You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘tomatoes’ tag.
Well, tomato season is FINALLY here (we’re late this year due to our cool spring), so I thought the next in the series on garden plant families should be Solanaceae – better known as the Nightshade family.
Read the rest of this entry »
Because Charlie has such big feet, my husband has started calling him the “Hobbit Hound”.
So, the Saturday downtown farmers market started April 30th, and I’ve started attending the Pendleton market on the 2nd and 4th Friday evenings of the month, starting May 13th. Both have been very successful so far. May is always a good month for markets! Come down and see me. Read the rest of this entry »
Striped German – an Heirloom, weighing in at 1.8 lbs!
I’ve been on a search for the perfect 8 oz tomato. I grow a lot of lovely heirlooms. German Pink, Dester, Stripped German. Beautiful, huge tomatoes. Some well over 1 lb. But not everyone at market wants to pay $3 or more for ONE tomato. So I’ve been looking for a medium sized red tomato with excellent flavor. What I really want is a red version of Valencia, which is a fantastic yellow/orange heirloom that I’ve been growing for the last two years. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m new to seed saving. I have known the basics for years. That you need to save seed from open pollinated plants, not hybrids, if you want the seed to come true. That the technique for saving the seed differs depending on the plant. I’ve even saved seed from a few things – a high elevation variety of flour corn, a short season southwestern chile pepper, a runner bean.
But I have always gardened in relatively small spaces. And I’m a big believer in biointensive gardening, so I tend to pack a lot of vegetables into the allotted space, even when I have room. I also often plant more than one variety of any given vegetable. Heck, I’m planning on planting 18 varieties of tomatoes and tomatillos this year! Read the rest of this entry »
This was taken looking in the side rear view mirror. That’s Loki (still alive – but getting uglier by the day), in the background. Thor LOVED to go in the truck.
When my husband and I first got married, we moved to Parker Arizona for my husband’s new job. Parker is on the Arizona/California border below Lake Havasu. We lived there for 2 1/2 years. From about May 15th to October 15th, it was over 100 degrees EVERY DAY.
My husband happened to work right next door to the tribal animal control office, and so over the course of that 2 1/2 years, we ended up adopting three dogs. One was a great dane/lab mix named Thor. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of owning or being around a Dane, you know that they are the sweetest dogs around. Thor was super sweet. He was also not super smart. And being 120 lbs and the darkest colored of all of our dogs, he suffered the most in the heat. He’d be standing there panting in the shade, and my husband or I would say in our “Thorbie” voice, “Gosh it’s hot”. We swore that he got about 10% smarter when we moved to cooler weather in Colorado. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you ever have one of those days when you just feel crabby, for no apparent reason? Well, last Saturday was like that for me. Every little slight was like itching powder on my brain. I’m generally a pretty calm even keeled person, so this was a bit unusual for me, and I must say, I kind of embraced it. Sometimes, it just feels good to throw a shoe into your closet door. Grin. Read the rest of this entry »
Yup, I grew everything here except for the garlic.
I was home for a visit to northern California back in the 1990’s, during the height of summer, and my step-mom was making ratatoullie, a French vegetable stew. Not one to eat many vegetables at the time, I reluctantly tried some, and it was a revelation. It was SO good. Nothing like vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil to make all vegetables taste fantastic. I was sold, and have been making ratatouille in September, during the height of the warm weather vegetable glut, ever since. Read the rest of this entry »
As the temperature drops, and that unmistakable crispness fills the air, the urge to squirrel away food for the winter kicks into overdrive. Our long wet cool spring put most warm season produce 2-3 weeks behind this year, which means we’re playing roulette with the ripening tomatoes (red) vs the first frost (black).
Alternative title: Garden Porn. Grin. Yummy recipe for kohlrabi at the end.
I LOVE this time of year. The time when all the hard work finally starts to pay off. Every day, you find a new long-awaited treasure in the garden…or the chicken coop. It’s kind of like having Easter in August. Here are a few of the recent finds. Read the rest of this entry »
MilesAwayFarm
Miles Away Farm Blog 