Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

It’s a true tomato garden tragedy. Hybrids on one side, Heirlooms on the other. And two star crossed tomato plants caught in between. “Oh Reisetomate, Reisetomate. Where for art thou, Reisetomate? Deny thy breeding and refuse thy heritage. Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Hybrid. “

Unfortunately, this tragedy ends nearly the same as the Shakespearian one based on over hormonal children. My Juliet tomato is dying, as is the Reisetomate next to it. Tis a poison wilt that has taken them both (fortunately only manifesting in a bed with only a few tomato plants). So, what you see on that plate in the picture is all there will be. I am not sure the Reisetomate will produce at all.

Because this tomato plant is failing, I will state upfront that this tasting is suspect. Stressed plants do not produce the best of fruit.

I am embarrassed to say that, while I grew these plants from seed, I have no idea where I got them from. The packet I had them in is long gone, though a tickle at the back of my head tells me they were a seed trade.
The description from a place that sells the seeds reads:

Plant produces high yields of glossy red grape shaped tomatoes. Tomatoes are very sweet and perfect for salads and gourmet dishes. Grows in clusters like grapes too. Holds on the vine longer than any other cherry tomato.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Inch to inch and a half long.

Shape: Grape shape with a nipple on the end. I also have to say that they have a very pronounced sepal (that green thing at the top) that reminds me of a feminized Kermit the Frog collar.

Color: Solid red.

The inside:Thin walls with small seeds and a lance like core down the center. Almost no gel to speak of.

Texture: Very thick skin which is very noticeable when you eat it. Other than that, the texture is smooth and you can’t even feel the seeds.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Very solid tomato flavor. Not at all sweet. The tomato flavor is very condensed and not at all complex. Not my cup of tea, but some people like a straight on tomato and this is one of those.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salting develops the pure tomato flavor of this tomato. It makes it more tomato-y and since it was pretty tomato-y before, this just makes it more in that realm.

Cooking Thoughts: A salad tomato if I ever saw one. I am not so keen on these for muching on their own as that skin is pretty distracting.

Growing Notes:

As stated, this is dying from wilt. It is suppose to be pretty disease resistant, but I can say that it has succumbed to the wilt in the bed as fast as the heirlooms did.

Will Hanna grow this one again:

Probably not. While I might give it a whack again just to see if the flavor gets more complex when not affected by disease, the skin on these is pretty icky.

You know, people do reviews of all the new books that come out, but sometimes you just need to reach back and grab a classic. Because books become classics for a reason.  In my Literary English Bachelor’s Degree experience (yeah, that was not really a useful degree to get. I should have realized that after the 3000^th time someone asked me “Oh, so you’re going t o be a teacher?”, that perhaps getting a degree in which the only job prospects most people saw were a job that needed another degree with it was a bad idea… but I have digressed) books become classics because they so insularly capture an idea or concept that no other book need be written on the subject.  The Secret Garden is one of these books.

Can I say that I fell in love with book before I actually read it?  I watched it on TV as a young girl, as a Hallmark special. In my memory, it was well done (though I have not seen it since and back then I thought the A-Team was well done too so you can’t really trust my childhood perceptions) and I immediately looked for the book.

When I was 11 years old reading that book, the draw was the mystery and fantasy of The Secret Garden.  At that time, I could not have cared less about all the silly flowers in the garden.  I loved the fact that Mary, Dickon and Colin had the COOLEST secret clubhouse in the whole wide world.

Since then, I have read the book to each one of my boys and I am reading it to my youngest now, which is why it is on my mind.   I think they too love the fact that the children in the book have this place to go that the grown-ups don’t know about, a place where children could make things happen without the meddling of adults (and we meddle alot these days, you know).

As an adult, I am struck by how well Frances Hodgson Burnett captures the heart of a budding gardener or even a long time gardener who has been locked away for the winter.  While there are many passages in the book that convey this feeling, I love this one about when Mary first finds the garden:

“Yes, they are tiny growing things and they might be crocuses or snowdrops or daffodils,” she whispered.

