Planning My 2010 Tomato List
If you were reading this blog last year about this time you’ll remember that I grew around 25 different varieties of tomatoes last summer (here’s the list). I had great intentions of doing photos post reviews of each kind, but I got too busy in the garden tending that many plants to have time to make the posts.
This year I’m trying to keep my list at about 10-12 different varieties. I’ll be growing San Marzano for sure, these will be my main canning tomato. Principe Borghese will be grown at Chiot’s Run until I can no longer garden. They’re most wonderful little tomatoes to dry and add to just about any meal.
I’ll be growing another variety or two of paste tomato, I haven’t decided on the variety yet (any suggestions). Of course I’ll be growing a few eating tomatoes for eating fresh off the vine: a Brandywine variety (perhaps pink), Cherokee Purple, Sub-Arctic and Silvery Fir Tree (which will be new to the garden this year).
I could grow the same tomatoes year after year, but with so many wonderful heirloom varieties out there I want to try as many as I can. I’m going to try to add a few new varieties each year. I would like to try a current type tomato and a cherry since they ripen early and provide that fresh from the garden tomato so much earlier than the bigger varieties. I’ve been leafing through catalogs trying to nail down what kinds I’d like to try. I really need to buy The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table: Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World’s Most Beautiful Fruit to keep as a reference when I’m trying to decide what kinds of heirloom tomatoes to grow each year.
Have you narrowed down your list of tomatoes for 2010? What kinds are you growing?
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The First Seedling of the Season
I haven’t officially started and seeds yet. My light tables aren’t put together in the basement yet, I haven’t even ordered all of my seeds yet -yikes. Am I behind? Not really, I’ve been deliberately trying to restrain myself from starting things too early. Seedlings do so much better when you can get them planted outside when they’re the right size. So starting them too early often doesn’t do any good and may actually be bad for the plant in the long run. I will be starting some lettuce this week, I think by the time they’re big enough the cold frame will be warm enough to transplant them. I think spring will come a littler later this year so I’m holding off as long as I can to get the seed starting going.
I did “unofficially” start a few seeds for the Amsterdam Seasoning Celery I got from Renee’s Garden. A few days ago, I sprinkled them in a post I had by the back door that nothing was growing in (failed attempt to propagate a houseplant). The first seed germinated yesterday! I think this will make an excelling winter gardening plant. Fresh celery taste all winter long from a pot in the dining room! I can’t wait to see how this herb does. Celery sseedling are the tiniest of all I think, I should have put a penny by this so you can see how small they are.
Have you been starting seeds yet?
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No Winter Garden
Last year at this time I was harvesting my first batch of spinach from the garden. Notice the sun and lack of snow, we currently have around 3 feet of snow on the raised beds.
I planted some spinach last fall hoping for the same results, but the weather turned cold very early. That coupled with a really early frost delayed the growth of the spinach enough that I don’t have any to harvest at the moment (not to mention all the snow). I should still have an early spring harvest, perhaps in late March or early April if the weather warms.
Sadly I will have no mid-February harvest of spinach this year. I’ll have to buy my greens at the market.
Do you do any winter gardening?
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Planning My 2010 Garden
Earlier this week I sat down to figure out what seeds I needed to buy for the coming gardening season. A cup of coffee and a few seed catalogs is a great way to spend a winter afternoon. I have a lot of seeds left from last season that are still viable, but some seeds like onions, beans & peas don’t germinate as well the second year. I really want to grow a lot of onions and peas in my mom’s garden plot this year, she doubled the size of her garden so I could have space for these items. I’m hoping the full sun will produce bigger onions that I can grow in my shady gardens. That means I’ll be buying some pea seeds and some new onion seeds.
I decided I’m going to focus on growing things that are difficult to find or more expensive to buy at the farmer’s market. Things I can get easily I won’t be growing (like popcorn and maybe squash). I’d like to grow some shelling peas for the freezer and I’d love to grow a nice batch of carrots. I definitely want to grow some pickling cucumbers, we’re really enjoying all the different pickles I canned. I want to grow a bunch of potatoes, perhaps try a few interesting varieties. I’m definitely going to grow Principe Borghese and San Marzano tomatoes again this summer and I want to try a few new varieties as well.
Are you growing anything new and interesting this year?
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Baking Up Some Winter Comfort
pan⋅dow⋅dy (noun) – sliced fruit baked with sugar and spices in a deep dish, with a thick top crust.
A couple weeks ago I got Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More from the library. It’s such a great little book, all the recipes sound wonderful! I’m a big fan of desserts that contain fruit, so this cookbook is right up my alley.
Since my freezer is filled with blueberries, blackberries and wild black raspberries, we really enjoy baking them into lovely cobblers in the winter for light dinners or afternoon snacks. A cup of coffee and a serving of gingered apple and cranberry pandowdy* is all you need on a cold winter evening. I’ll definitely be baking more wonderful things from this cookbook! I have some black raspberries that are begging to be baked into something wonderful.
What’s your favorite kind of dessert: tangy fruit, rich chocolate, sugary sweet…?
*The actual recipe in the cookbook is for gingered pear and raspberry pandowdy, but I had some apples and cranberries that were begging to be used up.
