For next year: Tomato post-mortem

Going back over this season, some thoughts for next year:

This year, I started planting seeds in March, a bit late I thought then, but I think it all worked out. I have planted as early as December. While it is nice to get an early start, we can get weather too cold for the tropical-ish tomatoes. Another consideration re: seed planting: I would like tomato ripening spread out over the summer but, alas, this is the reality of growing crops, even as small-scale as my adventure. As it was, this year, I had a ripening glut in the first three weeks of August.  I think it would be good to plant a few in January, a few in February, a few in March and no later.

What would I plant next year? I will stick with cold climate tolerant tomatoes but with a few exceptions. Definitely the Sungold will be back, even though it is a hybrid, not an heirloom. What an overachiever! I would also make sure it had more room and more support since it grew like the monster plant in Little Shop of Horrors. I would like to have two, maybe one planted earlier, one planted later.

Definitely more Black Krim. This is a gorgeous cold climate tolerant heirloom producing the type of tomatoes that look beautiful in sandwiches. I only had one plant; next year, I would love to have at least two, perhaps planted a month apart.

I still like Momotaro, even though it is a hybrid. Two would be nice.

I had six Japanese Black Trifele, all ripening at the same time. Next year, I would prefer fewer, perhaps two. The Japanese Black Trifele do well here, one block from the beach, very prolific with smallish pear-shaped tomatoes.

I still have dreams of growing Brandywine's Sudduth, definitely not a cold climate tolerant tomato. It did well one year but never again. Growing Brandywine's Sudduth is my little attempt at being Don Quixote. I still like to dream.

I have a small plot so eight to nine tomato plants is about it, I think. I had twelve this year, a bit too much.

How the Mortgage Lifter Tomato came to be

I haven't grown any Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes but I have heard of it over the years. Here's a transcript on how it came to be.  Apparently the true name is Radiator Charlie's Mortage Lifter Tomatoes. Radiator Charlie was a fellow who invented his own way of creating new strains of tomatoes; he did this without the benefit of a formal education.

BYLES: What I did I took ten plants and put them in a circle and put one in the center.

YOUNG: McCormack has studied this part of the tape carefully and says Byles invented an unorthodox but elegant system.

McCORMACK: Well, he started with four varieties of tomatoes and he placed a tomato called German Johnson in the center of a ring of 10 tomatoes. All these tomatoes were the largest seeds he could find in the country at the time. So, he would go around to the other tomatoes, collect pollen in the baby’s ear syringe, then squirt it on the flowers of the German Johnson. Then he would save seed. After seven years, he felt he had a stable tomato with all qualities he was looking for, and once he was satisfied with that he never worked with any other tomato plants, did any other plant breeding. But he really ran with it after he developed it.

YOUNG: Ran all the way to the bank. Turns out Radiator Charlie Byles had quite a knack for marketing, and sold tomato seedlings for a buck apiece—a lot of money for a little plant in those days. He sold enough of them to pay off the mortgage on his house.

BYLES: I didn’t pay but six thousand dollars for my home, and paid most of it off with tomato plants.

I don't know if they would work in our location, one block from the beach. But I found the story fascinating.

Urban farming taps our sense of creativity and flexibility

I love seeing articles like this Bloomberg piece on local food and urban homesteading.  And what caught my attention was how urban farming seems to tap into our inherent sense of creativity. One company is growing lettuce in recycled shipping containers. Cities are buying land for community gardens. Parking lots are being replaced by orchards.

Designer lettuce will soon bud under the flight path of the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta. An orchard is taking the place of a parking lot in Davenport, Iowa. And homeowners near downtown Denver are turning lawns over to farmers like Sundari Kraft, who plant, weed, water and harvest crops from their yards in return for a share of the bounty.

“People are sick and tired of mowing and fertilizing,” said Kraft, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Urban Homesteading,” in an interview at her Denver home. “We have a stack of applications, enough to double what we do now.”

So what do you think is driving this? I think there are a myriad reasons but the most compelling for me, out of many, is the desire to have control over what I eat. Being able to harvest my own tomatoes and berries is not only an accomplishment, it tastes better than what I can get from the grocery store. Certainly this isn't purely out of economics because I put in quite a bit of my time into growing my veggies.

So what are your reasons for going local?

Sungold peaking

Last Saturday, I picked approximately 250 Sungold cherry tomatoes, truly the peak of the season. For all of July, I got 203 Sungold. For this month, I have a total of around 650 Sungold picked. This is close to the end of the season especially as we are getting the cold and foggy weather normal for being one block from the beach. Actually, I'm getting a bit tired of counting the Sungolds and ready to quit counting.  I'm really not that obsessive. Really. However, the Sungold is definitely going to be coming back next year.

My favorite recipe is to halve them, drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil, salt them, scatter garlic chunks, and then to roast them in the oven at 250 F for about three hours. We put them on top of cream cheese on a bagel, in salads, or eat them as is.

