2nd post of the day....

Today's earlier post on specialty strawberries is below, the day has been all about the garden I guess.

Peppers sown:

(2) Baby Belle (for containers)

(2) Spanish Padron

(2) Corno di Toro

Carmen

(2) Pizza (for containers)

Tam Jalapeño

Tomatoes thinned, potted up into Cow Pots, and given a fish feed:

We have a quite a cold snap coming tomorrow night, at least in relation to the recent day and night temperatures.  I will be plugging in the soil warmer and covering the smaller fruit trees and bushes  and garlic with burlap or row cover.  Lets hope the weather folks are wrong and we stay in the low 30's......the trees could sure use a gentler forecast!

(Edit: I decided to go out and cut some blooms before they are knocked off by the rain and cold.)

Late Blight Chatter

I have been reading some interesting thoughts on the coming gardening season, and many folks are thinking 2012 has the potential to be similar to 2009 in regards to late blight infection on the East Coast.  There are some varieties that show moderate to excellent resistance.  I have been keeping a short list of varieties that are reported to perform best under the blight umbrella:

• Plum Regal
• Magic Mountain
• Defiant
• Matt's Wild Cherry
• Yellow Pear
• Black Krim

I may be changing my tomato list based on these predictions for 2012.  I did order Mountain Magic seeds from Johnny's, as well as some liquid copper.  This application alternated with Serenade seems to offer the best protection against late blight.  As for the disease itself it is actually a water mold.  Look for brown, water soaked looking areas on stems and leaves starting on the newer growth.  Eventually the white fuzzies appear on the undersides of leaves, and the fruit can become blemished as well.  It is said the fruit appears to be rotten but will actually be firm to the touch, which is not the case with other diseases.  I have had late blight on my tomatoes on more than one occasion so I am planning on being proactive this year (the photos shown on this post are from my garden in 2009).  Anyone else have thoughts or a plan of attack for this year if blight is back in town?

Tomato Cages

Yesterday I pulled the row cover off the tomatoes and put in the bottom half of the new tomato cages.  Evening temps should hover in the 50's in the short term, so they no longer need their baby blanket.  In the past I have run trellis between stakes, which has worked fairly well.  I spied 'Texas Tomato Cages' last year and decided to order some this spring.  They are impressive!  Very heavy in weight, and I LOVE that they fold flat for storage.  That was a big selling point for us.  The nice part is that now I can split my tomatoes up into multiple beds in the future for rotation purposes.  I purchased only 6 cages this year as they are an investment, so a couple of cages were set between two plants.  The true test will be to see if they can support them both.

This is just the bottom half of the cage seen above, as the plants gain height there is an additional piece that goes on top to bring the height to six feet.  I think I ordered the 20 inch diameter cages.....if it wasn't raining cats and dogs I would go measure and take more pictures, but this is all I have at the moment, lol.

I could not get the tines in the soil as deep as I would have liked thanks to all the rocks in my yard, but they all went down the depth of the raised bed at a minimum, and will hopefully hold as the season progresses.  They even make 2 foot extensions to bring the cages up to eight crazy feet- but I don't see my maters ever needing all that head room.  :)

The Sungold plant I have been growing for my Mom went home with her yesterday, and it had a cluster of fruit growing!  My plants only have flowers, funny how the one guy hanging out in a pot being exposed to the elements made fruit.  Hopefully mine are not far behind.

In other news the sweet potato slips arrived yesterday (Georgia Jet and Vardaman), but with days of rain in the forecast (and things already drenched) I decided to hold off on planting them.  I had intentions of potting them today before the T-storms hit, but I did not make it.  For now they are heeled in the tomato bed with an upside down nursery pot giving them some protection from rain and wind.  Notice I could not add sun to that equation.  Hmph.  The 10 day forecast is calling for 3 partly cloudy days, and 7 with showers and/or thunderstorms.  This weather is bad news for all the fruit in this region.  Anything blooming right now is not being pollinated.  I may not be getting any apples this year after all, and that just plain sucks.

Garden Update and 1st Harvest

Garden Update:  The eight tomato plants went in on the 25th, and happily, it was been quite balmy in the evenings.  Texas Tomato Cages are being used for support this year, and though I only set the bottoms up for spacing purposes before planting, I think I am in love.

Things are looking quite green out there, as I sowed peas to cut for greens in just about every vacant inch of dirt.  (GOOOOO pea greens!!)  Bush beans are sprouting up under the walls of water.

