Peppers and Tomatoes

All my seeds are planted for peppers and tomatoes, and I think all the peppers that are going to sprout have done so. I really scaled back from what I started last year. Between giving tomato plants away and what I planted in the garden myself I had more than double what I needed. I planted 62 seeds late on the 16th, and I need 38 total plants for what I am planning on putting in the garden and plants I am starting for other people. This is what I planted:

• 4 – Black Cherry
• 5 – Sungold
• 4 – Yellow Submarine
• 5 – Carbon
• 6 – Purple Russian
• 3 – Vorlon
• 3 – Orange Icicle
• 5 – Golden Sunray
• 5 – Chernomor
• 6 – Cherokee Purple
• 5 – German Red Strawberry
• 5 – Cuor Di Bue
• 3 – Pantano Romanesco
• 3 – Black Icicle

Quite a few of those are new to me this year; Yellow Submarine, Orange Icicle, Chernomor, Cherokee Purple, German Red Strawberry, and Black Icicle.

Yellow Submarine is supposed to be a better tasting version of Yellow Pear. I liked the yellow pear until I tasted the Black Cherry and the Sungold. After that they just tasted bland to me, the only reason I picked them (and I did leave a lot to just fall off) was to give away in my tomato “gift baskets.” I am doing 4 cherry tomato plants this year, and all 4 of them will be front and center (four rows of tomato plants planted 6 deep) so we can reach them from the yard and pick them easier. The 4th one is Reisentraube from Erika, and I am looking forward to that one too.

If you look at my list I have an abundance of purple tomatoes. I could not believe the flavor I got from the purple tomatoes. If you ever get a chance to grow Purple Russian I highly recommend it. I think it is the best tasting tomato I have ever had in my life, and there are a lot of fabulous tomatoes. Chernomor is another Russian tomato, and this one is a potato leaf plant. It has gotten very good ratings, and everything that I grew last year from Russia/Siberia/Ukraine grew fabulously in our climate. Essentially this is replacing Black Krim in my garden which did not grow well for me.

Everyone raves about Cherokee Purple so I had to order some seeds for it. Black Icicle was just a new offering from Baker Creek and I loved Purple Russian so much I had to try another roman candle type of tomato. I figured if I am going to try the purple version of it I might as well give the Orange Icicle a try too.

I ordered and planted German Red Strawberry based on Erika’s recommendation, and I am trusting it is good as I am starting some for two other people as well.

This is what sprouted for peppers:
• 6 – Chocolate Habanero (1 questionable)
• 11 – Red Habanero
• 5 – Suave
• 5 – Serrano (1 questionable)
• 2 – Fresno
• 3 – Sunrise/Sunset
• 4 – Jalmundo
• 8 – Grande Jalapeno (2 questionable)
• 6 – Purple Jalapeno (3 questionable)

Now I am planning on growing two each of the Habaneros, two Suave, two Serrano, one Fresno, one Sunrise/Sunset, three Purple Jalapenos, two Grande Jalapenos, and two Jalmundos. 6 of those are for hot sauce, the rest are for salsa. There really isn’t much difference between the Jalmundo and the Grande jalapeno. Both of them are productive producers with larger than average jalapeno pods.

The Purple Jalapenos are my favorite pepper. I will need to get more seed for next year as I used what I had left. I hope the seedlings perk up and pick up or I will not have any to share.

I love this time of year!

Tomatoes Are In!

Exactly two weeks after I started the first round of pepper seeds, I decided it was time to get the tomatoes in.  In addition, I thought I’d try Minnesota’s trick of soaking pepper seeds and then planting them.  When I planted dozens of seeds, and only had four or five up, I was concerned that I wasn’t going to have hot peppers.  They still may come up, but I feel that soaking seeds overnight, and then planting a second round of hot peppers will be insurance.  I can always give the extras away, or find another space of ground to plunk them in.

For the tomatoes, I have several people that I am starting some for, so first I had to determine what varieties I was starting for which people.  My brothers each had specific requests, the two others I am starting for had requests for tomatoes for canning and cooking- good producers.  Then I had to make my list, taking into account the amount of space I am planning for…

All told, I need 41 tomato plants, minimum.  So this year, when I placed the seeds in the soil, I added 2 or 3 to each cell for insurance purposes.  Yes, that means I could have a super abundance of tomato plants, BUT since my seeds are from years past, the germination might be less, so I wanted to be sure.

