Heirloom Tomatoes

This year I decided to grow Heirloom Tomatoes.  I ordered from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa.  They offer a six pack with a variety of tomatoes.  I planted the garden on Memorial Day, and the week after was cold and rainy.  I wasn't sure the tomatoes would survive, much less produce any tomatoes.  It took a good two or three weeks before they really started to grow. 
Finally, on August 23rd, the first tomatoes were ready to pick.  The Cherokee Purple, Amish Paste and Italian Heirloom ripened first.  German Pink was ready about a week later, and Brandywine a few days after that.  The Gold Medal tomatoes were the last to ripen--the first one was ready on September 5.

The darker tomatoes are Cherokee Purple, top middle is Brandywine, oval-shaped are Amish Paste, left hand side are German Pink

Amish Paste and Cherokee Purple produced the most tomatoes with 16 Cherokee Purple and 17 Amish Paste through the season.  I picked 9 Brandywines, 8 Gold Medals, 6 German Pinks and 5 Italian Heirlooms, for a total of 61 tomatoes.  I also picked about half a dozen green tomatoes when a freeze was predicted.  We'll see if they ripen in the next couple of weeks.

This bowl of tomatoes became . . . 

 . . . the base for this pot of chili

Besides eating the tomatoes fresh, I canned diced tomatoes and tomato juice, used a bunch in a batch of chili, and just today juiced the last six of the ripe ones into a quart of juice.  I like to warm it up in a mug, add a sprinkle of salt, and drink it plain.

Gold Medal tomatoes are yellow and pink inside, and taste sweet

Can't beat fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden