What happens when we skip a day picking squash?

They just keep growing.  A few of zucchinis are stuffing size now.

The squash we should have picked yesterday, plus today's harvest, is below with some windfall Flavor Delight Apriums and Harcot Apricots (the ones with the red blush).  These two varieties are well-adapted here, along with the apricots Golden Sweet (commercial variety, just coming off patent and becoming available for home growers), Robada (commercial, sweet pit variety, needs a pollenizer, developed by USDA) and Tomcot (best with a pollenizer)

Today was the best gardening day we've had in a while.  I also transplanted some extra seedlings from a row of melons.  They HATE that when they have true leaves, but I think some of them will make it.  Tied up the cucumbers, too.

I'm not much on gardening in containers in summer in our hot climate, but I planted Red Russian kale in a pot with some chrysanthemums last fall.  I used it often in salads with angel hair-cut cabbage.  It is more tender than most kale varieties.

It's bolting now.  You can see its skinny seedheads and yellow blossoms behind the chrysanthemums, which seem to have picked an odd time to bloom again.  The color of Red Russian kale is great with chrysanthemums with blue-green leaves and purplish or pink flowers.

I also threw caution to the wind this year and planted some peppers (Mariachi and Monster Jalapeno) in a pot with some marigolds.  They're next to a pot o' ground cherries (first time I'm trying these), in the afternoon shade of a couple of big English roses.  Most places, I would not recommend shade for hot peppers.  Here, in a pot, yes.  I'll let you know how they do.

Early Harvest, 2013

Above, an all-yellow early harvest: Two Yellow Perfection tomatoes (a variety from England - smaller than a ping pong ball), three Sungold tomatoes (even smaller) and one baby Meteor yellow zucchini. They're nestled among the prettiest weed of the season, Mexican Evening Primrose.   Yellow Perfection is a pleasant tomato with some sweetness, on the mild side but not bland.  The great Sungold has not come into its own yet this season.  Both varieties had tough skin on these first tomatoes (on the plant before transplant).  

We've only had a few Sungold tomatoes and one other Yellow Perfection (given away) so far this season. Should have started a couple of weeks earlier. Next year. . . .

Update: the day after I harvested the first squash of the year above, I got a Magda, a Zephyr and a Sweet Zuke (examples pictured in a previous post here. )  Princess Kitty Darla has  more kitty friends now than she did in the picture at the link and may now qualify as Queen.   I also got a Butter Scallop the second day (looks like its name) and a Supersett (yellow crookneck).  Same old seeds I had in 2011, pretty much.   By May 11, two days after the first zucchini was harvested, we had a total of 19 squashes.  Once these plants start . . . I also planted Peter Pan, a scallop, from quite old seed.  It is behind the others in development.  

 The lettuce above is now too bitter to eat, but it was nice while it lasted.  Doesn't take much potting mix to grow cut-and-come-again leaf lettuce in winter here.  These are growing in trays from supermarket barbecued chicken.  My favorite cool-season crops this year were Tatsoi and its later blossoms, broccoli and Red Russian kale.  UPDATE for Gilly:   Tatsoi is one of the cutest edible plants ever, and would look nice with pansies or other low-growing plants.  I planted Red Russian Kale in a pot with some mauve and pink chrysanthemums.

Little Squashes

Darla the Kitty Princess checks out a platter of summer squash in her flower border. Some of the ones she's looking over would qualify as "baby squash" - the kind I could never afford when I lived in Southern California and occasionally visited the upscale Irvine Ranch market.

I think the very cutest baby squashes are the scallop types (in white, all shades of green, pale yellow, deep yellow, rings,  stripes, and combinations) and the crooknecks. And "round zucchinis" have gone beyond the old European heirlooms and their progeny to standardized hybrids. They make for a fun picture arranged like billiard balls. But I'm not growing any of those this year.

Even though I've simplified our squash list, we've still got 8 plants of summer squash this year - way too many for one family, unless you plan on giving some away. Even if you give lots of squash away, you can be overwhelmed if you don't pick them young. The ones on the platter are:

Magda:   A pale green, fat Lebanese (Cousa) type bred in France. My favorite zucchini. First to produce this year, as usual.
Sweet Zuke:   Medium green with faint stripes, shaped something like the Cousa types when it gets bigger. I bought seeds for this variety as a darker companion to Magda. Tends to break at the neck when picked.
Spineless Beauty:   Zucchinis on a less-prickly, less-hairy plant. They're the ones in the photo with the blossoms still attached. How high-end is THAT? My favorite variety name for a "hairless" zucchini was "Kojac". This type really is more pleasant to pick than regular zucchini.
Meteor:   A deep yellow zucchini, very slim when young.  Apparently being dropped from production. Yellow zucchinis taste a lot more like green zucchini than like the yellow crooknecks and straightnecks. They probably have a different profile of phytonutrients than the green ones, so if you're a zucchini fan, growing both could be good for you.
Precious II:   A hybrid straightneck yellow squash which resists greening from a common squash virus.  They're the ones that look sort of like pale yellow bowling pins in the photo.
Zephyr:   The one in the photo that's yellow on top and pale green on the bottom. A unique squash bred by Johnny's Selected Seeds. Has a winter squash in its parentage, and is rather firm.  Nice flavor.  Reported to keep better in the fridge than most varieties.

I planted two plants each of Magda and Zephyr. Thought I had 9 plants in all, but the Butterstick I thought I planted turned out to be a melon. Maybe I'm a little crazy for planting so many. But the bounty doesn't last forever. Summer squashes tend to produce so much fruit that they seem to wear themselves out after a while.

In our yard, the yummy yellow squashes, both crookneck and straightneck, tend to succumb to disease and/or insects faster than the zucchini types. Here, it's possible to put in a fall crop of summer squash if the white flies and squash bugs aren't too bad and soil diseases don't get to the plants.

Recipes: Okie Squash and Tomatoes is a good recipe for people who are not wild about zucchini by itself. Skillet Lasagna with Shredded Zucchini works even for most people who don't like zucchini because of its texture.

