Tag Archives: tomatoes

Early April 2015 Garden Update

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SeedlingsGod has answered my prayers today for rain. Although looking outside, I am debating if it is rain or really slushy snow. It is so wonderful to not have to water today. That is the biggest downfall of living in the desert, there is never enough water it seems. This year is even more nerve wracking, since we only got snow for Christmas, and maybe a few other times, but certainly not enough to pull us out of the drought we were in last year, despite all the wonderful autumn rain. One thing is for sure, though, you become an expert at the weather when you are a gardener.

So, while we are blessed with rain on this beautifully, cloudy day, I am focused on my indoor gardening. I have started my summer seeds, to be planted outside in roughly one month from today. Planted six days ago, my seedling tray now contains 10 Marketmore cucumbers, 7 Noir De Carmes cantaloupe, 1 Crimson Sweet watermelon, some German Queen tomatoes (I couldn’t tell how many were pushing up through the dirt), 1 Stupice tomato, 3 Sun Sugar tomatoes, 3 Paul Robeson tomatoes, 4 Sungold Select II tomatoes, 1 Tondo Scuro Di Piacenza zucchini (an heirloom eight ball zucchini), 1 Connecticut Field pumpkin, 1 cilantro, and 41 Green Mountain Multiplier onions. I am just imagining all the food I can get with that alone, but there is more I am still waiting on: Dark Green zucchini, Spaghetti squash, Jack Be Little pumpkins, and I am hoping for more watermelon.

Outside, my Tom Thumb peas are doing well, and my Swiss chard has sprouted. The strawberries are in bloom, and produced many new starts, which I moved to an empty area. I still need to finish weeding them. It’s slow going, since the majority of the weeds are mint and grass, two of the most difficult weeds you could ever have in an area. I bought seed potatoes at my favorite nursery yesterday, Yukon gold, a red variety, and a blue variety. The box for them is cleared, and simply needs to be loosened and compost added to it. And, finally, all of the carrots have been harvested from last year. They are so tasty, and digging them out of Mel’s mix has got to be the most fun thing you can do with your children in the garden. Imagine playing in a sandbox filled with dirt and carrots, instead of sand, and then being able to feed the carrot tops to the chickens, because they love them.

Lunchtime

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For the longest time, feeding kids lunch has eluded me. Once they got past the baby food and formula, and into the real stuff, I had no idea what to do for lunch. Breakfast and dinner were just fine, but lunch was impossible. Sandwiches simply aren’t an option for the toddler/preschool age, because they don’t understand why you would stack everything just so and then they can’t balance everything between the bread anyway. Even a simple tuna sandwich would be taken apart, the tuna eaten, and then the bread. For the longest time, I made soup, because it’s delicious and easy, but that was still too messy to continue for long. Then the raw foods craze came out, and I figured it out.

Chicken TendersOur lunches now consist of either chicken tenders or left overs and tons of raw fruit and vegetables. Protein and carbs, it’s a perfect meal for the middle of the day. I cook the chicken tenders in olive oil, so there is a bit of fat, but we get the majority of our fat from breakfast and dinner. (If you don’t know yet, I believe that saturated fat is good for you, and that olive oil is good in small amounts as well.…And actually I think everybody’s body is different so there is no one diet that will work for all.)

So, this is how lunchtime goes for us now. Starting around noon, I heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Then I add 3-4 frozen chicken tenders (Costco has the best.) After about five minutes, I flip them over and season the partially cooked side with Emeril’s Original Essence. It’s a fantastic spice blend that has become a staple in our household. Five minutes later, I flip them over again and season the newly cooked side. Then I flip them 1-2 more times until they are completely cooked. When the chicken is done, or very close, I get out a plate and pack it with fruits and vegies that are cut up or prepared in such a way that they make easy finger food for my kids. For example, baby carrots just go straight on the plate, grapes are washed and left on the vine, oranges are peeled and pulled apart, bananas and cucumbers are peeled and sliced into discs, and apples are cut into slices.