The hardest part was choosing the tomatoes for myself.  I have six plants coming from Minnesota, and I have 16 spaces designated for heirloom tomatoes.  4 determinate tomatoes will be going in their own spaces, so that meant that out of the 30+ varieties of tomato I have, I needed to narrow it down to just 10 plants.  TEN! Do you have any idea how difficult that is?   It took no time at all to choose the ten most reliable and most abundant- as well as my favorite flavors.  But then I would wistfully look at a packet that didn’t produce last year and wonder how it was.

You do know where this is going, don’t you?

About eight  extra varieties made it into the cell trays.   I had eight  extra little cells when all was said and done with my tomatoes and peppers, it seemed only right.  I’m sure I can find plenty of patches of dirt to put extra plants if I need them.  Plus they are added insurance that I will have a good crop this year, and I am always willing to share extra plants as well.

So, this is what was planted:

  • Black Cherry
  • Green Pineapple
  • Emerald Evergreen
  • German Red Strawberry
  • Woodle Orange
  • Lemon Drop
  • Pantano Romanesco
  • Sub-Arctic Plenty (one of 2 determinates)
  • Cosmonaut Volkov
  • Brave General
  • Arkansas Traveler
  • Amish Paste
  • Pink Grapefruit
  • Grace Lahman
  • Golden King of Siberia
  • Siletz (the second determinate)
  • Roman Candle
  • Ananas Noire
  • Gold Medal
  • Reisentraube
  • Green Zebra
  • Malakite
  • Sungold
  • Gypsy
  • Valiant

I swear I can taste some of them already.  My only concern now is that I’ll have enough room in the grow center as they turn into plants and need to be potted up.

I’ve already determined that I’m going to be saving seeds from many varieties this summer.  Some of my seed stock is getting old, so I want to replenish it with fresh seed. Since I grow heirlooms, that’s entirely possible.

Seed Starting Alert

Well, there’s no artichokes for me this year.  I’m not sure what I did wrong in starting the seeds, I’ll need to do more research on them.   I dug them out yesterday, and the seeds look the same as when they went in- nothing going on.  They may need warmer temperatures to germinate, or they need to be scarified, because they have one hard shell!

Anyway, yesterday I started all the pepper seeds.  I’m not starting any pepper seeds for anyone this year,  yet I filled 18 little cells with pepper seeds- 13 of them with hot peppers.  I wasn’t as sparing with them this year either, in most cells I planted 3 or 4 peppers, thinking that then I can cull them to the healthiest seedlings.  But I want to ensure that I have at least one seedling from each pepper.   Here is my list of hot peppers:

  • Hungarian Hot Wax
  • Black Hungarian
  • Chile De Comida
  • Cascabella
  • Aji Cristal
  • Georgia Flame
  • Hinkelhatz
  • Maule’s Red Hot
  • Joe’s Round
  • Bulgarian Carrot
  • Serrano
  • Anaheim

Many of those are small peppers- intended for the pickle pot.  I love pickled peppers, but hate paying for them.  The rest are all different varieties of hot peppers that I cannot wait to use in salsa.   One of them is specifically a great one for drying and using as crushed red pepper- I think that’s the Georgia Flame.   This is my last year for the Chile De Comida, as I’ve had poor germination from it, and most of the rest are new to me this year.  I can’t wait! I’ll also have a few jalapeno plants coming from Minnesota.

For sweet peppers, two of them are varieties Zander wants to grow- those are the first two, the rest are pretty basic, just some bells and some minis.

  • Red Mercury
  • Yellow Belle
  • Sweet Red Stuffing Pepper
  • Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper
  • ACE Bell Pepper

The sweet peppers I plan to intersperse in the gardens wherever, while the hot peppers will have their own bed.

I also sowed a few more herb seeds yesterday.   I had intended to do a couple a few weeks ago, but decided to just wait until I got out the pepper seeds.   My parsley is doing well, and I actually potted that up yesterday too.  In addition to the parsley, I have these herbs now sown, and I am hopeful for good results.

  • Lovage
  • Marjoram
  • Thyme
  • Summer Savory
  • Sweet Basil
  • Genovese Basil

My lettuces are still growing like gangbusters, and I’ve harvested from the patch once already.  I added some thinnings to a salad we were having for dinner, but from the looks of things, it looks like I’m going to need to do some more harvesting quick, as the patch is bursting at the seems.

