Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes

[Anonymous]

I planted Mortgage Lifter tomatoes as my only tomato last year.

Just thought I'd post these very subjective observations for others to find.

1) Very good slicer, humongous size -- good bragging tomato, VERY solid 2) Excellent for frying green. 3) Late season ripening makes them better for frying than many earlier varieties. 4) Not as good juiced as Early Girl or Better Boy. Quite disappointing, actually. Probably a shared trait with other pink tomatoes 5) Make good green relishes.

This year I will still plant a few but mostly for use green and on sandwiches. And since I am now following the Atkins diet, there won't be many sandwiches. I've ordered 4 other varieties of tomato seed to experiment with.

Still, what's a summer without green fried tomatoes and 'mater sammiches? (either unadorned or generously garnished with cheese, lettuce and bacon). A garden and a summer without those would border on heresy.

What is everybody's favorite tomato for juicing?

Bill

[Kae Verens]

Just so you know, Dr Atkins, who followed his own advice, died overweight (117kg), and had a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension.

Kae

[Pat Kiewicz]

Someone I know who followed it first time around (1970s) developed kidney stones (and died of rapidly progressing cancer about 10 years later.)

The South Beach Diet is a healthier version of carb controlled eating.

Even better is to pay attention to the glycemic load of foods. White bread, white rice, white potatoes, white flour and sugar- and salt-laden processed versions of just about any food should be avoided.

And get plenty of excercise!

[Mary McHugh]

Exactly. I'm not a fan of the lo-carb diets but if you must follow one, skip Atkins and go South Beach. Your heart will thank you. Not to mention you'll have a greater opportunity to slip in produce from your garden. Even the official Atkins position on fats, especially the bad kind, has changed in the last few weeks. They are no longer endorsing unlimited fat intake.

Mary

[Anonymous]

I'm fully aware of that. That, in itself, proves exactly nothing.

My own father has a history of 5 heart attacks and has never followed the Atkins diet even a single day of his life. So I am sorry if I am dense, but I just don't see the connection. There are factors other than diet that control whether a person has heart attacks or not. Diet is just one piece of the puzzle.

Dr. Atkins was bloated from the swelling that can accompany a coma. In other words, the bloating came only after he had lost control of his diet.

Only the "Induction Phase" of the Atkins diet is severely restrictive of fruits, nuts and vegetables and his book clearly explains why this is so and why it should not be allowed to become a lifetime habit. Perhaps I have an advantage in that my primary source of information regarding the Atkins diet came directly from the book he wrote. The next phase, Ongoing Weight Loss, adds a fair number of plants back into the diet as one experiments to determine what level of carbs can be safely eaten. The Maintenance Phase means exactly that ... intake carefully balanced against expenditure at a level that can be maintained for life.

Dr. Atkins hammered, hammered, hammered, hammered the point that what was being sought was a lifetime of healthier living. Healthier than what? Healthier than the diet that caused us to gain the weight to begin with. Healthier than the lethargy that led us to mold the couch to our backsides.

Sorry, I don't see the bad here.

Bill __

(genealogy) (organic gardening) Uptimes below for the machines that created / host these sites. 01:58:00 up 39 days, 2:40, 5 users, load average: 0.76, 1.29, 1.01 21:58:52 up 34 days, 2:11, 4 users, load average: 0.03, 0.01, 0.00

[FarmerDill]

Bill to get back to your original topic, The best juice tomatoes are the red globes. Red cherry tomatoes will work, but tomatoes in the +/- 1/2 lb class are prefered. The beefsteak types of which the Mortgage Lifter is one are too solid (dry) fro good juice. Old time easterners like myself think of Rutgers and Marglobe as good examples. However this is the most popular type of tomatoes and ther are close to a thusand cultivars ranging from Ace to Zuley. California is a leader in canning and juicing tomatoes and dozens of cultivars have been released specifically for Califronia growers. Many of them from University of California, Davis. They can give you the best recommendation for your area.

[King Pineapple]

Actually, there are conflicting reports on this. One report (NY Times) says he weighed 258 pounds when he died, and also said he was only 185 pounds when admitted to the hospital. Apparently he gained 63 pounds from fluid retention in the 9 days between being admitted and dying.