Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with tomato

WIFI networking: two routers on the same network

Mokusatsu — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:45:37 -0800

Hi, I am trying to set up a surplus router as a NAS and torrent appliance, to integrate into an existing network. The setup will use two routers, one to provide network and internet to everyone, the other will use TomatoUSB and will be dedicated to torrenting. Existing setup: A Netcomm all-in-one router which does VOIP, modem, WIFI, routing etc currently does all networking for the house. The household has three Windows PCs, three iPads, two smart phones, one network printer/scanner/fax. The most network intensive thing it ever does is torrent downloads, but VOIP call quality can be an issue sometimes.

I have an ASUS RT-N16 router, which I have flashed to TomatoUSB, which includes built in support for Transmission torrent software. I wish to use this as a dedicated torrent downloading machine, integrated with my existing network.

Flashing TomatoUSB on was fine once I found a compatible build, I installed Transmission QT on my PC and that's working fine too. Everything works.

But it's not set up properly. To get my computer to talk to the Tomato router I need to log in to the Tomato router's WIFI network. When I'm logged in to that WIFI network I can set up the torrents, but I'm disconnected from the rest of the network and can't print. Therefore I've got this awkward arrangement where I have to switch between WIFI networks depending on what I want to do.

Why? Because I can't figure out how to get it working the other way!

So this is less a question about TomatoUSB, more a basic question about network and WIFI setup, router configuration etc.

Currently the Tomato router is wired via its WAN port to one of the LAN ports of the Netcomm router. The Tomato router refuses to let me set it's network IP and subnet ranges the same as the WAN, hence I have two networks that don't talk to each other.

I do not require the Tomato router to do anything wirelessly, I'm happy enough to turn off its WIFI signal and have it communicate only with the network with ethernet cables.

I've heard about "bridging" routers, but admit I'm not knowledgable enough to know how to use it properly. My attempts to muck about with it and figure it out resulted more than once in being locked out of the configuration screen and having to factory reset, so maybe I need expert help!

Of course I have Googled the issue, but everything I have found so far describes setups different to what I want, like bridging Internet to the Tomato router and having it handle the whole network, or using the second router to extend WIFI range.

Also, I want to be able to quickly kill torrents if I have to, so although I could configure it so the Netcomm router bridges its internet connection to the Tomato router which then would handle all the WIFI, this is not the option I would like to go with. I wish for the Netcomm router to continue to handle everything it currently handles, which it does perfectly well, and for the Tomato router to simply join that network and be able to be switched off any time I so wish. Also, the Netcomm is doing a great job where it is, I am not worried about needing to increase the wireless range or anything like that.

Briefly, my questions are as follows:

Do I need two cables, one to the WAN and one to the LAN, or can I set it up so that a single ethernet cable (to either the LAN or WAN ports of the Tomato router) would join the Tomato router to the network? I assume it's possible to use one... how?

I also suspect I should be turning off DHCP and NAT from the Tomato. How do I do that without getting locked out of the device? Both previous times I've played with that I've had to reset to factory settings to get back in.

What LAN and WAN settings on the Tomato router would tell it just to passively join the other network and not try to form its own one?

Fungus on tomato leaf: cause or effect?

Hairy Lobster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:58:05 -0800

Tomato Disease Filter: what is this fungus looking stuff on my tomato plants? Can I save the plants or does this call for scorched earth tactics in order to protect the rest of the garden? Whatever this is appears to be killing my plants and it progresses as follows:

1) leaves turn dead/brown
2) whitish fuzzy stuff appears that resembles insect cocoon material
3) reddish dots appear in the middle of areas covered with the whitish fuzz

The disease affects the plants from the top down. If a vine starts near the ground, climbs up and then bends back down only the upper part of the vine will be affected. The beginning and end of the vine near the ground are alive and green.

I imagine the white stuff is some sort of fungus and the red dots are its fruiting bodies but I haven't managed to match it up to anything online. Based on the progression I'm not entirely sure if the fungus is the cause or just an opportunist taking advantage of the dead leaves.