My first carrot sowing failed to germinate, but this last one is a success.  Things are moving along quickly now that the weather has warmed.

Cucurbits need potting potting up; still waiting on sweet potato slips and the replacement potato seed, so spuds are off to a late start this year.  The fingerlings I do have are taking their sweet time to chit.

Today's harvest: Pea greens and the first of the asparagus.

HAPPY GARDENING!

The (Almost) Truly Official 2011 Tomato List

I better hope that my clumsiness and a canine named Ivy spare me all past potato catastrophes this year, because as of right now there are no extras.  No back-ups.  I am starting to sweat a bit over this.  I have nine seedlings stretching towards the light.  I want to sow a few more.  I really do.  There may be a Neves Azorean Red, Amish Paste, or a Black Krim being added to this list last minute if I break, but as of right now, here is the official sown tomato list for 2011:


1. Sungold - cherry
2. Sungold (for my mother)
3. Juliet - sauce/freezer
4. Polbig - early determinate; great for those 'green tomato' recipes I love
5. Amazon Chocolate - slicer
6. Ella's Pink Plum - sauce/freezer
7. Ananais Noire (aka Black Pineapple) - slicer
8. Black Cherry 
9. Green Grape 


Are you all proud of me?  Betcha didn't think I could stick my reduction plan......I sure as heck didn't!


We will be eating lots of cherry tomato salads this summer, can you tell?  Think diced, fresh mozzarella, basil, and a drizzle of oil & vinegar alongside some nice, crusty, garlic rubbed bready-toast stuff.  Mmmmmm........I think I am drooling.  Napkin please.


There are also 2 pepper plants (both Carmen), and an eggplant (Fairytale) growing.  Yup, I went for that hybrid, and no, I don't feel bad.  :)   I am going to miss the other pepper varieties I normally grow, but we will live.  Some peppers is better than no peppers.

HAPPY GARDENING!

Another green tomato recipe, and its a keeper!

I tried a new recipe today, and I am so glad I did!  The recipe can be found over at Farmgirl Fare, and it is for a sugar-free green tomato relish/salsa/sauce.  I can't stop dipping tortilla chips in the pot.  Do I even bother canning the stuff?  It may not last long enough, lol.  The recipe calls for green tomatoes, but there are also many onions & garlic, some peppers, and a green apple thrown in for good measure.  Erin, this recipe may be perfect for you, especially if you kick-it-up a notch......I halved the cumin and (seeded) jalapenos called for in the original recipe and it still holds a nice little punch.  Now, I must warn you that there is a very distinctive vinegar taste to this sauce, but hubby and I totally approve!  (Edit: Note to self- small dice jalapenos added *after* pureeing, not before)

Stupid Dogs, Sweet Potatoes, and Relish

I know I have complained of my dog eating anything she has access to in the yard.  She is a classic example of being smart and stupid at the same time.  In reality, she is wise to help herself to all things edible, but in my anger I mutter how stupid she is all day long.  She has figured out how to get the gate open in the garden if things are not aligned properly.  Leeks have been trampled, uncountable numbers of tomatoes have been gorged on, and then thrown up.  Ewe.  She is constantly coming in the house with a big green tomato in her mouth.  So thanks to my stupid dog and her appetite for both ripe and unripe tomatoes I had to make a pathetically small pot of sauce yesterday.  This pathetically small pot even has some freezer tomatoes from last year in it.  A shame.  (Insert mumbles about the 'stupid dog' here.)

There is barely an inch of cooked-down sauce in the crock-pot.

I also decided to be a bit proactive and take some of those green tomatoes for myself.  I have a recipe for Green Tomato Relish that is quite tasty on a hot dog, at least that is how I first came to sample it at a birthday party.  I promptly asked for the recipe.

I hope it is as good as I remember it, because even after halving the recipe I have eight 1/2-pint jars of it sitting on the counter.  By my calculations that is two years worth after gifting a few jars to family.  For anyone that might be interested in away to use up those green tomatoes at season's end, or just to spite your 'stupid' Labrador Retriever, here it is:

GREEN TOMATO RELISH

3 qt green tomatoes (5 lb)

4 lg onions, chopped

2 sweet red peppers, chopped

2 sweet green peppers, chopped

1 qt vinegar

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 T mustard seed

2 T celery seed

3 C white sugar

2 T salt

Put green tomatoes through chopper, strain, and measure.

(I took this to mean that the 3 qt or 5 lb of green tomatoes

 should be post chopping and straining.)

