Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Tomatoes Finally Ripening

The Blush and Isis Candy cherry tomatoes and larger varieties like Black and Red Boar and Cherokee Purple finally started ripening this week. When the Blush tomatoes broke color, they turned from green to golden, then finally they developed faint pink highlights, most notably at the blossom tip. It takes about a week from color break to the appearance of the pink splotches. Blush's flavor was light and sweet, but the tropical pineapple flavor was not detected. Perhaps the fruit was not completely ripe, or the flavor becomes more pronounced later in the season.

 A truss of Blush tomatoes break and turn from greenish-yellow to gold with pink highlights

A ripe Blush tomato with pink splotches

The Isis Candy continued to produce larger than expected fruit (1.2-1.5" in diameter and weighing about 1 oz.), and the fruit continued to ripen to a solid red (grocery store color) with no marbling or starburst. I started a discussion called "Red Isis Candy" on the Tomatoville forum to see if plain red Isis Candy fruit was common, but everyone who replied got bicolor Isis Candy fruit with the sunburst shown in most Isis Candy photos. Thus, I grew out either a stray seed or a crossed seed since the Isis Candy seeds I got from WinterSown were open pollinated (OP). 

Isis Candy fruit continue to ripen a plain red 

Black and Red Boar was the first of the larger varieties to break color and ripen. The fruit continued to have a heart shape and ripened to a striking dark red and olive-green color. 

Black and Red Boar ripens to a striking dark red with dark olive-green stripes

The current fruit harvested between August 14th and August 28th were follows: 
  • 40 Sun Golds about 1" in diameter
  • a 1.5" (1.0 oz.) Isis Candy
  • a 1.4 oz.  and a 1.9 oz. Jaune Flammee
  • 9 Kimberleys ranging in weight from 0.5-1.3 oz.
  • a 2.9 oz. Black and Red Boar
  • a 5 oz. Cherokee Purple
This week's harvest includes (clockwise from the top left) two 1.5"-2" Jaune Flammee, two dozen 1" Sun Golds, one red 1.5" Isis Candy, a 5-oz. Cherokee Purple, and 10 red Kimberleys

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