Frost yesterday

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

How to get water rings off wood furniture

Today, I found a big white steam circle on our table. I read up on techniques for removing water rings, and decided to try ironing the table. It worked. The table has a polyurethane finish. I would be careful if trying this on lacquer. There are now clear water-based finishes, too. Sometimes marks on these will go away if you just wait a while.

But back to the almost-magical technique I tried. Steps below:

1. Find a clean, soft white cotton cloth or handkerchief with no texture or pattern. I used a doubled cotton handkerchief.

2. Place the cloth over the mark. Run a hot iron (no steam) back and forth over mark, moving the cloth every few seconds. Repeat until mark is gone.

3. Rub with lemon oil or other water-free furniture polish.

4. If the finish still looks damaged even though the ring is gone, you might eventually go over your entire surface of the furniture piece (i.e., the entire tabletop) with Danish Oil. Requires good air circulation and some time when you won't need the furniture.

Tomato Choices

This time last year, I already had tomato plants in the ground. I started plants indoors in January. Last year I also had problems with tobacco mosaic virus (or a very similar virus) in my tomatoes.  I didn't start any plants indoors this year.  The plan this year is to plant a TMV-resistant variety between varieties that are not resistant, since the virus can spread plant-to-plant and by handling (dip hands in milk to prevent the spread).

LOCAL TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS RESISTANT VARIETIES

I now have 12 Big Beef VF12NTSt (6 from RiteAid, 6 from OSH). May not need all 12. This variety is not quite as large as some of the giant beefsteaks, but it is recommended for our hot valley and is earlier than most big beefsteaks. Stores well. Peels more easily than Better Boy when raw.

2 Champion from Walmart (from the racks outdoors).  This is the indeterminate cousin of Celebrity, slightly larger tomatoes and reportedly with better flavor. The original Champion has VFNT resistance. Champion II: VFFNTA plus yellow leaf curl. Don't know which this is (or even if it's labeled correctly, for that matter).

1 Jetsetter VFFNTA - an early disease-resistant variety recommended for our hot summer climate, from OSH.

I may also pick up from OSH:

Carmelita VFNT Hybrid version of famous French heirloom Carmello. Red/pink with green shoulders. Midseason. 8 oz.

Sunsugar FT Even sweeter than Sungold, less cracking, less fruity flavor. Other TMV resistant varieties which may be available commercially include Sweet Million, Orange Paruche and Sweet Baby Girl (compact). Also Sweet Hearts grape tomato and Golden Rave FT mini-Roma. You can plant cherry tomatoes in places where they can just sprawl, if you like.

OTHER LOCALLY AVAILABLE VARIETIES

I picked up cheap gallon containers of Early Girl and Ace. I had an Ace die on me (probably due to a soil disease) once, but it is very popular locally. Early Girl is early. Roma and Beefmaster were also available in gallons, 2 for 3 dollars.

I also got from Hofman's 6 each of Black Krim and Cherokee Purple. Won't need 6 each. Black Krim did very well here last year. There are reportedly 2 strains running around: one "smoky" and one "salty". I got the "smoky" one last year. Cherokee Purple is not real productive, but has exceptional flavor. Pick black/purple varieties while the shoulders are still green (as a rule). Not applicable to Indian Stripe, a slightly smaller, more productive version of Cherokee Purple. It's available from Victory Seeds, which also sells rechargeable desiccant packets for storing seeds.

Hofman's has some pretty nice plants this year, including several heirloom and OP types. I picked up a "mystery plant" labeled as Early Girl from a flat of Early Girls. It's a rangy potato-leaf plant - certainly not Early Girl.  My thrills come cheap.  I also saw at Walmart an Early Girl plant with one stem which had sported to potato leaf. Didn't buy it.

I will probably get a Better Boy, which I think has a little better flavor than Big Beef, but is harder to peel when raw. It is not TMV resistant

I may also pick up the following from OSH:

Jubilation F1 6 oz, orange, firm flavorful, unspecified multiple disease resistance, indt.

Sunny Boy Determinate (?), very sweet, firm, few seeds

Arkansas Traveler Medium-sized, pretty, pink, late.  Others with similar breeding are Traveler 76 (less cracking), Burgundy Traveler (better flavor) and Bradley F (bigger, soft, delicious, used for canning and fresh eating in the South. As with other determinate types, you can restrict water as the fruit ripens to increase flavor). There is a Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival in Arkansas. I also planted a Porter's Dark Cherry (Bonnie Plants). I suspect that it may actually be Porter.

From Home Depot or Lowe's

Sungold - the world's favorite cherry tomato. Be sure you get the hybrid. Golden orange color, prone to cracking, distinctive fruity flavor

Also, I think I have a German Johnson this year (one of the more heat-tolerant pink heirloom beefsteak types), a Lemon Boy VFN hybrid for mild yellow salsa, and a Mama Mia paste type. I don't know if the last one is a hybrid or not. It's a big, gangly indeterminate and the only reference to a tomato of that name I find is a standard determinate type.