The Jimmy Durante tomato and something else

Why am I getting these strangely formed tomatoes this season?
Here's the Jimmy Durante momotaro tomato. Or maybe it could be a manatee.


What do you make of this one?


These go into the same collection as my tomato elf.

Beefsteak ripens

These were from Ferry-Morse seeds labelled "Beefsteak" and nothing else. I thought there are many types of beefsteak tomatoes, so this must be a generic beefsteak. However, whether this is due to our beach weather or from growing them too late in the season, these grew to be smallish tomatoes. I don't know if I'll grow these again.

It was a California adventure

I believe in taking a break from even my beloved little veggie garden. So here are a few quirky shots I took from our little break this last weekend. We took a few hours to go to the adjunct theme park next to the place where the mouse lives.

Always difficult to pass up chocolate. This time, however, it was the irreverent packaging that caught my eye.



So I sat down to eat my ginormous dinosaur-like turkey bone when I looked up and saw this. What would you think they are used for? My answer at the bottom of this post.

I enjoyed the smoothies here and we returned for seconds. The lady behind the counter said "You're back?". Someone had fun with tiling the outside of the place. Mind you, I wouldn't have this in my kitchen, too busy, but I liked how the fork and spoons were incorporated in the mosaic.



Answer: what you use when you run out of traffic jam.

Finally the Momotaro ripens

This is one of my favorite tomatoes, the Momotaro. I grow it even though it is a hybrid, as opposed to an heirloom tomato, so I must grow it from seed I buy. My source is Kitazawa Seeds, a wonderful Oakland based seed company specializing in Asian plants.  I've been told I could use the seeds from the second generation tomato by a local grower but I'd rather not chance it. While the Momotaro is technically not considered a cool weather tolerant tomato, I still find it grows okay though not great here, one block from the beach. I bet it would probably grow better in a warmer area, such as more inland, but I do get a few tomatoes that look like this. Momotaro is a low acidity tomato with a beautiful pinkish hue.

There is a Japanese folk tale associated with the name Momotaro. It is about a boy who arrives inside a large peach.  Certainly the Momotaro tomato does resemble a large peach. The boy is a gift who brightens the lives of an elderly childless couple. One day, the boy, named Momotaro or peach boy, decides he must go on his journey, much like the hero's journey that Joseph Campbell wrote of, to face the ogres somewhere far away. Along the way, Momotaro finds helpers: the pheasant, the dog, and the monkey. When they reach the ogres, they work together to defeat the ogres. The ogres give up their treasure of gold to Momotaro. Momotaro returns home to his parents with the gold. Now they can live happily ever after.

Uli Westphal veggie photos

I came upon Uli Westphal's amazing photographic work via an article about his Mutatos project. These are rather unique veggies, to say the least. And Mr. Westphal has quite an eye for them. Click here for the individual photos.

It makes me wonder what he would have done with my tomato elf.

The cherry tomato mystery

Anyone out there with any info on this?
I try to pick my Sungold cherry tomatoes when they are ripe else they do split while on the plant. But one mystery I have found is that the Sungold cherry tomatoes seem to split after I pick them, even when I leave the calyx on.


 I googled to see if anyone had an explanation for this.  There's plenty written about splitting cherry tomatoes while on the plant but not much on the splitting after they are picked.

Probably 'possum

I'm late posting this but wanted to get it out anyway. You would think in an urban community garden setting that there would not be much wildlife. I believe that is true for the most part. However, last month, I got a late night visitor. I don't know precisely what this visitor was but the visitor did leave its scat. My googling indicates this is likely to be opossum because the scat was left in leafy quiet area of my garden, under the largest tomato bushes. It is too large for rabbit, rat and mice. I didn't see any tracks, however.


More info on opossums

My tomato elf

Who do you think he looks like? There's definitely a face I can see with a sharp nose in this Japanese Black Trifele. We have been trying to figure out who he looks like but so far no consensus here at casa de arugulatoo.

Here's how it looks fully ripe.

Black Krim ripens one block from the beach

The next season, I think I will grow more Black Krim and fewer Japanese Black Trifele. Both are Russian tomatoes, cold climate tolerant and perfect for a garden one block from the beach. Both have wonderful flavor, smokey and deep. But I like the larger tomatoes that you can get from Black Krim. The Japanese Black Trifele did ripen earlier, wonderful really when you are starved for home-grown tomatoes, and I did get an abundance of tomatoes per plant but the Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes are smaller.

Ripe tomatoes, finally

Ripe Japanese Black Trifeles. They were delicious, buttery and smokey.

Ripe Sungold cherry tomatoes. I picked the ripest three, sweet and juicy with just a bit of tartness.

Finally. Ripening tomatoes: Japanese Black Trifele and Sungold

Well, this took long enough. I blame the molasses-slow ripening process on our location as we are merely a block from the beach.
Japanese Black Trifele. The top tomato is at day 83. Online, I've seen maturity ranges from 74 to 80 days for Japanese Black Trifele.  A side note: I notice this plant is beginning menopause uh senescence. The leaves are slowly dying, and the newest inflorescenses are no longer producing fruit.

