Good Morning!
The Mortgage Lifter Tomato
Mortgage Lifter is an heirloom tomato cultivar bred in 1930’s West Virginia by Marshall Cletis Byles, an amateur tomato enthusiast. Mr. Byles went by the moniker M.C. “Radiator Charlie” Byles, as he worked as an auto mechanic in a shop at the base of a mountain road where transport truck radiators tended to blow while trying to go up the big hill (reference). He named his tomato “Mortgage Lifter” because he sold so many of the plants that he was able to pay off his mortgage with the proceeds.
Mortgage Lifter tomatoes are very large beefsteak-type tomatoes that can routinely reach 2-3 pounds each in weight. The peel is generally a red color with a hint of pink (and sometimes a touch of green on the ribs near the stem). Mortgage lifter tomatoes are very tasty, with a subtle sweet taste perfect for a sandwich on a hot summer day.
“With absolutely no experience breeding or growing tomatoes, Mr. Byles had a goal of developing the largest, most delicious tomato possible. …and once he was happy with his results, he sold plants for a dollar each, thereby paying of his $6,000 mortgage in six years; people came from hundred of miles to purchase the plants as news spread fo their excellence.”
What do Mortgage Lifter tomatoes taste like?
The Mortgage Lifter tomato has a delicious, mild, sweet taste. These tomatoes are not as intensely-flavored as some other heirloom tomatoes (such as Brandywine or Black Krim). Mortgage lifter tomatoes are a wonderful all-around tomato for eating fresh. They lack the bitterness that can turn off some palettes but are not overwhelmingly sweet either. While the taste is subtle, Mortgage Lifter is often named among the best-tasting types of tomatoes.
Mortgage Lifter tomatoes have inherited some of their sweet taste from their parent varieties. Mortgage Lifter tomatoes were bred from German Johnson tomatoes.
Other similar large pink heirloom tomatoes to try to include Brandywine tomatoes, Pink Ponderosa, and Anna Russian (heart-shaped).
https://www.homefortheharvest.com/mortgage-lifter-tomato/
Beautiful morning here. I’m watching a mama wren come & go, feeding her nest full of babies, while I enjoy my coffee.
The wren built her nest in the corner of a box holding ratchet straps that is sitting on a table on the front porch. When I first discovered the nest, I checked for eggs & there were 5 so the nest area is off limits until the babies fledge. Usually the wrens build nests in hanging flower pots on the porch, but the pots currently don’t have anything in them so the box was chosen.
Beautiful weather, high about 70, until late afternoon when we might get some showers. The goals today are to mow the place & load the trailer before I head for the new house Monday. Tomorrow being Mother’s Day, I will probably make a meal for mom & stick around so she’s not alone - rest of the family expected to be out of town. Shrimp scampi or chicken marbella (both Ina Garten recipes)?
Have a great weekend everybody.
Another 86 degree day here...so...weed killing is on the agenda...the esp noxios ones on our property. Like Japanese knotweed and blackberries, and whatever those sticky weeds are...and stuff in gravel driveways...hate it, but gotta do it.
Sausage tomato?????
https://www.totallytomato.com/product/T00490/89
Thought it looked a little like a Sabre but maybe not
https://victoryseeds.com/products/sausage-tomato
But then again this might be a bingo. Talks about a seed company no longer in business. Like maybe the Amish seed website where I got my first Sabre seeds.
As much as I'm looking forward to the high tunnel with some row crops on either side, some fruit trees etc etc, I really like the LFYG with it's limitation.
Went out and cleaned up the clutter and started weeding. Came back in to make another pot of coffee. Plenty of time for that and to go back out and finish weeding and getting it ready for the year, all before noon. No such thing as feeling overwhelmed or wondering if the work will never end.
I decided to put the shisito and mater plants in the LFYG. Everything in the pic is going in the ground this afternoon.
When I got home yesterday, I went out to the tunnel area and pulled up a little grass and weeds around some horse thistle. I think I'm going to just spray to kill it but I don't want to plant anything I'm going to eat there for a while. If I grow anything in it this Fall/Winter, I'll do it in pots as it would be small leafy stuff anyway.
Bought a local newspaper and it had an ad from a local farm/garden center advertising chickens. That truck topper coup in the background might be occupied again soon with some New Hampshire Reds.
Got a few Bok Choy plants in the LFYG to harvest. Gonna bring a couple in to my veggie loving co-worker.
The comfrey is not very happy with me at the moment. It got pulled from a shady spot into mid day sun. It's for their own good. The goats won't be able to get to them now. I draped a tarp over them to help them out.
The cicadas are singing. Gonna go work on the tunnel frame now.(wondering if the work will never end)
I felt good enough on Saturday to mow the yard. Should have stayed on the couch. I ran over a flake of old hay and that stuff jammed the mowing deck so hard it snuffed the engine and smoked the PTO clutch. It won't even try to spin the blades now. Two weeks minimum to get it in and out of the Kubota doctor. Not good when the grass is growing an inch a day. UGH!
But it wasn't all bad. I'm mostly finished moving dirt to the new garden patch. I've got quite a bit saved back that I'll use to smooth things out after the winter freeze/thaw cycles settle it in, but there's enough out there now that I can put my tomato and rhubarb plants in the ground and stick some seeds in the dirt.
If we get a few more timely rain showers the wild blackberry crop is going to be tremendous this year.