She bent very close to them and sniffed the fresh scent of the damp earth. She liked it very much. “Perhaps there are some other ones coming up in other places,” she said. “I will go all over the garden and look.”

She did not skip, but walked. She went slowly and kept her eyes on the ground. She looked in the old border beds and among the grass, and after she had gone round, trying to miss nothing, she found ever so many more sharp, pale green points, and she had become quite excited again.

“It isn’t a quite dead garden,” she cried out softly to herself. “Even if the roses are dead, there are other things alive.”

She did not know anything about gardening, but the grass seemed so thick in some of the places where the green points were pushing their way through that she thought they did not seem to have room enough to grow. She searched about until she found a rather sharp piece of wood and knelt down and dug and weeded out the weeds and grass until she made nice little clear places around them.

“Now they look as if they could breathe,” she said, after she had finished with the first ones. “I am going to do ever so many more. I’ll do all I can see. If I haven’t time today I can come tomorrow.”

She went from place to place, and dug and weeded, and enjoyed herself so immensely that she was led on from bed to bed and into the grass under the trees. The exercise made her so warm that she first threw her coat off, and then her hat, and without knowing it she was smiling down on to the grass and the pale green points all the time.

Now tell me that is not exactly how you feel the first time you step outside into your garden after the wind, cold and snow of winter has receded.

Anyway, my point is that this winter, while you are huddled and miserable and gardenless in your house (or maybe that is just me), pick up a copy of The Secret Garden. Relive what it was like to be a child (without having to involve silly things like vampires and werewolves) and remember what it will be like to find your own “secret” garden in the spring.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

I bought the black cherry tomato because it combined by most favorite type of tomato (black tomatoes) with my least favorite (cherry tomatoes). I thought that in combination, I might find that final cherry tomato that I would really enjoy in the garden.

I can say that I am hopeful. These cherry tomatoes do certainly look like true black tomatoes. I just have to hope the flavor holds true to the color.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

It is not a plum, but a perfectly round cherry with classic black tomato flavor, sweet yet rich and complex. Fruit picks clean from the stem and is produced in abundance on vigorous, tall plants. These cherries are irresistibly delicious and a unique addition to the color spectrum of cherry tomatoes now available.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Slightly larger than a shooter marble but smaller than a golf ball. It is on the large side for a cherry tomato.

Shape: Very round. Near perfectly round, and I have harvested a good several dozen so far like this.

Color: Dusky pink on the bottom that gradually morphs into a dusky purple on top.

The inside:Medium size walls for a cherry tomato. Small seeds with rather firm gel. The core is almost as round as the outside of the tomato.

Texture: The skin is just thick enough that the cherry still has the ‘eyeball” effect, but it is certainly not as bad as some other cherry tomatoes I have tried. Once the skin pops though, the texture is smooth and silky. The seeds are small enough that they do not feel like seeds in the mouth.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: I like the flavor and it is almost exactly like they crossed a black tomato and a typical sweet cherry tomato and the fruit is the perfect balance of the two. It is interesting when you taste it, because your tongue is hit with both a deep, rich flavor and a sweet flavor at the same time. The flavor persists through when you swallow.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salting intensifies that dichotomy of rich and sweet. It is almost like the two ends of the flavor spectrum are pulled even further apart which make for an even more complex flavor.

Cooking Thoughts: It is a good salad tomato, but to be honest, I have been serving these as a side dish. Some nights we have them just plain and whole, and on other nights, halved, salted with some chopped basil thrown in. This is a great appetizer tomato. Just the right size.

Growing Notes:

Very vigorous vine, in both shape and production. I have had enough from this plant to keep tomatoes on the table every other night, despite the fact that my “big” tomatoes are under producing.

Will Hanna grow this one again:

Most likely yes. I love the flavor of this cherry tomato and my kids love the flavor as well. Which is important, because it make a good side dish that they will eat and would not just be a snitching and snacking tomato in the garden, which is what many other cherry tomatoes I have grown have turned into.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

Avast, ye maties. This blog post will be taking us well into the treacherous waters outside of the land of tomatoes. So, our tastie buds had better be ready. Savvy?

