Big Red

This Cherokee Chocolate tomato weighs in at 1.5 lbs! Wow!

Garden feast

Our friends Catherine and John came over for a dinner on a glorious Saturday evening and we prepared a meal almost exclusively from our garden! Okay, we didn't make the pasta or the mozzarella, but we grew just about everything else.
We started with a champagne toast to the newly engaged couple.
And quickly moved on to a caprese salad made with our ripe Cherokee Chocolate heirlooms, fresh mozzarella topped off with our basil and a drizzle of olive oil we brought back from a trip to Tuscany.
For the main course, we served tortellini with our cherry tomatoes and mixed with fresh pesto made from our basil. On the side we had roasted peppers and roasted eggplant with fresh rosemary, also from our garden. A couple of bottles of white wine complemented the meal and we had chocolate chip cookies (we bought them) for desert.

The News Could Not Be Worse!!!!!!

Okay, I haven't been shot, no one died and I've not been diagnosed with an incurable disease. That's the good news.
The bad news? We're losing our garden - that's right - the whole thing. We must kill off all of our plants by August 29th - yes, our seven beautiful tomato plants, our five bell peppers, our two Japanese eggplants and our herb garden - the peppermint and basil, the rosemary and thyme - all of it. August 29th, that's the day that workers will begin resurfacing the facade of our building.
Now, we didn't know that this work was going to take place until a few weeks ago, when we received notice that our maintenance was going up, WAY UP, for a year.
Earlier this week, we saw scaffolding going up on the street level. I was surprised to see this happening so soon. Then today, August 15, we received a letter from our building manager, informing us that our terrace must be cleared by, well you know when.
So, this is a sad situation. The tomatoes, which as anyone reading my blog knows, have been late bloomers this year and are just beginning to turn. The plants are as healthy and strong as they have ever been and I was sure we'd be getting tomatoes right through the October. Now, all we can do it hope the ones that are large enough will ripen in the next couple of weeks.
We'll be cutting back the new growth and any little greenies that can't possibly make it to fully ripened fruit.
It just seems wrong. I just wish I'd gone to that damn tenants meeting in the spring so I would have known ahead of time. Maybe we'd have planted super tomatoes that grow at lightening speed and ripen on command.
Okay, so that's it. I can only hope the rain lets up, we get some good hot sun and what's on the vine turns red and luscious by August 29th...

Better late than never

On Friday night we tasted the first fruits of our tomato labor - the cherries. Mmmm -delicious. They were sweet and the skin wasn't tough like last year's crop. Partly we attribute that to the automatic watering system that keeps the plants moist throughout the day.
So, the long wait for the tomato crop is coming to an end. I see the Donna's ripening and the Charlie's Greens turning a deeper shade. The other heirlooms are holding out, but the signs are good that we'll have Brandywines and Cherokee Chocolates in a couple of weeks!
There's no doubt that the fruit has been slow to ripen this year. And we battled some blossom end rot, so we had to snip off some of the early fruit and sprinkle Hoffman Tomato Food 5-10-10, a phosphorus rich blend of fertilizer, on the soil. But overall, we could have the best crop ever! The plants are as healthy as I've ever seen them. They're already towering over my head! If the weather stays good, looks like we'll have tomatoes through at least October. (Last year a few of the plants were still producing in December!)
Can't wait to make our first Caprese salad. And find some new recipes!

