Winter Blues Cure: Crates of Vegetables

I always love photos of crates full of veggies. Here a few photos from last summer than I never got the opportunity to share.

Mixed heirloom tomatoes

Banana fingerling potatoes

A week's worth of veggies harvested from the MSU Horticulture Garden's  that were donated to a local food bank.

Breeding My Own Heirloom

Two summers ago I started breeding my own heirloom tomato with the help of my friend Joseph Tychonievich. Joseph just released his first book (there will be more, I hope) this spring called Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener. It's a really fun read and it actually inspired me to teach my spring biology class a little bit about plant breeding (incorporated into our genetics unit, of course).

Anyway, two years ago I crossed Martino's Roma with Black Krim. Martino's Roma is a very productive paste tomato that seems resistant to blossom-end rot (at least in my garden). Black Krim is my #2 favorite tasting tomato (behind Pruden's Purple). Last year I grew out the F1 generation of plants. They all looked exactly the same, as expected (a somewhat flattened spherical red tomato with paste-tomato-esque flesh. This year I planted out 16 plants of the F2 generation. Although 16 plants probably isn't enough to see the entire compliment of genetic variation, I had to limit myself due to space.

My plants started flowering in very early June and I'm already starting to see some baby tomatoes. I was able to find fruit on about 6 out of the 16 plants so far, and it looks like there are two main fruit shapes:

A ribbed, flattened beefsteak shape, similar to Black Krim.

And a roma-shaped tomato, somewhat similar to Martino's Roma.

I can't wait to see what colors they turn as they ripen. I'm hoping for a paste tomato that has the coloration and flavor of Black Krim, but they paste-consistency and disease resistance of Martino's Roma. I'll just have to wait and see!

Garden Oddities

I've been collecting photos of odd flowers and vegetables for a while. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to post some of them. So here's a post on "garden oddities". If possible, I'll have to make this a recurring topic (plus there are never-ending ugly tomatoes to share).

Unique foliage:

This is how Red Russian Kale leaves normally look:

I found this interesting specimen in the garden this spring. It seems to be extra frilly. I suppose I could save the seeds from this plant and see if it is a stable trait.

Albino plants:

The white leaf on this cucumber could be chlorosis, but it seems completely isolated to the first true leaf.

This snow pea came up completely chlorotic. It eventually died, but I'm surprised it survived long enough to develop as many leaves as it did.

Ugly Tomatoes:

This Japanese Black Trifele is naturally triangular shaped, but the blossom end of this one turned out particularly bizarre. It vaguely reminds me of the 'E Puribus Anus' school logo from the television show Community.

Although I love heirlooms, sometimes they're just a bit ridiculous. This particular fruit grew as several separate lobes all connected to the same stem. As you can see, the lobes are ripening at different rates. You'd have to do minor surgery on this thing before you could actually eat it.

Conjoined Tomatoes:

Here's another Japanese Black Trifele, but this time it has a strange growth near the stem end. 

This is perhaps my favorite odd tomato I've ever grown...because it looks like a red rubber ducky.

Plant Sale Purchases

My shopping trip at the MSU plant sale was pretty successful this year.  As usual, I came home with a bunch of fruit/veggie seedlings, but no flowering plant purchases (I don't like spending money on plants that won't pay me back).  I made a point of getting to the sale extra early this year (I think I arrived at 8:30am), but they were still running out of many varieties!  I was lucky to snag the very last 'Blush' tomato in stock.  I was too late to get this variety last time, which is why I got up so early this year.  I also picked up 'Great White' although I actually grew this variety from seed this year (I thought that I was growing 'White Queen' at home), so now I have a few extra seedlings to put in my giveaway pile.