Ok, so I need to work on my pirate speak a lot before the next Talk Like A Pirate Day. But the point I am trying to make is that these little cherries’ name was the one and only reason I bought them. There I was sailing down the plant isle and I see a sign that says “Black Pearl Tomatoes.” Since I am a HUGE Pirates of the Caribbean fan (translation, I think Johnny Depp is really hot), I had to have these tomatoes. And since Rowena (from The Proud Garden) made the same comment about the name, I feel that this was a blatant marketing attempt on the part of the breeder. This is a hybrid, but I am not that kind of tomato snob (I am another kind of tomato snob, but if you have read long enough, you know what that is). Needless to say, the breeder’s marketing ploy has worked and I (along with most likely 100s of others) bought this tomato purely based on the name.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

A true treasure, ‘Black Pearl’ is two different flavors in one cherry tomato. Enjoy right off the vine, but be sure to put a big bowlful in the refrigerator for a special treat. When chilled, ‘Black Pearl’ has a unique, extra sweet, ‘Concord’ grape flavor. Indeterminate vines produce 1 ½ inches, purplish black fruits in abundance until fall. A rare pearl!

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: The size of shooter marbles

Shape: Mostly round but with just a bit of a flattened area on the top of the tomato. Uniform in shape and size.

Color: Deep orange-red on the bottom with classic green-brown black tomato shoulders. The shoulders fade down over the side to about midway down.

The inside:Thin walls and a moderate size core for the size. Seeds are very small. Gel is very loose and watery. Two chambers hold the seeds and gel.

Texture: The texture is pretty liquid. The gel is so loose, that it floods your mouth when you bite the tomato. The skin is thin along with the walls, which means that this does not have “pop” like eating an eyeball that you normally get with other cherry tomatoes.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: The flavor of this is really very interesting. It starts out really, really tart (which is the gel flooding your mouth), but the flesh is really, really sweet, so you get this cool melting from one extreme to the next.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt really cranks up the tartness, but does nothing for the sweet. This means that the really nice flavor balance from before is completely thrown out of whack and that is not all that good.

Special Tasting: Since the seller claims that these tomatoes taste good cold, I am going to give this a try. I find this an interesting claim because normally you are told not to because it destroys some of the flavor chemicals in tomatoes. Maybe, for this tomato, it kills the right ones, which changes the flavor in a positive manner.

Nope, that was a fail. Chilling just made this tomato taste like a run of the mill tomato. It loses its personality completely. It tasted more like grapes before I chilled it.

Cooking Thoughts: I think that these would be disrespected if they were served any way but in a bowl as an appetizer for your guests at a dinner party or at least as a nice afternoon snack. Served as is, without accompaniment, so that their natural flavor can be appreciated.

Growing Notes:

Typical cherry tomato vine. It is all over the place and is producing prolifically.

Will Hanna grow this one again:

I would love to, but and this is a big but, it is a hybrid. Because of this, I can only grow it as long as the seller sells it. The first year the seller decides it does not sell well enough, it is gone from the market never to be seen again. A shame really.

Do you see those lovely, lovely zucchini?  Are they not the most lovely zucchini in the whole, wide, freaking world?  They are to me and I will tell you why.   Because I grew them in my very own garden.  I can hear what you are thinking, “yeah, you and everyone else.  I get so many of them that I grow them like baseball bats just so the kids have something to play with.”

I know that everyone and their cousin Bob can grow zucchini, but up until this year, I have not yet been successful with this seemingly easy plant.  In fact, I have not been able to get a squash plant of any kind to for darn near 8 years.  How crazy is that?

The reason was vine borers. Every year those insidious little fuckers would invade my squash plants like Russian spies in the American suburbia.  Quietly and stealthily they would bore into the base of the squash plant,  and run a destructive gauntlet down the hollow core of the plant.

I tried the covering, I tried the surveillance and seek and destroy, but every time they got past me.  But not this year. This year I had a secret weapon and that was neem oil.  The best damn pesticide I have ever, ever used.

Ah, right now so many of you are scurrying to the bottom of this post to leave a comment that starts with “But Hanna” that I can hear the collective squeak of mouse roller balls.  But if you don’t know about neem oil, you need to finish reading this post.  I swear you will be amazed.

