In Minnesota, the tomatoes don’t really start to ripen until late July. This year, we had a lot of rain in July and I think that made the fruits take even longer to ripen. But once there are fresh tomatoes… nothing else in the world matters.

Our tomatoes are overrun with early tomato blight once again this year. It is at the point now where there are very few green leaves left on the vines; they are nearly all brown. Fortunately the fruit hasn’t been affected, but I’ve done as much as I can to try and manage it this year. I have some ideas for next summer – and I’m hoping to spend some time learning more about blight this winter.

That’s a giant bowl of assorted cherry tomatoes: Amish Mayberry, Prize of the Trials, and Yellow Pear. I’ve been working on our tomato varieties page, compiling a list of varieties we’ve grown over the years, seed sources, and a few notes. I’d like to put a bit more time into this, and also put together the Peppers section in a similar way. Maybe some day…

I added a tofu ricotta, cream sauce, and mushrooms. Topped with nutmeg and cinnamon. Chris wasn’t a huge fan, but I thought it was pretty good. Next time though… I think I’ll leave out the eggplant. Hah.

Today’s pick:

Our eggplants are loaded with beautiful white and purple fruits. The white eggplant is a variety from Monticello – apparently one that Jefferson grew, and has been passed down through the generations. They are good sized, long fruits – nearly 12″ long, and each plant has at least 8 fruits on it. What a great find!

Temperatures have been consistently reaching the 90s this month, with a few streaks in the 100s. Pair that with 2″+ of rain each week, and you have the perfect weather for eggplants and peppers.

For some reason, though, our tomatoes are not ripening. We’ve picked a few small cherry tomatoes, and today I picked a couple of nearly-ripe orange tomatoes (Amana Orange). They both have pretty big cracks in them though, and look like they could start to go bad soon. Torrential rain is not great for heirloom tomatoes; it causes them to grow too quickly, and then they crack and are prone to insects and rotting.

In other news, I picked a Hungarian Carrot Pepper and, not thinking, took a bite out of it. The description on the seed packet just said “Great for frying.” No mention of heat. FYI – hungarian carrot peppers are HOT. Right up there with cayenne peppers, but it’s a different kind of heat. I’m sure they are terrific for frying… and I’m curious to see if they are more tolerable when cooked!

I picked up a package of white eggplant seeds at Monticello this winter, and I’m really excited about these! I wasn’t sure what shape to expect from the fruits, and I’m glad these are long and skinny.

I’ve never successfully saved eggplant seeds before, but this fruit came out early for the season, so I’m hoping it’s a good northern variety that we can keep growing. The rest of the eggplants are loaded with flowers. I put in standard black eggplant as well. Looking forward to seeing the garden explode after this heat wave!

I finally started hardening off tomatoes and peppers this week. Last year I decided to start fewer plants inside, and purchase more at the local greenhouse… but I ended up buying seeds anyway. It is just so hard to resist starting plants inside! I already put in all of the cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi – and seeded radishes and carrots. The rest of the garden should be seeded within the week, so all that’s left will be tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.

They look pretty good; if the weather patterns hold most of these should be able to go into the ground next weekend. I do have a row cover and some fabric in case temperatures drop into the 30s later this May.

It’s that time of year again!

10 weeks until Minnesota’s average last frost. We like to put stuff out earlier than that if the weather permits. I have a lot of plans for the garden this year – including growing the flowers for our wedding this September! I’ll have to post more about that later. I also ordered 100 grape vines, and Chris ordered some nut trees so I’m sure this summer we will be busy planting.

There is a nice little nursery just down the road, so to save some time I am planning on just purchasing a lot of transplants from them. There are a few varieties that we just can’t pick up locally though: heirloom tomatoes, fancy peppers, funky-colored cauliflower… so I took out the shelves and grow lights and set everything up in our spare bedroom again.

There seems to be a lot of debate on using coconut fiber vs. peat moss as a seed starting medium. I read a few posts on gardening forums, and people have strong opinions about both – on which is the most environmentally friendly, and which performs better. I haven’t made a decision yet, but I did decide to put both to the test this year with our seedlings.

I picked up some Hoffman Seed Starter from Bachman’s. It is made of peat moss, vermiculite, and limestone. I also picked up some Burpee Eco-Friendly Concentrated Seed Starting Mix from Target, which is made of coconut fiber.

Half of the pots are filled with peat moss (the green pots in the picture above), and the other half with coconut fiber (yellow pots above). I prefer the consistency of the coconut fiber, and it seems to be better at both retaining moisture and draining than peat moss. We’ll just have to wait to see which one the plants prefer!

We grew three varieties this summer – Rosa Blanca (pink), Snowy White, and Black. This weekend, I think I’ll make some pita bread and baba ganouj.

My 2007 garden plan calls for 285 tomatoes. As of yesterday, we have planted 286 cells/soil blocks of tomatoes. This is a closeup of Heirloom Great White Tomato seedlings, planted about a month ago and moved into larger pots. (These were planted before we got our soil block maker).

I had thought we were a bit behind on planting, and so we rushed to the hardware store Saturday morning to see what they had. I actually found some heirloom varieties there, so we’re giving them a shot. Plus, we needed a “red” tomato, because until yesterday we had only planted white, orange, pink, bi-colored, and paste tomatoes!

Eventually we’ll have info about every variety of every vegetable/fruit we’re growing, probably a wiki… when we have time to write more and when the plants start to grow enough to talk about them!

Interested in heirloom tomatoes? We’re growing ten, possibly 12 varieties of heirlooms… 14 varieties in all. (The two non-heirloom varieties are Delicious and Sweetie Cherry. I’m fairly certian, but not positive, that the Roma VF and Gardener’s Delight cherry are heirlooms, but the package doesn’t say for sure).

So, this is neat: a break-down of our tomatoes:

• White Slicing: 60 plants (3 varieties, all heirloom)
• Red Slicing: 61 plants (2 varieties, 1 heirloom)
• Other Color Slicing: 55 plants (3 varieties, all heirloom)
• Paste: 73 plants (3 varieties, 2 heirlooms and the Roma)
• Cherry: 37 plants (3 varieties, 1 heirloom, Gardener’s Delight, and another)

I think this is a great mix, and I’m really, super excited about the white tomatoes. Maybe we have too many of them (**though they haven’t all come up yet, so we may end up having fewer), but I think they’ll be a huge hit at Farmers Markets. And I’m itching to make some white tomato sauce.

Seedlings planted March 5th: Tomato, Jahrdale blue pumpkin, and Brussels Sprouts

It’s that time again! I’m excited about this year’s garden. We saved a lot of seeds from last year – various chili peppers, amana orange tomatoes, and jahrdale blue pumpkin seeds (from my uncle’s pumpkins). We also ordered some seeds from Amish Land Seeds, which arrived last week. We planted them yesterday: Great White Tomato, Pineapple Bi-Color Tomato, and Heirloom Eggplant Mix.

… Tomorrow afternoon Chris and I have a meeting which may lead to an incredible change in our gardening this summer. I am both excited and nervous, but will have to wait to post more details later.

… and this is what happens when you let it snow before pulling your eggplants out of the ground (or, rather, out of their pots). The original idea was to move the eggplants to a warmer location once it got cold, and hope to extend their production a bit. But, alas, they didn’t produce as much as I had hoped and prolonging their lives just seemed futile.