I’m just over a week away from starting tomato seeds.  I better get that grow list finished up here!

Quick Note About Growing Under Light

Water.

That little seed tray needs frequent watering.  I’ve been watering my lettuce patch, but sparingly.  Yesterday when I went to check on my seedlings, they looked terrible.  Like, I thought I was going to have to start over terrible.  I decided to give them a good soaking- and it was definitely a good soaking, I probably poured a full gallon of water in this little flat.  But look what I have today:

They’re thriving.   Now if we can only get past this sub-zero frigid temperatures outside, I can start to think about setting the lettuce outside in the screen porch.  My plan is to put them in my greenhouse rack with the plastic cover on, in the plastic covered screen porch.  That should put them at around a zone 7, and I expect the lettuces will grow wonderfully, and in no time we’ll be eating salad.

I need more lights too.  Because I want to start another flat of lettuces, only I need my trays and lights to start actual seeds.

Here’s a quick pic of my onion flat.

You can see the alliums all came up nicely- including the 50% germination Tadorna Leek.  They came up with better than 50% germ, so I guess you never know.  Far to the right you can see the parsley seedlings.  Still no artichokes.   If they don’t come up in the next week here, I’m going to dig them up and see if the seeds are doing anything.  Maybe they need to be scarified? The parsley I’m going to have to pull out soon and plant in bigger spaces.  The onions should be doing just fine here for a while, as long as I give them a haircut from time to time.   If I end up pulling the ‘chokes, when I pot up the parsley, that square of starter tray will be filled with thyme, marjoram and lovage.

Planting Schedule

Whew!  This took a while to assemble.   First, I had to go through and decide what I wanted to grow this year.  I haven’t nailed down specific varieties yet, just a general idea of what I want to grow.  I am getting close to a tomato grow list though, and my hot pepper list is pretty solid too.

Starting plants inside requires careful timing and preparation.  There have been years where I started them a little too early, and others a little too late.  This year, I hope to hit the sweet spot and have everything just so.  With my interest in growing in cold frames this fall, my grow list is pretty much never-ending.    It’s a lot of work planning this year!  There are the new raised bed vegetable gardens, and then other areas- like I have chosen a space to be a dedicated herb bed, and as such, I’ll be able to grow as many herbs as I want.  So many of those I’m going to try from seed- and some I will buy established plants.  I really want a strawberry bed, but I’m just not sure how much time Andy will actually be able to devote to yard prep this spring- in addition to building and filling my garden boxes with soil.

So for now, here is my growing calendar.  I am using May 15th as my frost-free date when planning my seed starts.  It’s a very rare year we get frost beyond that, and we’ve had years where there hasn’t been frost beyond the end of March, but the plants can be flexible as far as when they get hardened off and planted.  My dates are really approximate, a few days to either side will be okay.

Spring/Summer Sowings:

January 26:  Onions, Leeks, Artichokes, Parsley (all up except artichokes!)

February 12-26: Lovage, Marjoram, Thyme, Eggplant (unsure on eggplant)

February 26: Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers

March 12: Basil, Summer Savory

March 12-19: Tomatoes

March 26: Chives, Sage, Scallions, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts

April 9: Chervil, Cabbage, Melons

April 23: Cucumbers, Borage, Cilantro

Between April 23 and May 31 the rest of the garden will be direct sown- dill, carrots, beets, spinach, tons of greens, potatoes, peas, beans, radish, etc.

July 12-20 I will sow a round of peas for fall harvest

Planting for Cold Frames:

June 1-15:  Swiss Chard, Carrots, Parsley

June 15- July 1: Beets, Parsley, Carrots

July 1-15: Carrots and Parsley (successive sowings of these ones)

July 1- August 1: Kale, Turnips, Sorrel, Mizuna, Swiss Chard

August 1-15: Spinach

August 15-September 1: Mache, Mizuna, Claytonia, Radish, Endive, Escarole

September 1-15: Arugula, Claytonia, Minutina, Mache, Radish

September 15-October 1: Radicchio

The cold frame crops will be sown directly into the beds set aside for them.   I will also try and add a few lettuces to them, and see how long I can harvest of those.  Once cold temperatures arrive, I should be able to add my cold frames to the beds and thus, my late fall, winter growing will begin.

Up next, I have to physically plan out my beds.  This is going to be tricky.

New Beginnings

This week I started some seeds.