You are thinking how could I use a pesticide on my garden.  Think of the bees. Think of the butterflies.  How could I be such a ruthless bitch all for the sake of a few zucchini. Ah-ha! I will say back to you.  I am not.  (Ok, maybe you were not thinking that. Maybe I am just paranoid.)

#1 most awesome thing about neem oil – it only kills bad bugs and does not harm good bugs (or people or pets for that matter). 

As a matter of fact, bee keepers have been experimenting with neem oil to try to treat mite infections in bees.  They found that you had to use a high percentage solution of neem oil to even start to hurt bees.  Neem oil is typically sold at a high solution percentage and then diluted to a very low solution percentage before being applied.  Even extension services say that neem oil application in the home garden is safe for bees at any time.

#2 most awesome thing about neem oil – as mentioned, it is safe for people and pets. 

Don’t believe me, just go ask the approximately 1 BILLION Indian people who have been using it in cosmetics, medicines and as a contraceptive for generations. Studies have been done and the most dangerous thing they can come up with is that if you eat a lot of it, over a long period of time, it may cause liver damage.  I don’t need to eat it.  I have my wine to help me with my liver damage, thank you very much.

#3 most awesome thing about neem oil – It works systemically.

All those other insecticidal oils wash right off if it rains or you water from above.  Neem oil gets into the plant.  Which is why it worked on my vine borers.   Any part of the plant becomes dangerous to the bad bug, inside and out. So where normal pesticides would fail, because they only stay on the surface, neem oil can succeed because it moves through the plant.  So very cool.

 #4 most awesome thing about neem oil – It takes care of other gardening problems too.

Neem oil is also effective as a fungicide and a miticide.  All your gardening pest needs rolled into one.

I have to say that the only thing that neem oil lacks is that visceral satisfaction you get when watching harmful pests die.  Neem oil is not an instant kill pesticide.  It works like the Pax on Miranda.   For reasons science is still not clear on, they don’t fall over dead, they just “stop fighting…and then they stop doing everything else. They stop going to work, they stop breeding, talking, eating.”  Except about bad bugs, instead of innocent people.

Still, I can live without the quick kill as long as it works.  And, as evidenced by the fact that I now have more zucchini than I know what to do with, it does work.

P.S. Still waiting on ripe tomatoes.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

I have talked about Micro Tom Tomatoes before, way, way, way back when this blog was relatively new. I grow them on and off as purely decorative plants, because they are damn cute and weird. I realized this year that I had never done a tasting on them though.

These tomatoes don’t have much of a yield. That’s the consequence of only growing about 5” high. That’s right, look at the picture. That is a quarter nestled in there. That’s as big as they get.

Freak plants tend not to produce good tomatoes. When more time is spent on making a tomato unusual rather than tasty, taste suffers. So, for the record, I am not expecting much.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

Tomato Micro-Tom. The world’s smallest tomato plant. Plant only grows between 6-8 inches in height. Fruit is red and one inch in diameter. Succulent sweet flavor. Excellent for hanging containers, pots, small gardens, or indoor window sill..

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Roughly the size of marbles – mostly large marbles. The tomatoes actually look almost too large for the plant.

Shape: An off-center round shape. Like they are trying very hard to be round but have tried to get to the front row of a Bieber concert.

Color: Orangish –red.

The inside: Rather thick walls for the size of the tomato and rather large seeds as well. The result is each fruit only has maybe 4-5 seeds in it. Very little gel, and the gel that is there is clinging tight to the few seeds.

Texture: Pretty mealy, and the skin is surprisingly thick.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Plain Jane tomato flavor. More tart than sweet, which is surprising for a cherry tomato.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt makes this a much sweeter tomato. Still not quite a cherry tomato sweetness, but much closer.

Cooking Thoughts: I am going to leave this as a “growing for the kids to snitch” tomato. Salad tomato if I could get more than 3 tomatoes off the plant at a time. But since the yield is so low, I would rather just let the kids get them.