The waiting is the hardest part

The plants are looking so good right now, healthy, with tons of flowers and little tiny globes that will turn into big red tomatoes or nice red and yellow peppers. But we have to wait. Weeks. That's tough.
Take this weekend for example. We're going to visit my Aunt Joan on Long Island. She just loves tomatoes (I have posted one of her recipes in fact.) The watering system is all set, so we don't have to worry about our little plant babies (this is our first trip with the system in place, let's hope it works.) But all we can bring to Aunt Joan is a few Japanese eggplants. The eggplants are producing prolifically, which I appreciately hugely - we've already tried them in a stirfry and they taste delicious.) The Japanese variety is a huge improvement over last year's black beauties - the kind found in supermarkets. They were small and bitter. And a bigger leap over the white organics we tried to grow two years ago.
But nothing beats the home grown tomato for impressing dinner guests or bringing along when visiting. Our heirlooms inspire cries of joy, stares of disbelief and rounds of applause. Friends rarely refuse dinner invitations when our fresh tomatoes are on the menu.
So, we'll wait. And we'll hope that a random thunder storm doesn't whack off too many branches; hope we can ward off leaf blights and bug infestations; hope that this crop is a banner one.
And eventually, in just a few weeks I imagine, we'll get to pull our first tomato off the vine and slice it up. Now that's something to look forward to!

I spy with my little eye - a tiny green tomato

It's been too long since I've posted, but lots has been going on in my garden! First of all, we finally got hot weather and sun (I know, not this weekend) and the plants are taking off! We've got tiny tomatoes on our cherry and our Charlie's Green tomato plants. Our Japanese eggplants are growing like crazy and the pepper plants are busting out. The basil is big and bushy and our mint is growing strong too. The parsley isn't as healthy as I'd like it to be, but I did some pruning today (for our salad) so that might help it get moving.
We also finally got our drip irrigation system in place, so when we get out of town on the weekend, our veggies will be hydrated. No more calling on friends to babysit...
The system works with a timer, a plastic tube that attaches to the outdoor faucet,a bunch of feeder tubes and the adjustable drippers that are inserted into the soil. We got all the parts at The Drip Store, at dripirrigation.com. (Respond to this post if you want details on our order! I'll be happy to help you get set up...)
Now comes the hard part, waiting for the veggies to ripen -- August feels like a long way off! And of course, hoping the plants stay healthy. This year, I'm feeding them Miracle Grow tomato food every week or so to avoid blossom end rot and the other leafy diseases we've been plagued with in past summers, partly due to a lack of soil PH balance. I hope the Miracle Grow will do the trick.

Is it Spring yet?

It's gloomy, wet and 54 degrees today. What happened to May flowers? The impatience we planted last month look wind blown and bedraggled. And forget about getting the peppers and eggplants into their outdoor pots. They're still waiting on the dining table for a flash of good weather that lasts more than a day or two.
I am determined to plant the veggies this weekend - but I've said that for three weeks running. They can handle the chill, but the wind could do some real damage. Since we're up on the 20th floor, the currents can be pretty rough. Stems have just snapped right off our rose bushes in the past couple weeks.
Well, it's still early, but I was hoping to get a jump on the season this year.
Of course, when July rolls around and the humidity hits 100%, I'll be back here complaining about how the plants are dehydrated and fungus is attacking our tomatoes!

Next topic: ordering a watering system - we'll be setting up a timer so we don't have to consign our friends to do weekend watering while we're away...

Too cold to plant?

It's been unseasonably cold outside, which brings me to this question: is it too cold to plant our peppers?
We bought four plants at Home Depot in Yonkers when we visited Mitch's parents for Passover. The Yonkers store has a big outdoor department that kick's butt over Manhattan's, so we go each spring to stock up on soil, mulch and some herbs or veggies like peppers. (We've tried to grow peppers from seed, but we've had no luck in getting them to sprout.)
So, now we have four bell pepper plants (green, yellow, orange and red) but Mitch won't let me stick 'em in the pots. He says it's too cool. He wants me to wait.
But I'm like, so, are they gonna catch cold?
All of our herbs from last year (mint, oregano, thyme and parsley)have come back and are growing nicely. Our spring flowers (columbine, pansies) are blooming. The roses are coming along.
But he's worried about the peppers? Of course, it won't kill them to hang out in the apartment for another week or so. But I think he's being a bit like an overprotective parent.
I'm thinking that if we plant them a little early this year, before Memorial Day, they'll get a head start and they'll yield their fruit sooner too.
So, if you're a planter, let me know what you think.
Thanks!