Add chopped onions, peppers, and spices.  Boil 1 hour.  Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.

(I also assumed the vinegar and sugar were to go in the pot for the 1 hour boil.

I left over a 1/4 inch of head space (but less than 1/2 inch) and boiled for 10 minutes.)

Now back to the subject of those sweet potatoes from yesterday!  Sweet potatoes are said to double in size (or was it weight??) every 2 weeks.  Either way the "babes" will mature if given another couple of weeks, but the "big daddies" of the bunch don't need any bulking.  I initially thought I could root around for the larger tubers and leave the smaller ones intact, but this was next to impossible.  So I harvested about half of the bed and will leave the others for a week's time or so.  We had some more sweet potato greens last night with dinner, and I gave some to my neighbor that so kindly shared a fig tree with me.

The sweet slips were planted in a 4 x 4 raised bed, in mounds which were covered in black plastic to help retain heat.  Initially a dozen were planted but I lost at least three or four in the early weeks.

This is looking in from outside the fence.

Here is another view, the tomatoes have gone over into the potato bed, 

and the potato vines have in turn made their way into the tomato jungle.

I harvested 6 lbs of sweets yesterday (and one dahlia tuber), and they are curing in my bathroom.  

Odd I know, but they like warm temps and humidity so I figured that was the best place for them to hang out for the next couple of weeks.

HAPPY GARDENING!!

Tomato Traits

For anyone that has been following along since Winter, you may remember the troubles we had with a certain pesky canine tearing my neatly labeled, and happily growing tomato seedlings to shreds after a fish feed.  (More than once.)  Some containers were left unscathed, a few plants were a total loss, but most fell somewhere in between....they required re-potting and were now re-lableled to my best ability, or left as 'variety unknowns'.  Later in the season it became clear something was amiss as a plants labeled "Green Zebra" and "Cherokee Chocolate" were turning out lots of red tomatoes.  Clearly I had jumped to conclusions when cleaning up one of the tomato messes.  These plants have turned out to be determinate varieties.

I spent a good portion of yesterday evening going back through my sow list, and comparing that to my harvests in an effort to iron out the mistaken and mystery identities.  And by golly, I think I may have it!!  And it just so happens I had a question or two about the varieties I have growing waiting for me this morning under a previous post.  (Thanks for giving me the extra nudge I needed to sit down and put this all on paper. )  So here is my original sow list with updates on the specific varieties status and traits.  Any variety with a line through it was destroyed by the hairy beast or otherwise failed.  The motivation behind yesterday evening's tomato list was in effort to make suggestions to myself for next year.  What varieties to keep?  Which new seeds to try?  (I have seeds for 42 varieties.  See why I feel the need to make heads and tails of what I grew this year?)  In my opinion the best time to make decisions about tomatoes for next year's garden is when you have piles of tomatoes from this years garden sitting around to mull over.

ORIGINAL 2010 SOW LIST, UPDATED:

1. Mortgage Lifter- this is not cranking out tomatoes in my garden.  Have not done a taste test.
2. Moonglow- I like this tomato for the color it adds to salads or bruschetta.  The flavor is said to the best of the yellow/orange category, and it was a SSE 2007 Heirloom Taste Test winner.
3. Amazon Chocolate- delicious.  Rich, and dark tasting.  Is said to have wine-y notes....I would agree.  Belongs with bacon.
4. Green Zebra- one of my favorites for it's bright, citrusy flavor.  I will always grow this variety for fresh eating.
5. Cherokee Chocolate
6. Black Krim- a bit more floral and sweeter tasting than the Amazon Choc. in my opinion.  I prefer the aroma of this tomato, however, when it comes to taste Amazon wins.  Black Krim is said to have a hint of saltiness.
7. Sungold- simply amazing.  If you have never grown this variety, you must try it.  Early and prolific with tropical tomato taste.  YUM!
8. New Yorker (DTM)- ? Not sure which plant is which for my 2 unlabeled determinates, this and Rutgers variety below.
9. Rutgers (DTM)- ? 
10. Polbig (DTM)- heavy producer of uniform tomatoes. Have not taste tested. 
11. Sibirskiy Skorospelyi (DTM)- medium red globes.  Have not taste tested.
12. Isis Candy
13. Black Cherry
14. Green Cherry
15. Bupree's Big Boy Hybrid- have not taste tested.
16. Pink Brandywine- wonderful tomato flavor.  When I slice this I just want to eat it as is, forget the bread!
17. Costoluto Genovese- this scalloped fruit has full tomato flavor, and it is the prettiest tomato I have ever seen!  I have read this tomato requires heat to develop it's true flavor.  (Without it may disappoint.) 
18. Juliet- a garden champion.  Early, disease resistant, and delicious.  This my go-to tomato for drying or caramelizing.  Also delicious sliced on nachos, salads, pizza, and just about anything else one could think of.  Has a permanent place in my garden, and each year I say I need to grow more.  If I could only grow one variety of tomato, this would be it for it's ease and endless possibilities.
19. Principe Borghese
20. San Marzano- have not taste tested.
21. Amish Paste - nice flavor for fresh eating.  This will be my future salsa tomato.