Growing Notes:
Teeny, tiny plant. You would not plant this in a traditional veggie garden. It belongs in hanging baskets, window boxes and kids’ gardens. They are a very compact plant, which does cause some fungus issues sometimes.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Will I grow it again for flavor? No. Will I grow it again because it is a freak of nature? Yes. It will show up in decorative plantings on and off for years to come.

It is that time of year again. When the summer gods and goddesses converge on the garden and conspire to make the magic of garden ripe tomatoes happen. Actually, they are a little lazy this year in that regard. I think it is due to the heat. It is too hot for tomatoes to ripen, but I do have one plant with ripe tomatoes (out  of 18), so this sets off the season for Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010.

I know, I know that I dropped the ball on the 2009 season, but my tomatoes plants ended up being destroyed by a groundswell of critters in my garden.  Not only could I not get tastings done, I could not even get tomatoes for myself.  I was sad.

But this year, thanks to an ingenious obstacle course consisting of a series of buckets, pots and garden tools, the animals have stayed away and my tomato plants are heavy with… um… green tomatoes.  I am sure they will be turning soon…

So here is the list for this year:

• Micro Tom
• Rainbow
• Reisetomate
• Henderson’s Pink
• Juliet
• Violet Jasper
• Lemon Boy
• Matina
• Black Pearl
• Purple Smudge
• Black Cherry
• Aunt Ruby’s Green
• Chile Verde

As always, your opinions on the tomatoes are wanted and encouraged.  What may do well here may not do well where you are and vice versa.  These tastings are so that we can place a record of how a tomato really tastes out there in cyberspace.  I also encourage you to blog about your own tomato tastings experiences on your blog.  I will happily link to any tomato tastings that other people do as well.

Here are links to previous years:
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2008
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009

We’ve covered the fact that our gardens are essentially a botanical brothel. There is enough flower power sex going on in our yards to make Jenna Jameson blush.  But, there is one kind of plant in the vegetable garden that is like a nightclub without a cover charge, age limit and free drinks for the ladies and that is the Cucurbits (kind of like the Kardashians, but without the money and thinly veiled poor taste).

Cucurbits are a family of plants that include melons, cucumbers and squash. They produce flowers that are either male or female. And just like a nightclub (at least the straight variety) where things don’t really get going well unless you have a little bit of both the XX and XY action going on.

But, there is a reason that nightclubs have ladies’ nights (and free libations for them).   Because the male of the species is a bit more motivated in the sexual area than the female. Ever go to a nightclub early in the evening?  You will look around and you will see a dozen or so over eager guys sitting around waiting for the action to begin.  Yes, the guys are losers and clueless, but there they are. Sipping drinks, eyeing the competition, perhaps sipping a bit more quickly than they should due to the need to build up some courage.  Next thing you know, the ground is littered with drunk guys about 2 minutes before the ladies make their grand entrance.

Your cucurbits are no different. 

Many male blossoms show up early.  Too early to really catch the wave of women flowers coming their way, they normally fall to the ground, spent and useless and mumbling something about an ex-girl blossom they need to call right now.

Shortly after this, all the single lady blossoms show up, the cooler, more suave male flowers saunter in, and you have a bona fide cucurbit orgy going on in your garden.  (This will explain the teeny-tiny popcorn boxes you see next to your tomato and lettuce plants.  They are just enjoying the free show.)

I think one of the most common questions I answer at my other job at this time of year is “Help! All the flowers on my squash are falling off (or are being eaten, and a spent male blossom does look like it has been bitten off).  How can I stop it?”  You can’t. You just have to wait for the pretty ladies to appear, and as we all know, we ladies like to take our time and make a fashionably late entrance.

Note:  if you are looking for something to do with your loser male blossoms, you can make a tasty treat out of them, so that they don’t get completely wasted (and start the pathetic drunk dialing).

Well, I am off on another whirlwind adventure.  I am taking the hubby and the kids on a weeklong cruise down the Mississippi River. Not quite Huck Fin style, but we rented our own little version of a water bound RV and we are planning on taking 7 days to fish, sleep, play and drink adult beverages (the kids won’t be partaking in the adult beverages – Somebody needs to steer).

