Well, this post is for Sinfonian who had previously warned me of all the tomatoes that I will have to do something with.  You were right…. if all of these make fruit, I am going to be busy canning or freezing lots of tomatoes!!

The Campari’s are doing very well!  I am so surprised at them.  This is a pic of a cluster of blooms from one of them.  It looks like (if all the blooms hold) there will be 6 or 7 tomatoes in this cluster.  A little history on these — I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Campari tomatoes.  And I buy them everytime I go to Sam’s Club.  To me, they are the BEST tasting tomatoes!  They are just full of rich, tomatoy flavor.  I’m not a “sweet” tomato kinda gal, ya know LOL   And the size of the Campari tomatoes are perfect too — I can easily use them as salad tomatoes or even slice them for a great tomato sandwich.   I have to add that I also eat them just cubed sprinkled with a little salt too.  OK — you’re right.  I think I could eat tomatoes just about anyway they can be prepared. 

Back to my story though — I read how to “ferment” tomato seeds to save them.  Fermentation is a preferred tomato seed saving process because this removes the gel coating on the seeds, plus, it kills any pathogens.  So you end up with nice, clean tomato seeds.  Also, to me, it’s fun to do.   So I’ve been saving all these Campari seeds.  Some for me to try and grow and I’ve been giving them to others to grow.  From what I understand, Campari tomatoes that you buy are from F1 hybrid plants though.  So, it’s hard to say if you will get exactly the same results from seeds that are saved from these tomatoes you buy in the store.   But, I thought I would give it a whirl.   Last year, I shared some seeds with someone who grew them out and his results were very similar to the fruit you buy in the store.  So that was good news.   This year, I’ll be doing my own experiment to see what I get.

I also have baby Campari tomatoes too!  Aren’t they just the cutiest!  There will be 6 tomatoes in this cluster!  So far, the Campari tomatoes have been the fastest.  The seed germinated faster, and even though they bloomed AFTER the Heatwave variety, they have set fruit faster than Heatwave.  So these may end up being the earliest tomatoes I harvest in my garden this year.   Many people don’t like the early tomatoes as much because even though you get fruit, it doesn’t usually have the really great tomatoy taste.  But, I know that Camparis do have that great tomatoy taste.  Camparis may give me the best of both — early tomatoes that actually taste great.  I will keep you up to date on their progress.