Here are descriptions of what I bought:

Celery 'Giant Red': A recent re-selection from the European red-stalked celeries. Selection goals were better color, earliness and disease resistance. Red celery has a richer flavor than the green types. Until you've sampled the golden-pink hearts, you haven't tasted celery! (Baker Creek)

Kohlrabi 'Superschmelz': 60-70 days-Spectacular light green kohlrabi makes the largest bulb of any variety, up to 10 inches across, and weighing up to 10 LB! Yet the flesh is tender and never gets fibrous. Requires a very rich soil and plenty of space to reach gigantic proportions. (Baker Creek)

Melon 'Ananas': Sweet and juicy white flesh. A rare white muskmelon, fruit are around 5 lbs. An old 1800's heirloom. (Baker Creek)

Melon 'Prescott Fond Blanc': 70 days. The most unique and beautiful French melon we sell! The fruit is 4-9 lbs., very flattened and ribbed, with warts and bumps. Melons have grey/green skin turning straw color; flesh is salmon-orange. Once one of the best known melons, it was mentioned in the 1860's, but it likely is much older. The flavor is very rich if picked at perfection, and the fragrance is heavenly. This is a favorite melon of mine; almost unheard of in this country. (Baker Creek)

Pepper 'Quadrato D'Asti Giallo': 80 days. The giant yellow Quadrato bell pepper. The huge fruit are a favorite here. The largest variety we have grown, beautiful and blocky, with very thick walls; the flavor is outstanding--sweet and rich! This Italian variety gives very heavy yields; one of the best varieties for marketing. This superb pepper is a real winner! (Baker Creek)

Tomato 'Blush': These 2 inch long cherry tomatoes have an unforgettable tropical sweet flavor reminiscent of pineapple and are ready to pick when the pink blush starts to appear over the yellow background. Widely adapted with a heavy fruit set over an extended period, the tall vines need staking. (Seeds of Change)

Tomato 'Hillbilly': 80 - 85 days. A huge, bi-color heirloom: brilliant yellow color with red marbling. Very large with a rich, sweet flavor. Beautiful when sliced. An heirloom believed to be from West Virginia. (Baker Creek)

Tomato 'Great White': 80-85 days. Large, 1-lb giant, creamy white fruit, this tomato is superbly wonderful. The flesh is so good and deliciously fruity, it reminds one of a mixture of fresh-cut pineapple, melon and guava. One of our favorite fresh-eating tomatoes! Fruit are smoother than most large beefsteak types, and yields can be very high. Introduced by Gleckler's Seedsmen. (Baker Creek)

Miscellaneous Canning Projects

It turns out that I prefer store-bought spaghetti sauce over my homemade stuff. I'm not sure what it is, but my homemade sauce tastes really acidic and sometimes it gives me heartburn. I've been offloading as much of it on my parents as possible (they seem to like it), but I don't know if I'll ever go to the bother of canning sauce again. Unfortunately, I planted more paste tomato plants this year than I know what to do with. Here's a small portion of this years harvest:

I thought I'd try canning whole tomatoes and see if I like the flavor better. It doesn't take that long to turn whole tomatoes into sauce on the stovetop. I used the hot-pack method, which means you don't have to process the jars as long. Unfortunately, by the time I heated my peeled tomatoes up, they turned into mush. So instead of whole tomatoes, I basically canned extremely watery sauce. Oh well, I can drain out the water and use it anyway.

I also finally got around to making red raspberry jam. I've been working for a lab all summer scouting for insects in a high-tunnel raspberry production system. One of the perks of the job is that I got to pick and keep as many raspberries as I want. I had never made red raspberry jam before because the berries are pretty pricey, so now was my chance to do it with free fruit!

I think I like it more than the black raspberry jam I make each year (from foraged berries). The flavor of the red jam is a bit cleaner and brighter than the black jam.

Yellow Tomato Jam

I had an impromptu jam session the other night. I had been feeling guilty for the lack of tomato-based canning goodies being cranked out this summer (thank-you Master's Thesis submission process) and I was inspired by a recipe for Orange Tomato Jam with Smoked Paprika from Food in Jars. However, being an impromptu jam session, I didn't have all the ingredients for that recipe and ended up making the Food in Jars Yellow Tomato and Basil Jam instead.

I ran out to the garden with my trusty garage sale colander (love this thing) and picked all my golden beauties.  I planted over 30 varieties of heirlooms this year, so this jam was made with a motley crew of sungold, taxi, big rainbow, azoychka, valencia, moonglow, kellogg's breakfast, persimmon, and yellow brandywine). 

