OK, not really. Well, she is a Garden All Star, to be sure, if for no other reason than that she appreciates the garden and that always makes me feel good. And she does help with weeding!
But this series of posts is about plants, and today is my Beefsteak Garden All Star. Beefsteaks are the biggest tomatoes in the garden, with individual tomatoes often weighing more than a pound. Here, for instance, is a picture of one weighing almost a pound and a half.
When it comes to beefsteaks, my favorite is the Belgium Giant. I'm not much of a raw tomato eater, but I actually like these. Though I've never tried it, I've heard they are so sweet you can make wine out of them. I do know that spaghetti sauces made with Belgium Giants taste like you've added sugar to them. I've also had people think that the sauce was made with meat (their flavor is that rich).
These plants grow HUGE. I've got one that I espaliered along some deer fencing that is more than 10 feet wide and 12 feet tall. It probably has 20 or 30 tomatoes on it (since the fruits are so big on beefsteaks, they don't bear as many as, say, cherry tomatoes) and they are still averaging close to a pound a piece.
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