Fruit and Vegie PlateThen I stick the fruit and vegie plate between my girls, give them each a chicken tender, and we say a prayer on the food. Yes, I make them exercise self-control to not touch the food while we pray. It’s only 30 seconds max, and they handle it just fine. As soon as we’re done praying, they eagerly load their own plates up with whatever looks good to them. There are a few rules that they are required to follow. First, they must have one bite that they swallow of everything on the fruit and vegie plate. Second, they must have at least one more bite, beyond what they have already had, of chicken before they go for seconds from the fruit and vegie plate. They were resistant to these rules at first, but I stood my ground and stick to my word. If they have had one bite of a food and decided they don’t like it this time around, then I don’t make them eat any more of it. When they are finished, I have them clear their plates off the table, but leave the fruit and vegie plate out with whatever is left over for them to snack on whenever they want. Around dinner time, I give whatever is left over after snacking to our chickens, who devour the rest of it.

Sometimes I pick one color as the theme of the plate, and other times I try to make a rainbow of colors. When I first started, almost everything I put out were fruits and vegetables that they were already used to, but over time, I have been trying to expand their palates by trying a new fruit or vegie every so often. In the past I have done strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, pears, grapes, bananas, oranges, clementines, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and black olives. This week, I was able to buy more fruits and vegies than normal, so we have cucumbers, yellow cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and pineapple to try. When I put the sweet peppers out, the girls we very excited to try them, because they’re actually the ones who picked them out. As it turns out, that’s the one food they only took one bite of. Unfortunately for them, I have a whole bag of them, so they’re going to have to take one bite of them every day this week. Maybe I’ll give them some salad dressing to help with the taste. The cucumbers were devoured so fast that I almost didn’t get any for myself.

Sweet Pea Tomato Plant

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Sweet Pea TomatoesIf you recall, back in May, I wrote a post about the ten different kinds of tomatoes plants that we planted this year. I was very worried that I would get overwhelmed by so many plants, but so far by pruning and trailing them, they haven’t gotten out of hand, and I have a lot of green tomatoes waiting to ripen up.

The first tomatoes to ripen come from my Sweet Pea. So many people get confused when I talk about this plant. It is not a pea plant; it is a tomato plant that produces tomatoes the size of a pea. The plant is very bushy, having seven main stems, even with excessive pruning. I prune this plant the most out of all my tomato plants. The plant is only about two feet tall. I have not pinched off the top yet, so I am curious to see if it will get any taller, but to already be focusing its energy on ripening tomatoes, I don’t think it will grow much taller.IMAG0700

I planted this in a pot, which might contribute to its small size, but it has thrived in the confined space, and remained movable if needed. As more and more fruit has grown, it has become necessary to support some of the main stems with bamboo rods. The tomatoes are fun to snack on and the go very well in a salad.

Pruning Tomatoes

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I wanted to post this yesterday, but then I realized that I hadn’t introduced my tomatoes, and I definitely wanted to do that, so I saved this until today. Our tomatoes are about 1-1 1/2 feet tall right now, so I decided to prune them a little. It’s really easy to do, and I’m glad that I’m starting them this young, because the “wound” that is created is small enough to not cause problems, and the suckers are really easy to pick.

SuckersPruning is definitely scary the first year around, but if you educate yourself and then trust that you won’t pick off good, strong, fruit bearing stems, it’s not so bad. Some people like to prune their tomatoes to only one main stem, and others like to have a few main stems. It really is up to you. Just know that pruning creates bigger, stronger, tastier tomatoes, so even just a little to start with will be beneficial.

I’m not going to go into the details of how to prune, because this You Tube video does way better than I ever could. Plus, the accent is fun to listen to. I just wanted to get fellow gardeners thinking about it.

Tomato Plants!