Please hope me by helping me figure out what the problem/disease is and if/how the plants can be saved.

salsatime!

sararah — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:26:00 -0800

I need your best salsa recipes suitable for canning. We love making and canning our own salsa at home. I'm looking for a few new recipes from reputable canning resources to add some zip to those long winter months. I'm particularly interested in a roasted tomato/roasted pepper salsa. I'm not sure if anything like this is suitable for canning ....I've done a lot of Googling recently and haven't come up with much.

I've made several recipes from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I've also got a copy of Food in Jars (and read her blog), and a copy of Putting Food By. I've also made one or two things from the National Home Food Preservation page.

(Botulism womp womp -> I'm an experienced canner and I've been making salsa without issue for a few summers now. It's high acid enough that I trust its safety in a boiling water canner. I generally trust recipes from cookbooks and canning-specific resources rather than your great-grandmother's sister's dog's sketchy wax sealing techniques. /womp womp)

What are some tomato-heavy freezer recipes.

that's how you get ants — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:16:35 -0800

This month I will have a boatload of tomatoes at my disposal. In February I will have a new baby. Is there anything I can make and freeze now that (a) uses a lot of tomatoes and (b) will still be good in six months? -- Of course I will make tomato sauce.
-- I've already made several batches of slow roasted tomatoes.
-- Does this look like it would freeze and reheat well? I usually love Smitten Kitchen recipes.

Well that escalated quickly.

TomMelee — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:42:26 -0800

I need your best, most awesome tomato sauce-like recipes. Salsas, marinara (meat is OK), etc. Overload of fresh tomatoes and basil. Also rosemary and mint. So...that sums it up. My wee garden has been fruiting like crazy but has decided to start unloading tomatoes with much fervor. Also my windowfarm is bequeathing us with loads of fresh genovese basil, and my rosemary looks more like a shrub than anything else now.

Tomato types are Cherokee Purple, Rutgers, and Beefsteak.

I've also got Okra in droves too...but that doesn't seem like it goes much in tomato sauce.

Also, do I can this stuff? Do I put it in foodsaver bags somehow? Please halp.

How do I get my little garden to do its thing and grow some stuff

Quincy — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:28:56 -0800

Gardening Filter : My tomato plants are flowering but not yielding any fruit! Am I doing something wrong? Or is it just not time yet? I have other friends who are already getting tomatoes this year. Is there anything I can do to help them out? This and other gardening queries. I have a trough attached to the deck in our back yard, and at the start of the season I planted some basil, cayenne, jalapeno, rosemary, and two varieties of heirloom tomatoes. The cayenne and basil have already bitten the dust, presumably from bugs, but the other plants have remained untouched by all appearances. I water pretty much daily if needed, and use miracle grow once a week. But so far I'm not getting much yield. The jalapeno has two peppers that have not matured yet, and have not started blooming anything else (its been a while since those peppers started).

The tomatoes are my real worry. They are growing like crazy and flowering all over the place but they are not starting to yield any fruit at all. Am I being impatient or should they have started by now? ( I live in Memphis if it helps, and this season has already been very warm) Can I do anything to give them a boost? What would you recommend to keep them upright, stakes, walls, or cages? I am currently using stakes, but I've been told I should be pruning more if that is the case. What is best? Any recommendations to keep the bugs at bay without using pesticides or is that an inevitability? Or just any general advice on gardening period. I love planting and growing things but I am starting to thing I do not possess the green thumb I may need.

Should I move my potted vegetable plants to catch the morning sun?

cilantro — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:16:19 -0800

I have a cherry tomato plant and a few pepper plants (scotch bonnets and jalapenos) in pots in a window that faces due west - they get bright shade until about 3 pm, and then hot, direct sun until about 6:30 pm. Should I move them to the front garden (facing south) in the mornings? They seem healthy and happy - the tomato is starting to set flower buds and the peppers are growing like crazy. I'm home all day, so should I carry them out front to catch the morning and early afternoon sun, or is it better to leave them alone? Here's a blurry picture!

Bonus question - will a good, regular tomato fertiliser make up for slightly-too-small pots?

