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Heirloom Tomatoes

Some other people have been posting heirloom tomatoes they’ve planted for 2008, so I thought I would post my list as well. It’s one of the problems having a garden on the other side of the town that I have to depend on notes rather than actually looking at what I have growing in the garden when making a post like this, so I might update this list later if I discover an omission or two.

This year the Seed Savers Exchange sent me their new catalog, with wonderful color pictures of the tomatoes they were offering, and I got sucked in. I placed a large seed order of mostly tomatoes from them, and that’s mostly what I’m planting this year. I got a few seeds from other places and people and had a few saved seeds as well. The nice thing about the Seed Savers Exchange is when they put together a collection of seeds like these tomatoes, you know the people behind the decisions are very knowledgeable on the subject, and have probably put together a rather special collection. That’s what I’m counting on anyway.

The Japanese Trifele Black tomato is a relatively new tomato that many people are growing this year. For those of you in the UK, this is rumoured to be Raymond Blanc’s favorite tomato (Raymond Blanc is a British TV personality, originally from France and owner of a chain of upscale restaurants in the UK). In spite of it’s name, it’s really a Russian tomato. Apparently one of the people involved in breeding it was Japanese, which is how it got it’s name. Not only is there a black version of this tomato, but there are a number of other colors as well. I figured what else do you do if you are an heirloom gardener but collect them all, so I am growing the red and yellow versions of this tomato too. I also got seeds from the orange version from a SSE member in Belarus, but they came too late for planting this year and I didn’t have any more space for tomatoes in the garden anyway, so maybe I’ll plant it next year.

I had originally planned to plant some ground cherries (Ottawa Gardener sent me some seeds), but as part of preparing our house for the foundation work a lot of our things got packed into boxes and put into storage, and a few seed packets got misplaced including these seeds. So, they are on the agenda for next year.

This is my first time trying tomatillos, and they’ve been quite a challenge to get started. I’ve now had to sow the seeds three times indoors for transplant outside. The first two times, the plants just died after transplant, apparently because it was too cold for them. Now both kinds seem to be doing okay. I have the green ones on my roof, and the purple/green ones at the garden. Isolation is necessary for seed saving, and they would cross if grown in the same place. As I understand it, you need at least two plants, because they will not set fruit if they don’t receive pollen from another plant (self-sterile). I have at least three of each variety. The Purple/Green variety is from Real Seeds, and the Green variety is from Lieven.

Here’s the list:

Matt’s Wild Cherry
Giant Belgium
Silvery Fir Tree
Hillbilly Flame
Copia
Black Prince
Black Cherry
Mortgage Lifter
Pineapple
Brandywine
True Black Brandywine
Nebraska Wedding (Determinate Type)
Czech’s Bush (Determinate Type)
Black Sea Man (Determinate Type)
Giant Syrian
Moonglow
Japanese Trifele Black (Really from Russia)
Japanese Trifele Yellow
Japanese Trifele Red
Blondkopfchen
Nygous
Brown Berry
John Baer
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Gold Medal
Emerald Evergreen
Taxi
Green Tomatillos
Green/Purple Tomatillos
Sweet Pea Currant
Gold Rush Currant
Powers Heirloom

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First Strawberries

White Alpine Strawberries

Here are our first strawberries of the year. Six white Alpine strawberries.

They are white, a little on the small side, but taste like normal strawberries. In fact they have a really nice and intense strawberry flavor.

I’ve just planted some in the garden, but they won’t produce berries the first year until late in the season. These were grown on our roof. We regularly have birds attack other plants, but not these. The birds can’t see these berries because they aren’t red. We don’t do anything to protect the plants from the birds.

Most strawberries are genetically pre-programmed to give their harvest in one go. This is handy for the farmer, who can plan the harvest in advance, but not really useful for the rest of us who would probably prefer to have a continuous supply of fresh strawberries through the summer. While these plants are not very heavy croppers, the do offer a continuous harvest. They are great for either having a few plants around for that odd handful of berries for the morning cereal, or planting more plants to allow for larger harvests. I have about 8 plants, and at most I usually get about 10 berries at a time.

Unlike most strawberries, these are grown from seed. Seeds are pretty easy to save, just break the berries apart with your fingers in a bowl of water. The seeds will sink to the bottom, and the other material can be rinsed off (this is a little harder than it sounds, and takes some practice). The seeds can be dried on a paper coffee filter. The seeds need a period of cold before they will germinate, so put them in the freezer for about a month or use some other method of stratifying them. They grow slow and get easily lost in the weeds when they are young, so it’s usually easier to start them in weed free medium like potting soil.

If anyone wants some seeds, let me know and I’ll send you some. I have a waiting list right now, and not enough seeds, so it may be a few months before I can actually send them. You can let me know now you want them and I’ll add you to the list.

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Field Garlic

Field Garlic

Allium oleraceum

This is yet another plant from Lieven. I have this growing on my roof, with both of these plants in a very small pot but they seem to be doing well.

It has a very strange topset, with both bulbils AND seeds! It’s the first topset to form this year in my garden. Apparently the seed pods are on the end of the long tendrils.

The taste of the leaves is garlic like, but not overly special, and the texture of the leaves is a little unplesant.

I don’t know yet what the root looks or tastes like. If it’s anything interesting, I will do another post about it.

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A Few New Blogs

I guess these mostly aren’t very new, but I hadn’t noticed them before:

Dropstone Farms: Have a look at their FAQ to learn what a dropstone is. If the layout of their blog looks familiar, that’s because they use the same template as this blog.

Worms and Flowers: There’s not much background information on this blog visible, but the pictures look like the Blue Ridge mountains in the south of the US, maybe it’s the Shennonodah? I’m not very good when it comes to geography by pictures, so really I don’t know.

Holly Cottage Garden: Home grown fruit and veg in the UK

Ravensbourne Allotment: Is thinning murder? A UK allotment blog

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Food Growing Get-Together, Looking for a Place

Those of you reading this who haven’t seen the previous posts, we are planning a food growing bloggers get-together in the UK. I made a second post about it here.

A suggestion was made to ask the Oxford Botanical gardens if they had space for us, and they do have a room we could use. It only holds 20-25 people, and we could use it if it rains for an indoor picnic. I don’t think there is a kitchen available.

The only issue here is price. The room costs £150 for the day. On top of that, admission to the gardens is £3. If for example 20 people come, this means about £11 per person. This is of course just for the room and gardens, and perhaps there would be more expenses, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s safer to count on about £15 per person. If we fill the room to capacity and have no other expenses it could be less than £10 each.

How do these costs compare to what most people will have to pay for transportation?

We are already up to 25 people, but several people have said they may not be able to come. I think a few more people will pop up who want to come, but in the end I think 20-25 is a reasonable number to plan on. It’s possible we may have to turn a few late comers away, but I think that’s the price for needing to plan something now.

Some other people mentioned they might know of other possibilities, or would have a look. Has anyone else found anything?

I really don’t have any idea what everyone was expecting to pay. If we are unable to find a cheaper place, does this meet everyone’s expectations as far as price goes?

MustardPlaster
Spade Work
Daughter of the Soil
The plot thickens
Vegmonkey and the Mrs.
Joanna’s Food
Kitchen Garden in France
Growing Our Own
The smallest smallholding
A Blog Called Fuggles
Veg Plotting
Soilman’s Allotment Blog
My Tiny Plot
Manor Stables Veg Plot
Fluffius Muppetus
NomeGrown
Purple Podded Peas
A Nice Green Leaf
Hills and Plains