OTHER RECOMMENDED VARIETIES

The heirloom tomatoes which are most commonly used as standards for flavor and texture are Brandywine Pink (particularly Sudduth's Strain or another named strain) and Cherokee Purple. Brandywine Pink is notorious for poor production, even though it tastes wonderful. It's worthwhile looking around for some similar varieties with better production (especially in hot-summer climates). Marianna's Peace and Mexico, along with Boondocks, are recommended for our hot valley. There are also some red Brandywine types recommended for warmer weather, such as Brandywine OTV.

If you're in Utah, you might check out Diane's. In addition to their own Purple Passion, they sell other great pinks.   Caspian Pink, Rose and Chianti Rose would be good bets for cooler climates. Gregory's Altai is early for a big pink. Little Rosalita is very pretty and lasted late into the fall last year here. If you want to try an Ivory-colored tomato, Super Snow White might be a good choice. Nyagous is a beautiful "black" tomato that did well here. Amazon Chocolate sounds nice.

Gardeners in more humid areas need to be aware of local blights, and new virus prevalent in the East. Resistant varieties should be available locally, like Mountain Magic, (early and late blight, FFF, V).  This new variety is highly regarded for flavor by "tomato people", and is said to improve in flavor if left on the counter for a few days after picking.  Choose a resistant type as insurance even if you plant non-resistant types.  In the Pacific Northwest, Territorial and Nichols are two catalogs with good information on varieties which get enough heat units to ripen there, as well as blight resistance.

In the East,  Bella Rosa, Amelia, and other tomato spotted wilt virus-resistant varieties would be good insurance of a tomato crop even if you plant other varieties.  Early standard tomatoes are also described here.  Fourth of July hybrid is small, has tough skin, is very early and gets sweet in hot weather.

If you typically set out plants in May, you may still be able to start some seeds indoors. Otherwise, you might consider picking up some seeds for next year. Pinetree is a good source of reasonably-priced seeds. Check out their International section. (I also have tomato seeds if you just need a few). On its Hybrid Tomato page, Pinetree now sells the famous old Moreton Hybrid and the slightly newer Jet Star, (both having some characteristics of older, flavorful standard tomatoes) as well as other hybrids, notably Grandeur VFFNST (a Japanese short internode variety, said to be heat tolerant), Polbig VFT (very early, tolerates cool weather), and Sungold.

Their standard tomatoes include interesting varieties such as Prudens Purple, Tip Top, Oregon Spring (parthenocarpic, tolerates cool weather), Mortgage Lifter, Peach Blow Sutton, Black Krim, Black Cherry, Gold Nugget (parthenocarpic, takes cool weather, may be grown in container), Nebraska Wedding and Stupice. The last is reportedly tolerant of cool weather, hot weather and difficult growing conditions. People love the flavor or they don't when served fresh. It's supposed to be wonderful cooked. Moskvich (same size range, semi-determinate)) did well here last year and has nice flavor. Ditto Cosmonaut Volkov.

Tomato Grower's Supply ships promptly. They sell the beloved pink cherry tomato Rose Quartz VFNT, as well as a wide variety of good open-pollinated and hybrid varieties.  Husky Cherry Red is a good front-yard variety.  Husky Gold is the other recommended "Husky" variety (short internode indeterminate).  Green Grape if you're worried about pilferage and don't mind a less-neat plant.

If you like Roma-type tomatoes, you might as well pick a variety with some flavor or disease resistance. Most Roma types are determinate. If you want fruit all season, you might go for an indeterminate type (if you're canning, determinate might be better). If you want to use them fresh, pick a variety described as good fresh (orange and black plum types are listed by color). Or maybe even a meaty, flavorful oxheart. Expect wispy foliage on oxhearts. You might even think the plant is sick.

For next year, I'm thinking about Sweet Treats F1 Large pink cherry tomato. F12,TMV, grey leaf spot Resists leaf mold, tolerates gray leaf post, crown rot and root rot. And Bulgarian Triumph.

Wild Boar Farms has your wild-looking tomatoes. AAA Sweet Solano was my favorite orange/yellow variety last year. Has faint stripes. Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye had TMV here, but is recommended for cool-summer climates. Early. Mine took a long time to germinate last year.


Have fun. Don't get carried away, though.

UPDATE: The new favorite very early tomato of Carolyn Male (heirloom tomato expert) is Moravsky Div or Wonder of Moravia in one of the Slavic languages - very close in Slovak. (apparently not ultra-early in Oregon) - potato leaf, determinate.

Winter Veggie Update

Well, the "Just Right" hybrid turnips I planted in December are bolting, right on schedule to attract bees to pollinate the Royal Rosa apricot and the Flavor Delight Aprium.