Next year I think I will try Pineapple, Paul Robeson, Woodle Orange, Principe Borghese, and Cherokee Chocolate for new varieties.  This year's favorites will make a return appearance.  I will grow more than 2 Juliets....3, or maybe even 4.  The tomatoes chosen will be for fresh slicing & salsas, and also for drying.  (I don't plan on doing any sauce or canning next year).  What about you all, what has been your favorite, and what would you like to try?

Life is Good

The day started off with this delicious Summertime breakfast:

I couldn't help myself from digging in the fingerling bed last night to see how things were coming along:

The remaining Cipollini Onions and were pulled and set aside to dry:

Tomatoes are cracked from the heavy rains, but providing a nice harvest each day:

Today we went blueberry picking:

The farmer was as sweet as could be.  I must return again for more berries, and a Christmas Tree!

And speaking of sweet, the honeybees were all abuzz:

We left when our basket was full, the 9 pounds of berries will stock the freezer well:

The ride home included stops for lunch, ice cream (for the kiddos), 

blackberries, raspberries, green beans, and corn.

What a great day we had.  Life is good.

Garden Goings

We have been busy enjoying the Summer, and I hope you all have been too!  All attempts at seed starting for the Fall garden are ending in misery.  I continue to neglect seedlings sprouting in flats, and the bunnies eat the pea and bean sowings.  Since I never ordered more seeds after emptying my packets it looks as though there will be no Late Summer/Fall peas (or beans) for us.  Very sad.  Don't tell my kids.  Oh, and speaking of kids, meet our new pet:  "Fatty".....

I wanted to call this beast "Bubba", but the kids kept saying "but he is so fat"!  They win.

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We harvested lots of tomatoes, and some more early red potatoes this past week, most of my potato plants are dying back at this point, including the late maturing fingerlings.  Ivy my Labrador volunteered to keep an eye on the potatoes for me.  She has taken to hanging around just outside the garden fence in hopes of catching a cherry tomato or green bean being flung from the garden.  (She is after all the strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and apple eater.  I think I may have to add cilantro to her list of culinary preferences.  I used to have plants out there.  Just last week.  Hmmm.)

This garden fresh salsa was delicious, and it went fast!  What a great way to use up all that garden bounty.

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Garden Flowers

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The Making of Caramelized Tomatoes

Last year I did some oven drying with my tomatoes (pictured here).  They were delicious all winter in quiches and on pizza.  This time around I am trying a new technique, one that appears to be a marriage of oven-roasting, and oven-drying with a sprinkling of sugar thrown in.  After googling "caramelized tomatoes" I settled on the instructions found here.  Below are the Sungold and Juliet tomatoes halved, salted, and drizzled with oil, now ready for their heat treatment:

After 30 minutes @ 350˚ the Sungolds burned a bit, but I did a taste taste test 

and they still have nice flavor.  

I lowered the oven down to 325˚ for the remainder of the Juliet's cooking time.

After another 30 minutes or so they looked like this:

Now into the freezer!

When are they done?

To all you experienced heirloom gardeners out there, how do I know when my Green Zebra, Black Krim, and Amazon Chocolate tomatoes are done?  Is it a squeeze test, like testing that steak on the grill for firmness?  The greens are green.  The black/purple/brown tomatoes are turning and deepening.  Should they have any green left at the crown when ripe?

The Costoluto Genevese tomatoes are such eye candy, I really don't want to cut into them.  Also, a plant I have labeled as "Green Zebra" now has red tomatoes- that whole dog incident we had way back when really put a hurting on my ability to keep track of the varieties....good news is one of my unmarked plants appears to be a Green Zebra...or a stripey that hasn't shown it's true colors yet.  (Me rolling my eyes.)

Garden Update

The heat and humidity of the past week has kept me out of the garden, so I have a lot of catching up to do out there.  The afternoon will be full bug squishing, weeding, and maybe some potato digging.