*Insert happy dance*

The first step to seed starting for me this year was a lighting set up.  A serious lack of sunlight in a window at our home made getting seeds growing under lights a necessity.  Having never grown under lights before, I’m sure there will be a bit of a learning curve, but so far, I am encouraged.

We took an old metal shelving unit and Andy rigged up a series of shop lights on the various shelves.  The lights are adjustable, so I can move them closer to or farther from the seedlings as needed.

The lights are also on a timer.  The plan is that the lights will be on 24/7 until we have seedlings.  At that point, a timer will be used to give the seedlings 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness.

This week I wanted to start my onion, leek, artichoke, and some parsley seeds.  As long as I was going to be sowing seeds, I thought this would be a perfect time to sow a flat of lettuce to eventually put out in the screen porch.  Lucky for me, my local garden center sells Botanical Interests seeds, so I was able to pick up a few packages of assorted mesclun mixes.  I love Botanical Interests.  They are usually the first catalog I get in December, and I love that they are a small family owned company- and how can you not love the artwork that they use on their seed packets?  Their prices are very reasonable, although since I can get them locally, I’ve never actually ordered from them.

I sowed several small rows in one flat, and then towards one end of the flat I sowed two rows of Giant Noble spinach seed.    I sowed my onions in cells, and then both flats got a plastic dome over the top, and then they were sent to the basement grow center.  I did all this sowing Tuesday afternoon.

I have to note that I didn’t expect to see any sprouting for at least 5 days, but expected much longer- the chokes and parsley could take two weeks before I see any sprouts!  So imagine my surprise when I am doing laundry on Thursday and decide to take a peek under my domes and find sprouts!  Quite a few mesclun sprouts, and even one onion and one leek sprout.  Just two days after sowing!

Here is what my lettuces looked like Friday morning:

And here they are today:

They’re growing like gangbusters, and today I took the plastic dome off the mesclun, as I didn’t want to cook the seedlings.  I just want them to grow and reach for the lights.

The hybrid Lexton Leek seeds that I sowed are also doing really well- there’s easily a dozen just starting to poke through the soil.   I have a few Copra onion sprouts as well, and I sure am encouraged that I can be successful at growing under lights.

The Book That’s Changing Everything

I’ve seen this book on and off ever since I was bitten by the gardening bug five or six years ago.  I would see it advertised in catalogs, or on Amazon, but never got around to reading it.  During one of our recent trips to the library, I happened to see it on the shelf, so I brought it home.  And I got sucked right in.

Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman

This book is changing the way I’m thinking about gardening completely.  I have always heard that using cold frames and tunnels and greenhouses was a way to extend the gardening season, but no one every really explained to me exactly how to do it- or how it works.  This book explains, in detail, exactly how you utilize a cold frame to extend your season.  And then he goes a step further and tells you what crops he’s had success with as well.

I guess I always assumed that a cold frame was a way to grow from seed throughout the winter.  I had no idea how it actually worked.  Instead, what you do is plant your seeds in early August into your coldframe spot.  The seeds germinate and grow, and just as they get to the point where they would normally bolt and go to seed in the summer, the weather gets cold, you pop your cold frame on, and the plants go into a kind of dormancy.  They stop growing, so there is no danger of bolting, and they live in a suspended animation until the point where it gets just too cold- even with the cold frame.  Even if the plants freeze overnight, Mr. Coleman says that the coldframe will warm up the box to reinvigorate the greens within, so that a harvest later in the day is entirely possible.

I’m psyched.  I’m beyond psyched.  As I’ve been planning out my garden beds, I have already decided that two of the smaller ones will be home to cold frames.  Andy already has storm windows hiding around somewhere just waiting to be used for this purpose.  Can you imagine?  Walking out to the cold frame to harvest some greens and leeks for an amazing Christmas Day salad?  It’s entirely possible.

I was so excited with this book that I immediately reserved his newer book, The Winter Harvest Handbook at the library.   As soon as I got it, I devoured it, but I’ll confess to being a little disappointed with it.  Oh, it was great, but, it really is written for those who are thinking about using greenhouses to extend the harvest.  By using both greenhouses and coldframes, they have managed to have a successful harvest year-round.  It’s an exciting prospect, to be sure, but living in the city here, I don’t think we’ll be assembling dozens of greenhouses on our lawn.  The neighbors might not care so much for that.  And yet, I did glean bits from this book as well.  So many bits, that I took a look at our screen porch, which is currently covered in plastic, and realized that I already had my own sort-of greenhouse.   I promptly headed to the local garden center and picked up several packets of different mesclun mixes and sowed a flat of salad greens.  They are sprouting under lights right now, but in the days ahead, I intend to get a thermometer out in that screen porch and grow me some winter salad.  I have visions of a mid- March harvest of delicious home-grown salad greens.

