Taming of the Tomatoes

With all of the great rain we have gotten this spring, my tomato patch had grown into a jungle.



It was impossible to walk between the plants and I also found that many of them had branched out several feet and were taking over the other plants. Many of the large tomato cages had already tipped over, soI drove t-posts into the middle of the cages to support the plants.



Since I was not so diligent in keeping the tomato branches inside the cages, I had to untangle many of the plants and secure them back to the proper area. For this, I have found old nylons to be the best.


I like to use loops of nylons for this. I first cut 1 inch strips from the legs of the nylons.


I can wear these loops like bracelets as I am taming the garden. It is much easier to have them so accessible rather than across the garden when I am in a tight spot.




Here is the SuperSweet 100 cherry tomato plant, before my efforts today. This is the plant that tipped me off that odd things were happening in the garden. This guy grew a branch along the ground and then up into the Beefsteak plant. After I had untangled the branch, I saw it was over 6 feet long! It took me the longest time to get it carefully sorted out, but this guy had about 5 branches that long. I carefully trained them up the fence. I hope this gives the plant a little more light and air, as well as making it much easier to harvest.





Here it is after it had been beaten back into submission--and trellised to our 6 foot high privacy fence.


On June 9th, we picked our first ripe tomatoes from the SuperSweet 100 and one from the Little Porter plant. I'm not a huge fan of cherry tomatoes, but I always end up planting at least one. They are by far the best producer, but the skins always seem too thick for my taste and they are more acidic than I like. The Little Porter was yummy, it was fleshy with thin skin, but only about the size of a golf ball, or a Little smaller.

On June 12, I picked two Heirloom Beefsteak tomatoes that were ripe. The fruit themselves was not huge, about racquetball sized, but it was delicious. The shape of these guys is not pretty, very wrinkly and folded at the top, not the tidy neat tomato that is sold at the store. The seed pockets in the Beefsteak were very small and the slice held together very well, even when sliced thin. The flavor was amazing, I can imagine how great these will be on a BLT as the larger fruit start to ripen.


Our version of the BLT is actually a BSAT: Bacon, Spinach, Avocado, and Tomato with a slathering of mayo on lightly toasted bread... mmmm.

Soon it will be time to start cooking or sharing tomatoes. I can see they will all start to ripen at once. Here is my Roma tomato plant, the fruit is a little smaller than store bought, but look at how much there is.

Garden Visitor--Blue Heron?

About 8 pm on June 7th I noticed some large movement on the fence near the garden. This young fellow had landed on our fence and sat staring at me for a few moments.



I froze and screamed for Curtis to grab the camera. The bird was completely unfazed by me standing there and screaming. I was able to get within 10 feet of him before he flew away. He was not a great flier, it was a very gangly and akward flight, but he was able to easily clear our fence and the trees behind the house before he dissappeared from sight.

I'll have to do some research to figure out exactly what he was. I'm guessing a baby blue heron. We live about two streets away from a golf course with a creek and there are many mature trees everywhere in our neighborhood. I have often seen herons fishing in the creek that is about half a mile from our house too.



As he was standing there, it appeared he was standing on only one leg, and as he flew off, we saw that one leg was just dangling freely. Looking closely at the photos, it is clear that his right leg is very thin and he is not putting any weight on it. I have never seen a heron so young before (and I grew up on a lake). This guy had obvious pin feathers at his head and back and had a very gawky juvenille look to him. I wonder if he had fallen from the nest or was pushed because of his deformity. I hope he'll be okay out in the world. I'm sure he took off becuase he could read my thoughts... I wanted to capture him and nurse him back to health. Mmm, pureed fish anyone?

Boiled Potatoes with Parsley

Boiled Potatoes with Parsley Butter



1.5 lb garden potatoes
2 tbs butter
1 tsp dried garden parsley

Wash and rinse potatoes well. Boil in salted water until tender. Drain water and add butter and parsley to pan. Place back on heat until water evaporates and butter is melted.

Potato Harvest June 2009

What fun we had in the garden yesterday!

Red Lasoda

The tops of the potatoes had started to die back, which means it is time to harvest. I figured I'd dig enough for dinner last night and save the rest for later, but... I ended up digging up all five rows of potatoes and was amazed at how many we got out of our little ~100 square foot bed. I started picking with a small basket, which filled quickly, then Curtis got me a 1 gallon tote, then we had to grab a 5 gallon bucket and we filled all of them with potatoes.

Russet

Back in February and March of this year we planted 2 lb red Lasoda, 2 lb youkon gold, 1 lb kennebec white. I also planted about a pound worth of normal store potatoes (I think they were Russet baking potatoes) which had sprouted in my pantry. I have read many times that these do not produce as well as seed potatoes, but this year, they proved to do very well.






Here is the (almost) final tally:



1.5 lb very small mixed
4.5 lb kennebec white/youkon gold (I'm not sure which is which)
8.25 lb russet
10.5 lb red lasoda

yes that is 35 pounds of potatoes from our tiny little potato patch. Hooray! I call this the 'almost' final tally because there is still one row of Kennebec white growing in the garden. The tops of these plants were still green and lush, and the one plant I dug up on this row had mostly tiny baby potatoes, so I left the rest of the row to grow.