This morning I discovered lots of baby peppers, my first ripe tomato and blueberry of the season, and flowers on the sweet potato vines.

I tried gooseberries last night, now I need to find a place for a bush in my crowded yard....that and some red currants to compliment our white.    Lovin' all the berries!  (There is a Wineberry bush sitting in a pot that needs planting too.....I have never had Wineberries, but I heard they were raspberry-ish so I jumped at the opportunity to take a transplant home to my garden).

I am off to enjoy this beautiful temperate Summer weather while it lasts - happy gardening!

Tomato Tally

I did thorough walk through in Tomato Alley  today after watering, and I was able to categorize the plants a bit after taking some notes.  The "big three" producers are Sungold, Polbig (DET), and Sibirskiy Skorospelyi (DET).  Sib. Skor. wins the 'biggest fruit' category so far, this is going to be one funky tomato:

The Costoluto Genovese is showing it's beautifully ribbed characteristics already:

One of my plants suffering from identity theft appears to be a plum.  The labeled Juliet tomato is just starting to set fruit, so I am wondering if this could be San Marzano or some other plum instead since it is much further ahead in growth:

So to sum it up so far, here is the official Tomato Tally; will the laggards catch up and out-produce the early leaders???

• Sungold (x2):  Too many to count
• Mystery Plum: 6+
• Sib Skor: 4+
• Polbig (x2): 3-6
• Green Zebra: 3
• Cherokee Choc: 3
• Amazon Choc: 2
• Costoluto Genovese: 2
• Juliet: 1
• Black Krim: 1
• Mystery, Mortgage Lifter, Burpee Big Boy Hybrid, Rutgers & Moonglow: A big, fat ZERO.

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Here are some other photos from around the garden.....some of the potatoes are in full bloom:

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I managed to find 2 uneaten strawberries in the yard today, it seems that one of the 4 areas planted has been overlooked by all furry creatures, and slugs!!!!

(Actually, the above statement is false, one of the berries has been tampered with- but not destroyed by little teeth.)

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Potatoes & Peas:

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Peppers & Alliums:

(My peppers are going no where fast, might be time for another fish feed.)

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This bed was cleared of all things that bolted, and half of the Kale:

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I FINALLY am having success with the Red Sails lettuce, YAY!!

On a less positive not my damn dog ate the apples off the tree that actually had more than one growing (and yes, in case you are wondering it is the same dog that eats the strawberries), Sawfly caterpillars have done some damage to the currant, and you saw what I have picked so far out of the 75 or more strawberry plants I have.  OH!!  And then there was that nest in the potato bed?  Well it grew and the mystery creature tunneled down a bit and broke stalks off a number of potato plants, and dug up the baby taters.  I chucked the broken plants in disgust and marble sized potatoes before thinking to take a picture, but here is what was left after I cleared the carnage:

The beans are soaking, a bamboo tee-pee has been erected, and I need to dig the inoculant out of the shed before I forget and sow without it.  It really has been a beautiful day to work out in the garden.  Other chores included 'hilling' the potato bags with compost and straw layers, a little weeding, some potting up, and some feeding were checked off the list today.

Many of the potatoe plants have put on quite a bit of growth this past week despite the cold evening temperatures.  Even the tomatoes appear to be happy being out in the garden in below average May temperatures.  Most plants are starting to flower out and a few varieties are noticeably bigger than the rest, mainly the Polbig, Juliet, and Sungold.  Lettuce seedlings are growing in nicely between the plants.  It is almost time to do another succession sowing for the greens.  I have some Claytonia and a Spicy Mesclun Mix to add to the next round.

(I put 4 plants under black mulch and they are in fact larger, though they are also early varieties so not sure which is the contributing factor- maybe both.)

The currants are really coming along, my mouth waters just looking at them!

Here are my apple babies (just a solitary fruit one the first tree, still a group remaining on the second):

And some great news:  my rhubarb has come to life- WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!

I am finding the obvious coloration differences in the mint I recently planted runners of interesting, the ginger mint is quite gold, the chocolate mint has dark colored veining and edging (which for some reason is not very visible in the photo below unless you really compare it to the traditional mint), and then there is the plain 'ol mint- just green!

I am growing quite impatient for all those peas to start producing.  I spied a few flowers out there today- FINALLY!  I was able to harvest a large amount of greens today, enough to get us through most of the week I think.......well, that about covers what is going on out in my little kitchen garden, what is coming to life in yours?