
'Striped German' tomatoes are an orange-marbled heirloom with huge fruit.Marcia Westcott Peck
1. ‘Stupice’ from Czechoslovakia (some pronounce it stoo-peech, others stoo-peech-ay, others stoo-pid, Carl says.). Stoo-peech-ka is correct. No matter how you say it, the plant generates a lot of 3-6-ounce red fruit.
2. ‘Striped German’ is an orange-marbled heirloom with huge fruit and beautiful innards.
3. ‘Juliette,’ a little roma tomato, is great cut in half, warmed up and used in pasta. Or, you can eat it like candy or freeze it and save it for pasta dishes in the winter.
4. ‘Citrine’ is the hot new yellow tomato this year.
5. ‘Mortgage Lifter’ is a great heirloom for sandwiches.
6. ‘Sungold’ cherry is the standard for sweetness. Carl calls it the M&M of the tomato world, but admits his grandson doesn’t agree.
7. ‘Russian Queen’ is a big and beautiful heirloom good for slicing.
— Marcia Westcott Peck is a landscape designer (mwplandscape.com or find her on Instagram at @pecklandscape or on Facebook by searching for “The Pecks”), and Dennis Peck is a former senior editor at The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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