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Tomatoes: Black And (Almost) White

Lisa Gustavson — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:33:22 +0000

I love cherry tomatoes. I have since I was a little girl and my Uncle Walter grew them in his yard. Whenever we visited in summer he would lead me across his manicured lawn to the back of the house where his cherry tomato plants grew. I ate them like candy savoring every warm juicy bite. Uncle Walter never grew tomatoes like the heirlooms I’m harvesting in the garden now, but I bet he’d like them!

‘Black Cherry’ tomatoes are truly one of the most beautiful cherry tomatoes I’ve ever grown. The color is a deep brownish red with dark green (almost black) at the shoulders. Planted near the grape arbor in compost-rich soil and mulched with comfrey leaves and hay, the only water they received was rainfall. They didn’t seem to mind… the plants currently stand at 6′ and are loaded with fruit.

The flavor is characteristic of dark tomatoes, quite different from the usual cherry tomato varieties grown for their high sugar content. Not noticeably acidic, the tomato flavor is more smoky with a dash of salt. After the first taste I was smitten; black cherry tomatoes will definitely be a ‘regular’ in our garden from now on. I think they’d be really lovely planted with purple basil and daisies…

‘White Currant’ is a wild-type cherry tomato that’s super-small and extra-sweet. Its natural habit is to trail and the vines are l-o-n-g even for an indeterminate variety; ours measure about 8 1/2′ at the moment. I caged our four plants and they easily grew up, over and out of the cages and now resemble tomato fountains with sprays of small fruit ripening on the straw mulch. Next year I’m training them along a horizontal support!

The tiny pale yellow fruits (they aren’t truly white), are somewhere between that of a small grape and a currant in size and grow in clusters. The flavor is amazing, unbelievably sweet with just a hint of tangy, which is good because our plants are very productive even by cherry tomato standards! I’m sure a few have escaped into the straw mulch to emerge as volunteers next spring… that’s fine by me! I’m eager to pair them with the Black Cherry tomatoes, perhaps very lightly roasted with olive oil and tossed with fresh chard and pasta? Of course I’ll have to stop eating them all first… Happy gardening!

Wordless Wednesday: Sunflowers

Lisa Gustavson — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:03:14 +0000

The sunflower is mine, in a way.

~Vincent van Gogh

Peachy Keen

Lisa Gustavson — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:24:24 +0000

Be ready to be surprised.

~Loesje quote

“Why do we have peaches growing in our front yard?” The question came yesterday from our sixteen year-old daughter as she was kneeling on the sofa watching for her elder sister to arrive. “Nobody else on our street has food growing in the front yard…weird.” I thought back to three years ago and a frigid, gloomy January afternoon. Sitting on our sofa and looking out at the bleak sky I decided it would be nice to have a small tree near the house. I wanted to observe it changing with the seasons, catch glimpses of birds that settled in the branches and enjoy the snow frosted limbs in winter. The following spring we brought home a dwarf ‘Reliance’ peach tree and planted it out front next to the driveway.

I hadn’t planned to buy a fruit tree, it was an impulse purchase from our favorite nursery and I must confess… the most wonderful one yet! As hubby dug the hole and I added the compost he kept asking “Are you sure you want it here?” Yes, right there. “Next to the driveway?” Yes. Truthfully, we didn’t have a lot of options…we’re almost out of room! Turns out it was the ideal spot… the drainage is excellent, the tree is protected from wind and our resident doe won’t approach it because it’s so close to the house.

It’s the perfect spot for another reason, too. We’ve had many a passerby stop to ask about our peach tree. Two weeks ago our son brought his friend’s father over because he saw it from the road and was fascinated by the thought of growing his own fruit. He’s since returned two more times and has ‘toured’ the yard to see what else he may like to grow. They’re adding a vegetable garden and fruit trees to their yard next spring. Just last night as our same son and his two friends were walking through the yard, one friend turned to our son and said, “You guys live like people used to way back when… living off the land!” I’m not sure if he was joking, but I was thrilled! I know a lot of people that grow food all over their yards, and a fruit tree growing in the front yard isn’t unusual by any means… but it is in our neighborhood and people have noticed. That’s a good thing and though that’s not why we planted it there, it’s a really good reason to grow peaches in the front yard! Happy gardening!

Zucchini Brownies

Lisa Gustavson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:53:50 +0000

Vegetables are a must on a diet.

I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.

~Jim Davis, “Garfield”

If you’re like me and you grow summer squash, you’re always looking for new ways to use them. Fresh is best, healthy is great… and chocolate gets the teens to eat them. I bake up a batch of these on request (usually once a week in the summer)… after all we have plenty of zucchini and they’re quick and easy! They’re a bit more cake-like than traditional brownies but that’s never stopped our family from gobbling them up! (By the way, there’s no eggs needed for this recipe.) Enjoy!