In the next few weeks I’ll share how I’m changing my garden planning.  I’m carefully planning planting dates for everything- including the planting of the cold frame beds.  I’m planning for multiple sowings of other things, and that’s the first step.  Once I get timing planned, then I’m going to need to go through the planned beds, and make notes about what goes where.  And then I have to stick to that plan.  Gardening is officially underway, and it’s going to be an awesome year.   And as soon as Andy gets back to work full-time,  Year-Round Harvest is going to find a permanent home on my bookshelf.  It’s the book that is going to revolutionize how I garden almost as much as the Square Foot Gardening method has.

Germ Test Results

It’s been one week since I tucked my allium seeds into plastic bags to see how they would germinate. The results are not surprising for some.

My Red Of Florence, a red bulbing onion from Johnny’s seed had the poorest test.  Out of ten seeds, I had one sure sprout, one that looked like it was just emerging, and one that apparently emerged and promptly turned into goo.   Too bad, because there are about 250 seeds in this packet.  These will be tossed.

My American Flag Leeks were the second poorest.  These are old seeds- packed for 2007, and were Wal-Mart seed of all things. I had 4 sure sprouts, and if I was short on leek seeds, I would probably keep them and just sow them heavily.  But since I have other leek seeds, these will be tossed as well.

My Ishikura bunching onions from Johnny’s gave me a 50% test.  I will keep and sow these because they are tasty and dependable.  AND when I went to order some new seed, they were out, so I want to get what I can out of them.  I’ve never let a scallion go to seed before, this may be a first time for that.

The Tadorna Leek seed from Johnny’s was packed for 2009, so they are a few years old.  I have a germination rate of 60%, and considering that the packet actually says 75% germination, that’s not a bad rate of deline over a few years.  I will sow these seeds, as it will be nice to have a variety of leeks growing.

And finally, the surprise of the bunch.  My Evergreen Long white bunching onion.  These are a Burpee seed, and packed for 2007.  I got 8 out of 10 seeds to sprout.  It’s funny, because I was just going to throw this packet out, but this goes to show that you just never know.  While these aren’t my favorite green onion, I will still sow them.  That means I’ll have three varieties of scallion in my garden.

I’ll admit, the sprouts got me excited! Sprouting seeds! It’s almost time! Next week I need to get the first phase of my light set-up arranged, and I also need to clean off the fridge.  My plan is to begin with the alliums.  I will sow them in cell-packs with a clear plastic lid, and set them on top of the fridge to germinate. It’s a little warmer up there, which is what you need to get sprouts.  Once they’ve sprouted, they’ll move to the basement grow station, and then I will wait to repeat the process in February with some brassicas.  Ah, gardening.  I love it.

Germination Test

Today I took all my garden seeds out for a good look through.  Oh my.  Here I’ve been thinking these last few months that I really needed to do some serious seed shopping.
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Um.  I don’t think so.   There are a few things I would like to amend with, but for the most part, I think I need very little as far as new seed goes.

I have 32 varieties of tomato seed, and as of right now, I am planning on just 16 tomato plants for my garden.  However, I could be persuaded to bump that up to 24, but I’d like to try and keep it around 16.  Some of my seeds need to be eliminated as contenders, and then there’s the ones I would like from the Minnesota garden.  Sigh…

I need to get some more varieties of lettuce- and a mesclun mix of some type.  I also am thinking that I need to get some new hot peppers this year, as my seed is several years old, and pepper seed is reliable for about two years.

And that’s where the germination test comes in.  As I was going through the seeds I found several different varieties of onion, leek and scallion seed.  Allium seed is notorious for only being good for a year or so- and some of this seed is 3 years old.  I have new seed already for this year, since I was convinced to try onions again, but what about all these old seeds?

