Tomato Agonistes

It is like this every year. I have way more tomato plants than my 24 x 30 foot garden can handle. I am on my knees, looking at the available space and struggling with deep existential questions. Utility or flavor? Practicality or passion? I mean when you are holding an Italian Sweet in your hand ... a plant you know will produce THE best tasting tomato on the planet ... and when I say best tasting I am talking sit down in the garden and weep delicious ... I mean thinking at times that perhaps God actually thought up the idea of creation so that human taste buds could join the fruit of this plant and the Omega point would have been reached --> THAT kind of delicious. And next to the Italian Sweet is the ever faithful Better Boy. The Better Boy will never get blossom end rot, it will not suffer from blossom drop, it will faithfully drop perfectly fine tomatoes into your basket almost until October. Whereas the Italian Sweet MAY give you five decent tomatoes per plant and then turn yellow and decay before your very eyes in mid-August.

What's a mother to do? Which one to choose? Paralyzed, I chose a new variety ... Soldaki.

In the end what all of vegetable gardening is really about is the Tomato .... the rest is a side show.

Coming back from the dead

On Saturday morning I went over to the arboretum to take a guided walk focusing on conifers. I haven't talked about it much in here, but the Polly Hill Arboretum has become an important part of my life. It is within walking distance through the woods, so I prefer walking there rather than on the local roads when I need exercise. Plus, in the summers, I volunteer on the grounds crew once a week. So when I take my walks now I can see the results of our pruning, or raking, or planting and have started to take a real sense of pride in the place.

When I emerged from the woods on Saturday morning, I was greeted with the smell of smoke. There had been a prescribed burn in the fields of the arboretum the day before and the charred black of the fields contrasted with the evergreens on the edges. Hopefully this program will reduce the scrub growth and help return the area to field without so much mowing.I learned all kinds of things on my tour, but for me the highlights were two conifers that are so rare that they were both thought once to have been extinct ... only to have existed in the fossilized record. The younger of these is this little Chinese Pine that was discovered in the mountains of China. It is so new that I cannot find its scientific name listed in the Plant Collections list on the arboretum's website. But here are some pictures.And there is also the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. The complete story of this once declared "fossil only" is told by William Gittlen in his book Discovered Alive. In it he details how an alert forester in Central China in 1944 spotted this "new tree" and how its seeds were recovered by a team from the Arnold Arboretum and sent out to other arboretums for test growths. This tree in Polly's collection came from a cutting which Polly got in 1958 from Longwood Gardens. This species of conifer is the exception to the rule of EVERgreen. Like the larch, the Dawn Redwood sheds its needles in winter. That warning given, here she is - only one generation removed from the remote mountains of Central China.

Cherry Blossom Sunrise

Arrived at the Tidal Basin a little before sunrise on Sunday morning. The city was swarming with 10K racers and all my tried and true parking places had become a racecourse. As the blossoms picked up the morning glow, I started to hear this piece from the Peer Gynt Suite in my head. I used the pile of photos to make my first iMovie with my new Mac. Enjoy.

Watercress and Garlic

I have been out twice this week harvesting watercress. I am not sure why it is, but the spicy taste of wild watercress catches me by surprise each spring. Last night I added it to a little red cabbage and bacon for a tangy green delight over quinoa.My garlic in the garden is coming along nicely. But my harvested garlic is showing signs of age. The little green sprouts are now like Howard Hughes' fingernails ... easy to call this garlic "long in the tooth." So I decided to gather up about fifteen heads or so and slice them for the dehydrator.

First I sliced them in half

then I pulled out the sprout and sliced each half in threeI had a plate full when I was done and laid them out on the trays. I have never dehydrated garlic before. I read temperatures from 90 degrees to 400 degrees (yikes !!!). I settled on 125 for 12 hours in the dehydrator.the dried chips will be sealed away for later use ... maybe some home-made garlic salt?

A great day to plant peas

Well the ground DID thaw enough for me to build a pea structure. I had been to a bamboo structures workshop last summer where we built and disassembled about five different kind of structures under the guidance of Art and Marlene Cameron. There are links to photos of some of their structures here.

I wanted a structure that would take my peas high enough. It seems I am always under estimating their vertical needs. BTW did you ever note that it is only after the 21st side shoot that you actually GET a flower? So armed with my plastic zip ties, a chair to stand on and some bamboo poles (and a little help from Mr. Pea-buddy) we had a structure in no time. As the peas come up I will add more bamboo for them to crawl up. It seems that each year in my eagerness to get the peas in the ground, I fail to read the package instructions until AFTER planting. Usually I stick a thumb into compacted soil and drop the seed down the hole. This year I followed the instructions ... I loosened the soil, then made a shallow trench, then covered the seeds with no more than an inch of soil. I think germination will be a little easier for the peas this year.

