Tomato - Black Brandywine

DESCRIPTION

The Black Brandywine is a potato-leaf variety of heirloom tomato, which grows into a large vine bearing stunning 'beefsteak' fruits, as big as your hand. These large and complex tomatoes are juicy and delicious, with a good balance of flesh to seeds, and burgundy-green skin. It's a very versatile type of tomato, and a classic addition to open sandwiches like bruschetta, as well as being robust enough to shine in cooked recipes.

POT CARE AND PLANTING

Tomatoes are easy to grow in pots, but the pot size can restrict the harvest, so I recommend planting this type of tomato in the garden bed for best results - transplant into a larger pot or a garden bed within 7 days. Soil level can be varied, but should be well below any actively growing leaves or flowers - planting a tomato in the ground slightly deeper than it is in the pot causes more roots to sprout from that part of the stem, which can make the plant stronger. Tomatoes in pots do best when set up on the grass or bare dirt so the roots can extend into the ground below.

WATERING

Tomatoes are heavy water consumers, and the Black Brandywine is no exception - water them a bit longer than other plants in your garden, once per day (early morning or late afternoon is best in summer).  It's very hard to rot the roots of a tomato plant, unless it's in a pot with a saucer or on a surface that doesn't allow drainage. Always point your hose or watering can at the base of the plant, avoiding getting the leaves wet - splashing water spreads diseases that tomatoes are vulnerable to, like fungus. If any leaves start looking mottled yellow-brown, cut them off and throw them in the bin, trying not to touch any healthy parts of the plant while you do it. Be sure to wash your hands with soap when you're done, to stop the fungus spreading to any other plants you touch. Lower leaves often get fungus, which splashes up from the soil - so it's not a bad idea to keep the lower part of the plant clear of leaves all the time, to reduce the chances of infection moving up the plant. It's important to always use scissors to trim plants that are vulnerable to fungus, because if you make a mistake breaking something off, large wounds can let diseases inside the plant and ruin your whole harvest. Its a good idea to wash or sterilise the scissors regularly too.

SUN EXPOSURE

Tomatoes need as much sunlight as possible to flourish.  I recommend planting them in an open and sunny area of the garden, but towards the back or centre of your plot, because it'll get taller than most things before the end of its life cycle, and you won't be harvesting any fruit until autumn.

COMPANION PLANTING

These Black Brandywines will grow as tall and wide as they can - called indeterminate tomatoes, they will initially need to be staked, and should eventually climb up a frame. If you haven't got anything for them to climb on, you can use thick string to tie them to nails in the fence, or find other creative solutions. Climbing tomatoes need to be carefully placed so they get enough sun - you don't want them to be on the south face of anything that will shade them out. A northerly aspect will prolong their fruiting in the autumn and ripen the fruit faster, but they will tolerate facing east or west as long as they have more than half the day of sun. They will grow well alongside okra, apiums, asters, brassicas and alliums - allowing enough space for each plant to expand. Give it some space from cucurbits, amaranths, and legumes - these plants, in addition to corn and potatoes, compete for the same nutrients and sunlight as tomatoes and so inhibit each other's growth. That means you also shouldn't follow one with the other in the same spot when replanting your garden next season - try enriching the soil with a legume crop instead, and/or top dressing with plenty of compost to restore the soil's nutrients. Get the tastiest fruit by encouraging pollinators with any types of flowers, but especially small white, yellow, and blue/purple flowers which attract bees. Marigolds are also a good companion, helping to keep the soil healthy when planted nearby; sage, lavender, rosemary, and comfrey attract the native blue-banded bee, which is capable of buzz pollination - ideal for increasing the genetic diversity of your seeds. These four companions need more space than average though, so usually aren't good neighbours to tomatoes - plant them at least 1m away or in a different pot nearby to keep the bees fed while you wait for tomato flowers - some of them are also thought to negatively affect the flavour of your tomatoes when planted too close.

HARVESTING AND EATING

The Black Brandywine is a popular beefsteak variety that will produce a number of green fruits throughout the summer, which won't start to ripen until Autumn. During those few weeks, you can pick at your leisure and enjoy them raw or cooked. Firm and fleshy with interesting colours, deep flavour, and a pretty snowflake shape when sliced, they're a wonderful tomato for adding to sandwiches, especially open ones like bruschetta where the tomato's appearance can be admired while you eat it. Thick slices will also hold up well when fried or roasted - you can even hollow this tomato out and stuff it with protein, vegetables, rice/breadcrumbs, and top it with cheese, before baking it on high for a healthy one pan meal. Never store your tomatoes in the fridge! That lovely flavour and texture will break down, and can't be restored. Towards the end of the season you might end up with more tomatoes than you can eat at once, but harvesting and preserving the end of your tomato crop is an exciting event in the garden and kitchen! When you start to get overwhelmed by tomatoes, start collecting the fruits by cutting off the whole truss with scissors, as soon as the least ripe tomato starts to darken (only the first few on the truss will be totally dark) - this will ensure that the plant has enough energy to keep maturing as many other fruits as possible. Keep on top of bringing the fruits inside every day for about a week; washing them with a dash of vinegar in a bowl of cold water; air drying them completely laid out on clean tea towels; before storing in an open container outside of the fridge. It's vital to preserve the flavour and texture of the tomatoes by keeping them at room temperature for maximum enjoyment - in the pantry, on the counter, or hanging up inside a cloth bag. At this time, it's likely that the mornings will be getting frosty, causing your plants to die back. Collect any remaining fruit from the plant, and separate the green tomatoes to enjoy sauteed, made into a salsa or chutney, or added to stewed dishes. The unripe fruits aren't great raw and can give you a stomach ache, but when cooked will give a zesty hit to South American and Spanish inspired dishes. The ripe fruit can be cooked the same way, made into tomato sauces and purees, or semi dried and stored under vegetable oil in the fridge. Whatever you choose to try, it's best to process all the fruit in one go the week after your big harvest - once it all looks ripe, discarding any that have gone bad. Please seek more information about safe food preservation techniques and recipes online - a recipe for semi-dried tomatoes is available from us on request.

SEED SAVING AND PROPAGATION

Save a few ripe fruits from your harvest to collect seeds from - I recommend choosing any that are blemished or pecked by birds, so you can enjoy as many good fruits as possible. Lay a piece of tissue paper or paper towel down somewhere that it can stay for a couple of days, and squeeze a tomato or two over the paper so the seeds, juice and pulp land on it. Use your fingers to carefully spread the seeds out into a single layer, and then don't touch the paper again until it is dry and crispy enough to lift off the surface. You can cut this paper into thin strips to create homemade seed tapes when it's totally dry, and store them inside an airtight container - tomato seeds are good for up to 8 years. Don't sow these seeds again until next year when the risk of frost has almost passed - you can start them inside in October, but you'll need to wait until November to plant them outside, or the leaves will curl during the cold nights. Time your sowing carefully - they need to be moved out of seedling pots after no more than 4 weeks. Cover a strip of the seed paper with 5mm of soil and keep moist and warm - tomatoes will germinate after about a week. In Armidale, experienced gardeners know that frost tender veggies can't be planted outside until Melbourne Cup Day. Heavy frosts return here at Easter time, so these tomatoes will be done around that time each year.