JosieGladysGardens

Friday, January 16, 2015

Well, hello, stranger! AGAIN!

Welcome.....
New technology has come into my hands - thank you, Mr. Okra. Once again, I can wax pepper poetic (or just mess up the English language) doing longer blogs. Better still, I should be able to post pictures again! There is big-time catching up to do on the image front. In fact, instead of blabbing on this time, how about if I show you some of what's been growing on? (In no particular order.)

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Vegetable Trials (Yes, and Tribulations, Too!)

March 15, 2011
I can’t seem to stop planting tomato varieties. In the basement nursery, there are Hawaiian Pineapple, Spoon, Large Cherry, Mr. Stripey, Moneymaker, Mortgage Lifter, Omar’s Lebanese, Striped Cavern, Big Rainbow, Amish Paste, Jersey Giant, Roma VF, Principe Borghese, German Tree, Giant Belgium, Hungarian Pink, and an unknown black tomato from seeds saved. And, just now, I’m wondering why I haven’t planted any kind of grape tomato. Of course, there’s still time.

Most of these are planted because I’m curious about tomatoes – the flavor, color, and size. Spoon is the tiniest tomato, literally the size of English peas. And I’ve read that it will be a weed in the garden. Not such a terrible thing, tomatoes as weeds; maybe it will crowd out the crabgrass. Others, like Mr. Stripey, I have a fondness for; it is very low-acid, which means endless tomato sandwiches can be consumed without consequences. Mortgage Lifter is a reliable tomato and, I think, good luck. The breeder was an amateur who repaired radiators and sold tomatoes as a sideline. He sold enough of this one that he paid off his mortgage, hence, the name. Sure enough, after I started growing Mortgage Lifter, I was able to get a much more favorable interest rate on my mortgage. There are specific culinary reasons for growing the Cherry tomato: 1. to use fresh in salads, 2. to make Fireball Pickled Tomatoes, and 3. so the dogs, YoYo and Huckabee, can have their own tomato plant by the garden gate. This keeps them from eating the bigger tomatoes….are at least fewer of them.

Other tomato varieties – Omar’s Lebanese, Giant Belgium, Big Rainbow, German Tree – are returns from last year and are participants in my efforts to become proficient at growing hugemongous tomatoes. New in this year’s slicer trials is the Hawaiian Pineapple (said to have a fruity flavor), which supposedly will reach 1 ½ pounds. First, I have to overcome my hang-up about pruning tomato plants. Why can’t I make myself pinch off those side branches?!!

Then there are my culinary trial tomatoes: Principe Borghese, which did not do last year at all, is for making sun-dried tomatoes. Thanks to a suggestion from someone in a BlossomSwap forum, I will try drying them on the dashboard of my car where they will be safe from birds and bugs. Striped Cavern is supposed to be a thick-walled, hollow tomato perfect for stuffing. I have visions of chicken salad and roasted, rice-stuffed tomatoes for this one. Yum!

The remainder (Roma VF, Amish Paste, Jersey Giant, and Hungarian Pink) are part of my research for an endless yield, perfect flavor, and labor-saving sized paste tomato. This is probably the most important trial, since it has the most “pantry impact.” The goal is to find the very best paste tomato for putting up a year’s supply. These tomatoes will be evaluated on number of seeds, size of individual fruit, total production per plant, length of productive season, earliness and lateness, ability to hold on the vine and in storage, percentage of waste, quality (green shoulders, cracking, rot), and overall vigor. Of course, I will not be pinching the sideshoots of the paste tomatoes.

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Friday, January 16, 2015

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