Frost yesterday

We had a light frost yesterday morning. Didn't hurt the tomato plants. Temperature at the airport was 36 degrees.

Easier Gardening, Lower Food Costs

The weather in Mexico and the world's financial situation have prompted people to think more seriously about gardening.  I left a comment here  concerning the value of good seed catalogs and gardening books.  If you want me to recommend a good seed catalog for you, let me know.

I get some resistance to treating our own garden more like a garden and less like a farm. But I'm starting to introduce the ideas of gardening beds where rows are not practical. This is a farming region, and people are used to farming. There is less interest in gardening than there might be in some non-farming areas, interestingly enough. Following are some ideas which might inspire you to consider gardening.

1. Square Foot Gardening

The link above takes you to an Amazon video about Mel Bartholomew's famous Square Foot Gardening system. Check out the written summary of his Latest Improvements here. There is much more emphasis on making gardening easy than in the original book. These changes are included in a 2006 book, All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! which is recommended by the Cox family.

It appears to be out of print at the moment, but I recently bought a copy. Major changes from the original book include:

(a) Drip irrigation

(b) Raised beds filled with soilless mix and lined with weed-stopping landscape cloth

(c) Wider aisles between beds for easier maneuvering.

I would also recommend lining the bottoms of beds with galvanized 1/4 inch hardware cloth if there are gophers or moles in your neighborhood. These beds require the outlay of a little money at first, but will pay off in the long run. There's also a new cookbook to go with the new gardening book. Fun video.

In cold-winter climates, raised beds have the advantage of warming up faster in the spring. In a hot-summer climate like ours, they carry potential disadvantages of faster loss of water and sometimes salt accumulation at the surface. These problems can be lessened through the inclusion of water-retentive materials in the soil mix, mulching (as with reflective mulch which also repels bugs) and through periodic soil leaching. In windy desert climates, sometimes beds are build lower than the surrounding land. If you're ambitious, you could try this.

2. Weedless Gardening

This is a cheaper alternative which allows you to use your native soil (still utilizing beds rather than rows), Lee Reich, a former agricultural researcher, wrote a book which provides a scientific rationale for Ruth Stout's  emphasis on mulching, but does not require you to have as much mulching material as Stout originally recommended.  I love the title to Stout's book linked above, but haven't read it.

Reich recommends laying down four sheets of newsprint over the soil, covering it with mulch, and planting seeds in the mulch. Lots of people swear by it, as long as there are no really nasty weeds (like certain perennial grasses) in the soil.  I used a modification of this system on some tomato beds, and it really did eliminate weeds.

3. Cinder Block Gardens



The photo shows my first cinder block garden, containing young plants for my hybridization experiment for last year:  Bidwell Casaba x Small Persian Melon.  I'll plant some of the resulting seeds this year.  You can use pretty much all of the same techniques as the Square Foot Gardening, though bed dimensions will be a little different (up to 40 inches wide in the planting space, 55 inches wide on the exterior if the unit is 3.5 blocks wide). If your ground is level, you need no tools except maybe a hammer to drive stakes and a level to check your work.  The beds should be level. If you build it on, say, level concrete, you may not need any tools at all. These beds can be easily dismantled and moved if necessary.

The bed pictured above is narrow because it is against a fence. It required a couple of short (8-inch) blocks. It's made of "lightweight" cinderblocks (thinner).  If you build your frame two 8-inch cinder blocks high or three 6-inch cinder blocks high and cap it, you can sit on it (lay the blocks on halves, as with brickwork, if you use more than one layer of blocks).  The neighbors' yards near this bed are full of gophers, so I lined this little bed with hardware cloth.  This size bed allowed me to use an entire 2-foot wide roll of 1/4 inch galvanized hardware cloth without cutting. Lining the entire planting area with commercial-grade weed block before laying out beds eliminates weeds in the aisles, too. Eventually, you would want to cover the aisles with wood chips, gravel, or something similar. This advice also holds true for square foot gardens.

Fill the cavities in the blocks with native soil or sand. You can also secure with stakes like I did. I wonder if bottles of water in the cavities would moderate temperatures?  I used a soilless mix (potting soil) for the bed itself.

Cinder blocks wick water, so I lined the inside surfaces (NOT the bottom of the bed) with plastic and topped them with foil to repel aphids and whiteflies. In more moderate climates, you can plant herbs or some veggies in the cavities of the cinder blocks.

4. Self-watering containers

If you're short on space or time, try these. GardenWeb is a good source of information. One commercial type is the "Earthbox", typically big enough to hold two indeterminate (staked or caged with a PVC pipe support which fits around the container - see photos in thread at the last link) or up to four determinate or short-node indeterminate tomato plants. Someone put some thought into this system. You can also make your own containers. Do a little research first.

Have fun. Don't get too ambitious all at once.

The 2010 Harvest is Underway

It's cooler than normal for June this year. Harvest is well underway, and will accelerate in the next few weeks. We've had tomatoes, turnips and beans. We've had our first stone fruits. And we're getting lots of squash. Below is a photo of some of our early harvest, along with my current favorite hoe, a little triangular one. I also loved my Dad's little crescent-shaped scuffle-hoe, but I've never seen one like it since.

Pests and Diseases

 We seem to have Tobacco Mosaic Virus in the yard, particularly in F's volunteer tomatillos.  It's spread by touch to all sorts of plants - tomato, pepper, bean, squash, cucumber, melon - just about everything we have planted.  Plus ornamental flowers and weeds related to beets (like lambs quarters) and those in the ubiquitous Amaranth family.  If plants are not infected early, it usually stunts rather than kills them.

Hope we can convince F that smoking around the plants and touching them actually does spread the disease.  Next year, we may need to think of a way to restrict his activities to his own part of the garden without breaking his heart.   Tests show that dipping one's hands in milk before handling plants can reduce the spread of the disease.  Sometimes plants are also sprayed with milk.  I have no clue why this would reduce the spread of an RNA virus.  F. doesn't believe that the disease cannot be cured with a "medicine" or that it is spread by touch.  He does believe that you can kill a horse by stepping on a scorpion, even if you're a football field away from the horse.  It's a challenge to introduce new ideas to him. 