Zucchini Brownies

1/2 c. natural applesauce (or vegetable oil)
1 1/2 c. organic granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. organic flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 c. shredded zucchini (unpeeled, seed if necessary)
OPTIONAL: 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour a 9″x13″ pan. Mix the oil, sugar and vanilla blendng well. Add the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Mix well. (The mix will be dry.) Stir in the zucchini and optional ingredients if using. Spread into the baking pan. Bake 25-30 minutes until the top springs back when touched. remove from oven and allow to cool.

Frosting:

1/4 c. fresh butter
1/3 c. cocoa
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp.. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter and stir in cocoa. Combine well. Stir in the vanilla. Using a mixer, beat in the powdered sugar. Mix on high speed until smooth and creamy. Spread over cooled brownies.

Wordless Wednesday: A Butterfly In The Garden

Lisa Gustavson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:21:42 +0000

What’s a butterfly garden without butterflies?

~Roy Rogers

Now Harvesting: Heirloom Beans

Lisa Gustavson — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:50:09 +0000

My green thumb came only as a result

of the mistakes I made while learning

to see things from the plant’s point of view.

~H. Fred Dale

As long as I’ve been growing vegetables in our backyard, I will never tire of harvesting beans. Beans, be they bush or pole, snap, shelly or dried are the dependable working grunts in my vegetable garden. I love them! The seeds are easy to sow, the plants relatively quick and easy to grow and the harvests are more than fifty-fold for each seed planted. Unlike many other vegetables in my zone 5/6 garden, I’m able to sow bean seeds once a week through mid-summer and have harvests until a frost kills them… even then the spent plants are nitrogen-rich additions to our garden beds! When friends ask which seeds are best to start with in a new vegetable garden I always suggest heirloom beans.

The popularity of heirloom seeds has brought a bevy of lovely old bean seeds back into seed catalogs and local shops… do try a few! Where the delicious and prolific Provider bean is my “staple” bean for canning and freezing, we’re enjoy “Dragon Tongue”, “Vermont Cranberry”, “Rattlesnake”, “Purple Queen” and more all summer for fresh eating and recipes. Pole bean varieties “Gold of Bacau”, “Trionfo Violetto” and “Borlotti” pick up where the bush beans leave off and one one pole bean “Christmas Lima” will be dried and used all winter along with other beans we’re drying. The tastes are unique, the colors are beautiful and most heirloom beans are delicious at the snap and shelly stage (when the seeds begin to bulge in the pods). It isn’t too late to sow a few beautiful heirloom bush beans for a fall harvest, but get them in the soil soon. Keep the soil moist and pick any pesky beetles that may appear to chomp the foliage. No room in the garden? Tuck a few heirloom bean seeds in among your flowers where they add a splash of color or sow a few in a container. Wherever you plant them you’ll be glad you did… say hello to beautiful heirloom beans! Happy gardening!

From top to bottom we’re picking today:

“Rattlesnake” bush bean

“Dragon Tongue” bush bean

“Purple Queen” bush bean

“Vermont Cranberry” bush bean

A Pause To Refresh

Lisa Gustavson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:25:09 +0000

Summer has set in with its usual severity.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

My return home from the Buffa10 garden bloggers meet-up was timed to coincide with hubby’s first full week of summer vacation. Not surprisingly it also coincided with an abundant flush of ripe fruits and vegetables in the garden. Beans, summer squash, onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, blackberries, peppers and herbs were ready and waiting for me, a few tasty recipes and the canning kettle.

Of course the teens were not thrilled at the thought of me working away their father’s precious days off, so we decided to enjoy family time around my harvest and cooking schedule. I started canning each morning at 6:30 a.m. while the kitchen was quiet and relatively cool. I accomplished cooking several batches of salsa, a batch of pickles and a few varieties of jams and jellies. By the time the kettle was washed and dried and the sticky spots of jam scrubbed from the stovetop; the teens were up, fed, dressed and (sort of) awake. That’s when the ‘vacation’ part of the day began.

We stayed close to home last week, enjoying favorite day trips and activities we don’t always find time for with hectic schedules. We canoed, attended a baseball game, picked currants in the rain, returned to Buffalo one day with our eldest daughter tagging along, and toured the butterfly habitat at the Strong National Museum of Play right here in Rochester. We’ve had fun, enjoyed a much-needed break for a few days and took quite a few pictures for our scrapbooks!

Here are a peek at what we’ve been up to while the garden was growing:

The USS Little Rock, a WWII missile cruiser.

The Sullivans WWII destroyer. Four brothers died together on this ship.

Family fun should always include a ball game!

Perfect seats...three rows behind home plate!

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra played after we WON!

Blue morpho butterfly with wings closed.

Hairy moth on a leaf.

We have a lot of heirloom beans in the shelley stage...my favorite!

Making maple bread and butter summer squash pickles.

We saw several large herons along the creek as we paddled.