Spring stirrings

I awoke to 3 inches of snow yesterday morning. It is what folks in the north country would call a sugar snow ... big white fluffy flakes that stick to branches like cherry blossoms. By 2 PM it was gone ... evaporated like melted sugar on your tongue.

I am near the garden a little earlier this year and thought that maybe I would put in a pea trellis before I headed back to DC for the real cherry blossoms. I was chagrined to find the ground still too hard to secure bamboo poles deep enough. But maybe I will put the pea seeds in anyway.

Last fall, determined to start 2011 with only fresh seed in my seedbox, I put all my old spinach seed in the ground. Well lo and behold, we have lift off. I planted it on the interior of the bed that will hold the trellised peas. Just maybe there will be a spinach crop.Now to the artichokes. It was a very cold winter. I happened to be here for some of the very coldest days, and I am not ashamed to tell you that I filled milk cartons with hot water and and placed them inside the wall-o-waters on the nights we had single digits. I THINK it paid off. I cannot tell for sure yet, but I think at least one of my artichokes survived the winter, maybe three. Meanwhile, I have dutifully started seedlings again this year ... my version of a hedge fund.Pretty soon I will get some Big Zacs and some morning glories under lights. Step by step.

Markets of Oaxaca, Mexico

We are in Oaxaca for a few weeks on a vacation with good friends from the Midwest. I have very much enjoyed the outdoor markets ... the sprawling Abastos Market here in town and the Saturday market in Ocotlan. They are a beehive of activity as vendors present the produce which they have acquired from wholesalers at the market's edge. This is not a farmer's market except perhaps for a few meat vendors. But it is interesting for what IS here and what IS NOT here. Think Whole Foods in February ... what do you see? Asparagus from Mexico? Not to be seen. Think THE indigenous crop of Mexico ... Maize? Not to be seen here either. But here is a sampling of what you WILL see.

More about Oaxaca HERE

Missed all of January

Whoops !!! Well here is a start for February. DID YOU KNOW that February is National Snack Food Month? Ugh. So the folks at Kitchen Gardens International sent along a link to a counter movement. It is called #20ate for the 28 days of February. Check out the website. There are some great ideas for opting out of the Frito Lay/ConAgra/Kraft construction of the world. Like these little apricot morselsIn the gardening realm, I will start some artichoke seeds this week. I am afraid the New England winter is not going to allow for over wintering this year. Time to start again.

Merry Christmas !!!

Solstice musings

outerspaceuniverce.org

I happened to wake on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning) just at the height of the lunar eclipse, so I padded out onto the front porch to look at the shadowed moon. It was going to have to be one of those "mind's eye" experiences ... I had no tripod setup. I wondered about how such a celestial event would have been read in an earlier time on this night ... the night of least light. "Now you're taking the MOON away too?" But maybe they would have slept through it as I almost did, and not have given it a thought.

This envelope of darkness where we live right now made its turning point last night at 6:38. We are turning toward summer now, slowly ... imperceptibly from snowballs to tomatoes. The light is indoors now, not out. Fireplaces, tree lights, candles in the windows create the man-made glow to hold the darkness at bay.

But sometimes it is good to let the darkness shine. Had I been able to stand the cold, I would have enjoyed a few more moments in the dark night sky with its curious orange orb. If I could have had musical accompianment on my chilly porch on Tuesday night, I would have played this

University of Utah Chorus "Sure On This Shining Night" Morten Lauridsen composer

The Rewards

Early in the season I noticed that several bloggers were keeping a running total of their harvests and the monetary value associated with it. I decided to do the same but never quite mastered the gadget that would put it on the side panel of my blog. So I kept a journal record and entered it into a spreadsheet in late summer. I still have some broccoli out there and some parsnips, but I will credit them to next year's harvest. Today I ran the final totals.

Out of a 3o'x24' plot (with two 8x4 foot garlic beds outside) I yielded 382 pounds of produce at a conservative value of $647. I say conservative, because those luscious heirloom tomatoes I counted at a mere $1.26 per pound. (they sell at the farmer's market here for $4.99 a pound). I had put much hope early in the season in some French melons that fell to the cucumber beetles. And yet, as I look at the variety on this list I am impressed with the variety of crops I managed to plant even if the showings were small in categories like zucchini that in past seasons seemed to fly out of the garden.