Tobacco Mosaic can be seed-borne, which means that my plans for saving seeds and trying a few hybrids may be scaled back.  It is persistent in plant debris and soil where plant parts are not fully decomposed.

Squash Bugs have a good start now on our squash plants.  They like watermelon plants, too.

Finally planted melons

Planted melons in hills rather than rows this time. We'll see if F will let us restrict water as they ripen this way. Plants were a little over-grown in their Root Trainers. Hope they aren't stunted too much. Our weather is about to turn hotter.

Planted Extra Summer Sweet, Early Sugar Shaw, Savor, Summer Dream and Lilly.

Plants in the Ground

The high temperature was in the 80's today. We had a day like that about a week ago, too. with rain and cooler weather (in the 50s during the day) in between. More spring rain than normal this year.

We had a motley crew out planting today: me, a pregnant Mom, three kids, their Dad and two young men. David had a flat tire today, and went to buy new ones. We'll see how we did in placing the plants where they can get water from the drip lines.

Peppers: Ancho, Anaheim and Jalapeno. I gave Francisco some Chile de Arbol plants to put in his garden space.
Cucumbers - on the fence by Sparky's old house. The ones we planted today are bigger than the ones I planted out by the field fencing earlier. Maybe the warmer soil environment made a difference.
Grafted tomatoes on the field fencing (Black Krim and Gary O Sena) along with a purchased Giant Belgium.
Cherry and grape tomatoes: Napa Grape and SunSugar Red.
Beans: Fortex and Champagne. The Champagne plants are in a little better shape.

We also harvested Golden Sweet pea pods (from India) and used them in chicken curry (James made it). We'll have regular peas in a couple of days.

The early bush beans I planted have some curly beans on them: they are persnickety about the weather. I don't think I'll try planting them so early again.

Bro. Martin came by on Saturday for tomato plants and seeds for his family - cucumbers, melons, watermelons and edible gourds, plus winter squash and Zephyr. I gave Paula a Cherokee Purple plant in honor of her Cherokee heritage. Alma got a Sun Sugar and a Napa Grape. I don't have too many extra tomato plants anymore. That's a good thing, I think. Maybe I can keep myself from buying more plants, too.

March 11 - Frost

Surprise. We have light frost on the ground. Most of the tomato seedlings and the beans were outside, and some were on the porch (with an eggplant). So far, it looks like there wasn't much damage. Not cold enough to hurt the fruit trees.

I had watered the seedlings in the afternoon yesterday, and that may have helped protect them. Some of the water on the plants is frozen, and the box containing tomato seedlings has frozen droplets. Just a bare hint of damage on a few tomatoes so far. No frost in the 10-day forecast. March 1 is supposed to be the 50% chance of frost date around here, and March 15 is supposed to be the day when you can plant without significant chance of frost. So I guess this year is pretty typical. Frost on March ll.

Popcorn Popping, planting greens

Today, the Flavor Delight Aprium tree and the Royal Rosa Apricot started blooming. It's a beautiful day, but probably not quite warm enough for honeybees to be really happy yet. Hope some other insects are out.

I plants some "summer turnips" using the Winter Sowing method today. An experiment. I really prefer turnips in the fall. Five 6-oz. deli cups fit in a fried chicken tray from Walmart. Cut some slices out of the bottom edge of the cups and poked some holes in the bottom of the chicken tray. The top is already vented. Used a UV resistant industrial marker (Sharpie) to mark the cups. We're comparing:

White Lady to Tokyo Cross
Hakeuri to Oasis
Just Right (a fall turnip) as control.

I don't think any of these, except maybe Tokyo Cross, are true, 100% turnips. They have sweet, non-hairy leaves which are much milder than regular turnip greens.

I also started some greens and assorted brassicas - 9 deli cups in a pumpkin pie tray from Costco, with plastic wrap snapped into the rim. Poked 2 holes in plastic above each cup, and a few extra holes. The sun is out now, and I don't want any over-heating.

Tomato Seeds Planted

Well, I planted more than enough varieties of tomatoes on Thursday the 28th and Friday the 29th. Thursday's went into Jiffy Mix in Root Trainers. Friday's went into Miracle Gro Seed Starting Mix. The latter is higher in peat, is easy to wet. I think it holds more water when hydrated. We'll see how things go. They have bottom heat, on and off, from a seedling heat mat.

Some of the seeds I ordered haven't come yet. Don't know if I'll plant them all this year. I will try a few heat-setting and/or fall storage tomatoes using the Wintersown method if all goes well. Along with some ground cherries and flowers. Maybe I'm crazy.

Extra-early slicing tomatoes
Jan. 28: Fourth of July Hybrid (got seeds at Walmart last year) for my early tomato this year. It's indeterminate. Won a taste test at UC Davis in late summer 2004. Great flavor in hot weather. Has tough skin, but I don't mind. Reportedly resistant to nematodes. Burpee likes to keep details about disease resistance secret.
Jan 28: Park's Early Challenge Hybrid VF12NTmv - 63 days, 4 oz., indeterminate.
Jan. 28: Moskvich - 60 days, indeterminate, 4 to 6 oz., does well in cool weather, and reported to taste great in the hot Sacramento Valley.
Early Wonder - 55 days, determinate. Dark pink slicer, 6 oz. Freebie from Tomato Growers Supply.
Jan. 29: First Lady II VFNTASt - 66 days. midsized, crack-resistant, better flavor than Early Girl. 2003 seed. Indeterminate.

