Friday, January 27, 2012

Winter tomatoes...

Hmm, tomatoes... lovely fruit, isn't it?
Native to South America, where they are grown as perrenials...
Imagine, tomatoes as perennials... how nice it is to be just harvesting and harvesting the fruits year after year without having to grow them anew each spring...

I have tried growing tomatoes from seeds...
This coming season, think I shall just 'cheat' and buy a tomato seedling or two...
I can then try to propagate them by plucking off the ''babies' that develop from the main stem...


Tomatoes are supposed to be very rich in lycopene...
Lycopene? huh? as I mumbled to my missus... 
This is the first time I am seeing such a word, as with the term anthocyanins...

You don't know? She said, looking quite surprised... All Japanese people know this... she joked, and added that she first learned about the lycopene about 30 years ago... 

Yeap, I am still learning... and apparently, lycopene is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants... among the medical effects are that they have anti-cancer properties and they help to improve the skin's ability to protect against harmful UV rays, among others... 

Anyway, harvested the last of the tomatoes during the early part of January just before the frost came in...
The ripe ones were delicious enough, and the green ones, weighing about a kilogram, turned into exquisite chutney at the snap of my missus' fingers...

Cloves, mustard seeds, cinnamon, brown sugar, a tinge of salt... cardamon, dry as well as fresh chillies, and of course how can we leave out the vinegar... hmmm, lovely...

Am linking this post to Harvest Monday...

23 comments:

  1. I just got back from my parents place with a huge bag of tomatoes ready to be cooked up - its the height of tomato season here but their's are doing better than mine hence the donation. I do love tomatoes!

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  2. Lovely tomatoes, so versatile.

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  3. The way you described about your tomatoes made me "saliva". For here, we love to eat raw! Making mixed vegetables soup or mixed vegetables.

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    1. Eating them raw is also very good...

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  4. Truthfully, it is almost beyond my comprehension that tomatoes can be grown as perennials...I sure would love to see them grown that way some day. I like your idea of purchasing a seedling and propagating more from it...I will have to try this with my own plants this next season.

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    1. Am happy to hear from you, as always... I tried it last season and was able to reap some fruits out of them...

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  5. Love how you arrange and capture the 3 tomatoes in the first photo. Beautiful chutney jar.

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    1. Thank you for your compliment on the photo... the jar is a gift from an Indonesian student...

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  6. Yes, I do not know.

    I do not know that we can propagate tomatoes by plucking off the ''babies' that develop from the main stem...

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    1. Try it if you have the chance... no?

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  7. Your missus is a woman I'd love to meet...she has a beautiful way with food. And you, my friend, a beautiful way with photography!

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    1. I totally agree with you, Cat.

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    2. Ooh ooh, thank you, Cat and Lina!
      ***Lrong diving down under the dining table, blushing to no end...***

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  8. Lovely winter tomatoes, thought I was looking at a Christmas ornament until I read it's a jar of chutney, beautiful photos.

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  9. Lovely winter tomatoes and beautiful jar of chutney. Wish tomatoes can be grown year round here.

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  10. I love tomatoes! Thanks goodness they have anti-oxidant properties. Oh this is first time I am really learning the word lycopene. Thanks! And your wife's chutney recipe sounds really good :-D

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  11. Anonymous1/31/2012

    I've simply got to make myself some chutney...how many years have I been saying that?!!! Your "missus" is a wonder! I'm with you about tomatoes...years ago I tried growing tomatoes from seeds, don't remember the result (must not have been very good ;-) The summer I'm going to try a cherry tomato in my wee patio garden...a fresh tomato, please please please!

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  12. The first photo looks amazing, nice composition.
    Thanks for the interesting info about the antioxidants, good to know.

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  13. Tomatoes are yummy and full of nutritions!

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  14. I find tomatoes from seed rather easy, but I have lights and a heat mat. Peppers and eggplants are a little iffier because they like it even warmer. Lovely harvest. I have a silly volunteer yellow marble plant that have managed to survive the winter...

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  15. Ah thanks for reminding me to try to cheat by growing new babies from the tomato plants that we have now. Your missus home-made chutney sounds yummy.

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