Last year I tried to grow cucamelons and I failed miserably, the seeds did germinate and we did have a couple of plants. Eventually a few flowers and tiny fruits appeared, but that was as far as they got.
I don’t like to fail, so I thought I would give them another go this year. To be honest I wasn’t convinced they would come to anything, but I had the seeds, so nothing ventured, nothing gained!
It was great to see fruit starting to appear, then finally reach a size big enough to pick and eat – my first ever cucamelon!!
With the exception of one tomato, today’s crop is a study in miniature!
Although only a small crop, this heralds the beginning of my tomatoes ripening. These are a mixture of Red Cherry, Shirley F1 and Rosella and just the start, with many more to come. I will freely admit I grow far too much, especially of the things I like. This year I have really gone a bit bonkers and grown, from seed, the following varieties:
- Oxheart – as the name would suggest, these are large tomatoes, but are sweet and fragrant – we have a lot of these coming through, which I’m really looking forward to trying for the first time!
- Striped – these were part of a ‘funky veg kit’ – I guess they are striped…
- Moneymaker – a medium sized fruit which I’ve always found successful.
- Gardeners Delight – small, sweet fruits grown on long trusses.
- Red Cherry – sweet and juicy and often don’t make it back from the allotment – best eaten when still warm from the sun.
- Shirley F1 – medium size fruit
- Rosella – a cherry sized rosy-pink fruit with few seeds
- Red Pear – a pear shaped cherry tomato which did really well last year and which have self seeded in the allotment.
Whilst we will be having a lot of tomato salads, just simply with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and basil leaves, I’m now looking at what I can make with the glut we are no doubt going to be harvesting. There will of course be a lot of homemade tomato soup, stocking up the freezer for winter. Last year our tomatoes were mainly the cherry sized fruits, one of the reasons for trying larger varieties was to make soup. I usually roast the tomatoes first as I think this intensifies the flavour – delicious, especially with balsamic vinegar and a little bit of sugar. I’m hoping a larger sized fruit will make this a lot quicker to prep, but hopefully without compromising on flavour.