Sungold tomatoes. I think these are rather large for cherry tomatoes.

So how are your veggies doing these days?

So we visit the 'other kingdom'

Well, we visited the 'other kingdom' a few days ago. Of course, I was quite distracted by the impeccable greenery. The-mouse-who-must-not-be-named really knows how to do beautiful gardening. They must spend a fortune on plants. And the biggest mystery: the gardeners are never ever in sight. When do they work? At night?

I finally got a shot of this espalier. I've always admired how well they were bonsaied into forming this pattern.

A glimpse of color.

Tucked away from a busy pathway, these succulents thrive.

My camera battery ran out of juice, drats, when I came upon the veggie-filled Tomorrowland landscape and got excited over the geometrically arranged basil, rosemary, lavender, lettuce, and kale. Sorry. I'll get the photos next time.

Hello, summer solstice and fall planting

Cucumber forming

So today is the summer solstice, my second favorite day of the year. Since it marks the day that daylength begins to shorten, I think it is weirdly ironic this also marks the first day of summer. A mystery of life. I rate this the same sort of weird irony involving lettuce, so wonderful in summer salads, but, everyone, it grows so much better in the winter than in the summer, when it bolts merely from looking at it.

Summer solstice is my reminder that it's time to think about starting the fall veggies, here at casa de arugulatoo. Not that I'll get to it right away, but I need to start my list and get my seed starting things in order.

Kale, arugula, mizuna, garlic, broccoli, spinach, and lettuce are definitely on my list.

Radishes and carrots will get sown directly into the ground. I have hope based on no good information that some carrots will survive the onslaught of slug and snail attacks.

Our summers tend to be chilly, foggy and gloomy. No elevated summer temperatures here one block from the beach. In the fall, we often get the warmest days of the year but even then, the evening temps are cooler than the summer. Actually, that works generally well with the fall veggies, warm in the day and cooler at night.

Which brings me to these burning questions: What are your plans for the solstice and what are you planning for your fall garden?

Tomatoes this week

To summarize, they are all still green.
Black cherry tomatoes, still green.

Sungold cherry tomatoes, still green.

Japanese Black Trifele clump, still green.

Japanese Black Trifele, still green. These two tomatoes were the first to form in my garden. Online, I have seen maturity pegged at 74 days. We are now at about 76 days. Our cool summer weather probably increases the days needed to mature these tomatoes.

Momotaro tomato, still green.

Black Krim, still green. This one has ballooned out quite nicely.

The Friday Mulch

White yarrow, flowering

An evolutionary biologist interested in altruism decides to apply evolutionary theory to the society in which he lives. In doing so, he creates more playgrounds and parks, among many other projects he has undertaken. It doesn't matter to him that some members of his community don't even believe in evolution.

LATimes story on the rare wild Carpenteria rose.

The only community garden in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was razed by a bulldozer, courtesy of the local bank. I rate the rudeness factor of the bank sky high as it turns out the gardeners weren't even allowed to collect or save their plants. I'm not clear on what recourse is available to the organizing group. Still more publicity probably helps, which is why I posted the link to the story.

Tips on gardening with wildlife. Bet you all could do better.

Cucumber, flowering

Very little success starting cucumber from seeds due to this year's snail and slug chompfest. I would start them at home and bring them to the garden, only to find the poor thing plundered and pillaged next day. However, I did have one that made it. You can see it is growing up a bamboo teepee.

Male flower

Female flower

Care for a battle cry?

Pure nonsense but fun for those times you are in gladiator mode in your garden and need a battle cry to get you through the daily carnage. I have certainly been on the warpath in this year of the gastropods. Damn the snails and slugs.

Here's my battlecry:

Hark! Who is that, skulking amidst the wasteland! It is Luvarugula, hands clutching a sharpened screwdriver! She grunts mightily:

"I'm going to brutalize you like a first grade teacher!!"

Link to your personalized battle cry.

Tomato update

New this week: Black cherry tomatoes.


Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes look the same from last week. Green.


Similarly, Sungold tomatoes plateaued in their growth but are still rather green.

Momotaro tomato continues to power through their initial growth.

The Black Krim tomato decides to blimp out.


Cluster of Japanese Black Trifele.

Growing basil and thyme indoors

This has been the year of the slug and snails in my garden, unfortunately. Dealing with the slugs and snails without a doubt unleashed my inner gladiator. It was my morning ritual to hunt and destroy as many slugs and snails I could find. Ugh.  As a result, I've resorted to starting and growing all of my seedlings at home on the window sill. It's not the ideal place since it doesn't get a full day's worth of sun. But the sill faces southeast, and it is rather nice and warm.

The basil and thyme were grown from seed, begun in a larger pot and then transplanted to a recycled six pack. I'm afraid the thyme looks a bit etiolated. They will likely go to the battlefields soon when they gain enough heft.
Thyme

Basil