We washed and boiled up the smallest of the potatoes, anything silver dollar sized and smaller was cooked. It totaled up to 1.5 lbs of tiny taters for dinner, but we got to sample some of each variety that way.
Tiny potatoes

We both agreed that the red Lasoda were by far our favorite potato: they have a great tender texture, thin skin and a very nice taste. The Russet potatoes were the second favorite, the flavor was good, but the skin was a little thick and heavy for my taste in boiled potatoes. Considering these are baking potatoes anyway, it is not much of a fair assessment to eat them unpeeled and boiled. Our least favorite was the Youkon Gold, the potatoes themselves were pretty with a nice yellow flesh, the flesh was mealy and the flavor was not special. That being said, all three varieties were worlds better tasting than any potato I have ever bought at the store. I'm not sure we got enough of the Kennebec White to make an accurate assessment on their flavor and texture.

100% Home grown (and butchered) meal

Unfortunately, most of the Russet potatoes had bug holes in them. Some also appear to have been half eaten, then forgotten and the eaten places scabbed over. It may be that these Russet potatoes are not suited for our climate, or are more suscepitlbe to insects. Either way, considering that what I planted was destined for the compost pile originally, even slightly buggy potatoes are a great deal. No bug damage was obvious on the other types which were started from seed potatoes.

We are both so excited about our potato harvest this year. We are already talking about what to do to make it better next year. I think the biggest improvement will be to plant the potatoes much deeper. I have heard that new potatoes will only form between the seed potato and the surface. In other words, the deeper you plant, the more potatoes you harvest. My original plan was to plant shallow and then pile dirt and mulch around the stems to allow them to keep producing. This did not really happen, mostly due to time, but also finding enough dirt and material to rebury the stems was difficult. Since I was 8 months pregnant when we planted these potatoes, I can't fault myself for not planting them deep this time. It was a real challenge to just get the shallow holes dug and covered. Another lesson learned is that crowding onions in between the potato rows did not work. The onions were completely shaded out and did not grow.
Red Lasoda

Normally, we eat about 5 lbs of potatoes every week. So as exciting as our 35 pound harvest was, it is more of a novelty than a real food source. We are looking at designs that will allow us to grow more potatoes vertically. Our little plot was maxed out with this current harvest.

Zucchini Bread

Zucchini Bread (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook)

1.5 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
0.25 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1 cup shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
0.25 tsp lemon zest shredded
0.5 cup chopped pecans (recipe called for walnuts)

In a mixing bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg. In another bowl combine sugar, zucchini, oil, egg and lemon peel; mix well. Add flour mixture; stir just till combined. Stir in chopped nuts.

Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350F for 55 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack. (the recipe said to wrap in plastic overnight before slicing, HA!)

Great Gobs of Zucchini

It is only June 5th and we are already picking bunches of giant zucchini. I suppose it is the coloring of the zucchini or the location of the zucchini plants, but I have trouble finding them before they grow enormous. Today we picked three giant zucchini and one big zucchini. The zucchini I have bought at the stores are babies compared to these guys.


The first zucchini was sauteed for dinner, the second two were shredded up for zucchini bread and muffins and the last one was picked to make chocolate zucchini cake.

The zucchini bread/muffin recipe is from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The zucchini chocolate cake recipe was from the a blog here: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000621chocolate_zucchini_cake.php

The bread is for a cookout tomorrow, but we were able to sample the muffins tonight. They were really good, with a nice crisp top and moist inside. I think they needed a little less sugar, hubby says they need a sugar drizzle glaze.


Today we picked 3.9 lbs of produce from the garden. 1 big patty pan squash, a handful of green beans and Italian flat beans and four zucchini. Starting June 2nd, I decided to weigh the produce as it comes into the kitchen. Our food grade scale has a temporary home near the sink for this very purpose. I missed the first month or so of early harvest, but I do hope to keep weighing produce as it is picked. It will be a neat way to record how the garden does this year.

The tops of the potatoes have started to die back, which means harvest time is soon. The tomatoes have also totally outgrown the cages and several tipped over during our last rain. This happens every year, so I was ready to support them with 6 foot t-posts. The garden has passed the pretty point and is now getting down to business producing lots of veggies.

Sunflower Seeds

Here is the volenteer sunflower that popped up in my tomato patch. It started off small and pretty with lots of pollen
(May 19th)

Then it got bigger and heavier

You can see the seeds forming (May 21st)

Then it got go heavy the stem could not support the head and it tipped over (June 1)
A few seeds have already been picked out, not sure if it was a bird or a kid...

My research shows that sunflower seeds are ready when the center of the flowers turn brown or the back of the head yellows.
Yes, on both accounts for this flower. Since something had already discovered the seeds, I cut the flower and it is now hanging in the house to dry. I tried one of the seeds and it tasted flavorful and moist. The seed itself was large and plump, on the same size scale as what is purchaced at the store. The sunflower seeds I am used to are roasted and salted, obviously, this was nothing like that, but it had a nice flavor.