Help me find the ultimate secret ingredients to make the ultimate (tomato based) BBQ sauce

Elfasi — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:05:55 -0800

As a connoisseur of barbecue sauce, on a lifelong quest to either find or replicate the best barbecue sauce I ever tasted, I keep coming back to the same thing: What exactly is the key ingredient or ingredients in a barbecue sauce that really make it special? What ingredients really make the difference between a good sauce, and a really great sauce? And just how much of a difference does it make to actually cook it and reduce it rather than mix it cold? Askmefi hivemind, help me out! A long time ago where I live in the UK, a barbecue sauce went on sale. Old Ranch House Smokey Barbecue Sauce. It came and went from the shops over the years and finally vanished forever around the late 2000s. It was a reasonably thick tomato based, tangy, irresistible concoction that was best used as a condiment, though it made a fine marinade too. I kept the last ever bottle that I found (washed out), and the ingredients are:

Water, sugar, tomato purée (18%), acetic acid, worcestershire sauce, salt, stabiliser:xanthan gum; onion powder, hydrolysed maize protein, hickory smoke flavour, ground garlic, antioxidant, ascorbic acid, spices

This is the point at which I started thinking, just what exactly is the vital ingredient in that lot which makes it so special compared to anything else I ever tried? The hickory smoke flavour, perhaps? Or the combination of the onion powder, garlic, magic spices? How much of that list can I just ignore as your typical mass produced preservative stuff? I'd love to somehow replicate it and reproduce that exact flavour, but it seems more realistic to try and just figure out which kind of ingredients to focus on and experiment with my own recipes.

So, mefites who mix or cook your own tangy, tomato based barbecue sauce condiments (and it has to be a good condiment above all else), how would you reverse engineer that sauce? What ingredient(s) stands out to you? Or just in general, what do you consider to be your barbecue sauce ingredients that have the biggest impact on flavour? And how much of a difference does it make to cook a sauce rather than just mix it?

If you are outside the UK and you have specific products to suggest as ingredients, please give me a little background so I can go about finding them or recreating them over here. I'm thinking for example that hickory smoke flavour could exist all kinds of ways from all kinds of different manufacturers. Thanks!

I can't put a stapler in this. Help me eat it.

zennish — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:07:46 -0800

What can I do with this tomato jelly? I found some incredibly cheap tomato and pepper jelly (bought purely for the cheapness and novelty factor) and am now somewhat stumped on what to use it for/on.

The packaging suggests putting it on cheese or on pate, neither of which I am entirely fond of (cheese in general is fine, eating chunks of it alone is not my thing). It's sweetish, with a tomato base and slight spicy note. It's not as thick as jam, but not sauce-like.

I thought about putting it on toast, but that's it. What else can (or should) I eat this with? Any recipes this can be put in?

My lentils have a tomato flavor with no tomatos. Sorcery.

larthegreat — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:23:18 -0800

Why do lentils cooked with beet greens have a tomato flavor? Yesterday, I cooked down some beet greens, pureed them with some (homemade) chicken stock and some carmelized onions (seasoned with dashes of salt, pepper and powdered ginger), and then cooked a batch of lentils in the pink mush for 20 mins until tender. The lentils taste like they were cooked in tomato puree. Honestly, if you ignore the pink tinge, the texture and flavor is exactly that of lentils cooked with a bit of tomato paste.

I am a pretty adventurous and decent cook, and generally can predict what different flavor combinations will result in. This one blows my mind. The beet green puree tasted like bland beets before I added it to the lentils, and at best I was hoping for a filling, if bland side dish, and was planning on chalking this up to a failed learning experiment. Instead, I have sorcery.

My google-fu is failing me, what would make lentils+ beet green puree taste like tomato?!

New wireless router help needed.

Jackie_Treehorn — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 07:49:26 -0800

Please help me find the best wireless, simultaneous g/n router that also functions as a print server natively or using Tomato or DD-WRT. More inside--> Hello everyone.

I'm looking to upgrade from my current Linksys/Cisco WRT54G2 router that is running DD-WRT firmware.

I'd like to bump up to a wireless N router that will simultaneously support devices that run G and N. Additionally, I want to relocate a USB printer to my router location so it must also function as a print server. The router can do this natively or using an alternative firmware like Tomato or DD-WRT.

In researching a new wireless router, my brain has turned to mush. I'm really having a hard time understanding the differences between dual band, simultaneous band, ect. That makes it really hard for me to find the router I need.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I really appreciate your time.

