Here it is: 2011's first tomato! This year, thanks to last year's utter tomato crop failure, I started my plants in April. Also, no fancy pants heirlooms, although I love them dearly, but only proven producers get a place in my yard. And, they have to be cherry tomatoes because we live in the fog during the summer. Cherry tomatoes seem to be the most immune to fog, probably because they take so few days to mature in comparison to their larger counterparts. I am growing Sweet 100s and Sugar Golds.
In addition to growing my own tomatoes, I vow to can enough local tomatoes to last us until the next tomato season. If this means that our living room cabinet is full of only canned tomatoes, so be it.
I was also motivated to take care of my little herb plot, which meant weeding, weeding, weeding. I just read "Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet", and one of the authors, J.B. Mackinnon wrote that he was offended by the high price of herbs when he found out how easy they were to grow. I agree! I have a small patch of oregano, two types of thyme, and two types of mint growing in the front yard. I dared to plant the pineapple mint directly in the ground with the other herbs, but I'm keeping an eye on it and tearing out rouge mint patches when necessary.
Don't ask me about the rest of our yard. Anything I can't eat gets very little attention from me.
Do any of you live in the fog as well and have prolific vegetable plant recommendations? I'd love to plant more food crops for the summer, but the scant amount of summer sunshine here deters me. I'm resigned to not growing peppers or eggplants.
I have also given up on eggplant and peppers. But tomatillos do brilliantly, as do fava beans (I've grown them in the summer, though I know they're typically thought of as a spring crop.) There's something I'm blanking on. . . oh! Potatoes. That was my big hit last year. It was like a miracle.
ReplyDeleteOh, tomatillos! I'd love to grow my own tomatillos, and miracle potatoes, and fava beans. Thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying peppers this year, for the first time. I do OK with chillies so I am optimistic. Last year I found Tumbling Tom to be an excellent cherry tomato variety.
ReplyDeleteI'm green with envy. It has either been too cold or too wet to dig in the garden and I'm starting to panic. I usually have potatoes, beets, onions, sugar snaps .. . .cold stuff already in. BUMMER.
ReplyDeleteI can smell that baby tomato from here and there is nothing nice. Except maybe a pile pets on the bed.
Foodycat, good luck with the chillies! Tumbling Tom is an excellent tomato name. I'll look out for them.
ReplyDeleteRani, the pet pile, unfortunately, doesn't smell so sweet. The dogs need to be bathed. Badly.