But in my heart of hearts I know that this is only one way of counting rewards that come to me by tending this small plot. How do I put a price on coming eye to eye with a hummingbird while harvesting pole beans? How do you weigh the satisfaction of the smell of the first carrot you pull from the earth ... the first sliced warm tomato ... the spring dug parsnip chowder in April ... the bright green flavor of your first plate of asparagus? It's like the Visa ad, I guess ... priceless.

	Pounds	Ounces	Price	Value
Apples	1	3.3	$ 0.66	$ 0.80
Artichoke	1	4	$ 6.00	$ 7.50
Asparagus	28	9	$ 1.67	$ 47.70
Basil	1	4	$ 12.00	$ 15.00
Broccoli			$ 1.50
Brussels Sprouts	1	14.3	$ 1.25	$ 2.37
Butternut Squash	1	11.4	$ 1.01	$ 1.73
Carrots	1	8	$ 0.54	$ 0.81
Cucumbers	20	13	$ 0.75	$ 15.61
Eggplant		8.4	$ 0.97	$ 0.51
Garlic	21	12	$ 6.16	$ 133.98
Garlic Scapes	3	9	$ 6.00	$ 21.38
Green Beans	23	12.6	$ 1.07	$ 25.45
Greens	7	3	$ 1.51	$ 10.85
Onions		7	$ 0.55	$ 0.24
Peppers	1	4.7	$ 1.26	$ 1.63
Potatoes	2	8.5	$ 0.31	$ 0.78
Radishes	5	6	$ 3.04	$ 16.34
Salad Box	1	6.9	$ 9.85	$ 14.10
Shallots		11.9	$ 1.08	$ 0.80
Snap Peas	2	4	$ 3.52	$ 7.92
Tomatoes	235	4	$ 1.26	$ 296.42
Tomatoes Cherry	13	4	$ 1.93	$ 25.57
Zucchini	4	10.5	$ 1.26	$ 5.87
SUB TOTAL	371	179.5		$ 647.49
TOTAL	382.22

Happy Thanksgiving

waning light

After what felt like a weeks of rain , there were two soft days this weekend. The artichokes and rosemary are tucked away in their wall-o-waters, the dahlias have been dried and put away, and the garlic is sprouting nicely under its layer of grass clippings.

The light this time of year creates a strange mood. The angle from the south has the sun nearly always in your eyes and that same angle creates crisp landscapes on the bare trees when the sun is at your back.

Large parts of the garden live in shade most of the day. The broccoli I planted in early September SHOULD have been planted on an East-West line because the only crowning is happening on the lucky plant at the south end of the row. [Note to self for next year]

I look up from my work and read the shadows on the landscape thinking it must be five. It is barely quarter to three. I take a moment and sit one last time on the deck looking east out at the field. The sun warms my right shoulder ... a new feeling sitting in this place feeling the earth's orbit in strange bodily warmth.

Fall musings

All common sense tells me to tear the remaining tomatoes out of the garden. But the absence of a first frost has left me delusional. The vigorous Italian Sweet that I laid on its side in anticipation of Hurricane Earl has enjoyed its warmth near the ground and is sending up vertical shoots all along its horizontal axis and is fruiting. When do I think these tomatoes will ripen? Why is it so hard to let go?Meanwhile, garlic bed prep is done and and one bed is planted out. I plant in a 6x8 inch grid and a four by eight foot bed takes about 96 plants. I can see from my seed garlic supply that I am going to have to limit the planting of some varieties. I have all but given up on softnecks. The only one I plant now is the mysterious Place Monge. Because I harvested early this year, I have MUCH better quality of bulb, and I expect they will store longer than my hardnecks have in the past.

Selecting Seed Garlic

As garlic planting time approaches, just a word about selecting seed garlic. The rule is that size of clove matters: the bigger the clove, the bigger the head you get next summer. But the key word here is CLOVE. Sometimes with hardneck garlics the bigger CLOVES are on the smaller heads. Porcelains, for example, will sometimes put out as many as 6 cloves per head. But the largest CLOVES are on the smaller heads with only 4 cloves.

Keeping up with the tomatoes: 174 Pounds and counting

One hundred and seventy-four pounds of tomatoes is a lot of tomatoes. BUT is is not TOO MANY tomatoes. ... not yet anyway. So what's a girl to do? I have sauced, and, of course, I have sliced. I have made tomato juice for the winter. I have dehydrated, and I have slow roasted. I have even quartered and frozen them.

But the other day I thought, I want tomato juice now!!! So I got out the old juicer and filled jars with fresh tomato juice ... oh so good !!! I have it with breakfast and instead of iced tea at lunch. And there is the lure of the evening cocktail made with fresh tomato juice.

the pre-hurricane harvest