Tomato Soup Recipe from Bread restaurant in nyc

mjcon — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:22:50 -0800

A couple years ago I ate at a restaurant called Bread in NYC. I believe this is the restaurant. They had mindblowingly awesome tomato soup. Do you know the recipe this restaurant uses? I remember it being a little more marinara sauce-like than other tomato soups. I just made a soup very similar to this, which is good, but not the same. Has anyone had the soup from Bread? Any ideas how it is made?

Tomato Vodka Cocktail Ideas

whitneyarner — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:54:14 -0800

In one week, I will have a bottle of home-infused tomato vodka. What should I do with it? I made it out of a desire to use good tomatoes while they were still in season without any grand plans for cocktails. I figure it would be good straight and in a really tomatoey Bloody Mary, no doubt. Other thoughts include a vodka martini (the sin of martini without gin! Hopefully alleviated by the tomato), or a sort of savory mojito with lemon juice and basil.

Any one have any other brilliant ideas?

Why are my tomatoes rotting on the vine?

Stagger Lee — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:55:31 -0800

Gardening question! I've got a potted tomato plant, with tons of green tomatoes. They were ripening up nicely, but when I went to pick some, they were rotting on the vine. Cracked at the stem and rotting in the center. The green ones are already cracking and darkening around the stem. See picture. What's wrong with them?

Secure wifi hotspot browsing with VPN

phritosan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:21:10 -0800

I want to set up my iPad to connect to my home router from whatever wifi I happen to be on. I want a tunnel, I want all traffic going through the tunnel. All I want the wifi to see is that there is an iPad and it is connected to one place and there is data going back and forth. I thought this would be VPN. I set up OpenVPN on my WRT54GL running TomatoUSB w VPN following the instructions here. I have DynDNS set up. I'm jailbroken on the iPad and have installed GuizmoVPN. The VPN seems to work. The VPN client appears to connect fine without errors.

However, when using the iPad on my employer's network, it doesn't appear that the traffic for Safari at least is going through the tunnel as I am still hitting the filters on the network. Bypassing the filters is a nice way to check, but it is a side benefit. The aim here is secure browsing on all wifi and hotspots for banking, email, etc.

How can I test the VPN is working properly? IE that I can access the remote network's resources. I have a NAS and a wireless printer I can test with.

What am I missing?

Is VPN the way to go? Should I do something else along the lines of SSH or remote desktop?

If I were to use a VPN provider like StrongVPN or HideMyAss, would I have the same issues?

To use OpenVPN, I have to use GuizmoVPN because the built in iOS VPN client only supports L2TP and PPTP. Could OpenVPN be the issue?

Would running the VPN server on a desktop/laptop make any difference vs running it on the router?

Thanks for your help!

A Garden Tragedy

BlahLaLa — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:39:31 -0800

What's the matter with my tomato plant? These brown, scaly patches on the leaves just emerged over the last day or two. See pictures:
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3

The stem seems unaffected, though the unripe fruit (cherry-size) is now dropping off and this plant is very spindly. I haven't used any pesticides, and have used the Miracle Grow tomato-specific blend. And this plant is just a few feet away from another tomato plant that isnt' showing symptoms.

Halp!

What do I do with all this red sauce?

honeydew — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:04:09 -0800

I have about three gallons of truly excellent homemade tomato sauce. What can I do with it if I don't eat pasta?

Can I plant vegetables by just cutting them up and putting them in the ground?

Slinga — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:54:47 -0800

Can I plant vegetables by just cutting them up and putting them in the ground? Specifically tomatoes and cucumbers. If I'm looking to plant a garden, can I take tomatoes (Roma, specifically) and cucumbers and just chop them in quarters or so and put them in the soil a few inches down and water them regularly? The tomatoes I'm assuming that I can, but I'm not sure about the cucumber.