Time for Tomatoes!

I am so psyched. I got a request to get posting, and I have plenty to write about, so here goes.
Ski season is over and the time for planting has arrived. Of course, Mitch and I have been preparing for planting season since February. That's when we went to our favorite heirloom tomato seed site, http://tomatofest.com.
This year we bought some old favorites: Dona, a prolific plant with small, tasty fruit; and Brandywine, big and beefy.
We also tried some new varieties, to keep things interesting:
Charlie's Green,sweet and spicey beefsteaks with yellow hues;
Cherokee Chocolate (we've done Cherokee Purples for the past three seasons - they're meaty and deep red - but chocolate, who can resist?); and
Angora Super Sweet cherries (cherries produce like crazy.)
Tomato Fest always throws in a freebie. This time we got Mortgage Lifter Red, a classic heirloom, slightly ribbed and huge (1 to 2 lbs!) I guess it's an appropriate variety for this year, considering the housing bust!
The whole deal cost about $20. You can go cheaper with tomato seeds from Home Depot or Whole Foods, but you can't find such old-time varieties in a big box store!

Next step: buying the seed starter kit. We picked up a Burpee kit at Home Depot for $7.99 but swapped it when we found a Jiffy Professional Greenhouse kit at K-Mart for just $5.99 with 72 peat pellets. Mitch grows basil from seeds all summer too, so we'll actually use quite a few of those pellets. Sure, we could get basil plants at the green market for $2 a piece, but a package of organic seeds for $1.50 will make dozens of plants.

By the end of March, it's time to plant. Mitch put the peat pellets into the little plastic greenhouse that comes with the kit, poured in some water and they expanded just like sponges. Next day, he dropped five or six seeds into each pellet, for a total of 12 pellets (2 of each variety.) Then we took off for a beach vacation (yeah!). When we got back, half the pods were sprouting tiny green seedlings (yay!) but the Brandywines, Cherokees and Mortgage Lifters (the big Kahuanas) were awol! (whah)

Mitch popped in more seeds and we waited in suspense for another week. And bingo! The big and beefies came up!

(Of course, if we had to, we could always supplement the crop with seedlings from the Union Square Green Market - though one warning - they often come with big green hornworms! Yuk! see Sept. 12, 2007 post)

Next step, we'll transfer the seedlings to 3 inch peat moss pots and keep them indoors for another month or so (too cool for tiny seedlings right now.) Mitch really does baby these little sprouts. He shields them from too much sun, too much wind etc. Even still, some of them don't make it. But we have more seedlings than we need so, we will easily end up with the seven plants we want.

Finally, we'll put the strongest ones in 20 gallon pots - their summer homes on the terrace. Best to always stick with one plant per pot. It's hard to dump any of these little babies, but they grow best when they're one to a pot.

I'm obsessing about the tomatoes, but we've got plenty of other veggies to talk about - stay tuned...

Spring break

Okay, I know it's too early to be talking about gardening, even if the weather was surprisingly warm today, but we got some seeds for Christmas from our good friend Valerie Smaldone. These prolific and low acid varieties come from the Livingston Seed Co. in Ohio. And just having the little packages in my mits reminds me that planting season is closer than you'd think.
We'll be ordering our certified organic heirloom seeds by mid-February from our favorite website, tomatofest.com, where we get juicy brandywines, cherokee purples and others. We'll experiment with some new ones this year, as usual. I'd like to plant some green zebras, for example, since we've never tried growing green tomatoes.
We'll need to start the nursery by mid-March, so we'll be ready to transfer the seedlings into outdoor pots by May.
Oh, and by the way, if you're a planter, Tomatofest is having a sale on seeds, which run between $2.95 and $3.95 a package, right now.