I was nervous about adding the basil suggested in the recipe. The jam was so incredibly sweet on its own, you could practically put it on a PB&J. However, I wanted to truly delve into the realm of savory jams, so I added the basil. It adds a nice flavor and I like the little ribbons of green (I did my best attempt at a chiffonade). I'm looking forward to trying this out on a bagel and cream cheese or as a sweet and sticky glaze on meat. Maybe I'll even try that PB&J!

Seedling Doing Really Well!

I feel like my seedlings are doing really well this year. It might be the fact that I moved my seed starting area out of the chilly basement and into the kitchen. Or it might be the soil blocks. Or maybe the brand new light bulbs. It's probably a combination of them all!

My seed starting shelf is working out great! It's a little weird having it smack dab in the middle of my kitchen, but it's also really nice being able to admire my seedlings all the time.

Foreground: some of the younger batch of tomatoes, as well as basil, eggplant, and tomatillos. Background: the cucumbers, gourds, squashes, and melons I started last weekend.

Left to Right: parsley, dill, broccoli, beets, and swiss chard.

A tray of the older tomatoes.

Another tray of older tomatoes.

I'm pretty happy with how the soil blocks have worked out. My only complaint is that some of the older blocks are starting to grow into one another at the bottom. I'm a little worried I'll have trouble prying them apart. I'm also probably going to need to transplant most of the tomatoes into bigger pots pretty soon, so using soil blocks for them may have been a waste of time. In any event, I'm amazed with how well they stay together...and it's neat being able to see the roots "air-pruning" themselves on the edges of the blocks.

Grafted Heirloom Tomatoes

During my trip to the California Spring Trials last month, I saw lots of amazing floriculture crops. However, there was always some small section of the display set aside for vegetable transplants.

At Ball Horticulture, there was a display of Burpee products including something I had never seen before: grafted heirloom tomatoes! Personally, I've never had an disease issues with my heirloom tomatoes, but it's an intriguing idea. I suppose the rootstock may also improve drought stress and pump up production?

From what I heard, these grafted plants were so popular during their test-release last year that they sold out of them online in minutes! For me, grafting an heirloom kind of defeats the purpose of growing an heirloom. At least you can still save the seeds and grow them next year. However, they won't carry any of the benefits of the rootstock in subsequent years.

Giveaway: Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Every year I've added a few more heirloom tomato varieties to my collection. As of my 2012 seed inventory, I have about 28 varieties in my collection and I will be adding a few more this year. I don't grow all of them every year and I don't continue growing the ones that I don't like.

Here's a portion of what I have stashed in the fridge  (in no particular order):

Kellog's Breakfast

Yellow Pear

Bloody Butcher

Japanese Black Trifele

Aunt Ruby's German Green

Principe Borghese

Martino's Roma

Polish Linguisa

Matt's Wild Cherry

Cherokee Purple

Pruden's Purple

Taxi

Tigerella

Black Krim

Goldrush Currant

Yellow Brandywine

San Marzano

Amish Paste

Moonglow Chocolate Stripes Creme Brulee Peach Blow Sutton Anna Russian And here's the giveaway:

Leave a comment below (USA and CANADA residents only please) telling me which three varieties from my list that you'd like to grow this year. A week from today (Wednesday Feb 1), I will randomly select 2 winners and mail you a packet of seeds for each variety you've requested (at least 10 seeds per packet).  If you want descriptions of the individual varieties, check out either Pinetree Garden Seeds or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Keep in mind that these are seeds that I've saved myself, so the germination rate and trueness to type can't be guaranteed...that said, I've have excellent results saving seeds year after year and I think they'll work great for you to!

BLT Pizza (kind of)

I've been having a lot of fun making homemade pizzas this summer. My boyfriend introduced me to the world of chicken pizza and it's now my favorite topping. The latest pizza did not have chicken (we were out), so we used bacon. I decided to do a play on a BLT sandwich using bacon, swiss chard (it's pretty close to lettuce, right?) and tomato (three different colors of heirlooms). I also included a ton of garlic.

It turned into a very colorful pizza! I've been using frozen pizza dough and it is so good! I don't think I'll ever go back to pizza dough mix. You have to plan ahead a little bit more if you're using the frozen dough, but the pizzas we've been making are almost as good (if not better) than from a real pizza place.

I still prefer chicken, but this was pretty good too!