It doesn’t matter how far you travel, as long as the family is along for the fun! Now back to the garden….

July: Second Season Success

Lisa Gustavson — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:51:29 +0000

A problem

is a chance

for you to do your best.

~Duke Ellington

The vegetable garden in July is “payday” for all of our hard work. The temperatures are hot, the soil is warm and the plants are lush with abundant fruit. In my garden crops of carrots, potatoes, beans and beets have been producing for a bit and are beginning to wind down. Others like tomatoes and peppers are just starting to ripen. In between the harvests of those vegetables there are a few others that have not performed well for various reasons; weather, insects, disease and critters. If your garden (like mine) has suffered a few setbacks, July is a good time to adjust!

Of course you won’t start tomatoes in July and see a harvest if you live in my zone 5/6 area, but there are several seeds you can sow that will delight you with harvest in fall and perhaps make up for the disappointment of any crop failures. Why leave valuable growing space empty when you can harvest from it again in September?! Lettuce bolted? Summer squash mildewed? Beans through producing? Remove those spent crops and compost. (Never compost diseased plants.) Prepare the beds with new additions of compost and rake smooth. Seeds for beets, fennel, carrots, cauliflower (yes!), beans, kale, turnips, lettuces, summer squash, radishes and greens can all be direct-sowed into the garden this month with successful harvests in September and beyond. A few, like the summer squash may not produce as prolifically in the shorter daylight and cooler evening temperatures of late summer, but after the daily harvests of other crops in July and August slower is kind of nice.

Go ahead… pull up the veggies that are finished or failing and renew your growing space. Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean the season is ending! A few things to remember when sowing fall seeds:

Seeds need moisture to germinate. Sowing the seeds a bit deeper than normal keeps them from drying out in the hot topsoil layer.
A light mulch of grass over the entire seedbed allows the soil to remain cooler and moist for germination.
A row cover will prevent hungry birds and critters from snatching your seeds and seedlings as they forage in the garden.

Happy gardening!

The Buffalo I Didn’t Know

Lisa Gustavson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:02:56 +0000

Buffalo, NY is just one hour from the City of Rochester and my home town. I’ve visited Buffalo too many times to count, but it took a four day tour with the Buffa10 garden bloggers to discover a side of Buffalo I’d never seen. I was AMAZED that just a short distance beyond the usual destinations known to us (malls, stadiums, theaters, colleges etc.) there exist revitalized neighborhoods, historic buildings with incredible architecture, and delectable eateries I didn’t know anything about! And the gardens! Oh my!

Like any city affected by economic woes Buffalo has seen ups and downs causing once thriving neighborhoods to decline into neglected urban areas. No more! Through the efforts of homeowners and other dedicated groups these neighborhoods are being reborn into communities united by a passion for growing! To show off the reborn communities, the last week of July is reserved annually for Garden Walk Buffalo, a self-guided tour of over 350 gardens. This year’s dates are July 24-25 and truly you don’t want to miss it!

If you haven’t been to Buffalo (or like me you haven’t yet seen its treasures hidden in plain sight) now is a perfect time to plan a visit. Attend Garden Walk Buffalo… then plan to stay because beyond the gardens there’s a lot more to explore! Photograph historic architectural buildings, visit charming shops and gourmet eateries, walk along the waterfront marina and test gardens and don’t miss my favorite: Chippewa Street (dubbed the “Chip Strip” by locals) an amazing retro-looking neighborhood of clubs and eateries with an above-ground subway that runs along a nearby street. I’m not a city girl but I loved every minute as we walked through the neighborhood!

I had no idea Buffalo offered so many things to do! Hubby is off this week on vacation and we’ve already planned to return with our teens. We’ll spend the day exploring the neighborhoods, walking the waterfront and then travel a short distance to the American side of Niagara falls before returning home. I can’t wait to show them the Buffalo I didn’t know… I think they’ll be amazed.

To see more of my pictures from our tours visit my Flickr photo stream here. To see the other bloggers’ photos visit the Buffa10 site and scroll down to the list of links. The photos are amazing and you may find some great new blogs to read you didn’t know about!

Messages From The Buffa10 Gardens

Lisa Gustavson — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:41:28 +0000

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration,

motivation, and a pinch

of creativity.

~Bo Bennett

The gardens of Buffa10 were more than lovely, they were inspiring. Narrow alleys are transformed into garden pathways, blighted views into beautiful garden vistas. Buffalo is blooming and it was exciting to experience! Each garden we toured spoke a message of its own, these are a few of my favorites:

Growing space is everywhere, including narrow corridors, basement window ledges and telephone poles.

Simple is beautiful whether the plant, the container or both.

You never know. Plants with different needs sometimes turn out to be quite compatible…and beautiful.

One gardener’s eyesore is another’s garden vista.

Abundance is good, in the front yard it’s grand.

If you have it, grow something on it.

There’s much more to this city than I knew. More on that tomorrow…