Home Grown Toppings (and tomatoes)

[tonymark]

I am creating this thread for the pizza maker who likes to take the extra step of growing toppings and/or tomatoes for their pizza.  I am one of those people and have grown tomatoes as long as I have made pizza (14 years).  I have included tomatoes here to keep all the homegrown discussions in one thread.

Topics I would like to see discussed here:
Varieties of tomatoes being grown
Varieties of herbs being grown
Other toppings people are growing
People offering to swap seeds and plants (specifically rare stuff)

I know that this topic has been discussed in other threads, but I thought a consice thread would be appropriate.

[Harv]

My sausage tree is just starting to produce.





I couldn't resist.  It is an actual tree and produces fruit shaped as shown.

I'm growing Sungold cherry tomatoes.   I am not much of a tomato person but, these are the sweetest best tasting tomatoes I have ever tried.  They are orange in color so they may not look quite right on a pizza.

[Brandon]

I just got my tomatoes in the ground last week, and I can't wait to get some on a pizza.  We always had a big garden when I was growing up, so I'm familiar with the perfection of home-grown tomatoes, but I've never tried to make a pizza sauce. I'll be snooping around for recipies in the next few weeks as my "pizza fruits" mature.

I can't think of anything else I could grow:  olives, mushrooms?  I hadn't though about herbs but I guess I could try that.  We do get some organic straight-off-the-pig, never-processed-in-a-factory sausage and bacon from time to time.  And that is, of course, at least 10 times as good as anything you get at the super market.

[tonymark]

I just took some photos of my garden.  I have uploaded a few here.

The first is a bed of tomatoes 13 plants total (started from seed Feb. 7, 2006).  This does not include my 4 San Marzanos.  The largest plant in this bed is about 5.5 feed tall.

The second is a picture of Some clusters of Repreco paste tomatoes.  I have 9 of these plants and each plant currently has at least 5 clusters of 6+ tomatoes each.  This photo clearly show 2 clusters and another in the shadows.

The third photo is a picture of one San Marzano #3 plant.  These were started later and are therefore pretty small.

The last is a picture of a bed with Italian Flatleaf Parsley in the forground and Oregano in the background.

[tonymark]

Recent harvest and processed 'Ropreco Paste' and 'Roma' plum tomatoes.  I peeled, seeded and cored these.  Anyone know how to preserve these chunks without heating (i.e. not can them)?  Will they freeze well?  How long will they keep in the refrigerator?  These have no added salt or acid, so I expect they will not last like opened canned tomatoes with those ingredients.

BTW, I made some pizzas last week with just these tomatoes plus salt as the sauce.  It was great, but needed more salt.  I also made a pizza with a peeled and sliced brandywine tomato with no sauce.  It too needed more salt.