Are my peppers and tomatoes doomed?

no bueno — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:02:46 -0800

What's wrong with my peppers and tomatoes? I just transplanted 3 one gallon tomato plants and several 5-7" tall tomato and pepper plants. It got pretty cold two nights after th transplant. About 33 with a VERY light frost. I know it was a week or two too early to be putting them in but it was warm and I was impatient. I live in Denver which is zone five. The plants are shrivelling slightly and browning. Its getting up into the mid70s during the day and mid40s at night. Are they just suffering from the recent transplant or am I screwed because it got too cold?

ideas for homemade planter covering

Mayor Curley — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:53:23 -0800

I have three DIY self-watering tomato planters made from beige 30-or-so gallon containers. They work great, but "in the sun" in my yard means "visible from the street." Please tell me some ways that I can make them more attractive with coverings or any other ideas that you might have. Last summer my yard looked like it belonged to an ADHD serial killer who never finishes a project. I got sick of that, and the tubs were up against a fence so I built a three-sided pine enclosure as high as the tubs and stained it, and while my workmanship was just fine I wasn't really pleased with the overall effect: too big and it just looked like a massive raised-bed garden behind my normal one. individual wood covers of the same fashion might work better, but you might have a different idea and I would appreciate hearing it.

How many calories is a tomato?

kafziel — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 23:15:09 -0800

How many calories is a tomato? The other day, I took a whole beefsteak tomato, and cut it up into chunks. I dressed it with a little salt and pepper and diced red onion and a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and it was tasty, but honestly the oil/vinegar mix was kind of superfluous, because the tomato itself was really delicious and surprisingly filling. This got me wondering how many calories a beefsteak tomato was all by itself.

I've consulting Google, but places seem to be saying that a whole beefsteak tomato of about 150 grams, a third of a pound, is 25 calories. And that can't possibly be right. So, maybe someone here can offer more specific information, or confirm that the internet is not, in fact, lying to me.

What kind of tomatoes should I grow?

CunningLinguist — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:43:30 -0800

Gardeners! Help me narrow down what three varieties of tomato to grow on my tiny urban deck. I am a new and very excited gardener, having scored my first apartment with outdoor space last year. Last summer, I grew my first tomatoes (and a cayenne plant, and giant mutant basil, and lots of other herbs, and flowers, and wow it was fun.)
Now the seed catalogs are arriving and God, it's like porn, isn't it? I want them all. But I have very limited room, so I need advice from more experienced farming types.
I was thinking of two varieties of tomato and one cherry tomato. I want indeterminate varieties, because one crop just won't do. What are the best tasting, most tomato-y tomatoes you've grown?
I'm going to try starting them from seed, so there is a vast array of choices and I'm overwhelmed.

Are my tomatoes doomed?

milkcrateman — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:01:47 -0800

Do my tomato plants have late blight? And if so, is there anything I can do other than destroy them? Some of the unripe tomatoes on my plants have brownish lesions and spots of what looks like rot on them. After a bit of googling, it seems like it might be a symptom of late blight. A few of the leaves look like they have signs of blight as well. I haven't noticed any significant spots on the stems though. Here are some pictures I took of the fruit and leaves. Does this look like late blight?

If it is late blight, is there anything I can do about it? Most of the information I've found says to pull up the plant, put it in a plastic bag and send it to the landfill asap. But a few sites I've read (this, for example) seem to indicate that if it's not widespread on the plant, I can apply a fungicide and trim out the affected sections. I have another plant growing next to it. Will I need to destroy that one too even if it doesn't show any symptoms?

More details... this is in San Francisco (Noe Valley to be exact) and it's been very, very foggy and cool all summer. The plant with the problem is a "Bush Early Girl" and the one next to it is a "San Francisco Fog." I'm growing them in an Earthbox on my patio. Also, I'm kind of new to the whole gardening thing so there's a lot I have to learn.

Tomato/Potato all in one plant.

boby — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:17:08 -0800

Can a potato tomato plant exist without being 2 plants grafted together? I grow a small garden on my deck in containers. I cut up a Yukon Gold potato purchased from my supermarket that sprouted eyes and planted it in a container. It's grown very well this summer. It has flowered and as the flowers wilt and fall off, small green tomatoes are growing in their place! On the potato plant! I have beefsteak and cherry tomatoes growing in a bucket 5 feet from the potatoes. Could they had cross pollinated?
Here is a photo. The green tomatoes show seed formation when I cut one open but it doesn't smell at all like a tomato.

Attack of the Killer(?) Tomatoes!

graventy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:40:11 -0800

I'm growing several containers of tomatoes on my deck, and also... something else. Blue tomatoes!? Can anyone tell me what these are? (A few other photos: 1, 2, 3)