Topic: What variety tomato do you prefer for sun-dried?

[GrannieAnnie]

Looking ahead to next year and our freezer too full of frozen toms, I'm thinking about trying to sun-dry some next year. Is there any special plum tom you prefer for this?

[Ellen K]

^^ oooo I'm interested in this too.

This year we didn't get blight so LOADS of tomatoes and I dried the ones that weren't the best tasting fresh - and they turned out lovely, a great concentrated tomato taste when fresh they had tasted rather bland.  I dried mine in the oven at 50C - it ties up the oven but if you do it overnight it's not so bad.

[djbrenton]

I always dry principe borghese as it's a variety grown in Italy specifically for sun drying. A fairly high yielding variety also.

[chriscross1966]

Ahh.. is that what PB is for.... tastes useless fresh..... I might grow some next year to try.....

chrisc

[Trevor_D]

Never grown PB, so have always used plain old Roma.

The important bit is the thick flesh and the lack of innards.

[GrannieAnnie]

So I googled Principe Borghese and found this idea: "Pull the whole plant upside down at the end of the season and pull the tomatoes all winter. Indeterminate. Small egg shaped fruits with few seeds. Ideal for salads or for using sliced with mozzarella, basil and olive oil and for drying for winter use. Fru
Italian vine tomato. Indeterminate. Small egg shaped fruits with few seeds. Ideal for salads or for using sliced with mozzarella, basil and olive oil and for drying for winter use. Fruits are typically 80-100g each in weight. One of our clients Nino, told us that his father would grow these in Sicily and hang them green in the barn which was cool and airy, and they would last till the end of Feb. Principe Borghese is often called 'da appendere' or to hang and can keep for months. @300 seeds. Sow Feb-mid Jun. @72 days to maturity."
Have any of you tried hanging tom. plants upside down??

[goodlife]

Yes..I have..doesn't work in British climate unless hung up indoors in warm..but left in unheated  conditions and they will go mouldy. Our winters and I do suspect your too GA are not quite like in Sicily ::) ;D

[Grandma]

I grew Principe Borghese for the first time this year. A huge crop - fleshy toms with few seeds but with the toughest skins ever! (Made lovely puree, though.)

I hadn't heard of hanging the plants upside down and I'd have needed bigger rooms if they had had to come indoors - they made enormous plants!

[GrannieAnnie]

Yes..I have..doesn't work in British climate unless hung up indoors in warm..but left in unheated  conditions and they will go mouldy. Our winters and I do suspect your too GA are not quite like in Sicily ::) ;D

we're pretty nearly the same latitude as Rome, but yes our winters quite a bit colder.

[GrannieAnnie]

I grew Principe Borghese for the first time this year. A huge crop - fleshy toms with few seeds but with the toughest skins ever! (Made lovely puree, though.)

You'd say the skin then is tougher than Roma?  I noticed some purchased dried ones took a lot of oomph to cut but the variety wasn't stated on the pkg.

[Grandma]

Yes, GA - the toughest ever! I have a friend whose claim to fame is that he will eat anything and even he had to spit the skins out!

(Mind you, we did have a very dry growing season so I wonder if a lack of water could have contributed to the problem?)

[GrannieAnnie]

Yes, GA - the toughest ever! I have a friend whose claim to fame is that he will eat anything and even he had to spit the skins out!

(Mind you, we did have a very dry growing season so I wonder if a lack of water could have contributed to the problem?)

Maybe that's it. I've read they should be dried to a stage where they're no tacky but also not brittle or hard.

[Grandma]

What appealed to me mostly was the thought of eating them fresh in salads or with mozzarella and basil.

I didn't attempt to dry them but the skins couldn't have been any tougher if they had been dried (or part-dried)!

[elhuerto]

We grow a lot of "Tomates de colgar" (hanging tomatoes) - I think they're also known as Mallorquines. They are thick skinned but will last for ages hung up in the shed and are great  squashed on bread or toast with olive oil and salt, and would probably be fine cooked - ones collected earlier can used in salads. There's a blog post (not mine) here to see what they look like http://jerezwine.com/2008/04/25/tomates-de-colgar/

Cheers!

[GrannieAnnie]

We grow a lot of "Tomates de colgar" (hanging tomatoes) - I think they're also known as Mallorquines. They are thick skinned but will last for ages hung up in the shed and are great  squashed on bread or toast with olive oil and salt, and would probably be fine cooked - ones collected earlier can used in salads. There's a blog post (not mine) here to see what they look like http://jerezwine.com/2008/04/25/tomates-de-colgar/

Cheers!

Does the shed freeze in the winter?  That's a fantastic crop picture!

[elhuerto]

Does the shed freeze in the winter?

The minimum in the greenhouse this Autumn has been -1.8C so I imagine the shed gets close to that. The neighbours keep theirs in the cellar where it's a few degrees higher.