Well, rather than try and sow them and see what happens, I am performing a germination test on the five varieties of old onion seed.   It’s really very easy, the tough part is waiting a week for the results.  Basically, I took some paper napkins (paper towel is recommended, but it turns out I’m all out) and got them nice and damp.   Then on each one, I laid out exactly 10 of my seeds.
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That napkin got folded up and placed in a plastic zipper bag.  The bag was labeled, and when all was said and done, I placed my stack of baggies in a nice warm spot.
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In a week I will check to see how many of my seeds have sprouted.  Using exactly ten seeds will give me an accurate percentage to go by for planting consideration.  If seven sprout, I have 70% germination, and I’ll know to sow fairly thickly.  If less than five sprout, I will either have to sow thickly or just discard the seeds.  I will likely just discard in those cases.

In other news, I did receive my first seed order of the season, compliments of the Minnesota Garden Team. 🙂 I received a Johnny’s gift card for Christmas, and was delighted to find all kinds of goodies on sale on their website.  I placed my order, and using the gift card, I was only charged 30 cents for my order.
seed order
Well, when the order came in, I saw to my delight that Johnny’s had not charged me that 30 cents after all.  I imagine that small amount is a waste of time for them to run through a credit card machine, and would likely cost them more than it’s worth.  But it was still a sign of a nice company that they discounted my order that simple 30 cents.

In this order are my new onion seeds, some cucumbers for both pickling and slicing, an artichoke, (which I am very eager to try growing here) as well as a few lettuces and a few varieties of squash.  I did well on this order, considering I hadn’t checked my seed stash first, nothing was duplicated, and I did indeed need these seeds.

Very soon, I am going to share some thoughts on winter harvest.  Thoughts I never really considered before, but let me just say, my eyes are being opened to a whole new way to garden.

2010 Garden Report

First off, I apologize for not posting more once the garden started producing. We were pregnant with our first child, and once the garden had ripe fruit it produced like crazy until mid-October. I was running solo on all garden work and post garden work (processing all the wonderful proceeds). At its height I was picking between 10 and 15 pounds of tomatoes every time I went into the garden (tried to limit myself to every other day for my wife’s sake).

I made a lot of salsa.

I made 170 or so jars of salsa this year (52? when Erika was here), but we gave away a ton for Christmas presents. I think we made a decent amount, but I was ready to be done when I was making the last batch. Even with all that salsa we had plenty of tomatoes, and sent home a ton with Erika and family at Labor day. That was from 23 plants (had to yank one, and one other I did not get anything edible from). It was also a perfect growing season here in Minnesota, so everything was very productive.

Some thoughts on the salsas.

Zesty – This recipe is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. This is my favorite recipe, and each batch tastes a little different with different levels of heat depending on which tomatoes and which peppers were ripe. Usually this ends up on the stronger side of medium, and one batch I would consider a mild hot.

Anna’s – This is actually the “Annie’s Salsa” recipe from online somewhere. We do not add any tomato paste or sugar (makes the salsa taste like tomato sauce). This is my wife’s favorite recipe, and the cumin adds a smoky flavor to the salsa.

Jalapeno – This is also from the Ball book, and is one of my favorites. This recipe is quite spicy, and is great cooked into other foods. My favorite is to put a tablespoon or two into my scrambled eggs as I am cooking them.

Roasted Chipotle – This recipe (from Ball book) is supposed to be made with Chipotles (dried, smoked jalapenos) but I could not find any. So I used dried pablano and ancho peppers instead. Then I roasted the garlic, tomatoes, and peppers. This one has an interesting taste, and I will try it again next year with the right ingredients. Erika did make one batch with actual Chipotles, and I can’t wait to dig into that jar of salsa.

Spicy Tomato – Another recipe (from Ball book) that calls for dried peppers. I am only so-so on this one. I might try it again next year with chipotle peppers instead.

Mango salsa – I am not really into the sweet salsas as a general rule. This recipe (Online recipe. Make sure you check the source for online recipes as canned goods need to have a very specific acid content to be canned safely) calls for green mangos (the ripe mangos have too low of an acidic value to be used). At first I was only so-so on this one but it has been growing on me. It is excellent on fish tacos, and my wife informs me it was wonderful on warm brie.

Peach salsa – This was a very pleasant surprise. This one was also from the Ball book of canning. I hated making this recipe, as slicing up slippery, wet peaches is a real pain. The flavor makes up for it though. It is fabulous. I rate my friendships on whether I would give them a jar of peach salsa or not. It is precious to me.

I will not be growing Dr Wyche’s, Black Krim, Brave General, and Brandywine for sure, and probably not Yellow Pear. I might try and find Yellow Submarine and see if that is an improvement at all.