Plum and other small to mid-sized tomatoes - Indeterminate:
Jan. 28: Barbara Hybrid VFFN Have to grow this one, because Barbara is David's mom's name. It's a plum tomato bred for the French fresh market according to marketing hype. Seed is from 2003. Won a taste test, hands down, of plum tomatoes at UC Davis in 2004 and was apparently taken off the market in about 2005. I planted some after the normal season last year, and one lived over the winter on the porch in a Root Trainer, along with a Sweet Cluster, a Red October (has a blossom) and a Winter Red.
Jan. 29: Heidi - Heat-tolerant plum tomato from Africa - good flavor.
Jan. 29: Evan's Purple Pear - 70 to 80 days. Sweet. Name a play on the famous "Eva's Purple Ball", but derived from the equally famous Pruden's Purple.
Jan. 28: Cosmonaut Volkov - 65 - 75 days. "Best flavor" per Fedco seeds in New England. Wonder how it does in hot weather?
Jan. 29: Momotaro Hybrid VF1NSt (Tough Boy) - 70 days. Beautiful sweet pink tomatoes from Japan, heat-tolerant, 6 to 7 oz., fruits grow in clusters.
Jan. 29: AAA Sweet Solano - Firm, small, sweet orange tomato with gold stripes.
Jan. 29: Golden Egg - 70 to 75 days. Egg-shaped, pale yellow. Flavorful fresh or dried.
Jan 28: Goose Creek All the rage right now. Said to be a heat-tolerant tomato from a (South Carolina?) Atlantic black Island culture.
Jan. 28: Nyagous - A smallish, black-red, pretty tomato, said to be more crack-resistant than Black Prince.
Jan. 28: Berkeley Tie-Dye, - Striped tomato from Napa Valley.
Jan. 28: Black and Red Boar - smallish striped tomato from Napa Valley.
Jan. 29: Green Zebra - a tennis ball-sized green tomato, blushed yellow to pink when ripe with green stripes. Full, acidic flavor, midseason, does well in heat. Recommended for salsa. I think it's a parent of Berkeley Tie-Dye and probably Black and Red Boar above.

Cherry and Grape tomatoes - Indeterminate unless noted
Jan. 29: Rosalita - 65 days. An early pink grape tomato with white speckles.
Jan. 29: Sweet Quartz Hybrid VFNT - 65 days. Pink Japanese cherry tomato. Gets raves on the GardenWeb tomato forum.
Jan. 29: Sweet Chelsea VFFNT 67 days. Low-acid sweet large cherry tomato.
Jan. 29: Yellow Submarine - Yellow pear type, better flavor.
Jan. 29: Beam's Yellow Pear - Best-tasting yellow pear from Seed Savers.
Jan 29: Haley's Purple Comet - Large cherry tomato, originating from Cherokee Purple. Well-regarded. Compare with Black Cherry.
Jan. 29: Black Cherry - 80 days. Lots of people love this one. Cracks in rain.
Jan. 29: Green Grape - Determinate plant. Spicy flavor. Good front-yard tomato. Not as early as one might expect.
Jan. 29: Pop-Ins - 60 - 65 days. Small red teardrop-shaped tomato

Oxhearts - Indeterminate Meaty medium to large tomatoes, wispy foliage.
Jan. 29: Orange Russian 117 - 85 days. Sweet fruit, pretty.
Jan. 29: Anna Maria's Heart - in honor of our niece
Jan. 28: Anna Russian - 65 days. Early pink oxheart. Also in honor of niece.
Jan. 28: Oxheart Pink - 80 to 95 days. Big. Reputed to be somewhat heat-tolerant.
Jan. 28: Grightmires Pride (medium-sized, fairly early oxheart)
Jan. 28: Reif Red Heart medium-sized heart, good flavor.

Large Tomatoes (including beefsteaks) - Indeterminate
PINK/ROSE
Jan. 28: Purple Passion - An early pink Utah heirloom beefsteak.
Jan. 28: Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye - 65 to 70 days. Striped pink beefsteak from Napa. Better than Cherokee Purple? Compact indeterminate plants.
Jan. 29: Red Rose - 6 to 10 oz.,
Jan. 29: Aunt Ginny's - 75 to 85 days. Famous heirloom, 12 to 16 ounces.
Jan. 28: Dr. Lyle - 80 days. A meaty, fairly smooth large (1 to 2 pound) pink beefsteak without many seeds.
Jan. 29: Boondocks - 80 days. Big, fat beefsteak, over a pound. Does well in warmer climates. Mislabeled in my little pots. Should be potato-leaved.
Jan. 28: Marianna's Peace - 85 days. A popular pink beefsteak said to be more productive than Brandywine. 1 - 2 pounds.
Jan. 29: German Head - smooth, pink beefsteak.
Jan. 29: Tidwell German - big, pink beefsteak from Tennessee.
Jan. 29: Royal Hillbilly - 85 days. Fairly smooth, little cracking, good yields. One pound average.
Jan. 29: Ponderosa Pink Big, mild, rough-shouldered tomato, susceptible to sunscald. Seed from 2003.
Jan. 29: Watermelon Beefsteak - Up to 2 pounds, smooth blossom end. (Didn't come up - old seed).
Jan 28: Brandy Boy Hybrid Brandywine type from Burpee.
Jan. 29: Mortgage Lifter 75 to 85 days. Big beefsteak-type.

PURPLE/BLACK/BROWN
Jan. 28: Black Krim (black, early, heat tolerant)
Jan. 28: JD's Special C-Tex
Jan. 29: Gary O Sena - 70 to 75 days. Stabilized cross of Brandywine x Cherokee Purple. Loved by tomato lovers.

RED
Jan. 29: Brandywine OTV - 85 days. Red, more productive than regular Brandywine, especially in warmer climates.
Jan. 28: Big Beef Hybrid VFFNTASt - 73 days. Reliable, disease-resistant, heat-tolerant, good flavor. I have enough seeds for emergencies now. May try as grafted second rootstock for some heirlooms.
Jan 28: Super BeefsteaK VFN - not sure if this one is an F1 hybrid. Smooth shape, small blossom scar. 2003, Gurneys'


GREEN
Jan 28: Absinthe

Update, February 11: The plants started on the 29th in the Miracle Grow Seed Starter Mix are growing healthier-looking, sturdier plants. I've started giving the ones started the dåy before some plant food. Jiffy Mix plant starter may be most suitable under a layer of the Miracle Grow - for aeration.

Some varieties have not come up: I did not get good results with pre-soaked "Barbara" seeds (only one of 8 survived) - 12 hours in dilute "bloom" plant food plus a couple of drops of hydrogen peroxide in water. The ones planted on the 29th, untreated, did better. Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye did not come up. It was late for Bro. Cox. "Pop-ins" just came up today. Long after most varieties emerged. No response from old "Watermelon Beefsteak" and "Mortgage Lifter" seeds, either. Berkeley Tie-Dye and Absinthe did not come up, but the seed came from a non-profit organization, so who knows their storage history?

The old Atlas beans I planted rotted. Red Swan looks vigorous. Contender - plants are smaller and leaves more yellow. Seeds were older. For the main crop, I got new seed this year.

Update Feb. 18: Saw the first sprout of Pink Berkeley Tie Dye today. Some other seeds are also sprouting just now. There's another "Barbara" start from soaked seed, and another seedling which hasn't shed the seedcoat yet. Wonder why some tomator seeds are so much slower than others? Other than age of the seeds, which is one explanation. Maybe storage conditions, too. And after the first leaves sprouted, I took the Root Trainers off the heating mat, so later-sprouting seeds had to finish at lower temperatures. And tomato seeds seem to sprout fastest at around 80 degrees. Temps. above 86 may be harmful.

Spring almost here: Tomato Seeds Ordered

We've had three days now when the sun came out - Southern California Rose Bowl weather - after some much-needed rain. More rain is forecasted. We've had kind of a gray winter so far, as usual.

I started to get "spring" seed catalogs in November, and I just got one from Park yesterday. So much fun to dream about a bounteous garden. Buying seeds is my way of "gambling", I think, or perhaps indulging in fantasy. Probably cheaper than going to Las Vegas. If anybody needs some seeds, check with me first. I always have too many.

This year I concentrated on new tomato varieties. And it's not as if I didn't already have seeds. We'll see how many I actually grow. The large number of big pink tomato varieties is due to an effort to discover one like David's Mom remembers from childhood:

Extra-early slicing tomatoes
I'm going with little Fourth of July Hybrid (got seeds at Walmart last year) for my early tomato this year. It's indeterminate. Won a taste test at UC Davis in late summer 2004. Great flavor in hot weather. Has tough skin, but I don't mind. Reportedly resistant to nematodes. Burpee likes to keep details about disease resistance secret.
Park's Early Challenge Hybrid VF12NTmv - 63 days, 4 oz., indeterminate.
Moskvich - 60 days, indeterminate, 4 to 6 oz., does well in cool weather.
Polfast hybrid - 54 days. Determinate. Larger fruits than Fourth of July. Sent the seeds to Betty's parents in Utah.
Early Wonder - 55 days, determinate. Dark pink slicer, 6 oz. Freebie from Tomato Growers Supply.

Plum and other small to mid-sized tomatoes - Indeterminate:
Heidi - Heat-tolerant plum tomato from Africa - good flavor.
Evan's Purple Pear - 70 to 80 days. Sweet. Name a play on the famous "Eva's Purple Ball", but derived from the equally famous Pruden's Purple.
Momotaro Hybrid VF1NSt (Tough Boy) - 70 days. Beautiful sweet pink tomatoes from Japan, heat-tolerant, 6 to 7 oz., fruits grow in clusters. Compare to Tolstoi (have seeds) from India. Larger clusters, smaller tomatoes: 3 to 4 oz. Sold on the vine.
AAA Sweet Solano - Firm, small, sweet orange tomato with gold stripes.
Golden Egg - 70 to 75 days. Egg-shaped, pale yellow. Flavorful fresh or dried.
Little Lucky - 90 days. Yellow with red blush. Complex flavor.
Angora Orange - Medium-sized tasty fruit on a silvery, furry plant. Freebie from Glecker's
Porter - 78 days. Small plum-shaped pink fruits. Heat-tolerant. Old Southwest favorite.
Porter Improved - Very different from Porter. Round, pink, medium to small.

Cherry and Grape tomatoes - Indeterminate unless noted
Rosalita - 65 days. An early pink grape tomato with white speckles.
Sweet Quartz Hybrid VFNT - 65 days. Pink Japanese cherry tomato. Gets raves on the GardenWeb tomato forum.
Yellow Submarine - Yellow pear type, better flavor.
Haley's Purple Comet - Large cherry tomato, originating from Cherokee Purple. Well-regarded. For comparison with Black Cherry.
Black Cherry - 80 days. Lots of people love this one. Cracks in rain.
Green Grape - Determinate plant. Spicy flavor. Good front-yard tomato. Not as early as one might expect.
Pop-Ins - 60 - 65 days. Small red teardrop-shaped tomato
Cherry Roma - 75 to 80 days. Looks like a grape tomato. Holds well. Freebie from Diane's.
Jenny Hybrid 65 days, sweet, small, orange cherry tomato. In honor of Fred's new bride. Looks like it might be discontinued soon.
Ladybug Hybrid - red, clustered. I want to see if all of the tomatoes in a cluster ripe at the same time. Crack-resistant, heat-tolerant.

Large Tomatoes (including beefsteaks) - Indeterminate
PINK/ROSE
Purple Passion - An early pink Utah heirloom beefsteak. Compare to Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, Pruden's Purple.
Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye - 65 to 70 days. Striped pink beefsteak from Napa. Better than Cherokee Purple? Compact indeterminate plants.
Pruden's Purple - Early pink heirloom - sent seeds to Betty's parents.
Red Rose - 6 to 10 oz., cross between Brandywine and Rutgers. Compare to Cosmonaut Volkov (red) and Goose Creek.
Aunt Ginny's Purple - 75 to 85 days. Famous heirloom, 12 to 16 ounces.
Dr. Lyle - 80 days. A meaty, fairly smooth large (1 to 2 pound) pink beefsteak without many seeds.
Mexico - 80 days. Heat-tolerant pink beefsteak, averaging over a pound.
Boondocks - 80 days. Big, fat beefsteak, over a pound. Does well in warmer climates.
Marianna's Peace - 85 days. A popular pink beefsteak said to be more productive than Brandywine. 1 - 2 pounds.
German Head - smooth, pink beefsteak.
Tidwell German - big, pink beefsteak from Tennessee.
Giant Belgium Pink - Huge beefsteak, smooth blossom ends. Sweet and mild.
German Johnson Regular Leaf - 85 days. Mild, reddish-pink, fairly smooth. Average 1 pound.
Royal Hillbilly - 85 days. Fairly smooth, little cracking, good yields. One pound average.

PURPLE/BLACK/BROWN
Cherokee Purple - I grew this one last year. Maintains flavor in cool fall weather. Best picked when shoulders are still green.
Gary O Sena - 70 to 75 days. Stabilized cross of Brandywine x Cherokee Purple. Loved by tomato lovers.
Indian Stripe - Similar to Cherokee Purple, smaller plant and slightly smaller fruits, a little earlier. Pick ripe. The favorite of many.

RED
Marmande - Small pack from Artistic Gardens, 35 cents, for someone in a cool-summer climate.
Cosmonaut Volkov - 65 - 75 days. "Best flavor" per Fedco seeds in New England. Wonder how it does in hot weather?
Brandywine OTV - 85 days. Red, more productive than regular Brandywine, especially in warmer climates.
Big Beef Hybrid VFFNTASt - 73 days. 100 seeds. Reliable, disease-resistant, heat-tolerant, good flavor. I have enough seeds for emergencies now. May try as grafted second rootstock for some heirlooms.

Oxhearts - Indeterminate
Orange Russian 117 - 85 days. Sweet fruit, pretty.
Anna Maria's Heart - in honor of our niece
Anna Russian - 65 days. Early pink oxheart. Also in honor of niece.
Oxheart Pink - 80 to 95 days. Big. Reputed to be somewhat heat-tolerant.

May also get from Wintersown (sent them 5 bucks, will try their plant-starting method) Berkeley Tie-Dye, Black and Red(?) Boar, Black Krim(black, relatively early to late, heat tolerant) Nyagous (black, pretty), Grightmires Pride (medium-sized oxheart), Reif Red Heart (Oxheart), Goose Creek, JD's Special C-Tex, Absinthe, Olive Hill.

Like I said, I can't use all these seeds myself.

Wild Weather - Winter is coming.

We had our first hard frost the 7th, 25 or 26 degrees, with a repeat the next day. After a cold rain. Grateful for the rain. Since then we've had warmer rains. Hope we will see an end to the drought. Fields went fallow here this year, but it wasn't as bad as on the West Side, where water was just about cut off.

I brought the last four green tomatoes in from the garage to ripen on the counter. Seed catalogs have been coming since late November. Dream time.

"Spanish" Green Beans

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!. Entertaining directions at the link.

Pioneer Woman recommends her recipe as a Thanksgiving side dish.  It can be prepared in advance and holds for hours in a slow-cooker or electric skillet.  Recipes to serve 10 and to serve a crowd of 20 (more at a buffet) are below. Leftovers are good, too.
 
This dish would also be good served in individual bowls for a light supper (or breakfast or brunch) with a nice roll or some toast. Reminds me of Grandma's farm breakfast of stewed tomatoes and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Or serve over a little brown rice, over drained and heated canned corn or with some good tortillas.

Recipe for 10 servings (as a side dish)

I prefer slightly-sweet stewed tomatoes for this dish, especially if you're a little short on time to cook the beans after adding the tomatoes. This dish tastes best if simmered for at least 45 minutes.

Ingredients
5 slices bacon (or 1/3 to 1/2 pound)
1 medium onion, diced
4 cans (14.5 oz. ) whole or cut green beans (or 1 1/2 to 2 Pounds fresh or frozen)
2 cans (14.5 oz.) stewed, whole or diced tomatoes (or one 28 oz. can)
Cayenne pepper to taste (Up to 1/8 teaspoon, or 1/4 teaspoon of regular red pepper)

Preparation
Slice the bacon into pieces  one inch wide or less and start cooking them in a deep skillet or Dutch oven. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until bacon startes to turn brown, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, dice the onion. When the bacon is beginning to brown, drain off most of the fat and then add the onions. Cook, stirring now and then, until bacon and onions are both turning a nice  color, but do not cook until bacon is crisp.

Add the two cans of tomatoes with their juice.  Stir, loosening browned bits from the bottom of the pan and breaking up the tomatoes a little if you wish. Drain the green beans and add them to the pan.  Stir gently.   If you add the cayenne pepper to the pan with the bacon and the onions now, the heat may increase as the dish cooks.  You can also add the pepper just before serving, when it will be easier to adjust the flavor to your preference.

 If you wish to take this dish to a potluck, you can heat it through at this point, then transfer it to a 3 to 4 quart slow cooker to finish cooking.  Or if you are starting several hours in advance, combine the onions, bacon and tomatoes with the drained, unheated beans in the slow cooker and stir gently).  Start cooking on "high" heat then turn to the low or warm setting when you think the dish has cooked long enough. 

If not transferring to a slow cooker, cover the pan and reduce heat to low. Cook for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Recipe for a Crowd 

Your chance to use a restaurant-size can of green beans.  This double recipe serves about 20, more at a buffet or potluck, where you might want to serve this dish with a slotted spoon.  Save the soupy part in the bottom of the pot or skillet to eat later with crackers, toast or a grilled cheese sandwich.

Ingredients
10 slices bacon (I sometimes use a 12-ounce package)
1 very large onion or two medium onions, diced
1 food service-size can (6 lb. 5 oz. ) whole or cut green beans OR two 50-ounce cans, PLUS one 14.5 oz. can.
2 large cans (28 oz.) whole, stewed or diced tomatoes (or four 14.5 oz. cans)
Cayenne pepper to taste (up to 1/4 teaspoon or up to 1/2 teaspoon regular red pepper)

Prepare as above, in a large electric skillet, Dutch oven or kettle with a heavy bottom. For a potluck or buffet, a 6 to 8 quart capacity slow-cooker or large, deep electric skillet is easy to transport.

