quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
May I present to you a grilled cheese BLT with onions.






Next is a bacon double cheeseburger.





I love tomato season! Although my cat and the squirrels have got most of my fruit. It's been a bumper crop, healthy, beautiful tomatoes.

One I just picked.



The grilled bread on the BLT is delicious, I can't believe I've never thought to try it before.

Beautiful and yummy looking cuisine there!

I’m lucky enough to live in the Midwest, have a garden, and a wife who loves to grow tomatoes….
My dream meal is a crispy bacon sandwich, thick slices of garden tomatoes, and LOTS of Miracle Whip, no lettuce, and a couple ears of self grown sweet corn…
I refuse to eat tomatoes from the store…No matter how good they look, the don’t have the same flavor as our home grown ones..

quote:

Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
I've been watching this tomato grow and ripen for the last few days. Today it spoke to me and said now is the time!

Thanks for letting us know these are Red Beefsteak Heirloom tomatoes. I have added them to my list of seeds to look for next season. If I can grow some that look half as nice as yours I will be happy.

quote:

Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
I've been watching this tomato grow and ripen for the last few days. Today it spoke to me and said now is the time!

My problem is the longer I watch them, the more prone the sparrows are to get after them. I can't say how many maters I've lost to those cursed birds. Nowadays I pick them when they are just turning color.

I read a research article last year that said when they first begin to show color, the plant turns them off. Any further ripening is just a matter of time rather than "on the vine". There is no apparent advantage to letting them turn all red on the vine vs. picking them early (before the birds get after them) and letting them ripen up fully red on the windowsill. I had good luck with that method last year.

Thanks for the reminder, I just had one myself! BTW, your tomato looks amazing, as does the rest of the sandwich. Well done.

Here in Northern Colorado along the front range, the high temps have been off the chart and making it tougher to get the plants to produce fruit, then actually getting them to survive until it's time to pick. I thing my first BLT is within reach soon. But, Dukes mayo is what I have turned to.

My favorite fresh eating tomato is Sart Relouise. 2nd is Black from Tula tied with Cherokee Purple.

I love the "B" and the "T", but never cared much about "L". With the recent health scare, I care for it even less.

quote:

Originally posted by Rawny:

I love the "B" and the "T", but never cared much about "L". With the recent health scare, I care for it even less.

Yup, I like B & T sandwiches with no L. Bread (rye, if I have it) is sometimes spread with Duke's, other times with peanut butter.

You gotta lay some fresh black cracked pepper down on that tomato before assembling the sammich. Salt is optional but fresh cracked pepper is a must for me. Adds a delightful little bite.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Salt is optional.

Salt is never optional.

Agreed on the pepper though. I like to use peppered thick sliced bacon to overcome that.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
You gotta lay some fresh black cracked pepper down on that tomato before assembling the sammich. Salt is optional but fresh cracked pepper is a must for me. Adds a delightful little bite.

I used to use tons of black pepper..but it's full of oxalates...which grow kidney stones...three trips to the hospital with those. So I skip it now.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
...spread with Duke's, other times with peanut butter.

You kinda lost me with the PB, but I'll give that a try. It's either mayo or PB, right? Not both?

I love BL I don't eat tomatoes

quote:

Originally posted by Minnow:

quote:

Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
I've been watching this tomato grow and ripen for the last few days. Today it spoke to me and said now is the time!

Thanks for letting us know these are Red Beefsteak Heirloom tomatoes. I have added them to my list of seeds to look for next season. If I can grow some that look half as nice as yours I will be happy.

I wish you luck. The OP lives at elevation in Colorado and it's much easier to grow heirloom tomatoes there than the south. Our longer, hotter, and more humid summers mean more pests and more diseases. The South is the primary reason we have delicious hybrid (traditional crossbreeding not genetic engineering) tomatoes that have more disease resistance leading to more abundant harvests.

I say go for it on the Red Beefsteak Heirloom tomatoes like the OP, but you may want to hedge your bet by planting 50% beefsteak heirloom and 50% F1 hybrid beefsteak. So many seed companies are from the north, but two southern seed companies I like:

Hoss is from Georgia and I find their seeds do better in my humid Gulf Coast Climate. They have a Big Beef Plus Hybrid Tomato F1 that'd be perfect for South Carolina due to the following disease resistance Verticillium Wilt, Fusarium Wilt 1, Fusarium Wilt 2, Fusarium Crown and Root Rot, Root Knot Nematode, Alternaria Stem Canker, Gray Leaf Spot, Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

Lazy Dog Farm is a YouTuber from Georgia (used to be a market gardener, but switched to growing for seeds) and I find his seeds also do well in my humid Gulf Coast Climate. He has a Mountain Girl Tomato Seed F1 hybrid that mimics heirloom taste but with hybrid benefit like abundant production due to disease resistance to Late Blight, Root Knot Nematode, Fusarium Wilt, and Verticillium Wilt.

quote:

Originally posted by Rawny:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

...spread with Duke's, other times with peanut butter.

You kinda lost me with the PB, but I'll give that a try. It's either mayo or PB, right? Not both?

Correct. One or the other, not both.

Another "BLT" last night.







Probably having one for lunch too.

^^ CB-BLT… ??

Tator...thanks for taking the time to respond with all the good information about the different varieties and effects of climates on them.

Skins2881...looking great!

We made BLT's too!