Too Many Tomatoes

I'm not sure if it's possible to have too many tomatoes, but I think I came pretty darn close this year. I put up 5 batches of spaghetti sauce over the course of about 3 weeks and I've brought a couple crates (the size of the one below) in to work to share with coworkers.

I'm thinking I won't do the farmer's market next summer, so I guess I'll have a good reason to plant fewer tomatoes next year. Fifty-five plants was a bit too much!

Well-Stocked Pantry

Okay, so maybe all the items in my pseudo-pantry aren't edible, but these great handmade shelves (put in by a previous owner under the basement staircase) are coming in handy for storing all my canned goods this summer.

I've managed to fill six shelves so far (with another batch of tomato sauce on the way). 

I've really been cranking out the tomato sauce this year. I'm on my fifth batch!

In addition to tomato sauce (bottom right), I also tried dilly beans (bottom left) and tomatillo salsa (top right) this summer. After gifting many jars of my humongous batch of apricot jam (top left), I'm finally getting down to a more reasonable supply.

In addition to the apricot jam, I also made blackberry apricot (bottom left), black raspberry (top right, my favorite), and sweet cherry jelly (top left). The six jars on the right side of the bottom shelf are leftovers from the 2009 and 2010. They still taste just fine, so I'm not too worried about their advancing age.

Amazing Food Strainer

I've mentioned my fantastic Squeezo-style food strainer a couple times already (here and here). If you do a lot of canning (especially tomato sauce, pumpkin puree, or applesauce) you have to get one of these gadgets. I recently used my Roma Food Strainer to make tomato puree for canning spaghetti sauce. 

Load the hopper full of roughly hacked up tomatoes (I mostly just cut them in half so they wouldn't explode al over the place when they get pulled into the grinder) skins on, stems on, gross corky cracked parts and all. 

Out one end come the skins, cores, stems and seeds.

I passed the waste material through the strainer an extra time to get a bit more pulp out.

Out the other end comes the tomato pulp, perfectly pureed and seedless.

Making tomato puree using the food strainer was a lot easier and faster than the way I used to do it (core the tomatoes, plunge into boiling water, plunge into ice bath, remove skins, chop up, puree in blender). Hopefully I'll be willing to make a few extra batched of sauce this year since it's so easy.

Jumbo Tomatoes

Here are a few photos of my most monstrous tomatoes:

Yellow Brandywine

Prudens Purple

Aunt Ruby's German Green

Pruden's Purple

Last Farmer's Market of the Year

I participated in my last farmer's market weekend for the season. The market continues through August, but I foresee the next few weekends being jam packed with canning spaghetti sauce and salsa, traveling, and preparation for the upcoming semester.

I had lots of tomatoes for sale at the market. I sold heirloom tomatoes by the piece and small bags of mixed cherry tomatoes.

Just like last year, the heirloom tomatoes didn't go over very well with the customer base in my area. Many people have never seen a non-red tomato. I actually heard a women walk by and say in a somewhat snide way "Those are tomatoes? They don't look right." Then again, I also heard people pronouncing the word 'kohlrabi' as 'kohl-rabbi' (yes, like the Jewish word). There was also an amusing women wandering the booths shouting out "Does anyone have pomodoro tomatoes? I want to make marinara sauce and I need pomodoro tomatoes." I couldn't bring myself to explain to her that 'pomodoro'  is Italian for 'tomato' and that she was basically asking for 'tomato tomatoes'. I did however, explain that marinara sauce can be made with any kind of tomato (and of course, she proceeded to buy some tomatoes from the Amish vendors instead of from me).

I continue to secretly hate the Amish vendors...I came home with probably 2/3 of the tomatoes I took with me. However, they are currently living out their legacy in a batch of spaghetti sauce.

There were a few things that went over pretty well that surprised me. I sold most of the beets I took as well as all of the edamame (almost every single customer was curious about them). I also sold every single kohlrabi I took, which was almost shocking. I didn't sell a single bunch of beet greens, sage, or tarragon, the swiss chard did not go over well, nor did the sprouts (which always did well last year). The farmer's market is a fickle thing. I don't understand people's choices (my stuff was just as good as the darn Amish people's and my prices were the same), their inability to do simple math, and their lack of food education, but I knew that from last year.