Tag Archives: tomatoes

Keeping the tomatoes straight

my garden, ,

[Picture of bee on lavender is down the page]

Brazilian Beauty

This spring we planted seven new varieties of tomatoes, and a total of ten plants, which is the most diversity we’ve ever had in all our 35 years of backyard tomato-growing. I know from the past that it can be hard to keep track of what fruits we are harvesting, because long branches start to criss-cross each other.

So I planted the cherry types alternately with the slicers, and the non-red next to the red ones. Still I needed markers to help me identify which unfamiliar red slicer is which, and I made these labels.

Northern Lights

In the recent past I’d taped labels to the cages or stakes, because when they are in the ground they get lost amid the branches or stepped on and broken. Last year’s name tags faded into illegibility, though, so this year, hoping to prevent that, I used some narrow masking tape and black Sharpie to form the letters — that’s why they are so big and blocky.

Some of the varieties are: Sun Sugar, an orange cherry that we grew last year and like even better than Sungold, Czech Bush,  and Ailsa Craig. The types we’ve grown before are Persimmon, an orange slicer, Early Girl, our all-time favorite, and Juliet, a large grape cherry.

Mr. Glad wanted to plant two Juliets just in case everything else fails. So far, everything else looks very good.

There are lots of honeybees in the yard which makes me feel good about the world. I took about twenty shots of them on the lavender so that I could post one happy picture.

I smell roses and bake cookies

family, food and cooking, nature, other gardens, travel, , , , ,

When Mr. Glad and I drove north to visit some of our children and grandchildren last week, I didn’t expect to bring home anything to blog about. After all, I have posted plenty of pictures of these places before, and we weren’t planning any outings beyond the immediate neighborhoods.

BUT we hadn’t seen this part of the country at exactly this time of year, and nature with all its surprises called out from every direction, “Look at me! Have you ever seen anything like this before?” No, I’m sure I hadn’t!

We stayed at Pippin’s homestead and were shown around by Scout who rarely tires of exploring and at the same time chatting with himself and/or whoever is around about every discovery.

Some things we took notice of together were the birches in the back yard, and what I think was a moth working the lilacs. I took a long movie of the whirring creature but in it his wings are still moving too fast to see clearly.

The Squaw Carpet I’d seen at other seasons of the year was in bloom this time. It was covered with pine needles, in the forest just outside the back yard.


Bright Walls of Water are protecting the tomatoes from frost, a prudent precaution since it snowed here as recently as the day before we arrived.

 

In the front yard next to the road I found this lovely vine blooming. I had never seen one before, but a little research tells me that it’s a pink honeysuckle.

For Memorial Day we drove farther north to Pathfinder’s home in southern Oregon. Right now they are having an unofficial flower show all over town, featuring rhododendrons and roses.

Mardi Gras

My favorite was in their back yard, a prolific yellow rose with the sweetest scent. I wanted to set my chair up close and drink deeply.

Golden Celebration

Something like a broom ground cover was definitely more constant in its brilliance than the sun was that partly cloudy day.
Back at the cousins’ place, there was a wealth of (also yellow) equipment to work with, and a dog to peek in on.

The big kids were playing with Scout, or playing a card game with Uncle Professor, or watching some grown-up boys practice their knot-tying. We grown-up girls kept the food bowls full and did a fair amount of rose-smelling. I was introduced to Annie’s new doll Elizabeth (for whom I have not yet sewn any clothes).

I had made some cookies for the occasion (recipe below), which got scarfed up during the appetizer course. That was a good thing, because Auntie Iris had prepared a dessert finale for our event that included brownies, and an ice-cream cake designed to please the littlest member of the family.

All present seemed to love these cookies that Pippin planned and I baked, with a little Scoutish help. I remembered just in time to take a picture, when all but four had been eaten.

Chewy Lemon Cookies

about 4 dozen

1 cup (salted) butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4-5 teaspoons lemon zest
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
about 1 cup powdered sugar for rolling

Cream butter and sugar until light. Add vanilla, egg, zest and juice and beat well again. Mix in all the dry ingredients except the powdered sugar. 

Put the powdered sugar in a bowl. Break off heaping-teaspoon-size pieces of the dough and roll into balls, then roll the balls in the powdered sugar and place on lightly-greased baking sheets. They will be flattish. 

Bake at 350° for 10-11 minutes, until starting to brown on the bottom edges. If you use insulated cookie sheets they may not brown very much but they should still be chewy. Cool on racks.

 

Garden Happy

my garden,
basil seedling

Sitting in the sun with my husband, looking over the evidence of our recent garden work, I said, “I know I could be happy without a yard, but I’m thankful that I do have a place to garden.”

He said, “You would not be happy without a yard.” Well, maybe he knows more than I do. I hope I don’t have to test our hypotheses anytime soon, because I want to be around to see how many basil plants survive their transplanting stress.

Why is it that one can’t buy single basil seedlings anymore? They are always growing in a bunch, obviously from five or six seeds dropped into one hole — or sometimes more like 20 seeds.

iris opening

Yesterday I bought two six-packs of the 5-bunch type, and ended up setting out plants in 40 different spots. I started out by carefully pulling off one little plant at a time, trying not to tear the roots as they separated their tiny fingers. It’s like disrupting a group of siblings who have always slept in the same bed, and forcing them apart to different homes, never to be united again, just so they can grow up — alone. I’m glad I didn’t think of it so sentimentally at the time.

After a while I ran out of room and planted some groupings as they were, or in twos and threes. Maybe I’ll find out that basil does fine even if large families live in one room. They all look remarkably healthy today. Though at 1:00 when I took the picture, they sun hadn’t got to them yet.

I’d also like to see the rest of the cobalt Dutch iris emerge from their buds. It’s always curious to me how they bloom immediately after I cut the last of the lavender-and-yellow sort in the bed right next to them.

The yellow California poppies come back every year in this spot and hang over the sidewalk. Nowadays there is a big salvia bush named Hot Lips behind them, which looks very pretty.

I admired the chives that my husband suggested we plant many years ago when we had to re-do the whole backyard. They don’t require much maintenance, and keep providing nice greens for the eye and the kitchen, and at this time of year, pretty purple flowers to be seen close-up while we are sitting on the swing. Lambs Ears and Pincushion Flower are behind them in the picture below.

And the tomatoes! Mr. Glad and I set out ten plants yesterday, which is the most we’ve ever had in this yard. Because we are going to be away during midsummer, I didn’t want to plant any vegetables other than tomatoes and basil, which meant that we could fit in more tomatoes. When they start bearing I’ll give a report with the names of the winners. We are determined to get a good crop of tomatoes — one of these years.

In the meantime, we had a calming weariness and comfy satisfaction from our labors, and the cheer of all these pretty blooms already here. The other day I counted 40 different plants blooming in the back yard, and another 15 in the front. Spring has sprung in this happy garden!

Greenies Came at Last

my garden

Here’s a representative sample of the best of our tomato harvest this year. It’s way better than nothing! The large “grapes” are Juliet tomatoes, the yellow are Sun Sugar, and – look! There are even five Green Grapes, which I put in the front of the tray close to the camera. The rascals didn’t arrive till today, the last day of September, and they may be the entire crop.

My favorite this year might be the Persimmon, which are the large orange tomatoes. They are the largest of any we got; even the Better Boys, supposed to be Beefsteak-type, were tiny guys, indistinguishable from the Early Girls and New Girls, both of which were few and scrawny.

But I made a cherry tomato salad, and think I’ll do some soup, too – both recipes I made up in a better tomato year. And those Juliets will be perfect slow-roasted!