Some Other Ideas
For a meatless dish, consider the following:

1. Increase the amount of chile. Brown the onions slowly in a little oil.

2, Substitute 1/4 teaspoon (or more) of whole celery seed for the cayenne and add two medium diced potatoes and some fresh-ground black pepper with the tomatoes after browning the onions slowly in a little oil. The Crab Cooker's wonderful red clam chowder - a Newport Beach tradition - contains a LOT of celery seed.  Well, green beans and clams are not exactly interchangeable, but there is some similarity in the flavor of the finished products.

Family Green Bean Gardening Traditions and Preferences

David called this dish "Okie beans" at a branch party, but I think of "Okie beans" as big, fresh green beans - "beany" ones like the ones his mother prefers - cooked for a long time with onion and some ham or bacon. She likes varieties like Kentucky Wonder and Pinto (picked as green beans, with seeds developed), but both have strings. Contender is her choice for a stringless, "beany" bean, but it will get fibrous in cool fall weather. It's for spring planting. The Blue Lake-type beans you find in cans are the kind David's Mom calls, "just green, not beans", along with filet beans and other delicate types. The kind my Mom likes. Fortex is her favorite. Great choice. David's mom and my mom both like Romano-type beans, too. But my mom picks them when they're still young, before the seeds develop.

Even though this recipe, as written, is made with beans that taste more "green" than "beany", Pioneer Woman does live in Oklahoma. So David isn't too far off in calling this dish "Okie beans", even when it's made with skinny, city-slicker beans. I expect that David's mom could make this dish wonderful with fresh Kentucky Wonders or her home-canned "beany" beans, too.  Wouldn't work as well with Mom's ultra-tender baby beans.

You could also use flat Italian green beans, using one or more cans of Italian-style stewed tomatoes in place of regular stewed tomatoes.  Don't over-do the Italian seasoning.  You might want to use black pepper rather than cayenne for an Italian variation.

Allergy information: Tomato sauce and some canned tomatoes may contain corn products. Check the label. Some bacon contains corn products. Some people get headaches from cured meats.

Stocking up: You can keep the beans, tomatoes and cayenne pepper for this recipe on hand all the time. In a pinch, you can leave out the bacon.  Use dried, minced onion if you don't have fresh onions (don't try to saute them), and a touch of vegetable oil.

First Frost

We had a welcome and prayed-for rainstorm last week. Our first light frost was this morning. A full month after the official "you might get frost on this date" consensus - about October 15. It was not cold enough to hurt plants, except for the most tender ones. Most of the tomato plants in the "tomato hedge" are dead or dying, but not from the frost. One plant (I think it's Big Boy) has a lot of little end-of-season tomatoes still hanging on the plant. It's like the plant rushed to ripen them before they reached normal size. They're sweeter than the bigger ones on the same plant - perhaps due to water restriction during ripening - and have less damage on the tops from water condensation. Their skins are pretty tough.

They taste better than the volunteer cherry tomatoes. These volunteer plants are still covered with fruits, but they taste like they grew in cold weather. I'm starting to think that there's something to the idea that plants grown in uncultivated soil are hardier and more drought-resistant. The cherry tomatoes planted in our cultivated "hedge" are dead. Maybe it's time to try the idea of layering amendments on top of the soil, rather than turning them into the soil.

The heirloom varieties of tomatoes which we planted late, on the south side of the house, are still green and lush. Not many tomatores on the plants. A couple of days ago I picked a Cherokee Purple tomato. The top was cracked and damaged from water condensation, but the bottom half was very tasty - on the juicy side, but it didn't have the off-flavors typical of tomatoes which ripen when the nights are cold. I should search through the interior of the big plant for more.

4th of July Garden Update

Happy Fourth of July. Our weather cooled down to the high 80s for Father's Day, then heated up again. It got up to around 107 on a couple of days. While it was cool, we got some good Blenheim apricots with no pit burn. Also a few Canadian White Blenheim apricots, some of which were exceptional. Very sweet. Recommended for areas with just a little more winter chilling than ours. There were some split pits. Probably not suitable for a commercial crop,

Some of the Golden Amber/Peachcot (?) fruits were also wonderful. Arctic Star white necterines are now done. They were great. So were the Flavor Supreme nectarines. Now we have Santa Rosa and Burgundy plums. Santa Rosas are an enlivinging experience when at their peak. Their peak doesn't last long. Burgundy holds longer on the tree, but it also loses quality after a while. Burgundy is sweeter and milder. I think I prefer Santa Rosa's zing. I peeled and ate the first July Elberta peach, a windfall, right in the garden. Got juice all over my chin and had sticky fingers afterward. It was great. The new supersweet fruits are great, but the old-fashioned juicy peaches with melting flesh when fully ripe have a different character that shouldn't be missed. Peaches are easier to grow right than nectarines.

I got a batch of Romanette and Romano Gold beans. They must have set around Father's Day. They were not tough or hollow despite the heat. Seems like a little miracle.

The volunteer summer squash plants have mostly died. The row we planted has been bearing heavily. Took some down to Emergency Aid. Magda and Zephyr have been great. Magda stays tender at a larger size. Johnny's promotes Magda as being similar in quality to its Zephyr. But Zephyr is a firmer squash with some winter squash parentage.

Sweet Zuke is hard to pick without breaking the end of the fruit. I bought the seeds in hopes of a darker companion for Magda. They're not as club-shaped as Magda this year, and some of the fruits are curved.

One of the yellow crookneck varieties has that "greening" virus. Not sure which. Still makes a lot of squash. Scallops and round zucchinis (Eight Ball and Cue Ball) doing fine. I've decided I don't like the round ones as well as the others. Not as convenient to cook. But they're fun to look at.

Tomatoes have been coming on heavy for a couple of weeks. A few have had blossom end rot, but most of them are beautiful.

