Friday, August 27, 2010

Rose de Berne tomatoes

If Snow White's wicked stepmother-queen had run out of apples, she might have tempted her fair skin stepdaughter with these tomatoes instead. Rose de Bernes, reported to be a swiss heirloom, looks irresistible in its rosy pinkish-red color, is just the right size that fits daintily in your palm, and has an equally dainty and delicious tomato flavor. Sweet, a hint of spicy and balanced acidity. The shape is a roundish, squat look. Perfect skin, not much cracking (except for when we had that unexpected downpour after a dry spell), great ratio of flesh to seed, and some had yellow-green shoulders. The color in my image does not accurately reflect that awesome pinkish-red hue, and when I go out to check their ripening condition, how they look on the vine seems to differ a bit when I take them inside.

I didn't get as much yield as I thought there would be, but the plants were in the section where we had put much less horse manure. I will most likely plant these next year because I like to have a mix of sizes and this one fits right into the small category.

Average daytime temperature: 23°C / 73°F

4 comments:

Jude said...

These look so gorgeous...I have a visualization of them, still warm from the sun, sitting on your plate...

Rowena said...

Jude - and now gone into my stomach. You may by OD'ing on avoes, but we here are up to the gills in tomatoes.

K and S said...

love it! can imagine them tasting like a tomato and not like some of the stuff in the markets here (U.S.)

Rowena said...

Kat - next year I will try really hard to resist buying tomatoes out of season, especially when they start filling the stores in early spring. No greenhouse tommies from Spain or southern Italy for me - they just don't have flavor!