I was very disappointed in my Black Cherry production for having two plants. I only got 127 fruit vs 300 yellow pear (one plant) before I stopped picking them.

The Malakite was the king of the garden again, though Golden King of Siberia almost supplanted it.

Seeing saladette sized tomatoes on my Sungold plant was very disappointing, though to be fair they weren’t bad tasting tomatoes.

So here is the tomato count!
Yellow Pear – 307
Black Cherry – 127
Unknown Saladette – 127
Cuor Di Bue (2 plants) – 70
Pantano Romanesco (2 plants) – 32
Carbon (2 plants) – 39
Golden King of Siberia – 23
Cosmonaut Volkov – 33
Sungold (in a pot) – 34
Monomahk’s Hat – 12
Malakite – 40
Brave General – 27
Purple Russian – 36
Vorlon – 14
Golden Sunray – 18
Cowlick Brandy – 11
Dr Wyche’s – 6
Green Zebra – 56
Black Krim – 11
Pink Ponderosa – 32

A few notes about each variety –

Yellow Pear – 70 DTM – The tomatoes aren’t bad, but I hate how it tries to take over everywhere, it is very hard to manage this plant.

Black Cherry – 76 DTM – My favorite tasting tomato. I didn’t get enough of these to satisfy my desire for them, so I bought them from the farmers market as well.

Unknown Saladette – 71 DTM – This was supposed to be Sungold Select II. I guess I will need a different seed source for these next year. I had 3 out of 4 produce true to form, but two went to friends and the third was in a 5 gallon pail.

Cuor Di Bue – 72 DTM – Red oxheart that produced well. Flavor was decent and this one was also great for making soup and salsa.

Pantano Romanesco – 78 DTM – These all came out ribbed for me, very pretty tomato. Good for slicing, salsa, and pretty much anything else you wanted to use it for.

Carbon – 77 DTM – A true jewel of the garden this year. One of the best tasting tomatoes I have ever tried. Most of these were over a pound, and I had two over two pounds.

Golden King of Siberia – 70 DTM – A real surprise this year. These giant yellow fruit were bursting with flavor. I may have only gotten 23 fruit, but 2/3 of them were over a pound. You can see which batches of salsa have this tomato in them.

Cosmonaut Volkov – 70 DTM – A nice tasting pink beauty. This one will keep going in the garden as long as I have room.

Sungold (pot) – 71 DTM – A very sweet tasting tomato. My wife’s favorite, though I would take 1 black cherry over 10 sungolds any day.

Monomahk’s Hat – 71 DTM – A well balanced tomato for any use. I would take up valuable garden space with it again.

Malakite – 73 DTM – This plant produces loads of medium to large great tasting fruit. One of the first to start and the last to stop. This is a must grow.

Brave General – 77 DTM – This one will not make it back into my garden. I had optimal growing conditions yet this one was still watery and kind of mealy tasting.

Purple Russian – 79 DTM – THE find of the year. I could not believe it when I bit into this tomato for the first time. This one might actually taste better than black cherry, but it is hard to tell. It made the best everything we used it for. I will never go without growing this tomato if I have space for a garden.

Vorlon – 81 DTM – A great tasting tomato, but not very productive. I will give it another try in a better location to see if I can get more productivity out of it.

Golden Sunray – 81 DTM – Stunning orange fruit with a decent flavor. Very pretty to slice up and good for eating or salsa.

Cowlick Brandy – 86 DTM – Very disappointed with this tomato. It had been so hyped up to me but I thought it was just ok. I will not grow this one again.

Dr Wyche’s – 86 DTM – Nothing special to speak of. Wilty plant and not very productive.

Green Zebra – 85 DTM – Tart tasty tomatoes that are very productive. This one will go in every year until I can find something better to replace it.

Black Krim – The least favorite of the purple tomatoes I grew, but still pretty flavorful. If the plants were more productive I would add this to the yearly grow list.

Pink Ponderosa – 89 DTM – The freebie from a Baker Creek order last year. This tomato was decent and fairly productive, though late in the season. If I have room this one will end up in my garden again.

In the next couple of weeks here I will be starting my garden plan for 2011. I already have most of the peppers planned out, but am still unsure of a lot of the tomatoes. This last year I really missed the productive Serrano plant I had the year before. I will make sure I start my peppers early enough that I get a good harvest from all of them.

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