Found a young black widow spider with white spots on its back in one tomato which had a small hole in it. We have a lot of widow spiders around here. I found a big tomato hornworm recently in Linda's tomato plants. Maybe the black widows have been eating ours.

The first summer we were in this house, I found most of the color variations of widow spiders noted for California: brown widows, black widows with the typical red hourglass, black widows with no hourglass (usually very large) and black widows with white spots on their backs. An juveniles of variable color. Have to watch for them in the creases under patio chairs, in corners, in tomato vines and under squashes. Our friend Geri was bitten as a child. No fun. On the other hand, I used to have phobias and fantasies about black widows. I had some secret little rituals for going down stairs in ways I imagined would protect me from them. A little magical thinking. There was often one at the bottom of our stairwell. If I had maintained my fears of black widows into adulthood, I'd be in a pickle now.

Mom remembers fascinating black widows and other spiders in the corniers above her head as she slept in a sleeping porch as a child. I'm not quite that relaxed about them, though I usually don't worry much about other garden spiders.

First Tomato, Apricots, Apriums

We have had some triple-digit temperatures already this year followed this week by dramatic cooling. The Royal Rosa apricots are gone. The first ones were very bland. After withholding water for a few days (and with temperatures lower than the 100s), the rest of them tasted like real apricots. Texture was better, too. Royalty has been bearing big, mushy, sweet-tart apricots "on wind-resistant spurs" which the stray puppy likes. They remind David of the apricots from his Grandfather's tree. They splat when they fall. The fruits are so heavy that they fall as soon as they are ripe.

Flavor Delight Aprium started a couple of days after Royalty. Fruits are smaller and firmer than Royalty. They are not as sweet as normal. We may have to avoid watering for a while. I got one really intriguing, sweet, soft, perfumed Plumcot (LE Cooke) and several sort of bland ones

We got our first ripe tomato on the First of June. We were a little late getting plants in the ground. It was from a Bush Early Girl. Quality was pretty good. The skin was a little tough.

We're still getting squashes from the volunteers under the fruit trees. Quality is variable. I don't think planting F2 hybrid squash is the best idea in the world. The best squashes have looked like the progeny of Zephyr and Magda. We have some new plants started. Time for a recipe for Okie Squash and Tomatoes .

Mid-May

The Festina beans started coming up yesterday. I had covered them with loose soil after planting in potting soil and watering for a day. Brushed the loose soil away and there they were, about on schedult. Some of the squash seeds also came up. The little stray dog dug a couple of holes in the row. May have lost a couple of plants.

Earlier in the week, I planted into RootTrainers some seeds for fall tomatoes as an experiment. We'll see how it goes.

Wednesday, I planted out my heirloom tomatoes in the side yard: Caspian Pink, Old German, Tomande (actually a hybrid Italian green-shouldered type) and Cherokee Purple. Yesterday, one of the dogs broke off the Old German.

Twice, Troy and Maggie have come to see me as I fed Sparky and Dottie. Maggie behaved herself around Dottie. Troy didn't try to jump the fence. Don't know if Troy unlatched the gate (he used to do this all the time) or if F. left the gate unlatched.

Heat wave predicted for the weekend. F.'s lettuce is bolting. We already have white flies. After blooming all winter, the perennial Scabiosia is setting seed. Time to cut it back. Always a few challenges in the garden.

First harvest, more planting

F. spread unfinished compost under the trees a few months ago, and now we have squash and tomato volunteers. I harvested the first squash yesterday - a sad example of a de-hybridized zucchini. Of course, it was still edible, but it had a yellow/green mottled color, smooth skin (don't think the coloration was due to a virus), and it was tender but a bit pithy.

I also planted Festina beans and summer squashes - Magda (Lebanese-style zucchini - my favorite), a dark look-alike, Burpee's Sweet Zuke (need a knife for harvest), Tigress (virus resistant), Zephyr, Precious II straightneck and Dixie straightneck. Plus Butter Scallop, Peter Pan and a second yellow scallop. And round zucchinis - Eight Ball, Cue Ball and Round (a medium-green heirloom)

Today, the first Romanette and/or Romano Gold which I planted last week broke through the soil.

Also planted tomatoes for David's Mom - day before Mother's Day.

More tomatoes, Seeds for Spring

On the second of May (late here) I planted Romanette and Romano Gold beans. If I don't get some things in the ground, F. will cover the garden with his winter squashes. We can't afford the water, and we would always see him out there fighting with squash bugs.

Orchard Supply had heirloom tomato plants in stock last week. An Anna Russian (oxheart) went to David's parents. I have a Cherokee Purple and a Caspian Pink. I'm going to try grafting in a Big Beef rootstock to see if it makes a difference as far as disease resistancce and vigor. I killed my Porter Dark Pink Cherry somehow.

Today, I sent Mom seeds so that she would be ready to plant after Mother's Day - the typical safe date where she is:

Fortex pole beans

Magda hybrid Lebanese-style Zucchini (bred in France)
Sweet Zuke - a look-alike to the above in dark green - you need a knife for harvest to prevent broken fruits.
Zephyr hybrid - a remarkable summer squash from Johnny's with a little winter squash heritage
Precious II hybrid yellow straightneck squash

Ogen (Ha-Ogen, Israel) melon. I sent some of these seeds to a guy in the Midwest recently. He says that Ha-Ogen is an Israeli Kibbutz. He's been there. He was excited.

Trocadero hybrid Charentais melon

Cool Breeze hybrid gherkin
Diva hybrid cucumber

Both the above cucumbers are "burpless" all-female varieties. If not pollinated, they bear seedless cucumbers. Cool Breeze is a bumpy little European pickling type. Dive is a Middle-Eastern Beit-Alpha type.

Nero di Toscano kale - a tall, dark kale
Piricicaba broccoli - named after a river in Brazil. Heat-tolerant with thin, sweet stems.

I'll have to order some Sweet Success cucumbers for Mom. They're her favorite.

I found a Utah seed supplier with a Utah heirloom tomato called, "Purple Passion". It came from Kayesville. Early for an heirloom beefsteak type. Think I'll order some seeds for next year.