Tomato Saint Pierre

The Saint Pierre Tomato is an ancient variety highly appreciated by gardeners since the end of the 19th century. It produces beautiful clusters of 5 to 6 large round fruits, bright red in color, weighing between 150 and 300g, with firm, full flesh and a slightly acidic flavor.
The Saint Pierre tomato is suitable for stuffing, summer salads, and coulis. Easy to grow and offering excellent yield, this variety is very rewarding even for beginner gardeners.
You can sow the seeds from February to April and harvest between July and October.

The tomato is native to South America and Central America. Several varieties were already cultivated by the Incas long before the arrival of the Conquistadors. We are still amazed by the variety of this solanaceous plant. The term "tomato" comes from the Inca word "Tomatl" and refers to both the plant and the fruit it produces. There are tomatoes of all colors (red, of course, but also green, yellow, and even some very rare blue varieties), in all shapes and sizes. Ancient varieties are indeterminate plants and can live for two years. More recent varieties have a determinate growth and stop growing at the bush stage, so they do not need staking or trellising.

The tomato is one of the many foods that came to us from the New World, along with beans, corn, squash, potatoes, and chili peppers. It took much longer for the tomato to reach our taste buds. For a long time, it was cultivated for its aesthetic and medicinal qualities. It was thought to be toxic because of its resemblance to the fruit of the Mandrake, another solanaceous plant. It only became a regular part of our diet at the beginning of the 20th century.

The tomato plant is a perennial herbaceous plant in tropical climates, but it is cultivated as an annual in our latitudes. It becomes lignified over time and produces small, insignificant yellow flowers clustered in cymes, which will turn into fruits.

It must be admitted that its fruit is very attractive and adds a pleasant color to the vegetable garden. It also has many nutritional benefits. Low in calories like most vegetables, rich in water, it contains a very interesting molecule: lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. The longer the tomato is cooked, the more lycopene becomes available. It is also rich in vitamin C, provitamin A, and trace elements.

Today, its taste and nutritional qualities are well-known. For gardeners, the tomato is one of the essential vegetables of summer. They just need to decide how they want to use it among all the existing varieties. Will it be for salads, sauces, eating fresh, cooked, etc.? They should also consider when they want to harvest it. The answer will of course depend on the average summer sunshine in the region where their garden is located. Rest assured, there is a tomato for every situation! And even though tomatoes need a lot of sun and heat, they don't necessarily require a lot of space. So, don't hesitate to grow them in containers on your balcony, where you can choose varieties with small fruits. Be careful, immature fruits, stems, and leaves contain solanine and should not be consumed.

Harvesting: depending on the variety, it can take 50 to 100 days between transplanting and harvest. There is no foolproof way to determine in advance whether a tomato has reached its full ripeness. Harvesting should be done when, at a minimum, it has fully developed the color it was announced to have, and when its texture, while remaining firm, shows a slight softening. For better storage, be sure to pick the fruit with its peduncle.

Storage: tomatoes do not keep as long when they have a high water content. They can be stored for a few days in the vegetable compartment of your refrigerator or left out in the open. To keep them for a longer time, consider culinary methods such as tomato confits, sun-dried tomatoes, sauces, frozen fruits, preserves, jams, or juices. We love to confit them because it's simple and so tasty: cut your tomatoes in half and collect their juice. Place the tomato halves facing upwards on the grill tray of your oven. Season with salt, pepper, and sugar, then bake at a very low temperature for at least an hour. Remove your tomatoes and consume them immediately or store them in a glass jar and cover with olive oil.

Gardener's tip: it is recommended to grow several tomato varieties each year to minimize the risk of a complete loss of harvest due to climatic conditions or specific diseases.
To prevent the phenomenon of "blossom end rot" in tomatoes, which is not a disease but a calcium deficiency, spray a consoude maceration rich in calcium on your plants.
When transplanting, do not hesitate to bury the stem up to the first leaves. This will stimulate the root system, ensuring a bountiful fruit harvest.
Winning combinations in the garden are often the same on the plate. It's a good mnemonic to remember that tomatoes and basil go well together.