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Our tomato plants have been in the ground for almost two weeks now, because the weather was unusually warm for this time of year. Even with the recent cold spell just last week, it was still warm enough that none of our plants needed covering, particularly our tender tomato plants. While I was only planning on eight tomato plants this year, which is way more than enough for our little family, my supplier, who just lives down the street, was very generous and provided us with two extras for free. Since I don’t have room for them in my yard yet, they are in the biggest pots I can spare until we find space for them.

Sweet Pea Opalka

To make space for the eight that are actually in the ground, my amazing husband pulled up all the grass three feet out from the house along the West wall. It was no small task to be sure, but I am so grateful he did it, because it looks amazing, and is a perfect spot for growing tomatoes. We choose the West wall, because it gets tons of sun in the afternoon and evening. Tomatoes need warm roots and plenty of sun for photosynthesis.

West Wall

So, let me introduce you to our tomato plants. First, we have a Sun Sugar and a Golden Rave. The Sun Sugar is a cherry tomato that tastes like candy in tomato form. The Golden Rave is a paste tomato, which means it as more flesh than juice. Like the name says, it’s going to be a golden color, and it will be the shape of a Roma.

Sun Sugar and Golden Rave

Next in line, we have a Paul Robison, which is a black tomato, and a Monica, which is another paste tomato and essentially a Roma.

Paul Robison and Monica

Then we have a Hamson. I am super excited about this one, because it was designed specifically to do well in Utah. It can be whole packed, which means canned as a whole tomato, instead of sliced or diced. The Caspian Pink is a large Russian tomato that is pink!

Hamson and Caspian Pink

And, finally, we have a Black Krim, another black tomato, and another Sun Sugar. We have been called crazy for having two Sun Sugars, because one plant produces a lot, but I now they will all be eaten.

Black Krim and Sun Sugar

The tomatoes in pots are a Sweet Pea, a tiny cherry tomato, and an Opalka, a large paste tomato.

Gardening Makes Eating Worth It

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Gardening makes eating worth it. I know that probably sounds totally bizarre, and it might even explain why I’m not over weight, but being one who is addicted to sugar and is trying so hard to stop, this statement is spot on. I use sugar like a drug. While I am using sugar, my body hurts less; I feel like I can relax and think clearer, and then when I’m done down my ice cream (my very favorite form of sugar), I go back to feeling absolutely disgusting. In fact, many times I even feel worse, because I over ate, or over dosed.

As a teenager, I marveled at the girls that could just down sugar without a second thought. I wasn’t worried about how much weight they wouldn’t gain, because that wasn’t a problem for me. I was wondering how in the world they could possibly not get sick from eating so much sugar. It wasn’t until I married my husband that I found someone like me. My sister-in-law has the same problem I do. We both get ill from eating too much sugar. Being different people, there are different types and amounts of sugar that will set us off, but we both understand the nausea that accompanies a poor choice of too much dessert or snacks or breakfast…

These all came from my garden and were wonderfully sweet.

So, back to my wonderful garden. Do you remember the day you learned that tomatoes are a fruit? And you couldn’t possibly imagine how that could be, because they’re not even sweet? No store bought tomato is ever going to be the sweet you think of when talking about fruit. It simply can’t happen. The tomatoes are picked well before they are ripe, and then shipped in a truck that ripens them along the way. A tomato that is not picked red off the vine will never be sweet. (And those tomatoes on the vine don’t count either. They just cut the vine and let the tomatoes ripen on a cut vine.) A tomato that is allowed to ripen completely on a vine that is attached to roots in the ground will be the sweetest tomato you ever eat. Not only that, it will be the reddest tomato you ever eat. (Unless of course you are eating an orange or yellow variety.)

And that is why growing a garden makes eating worth it for me. Cane sugar, the kind of sugar I have yet to give up, (Somehow I managed to give up the more heavily manufactured kinds of sugar/sweeteners.) plagues me with temptation daily. So, when I take a bite out of one of my home grown tomatoes, and revel in the delicious sweetness that I was not only able to produce, but am also able to eat without any of the ill side effects of other sugary foods, garden definitely makes eating worth it.