But for as fun as a week away from home sounds, it is still a week away from home.  As an avid gardener, particularly given that I love container gardening, a week away from the garden is a potential time bomb. No matter how well you plan or how well you think you covered things, there is the potential for disaster.

Like 3 years ago when my wonderful but elderly neighbor hurt her leg while I was gone and was unable to water my plants in 90F heat for near a week. Utter devastation. I literally lost half of my potted exotic plant collection and the other half took the rest of the year to recover. Plus, all that vacation bliss I returned with that year got right back on the plane and flew off to destinations unknown.  Plant funerals are not a good way to end a vacation.

So, here is my game plan to come back to a garden that looks lovely and, most importantly, living:

1)      Kiddy pools are not just for kids – The advice for caring for houseplants when you leave on vacation is to relocate them to the tub and place them in an inch of water.  It is a little harder to do that with 20-30 rather large containers. But a $15 kiddy pool makes a great substitute.  Set it up in a shady spot and fill with an inch or so of water. *bonus* Your house sitter will have all your precious plants in one location, which makes making sure they watered everything that much easier.

2)      Be like the A-Team – have a Plan B – As mentioned above, your back up may need a backup.   Ask a neighbor, family member or a close friend to stop by daily to water your plants. Ask another neighbor, family member or close friend to stop by once or twice while you are gone. If Plan A has an emergency (or just flakes on you), Plan B can at least make sure that your plants don’t pull a Death Valley imitation.

3)      Timers are a girl’s best friend – If you can’t find a Plan B (or a Plan A for that matter) consider investing $20 or so in a timer for a sprinkler.  You can make sure that your plants get a little spa sprinkler treatment daily on a schedule.

4)      Take a little off the top – All those annuals that are looking just a little too leggy, those perennials that came, bloomed and went and the herbs that have not been used quite enough. You need to trim those puppies the day before you leave. This is not just about coming back to a living garden but returning to a magnificent garden.   A week while you are not there will give those recently trimmed plants enough time to recover and greet you looking like the height of May.

5)      Give it away – You know that you have some things in the garden that will reach peak right after you leave or that you just won’t be able to enjoy before you go.  Veggies and herbs can find homes with friends, family and your local food bank. Cut flowers are always much appreciated by senior homes and day cares. Think of it as karma to ensure a blissful and re-energizing vacation.

Think of me fondly while I am floating down the Mississippi.  On a slightly related note, in theory I should not be able to connect to the internet while traveling.  This will make the first time in 10 years that I have been away from the internet for more than 24 hours. Wish me luck.

Imagine a world where Monsanto was not just a multi-national conglomerate, but an international super power capable of warring with and enslaving entire nations.

Imagine a world where genetically modified plants are used as harrowing weapons that can kill entire populations – just so that a company can make more money.

Imagine a world where the equivalent of script kiddie hackers (for you not in the biz, these are amature hackers, like the graffiti vandals of the computer world) can “hack” a plant’s DNA and create deadly or frightening changes.

Then imagine trying to live an everyday life in this world.

This is the world created in the book The Windup Girl.

It was rather ironic that this book arrived at the library this weekend for me to pickup. I had ordered it weeks ago after it was recommended as an interesting read in the steampunk (though it’s more post apocalyptic cyberpunk, but whatever) genre. It was not mentioned to me that plants played such a vital role in the story. Considering that I wrote about heirlooms versus hybrids just a few days ago and that genetically modified crops are the next level in that discussion, it was a very timely and interesting read.

The jury is still out on my opinion on genetically modified plants, but this book did provide a lot to think about.

And while gardening specifically was not discussed in the book, there was some allusions to the idea that things grown simply for beauty were no longer possible and things grown at home to feed yourself were just downright dangerous to your health and general state of being alive.

Now imagine a world where you could not garden and you realize that this book is not just sci-fi but horror as well.

Regardless, an interesting read if you are looking for something to read and ponder this summer.

*Just a note – the book does contain certain amounts of graphic sexual violence as the main character is a genetically engineered “companion” turned sex slave. Just so that you know that ahead of time and don’t yell at me later for not warning.