"White Lady" turnip, planted the same time, is not bolting yet.  "Just Right" is a great fall turnip, resistant to cold.  Not such a great spring turnip.  Just as described in the catalog.

Thumbprint Cookies

These are rich butter cookies, resembling shortbread. They contain no eggs or leavening, so if you want kids to have the experience of eating cookie dough, this is a good recipe to use.

Little Cooking Lessons

Creaming butter and sugar: Some classic baking recipes (such as butter cakes and some cookies -- like this recipe, which contains no leavening and very little liquid) depend on creaming butter and sugar to add lightness and proper texture to the finished product. The temperature of the ingredients, especially the butter, is important. Butter and sugar will cream to a "light and fluffy" consistency when at 65 to 67 degrees. Start creaming the butter first, then add the sugar,as described at the link. Beating creates some heat, so you may need to put your bowl in a shallow container of cool water to keep the butter from melting, especially if the room temperature is above 67 degrees F.

Sifting Flour: Some precise baking recipes still call for sifted flour, which gives a more reproducible measurement than newer methods. When I was little, Mom, who hates to measure, had a flour sifter in the flour canister. My high school cooking teacher, Miss Hauser, had us sift flour onto a sheet of waxed paper with a relatively fine-meshed strainer, spoon the flour into a measureing cup and level with a knife without shaking or tapping. She also had us sift the measured flour together with the salt and/or leavening in a recipe two or three times for the highest-quality results. This recipe calls for sifted flour.

Some popular recipe books simplified the method for measuring flour by calling for stirring the flour in the canister then spooning the flour into a cup without shaking or tapping, then leveling. Then came the "stir, dip and level" method. It is good to be familiar with the method recommended by your favorite recipe books (accurate measurements matter more for some recipes than others).   Heritage recipes were often developed with sifted flour.  People who compete in baking at state fairs, etc. usually use recipes which call for sifted flour.

Ingredients

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but not mushy
1/2 cup superfine sugar (baker's sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla or a combination of flavors*

Directions

Mix measured, sifted flour with salt, sift together and set aside. Cream butter, then cream with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in flavoring. Gently fold in flour about 1/2 cup at a time. Do not over-mix. Cover dough and refrigerate for 1 - 2 hours (you can also divide into 2 or 3 portions to use on different days. Avoid over-handling. Keep sealed and refrigerated).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll cold dough into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets (I line a cookie sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil) if making a single sheet of cookies). Make a deep indentation in the top of each cookie with your thumb. Avoid handling dough too much. Cookies don't have to be perfect, especially if kids help. Fill with jelly or preserves (or fill after baking with chocolate or preserves). Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Makes about 48 cookies.

I don't fill the cookies before baking. Instead, for a chocolate version, I slide the foil off the baking sheet onto a cool surface or a wire rack, immediately place 3 big Guittard milk chocolate chips in the indentation of each cookie and press the chips together slightly when they have partially melted. For a more traditional thumbprint cookie, I put a little dab of boysenberry preserves in some of the cooled cookies. Someday, I may try a baked filling with brown sugar and coconut, almonds or pecans.

Allergy information: This recipe contains no baking powder and so is free from corn products (unless toppings contain them - watch for corn in jams and jellies). It is one of a limited number of cookie recipes that don't include eggs.

* You can also use a combination of flavorings to make exactly 2 teaspoons: 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla with 1/2 tsp. almond or lemon extract or 1 3/4 tsp. vanilla with 1/4 tsp. almond or other extract. I think that 3 parts vanilla to 1 part almond is sometimes called "Viennese vanilla".

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.

Quick and Rich Fudge

Well, this is actually closer to being a ganache than to real fudge. But no matter. Quick to make. Kid friendly. You can load this up with chopped nuts and drop teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper, then top with a pecan or other whole nut if you like. But most people seem to prefer it plain.

Oil an 8 inch square baking dish or spray with cooking spray. Fold a sheet of waxed paper to fit along the bottom of the dish and up two sides. Smooth into oiled dish.

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

One 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 to 4 Tablespoons butter
11.5 oz. bag (2 cups) Guittard milk chocolate chips (or other milk chocolate chips)
1 cup Nestle mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (or other semi-sweet chocolate chipe)

Melt all ingredients over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring constantly. This won't take long. When smooth, remove from heat and quickly stir in one to two teaspoons vanilla. Quickly spread evenly in pan. A stiff but flexible nylon or silicone scraper helps. Cover and chill until firm. Slide a knife around the edges of the pan and lift out cold fudge to remove waxed paper. Cut into small pieces - it is very rich. Keep tightly covered.

NOTE: If you use the maximum amounts of butter and vanilla, this fudge will be quite soft at room temperature. It will hold its quality best if refrigerated until shortly before serving.