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…

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!

A week of rain followed by 100º heat makes me forget what state I live in! But it does wonderful things for tomatoes in Minnesota. The tomatoes tripled in size in a week after the weather we had early June.

Next year I need to invest in some taller tomato cages (or build some).

This is probably the greenest my garden has ever been; there is a lot of space left to fill in with sunflowers for our wedding this September. I haven’t posted pictures for a while, so I have a few pictures lined up for this week: flowering onions, zucchini, strawberries… stay tuned!

Today… here’s Puck:

Checking things out. He stays in the paths (mostly).

“Broccoli…. cauliflower… kohlrabi! My FAVORITE!!”

Enjoying his garden

We’re finally seeing spring days in the 60s and 70s, with beautiful sunshine. But the temperature at night is still dropping into the 30s, which means that our nightshade plants are still traveling between the deck and the kitchen every day.

Tomorrow I hope to put in a good chunk of tomatoes. I’ve had problems with transplants dying off the last few years – not sure if it’s due to planting before a big rain, cutworm, or something else – but recently about 1/3 of my tomatoes’ stems have broken off right above the soil line after planting. So I have a few extras, and will wait to plant a handful for a week to see if I need to replace them with others. I have some large pots that the extras can go into, and a bit of extra space in the garden.

If the forecast looks good on Thursday, hopefully the eggplant and peppers can go out then!

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!

If you’ve ever tried your hand at growing heirloom tomatoes … then chances are you’ve run across Early Tomato Blight.

Early tomato blight is an infection (caused by the fungus Alternaria solani) that starts out as dark brown spots, yellowing leaves, and eventually spreads quite rapidly through the crop killing the leaves and fruits if it has a chance. The fungus spores form in hot, humid weather and then wait for a nice, cool, wet evening to start destroying the plants. We’ve definitely had more than ideal weather for blight this summer. It shows up just as the plants are starting to set fruit – and once the infection starts, it is nearly impossible to stop from spreading. If you’re growing organically and aren’t planning on dousing them with fungicide, that is.

Yesterday Jessi and I weeded around the tomatoes. The ground is quite dry and compacted. We added some compost on all the tomatoes and brassicas, but I am not too optimistic. A few rows still need some straw. Things haven’t gone how I imagined they would in my head, but I still think we will get some tomatoes out of the deal if little else. A lot of our tomatoes look really small while others are bearing fruit.

Niko checked out one of the multiple baskets full of tomatoes this afternoon. With snow in the forecast, it’s time to get these guys off the vines. Surprisingly, there were a lot more than I expected!

I made a green tomato and apple chutney earlier this year, which turned out really good! The next few days are going to be spent dealing with this lot. We have about a half paper grocery bag full of cherry and smaller-sized green tomatoes – I think I’ll try slicing them in half and pickling them. Should be interesting!

My guess would be somewhere around 60 pounds, but we didn’t actually weigh them. The basket handles started to break off on the last load, though!

Here’s a mini photo-tribute to our many kinds of heirloom tomatoes, which are finally starting to ripen.

Marvel Striped Tomato These are pretty delicious, but there are very few of them and their shape renders them useless as a slicing tomato. The few that we’ve picked also had some black infected areas around the top. They take a long time to ripen – from green to yellow to red.

Oaxacan Pink Tomato Definitely a keeper for next year. Heirloom tomatoes produce an incredible variety of different sized and shaped tomatoes on the same vine. Here you can see a crazy lumpy tomato (I read that this is caused by a defect in the flower) growing right next to a nice round tomato. These two are fairly large – we’ve been pulling the Oxacan Pink tomatoes from the vines in the front yard for a month now. The pink tomatoes in the front have, for the most part, been small (nearly cherry-sized) and round.

Amana Orange Tomato Again, a definite keeper for next year! These ones are finally starting to ripen, and we have 6 or 8 of them waiting to be picked. They’re rather large, and not too juicy – a perfect slicing tomato for a veggie burger or sandwich! (Again, another funky-looking one above!)

Prize of the Trails Cherry Tomato These dark orange cherries are delicious… but they’re really too big to just pop into your mouth!

We also have Early Red Tomatoes (which, by the way, were not “early” at all) and Roma Tomatoes – they’re both starting to produce a lot, but the pictures aren’t as exciting as these ones.