Grow Better Veggies

Goodbye, Christopher

Christopher, my wonderful farmhand, apprentice, sounding board, and raconteur, had to leave us and follow his dreams back in his home state, Tennessee.  Chris was a valuable part of the farm here, and did some great work on my well tower remodel, our new greenhouse project, and was the artist behind my favorite part of this blog: the beautiful banner you see at the top of every page.  I truly believe without that gorgeous banner, this blog wouldn't be nearly as well-received as it has been. 

Chris and I had nicknames for each other.  I started calling him "Orach" after he saw it growing in the garden and asked what it was.  I affected a southern accent and joked that it sounded like something a redneck would name his kid.  So from then on, he was Orach.  Not to be outdone, he started calling me the good ol' redneck name of "Verleen."

Thank you, Christopher, for your good help, and ultimately, your good friendship.  Here are his parting words:

A little over two weeks ago I packed my things and drove the long road home to Memphis, Tennessee.  Now I get to say goodbye in writing, and tell you what I will miss most about life on the farm.  It is difficult for me to put into words, so bear with me. I will miss MORNINGS the most. Mornings always start the same way:  coffee in Cynthia's kitchen, with fresh whipping cream to go in it.  Then, back out the door as the last wisps of fog burn away, with the sun breaking over the trees to the east.  The chickens always get excited and cluck a little louder as they hear a person coming to free them into the day yard.  The plants seem somehow conscious and attentive as you stride past the orderly rows to the chicken coop.  Dali, the potbellied pig, snorts 'hello' and asks for her breakfast.  The chickens flock like unruly children, their little chicken personalities showing through.

I will miss LUNCHES second-most. The lunches I cooked, I mean.  Fried red (and green) tomatoes . . . tomato gravy.  Sometimes there were so many tomatoes, we would have tomatoes with a garnish of tomatoes.  And tomato juice (just kidding).

I will miss SNACKS the third-most. Now I'm talking about garden snacking . . . biodynamic KALE fresh from the stalk . . . radishes that Cynthia did not know I ate . . . red mustard . . . parsley . . . did I mention tomatoes?  When harvesting tomatoes there are always the little cherry tomatoes that burst.  Not good enough for Manresa, but too good to throw away.  I solved this problem by eating them.

I will mess Chef David ALOT.  He always looks very snappy, except when he looks raffish.  And I DO miss CYNTHIA.  It's not easy being a super-smart farmer, huh?

Love to the dynamic duo of Trinity and Indiana Jones. 

Thanks, Chris.  Trinity and Indy send love to Poopers.  We'll all miss you both!

Photo by Chris Schmauch / GoodEyePhotography.com

Newly Revised How to Grow Better Tomatoes Booklet

I've been promising people for a few weeks that I will revise my Grow Better Backyard Tomatoes Booklet, and now I've finally done it.  I even made it a whole separate page.  Click here to go there.

If you think that it's basically the same as my previous versions, don't think that.  There are a lot of new tips and techniques in there, different from previous years, that will help all of you grow better tomatoes.

There is also a whole separate section (near the bottom of the document) that is dedicated just to growing tomatoes in pots.  If you've ever wondered how to grow tomatoes in pots, please read that.  Growing in pots is trickier and requires know-how and extra effort. 

I'm dedicated to helping people grow better tomatoes, so please feel free to forward the page to your tomato lovin' friends. 

If you have additional questions after reading the page, don't hesitate to email me at loveapplefarm@gmail.com to inquire further.

Good luck to everyone on a great tomato season.

Announcing our 2008 Tomato Plant Sale

It's getting to be that time of year again, folks!  Love Apple Farm will start selling tomato plants (also called starts or seedlings) Saturday, March 15, and continue selling them three days a week.  Our open hours will be every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  We should have plants for sale through May (or while supplies last). Click here to go to our page that details special appointment needs, a map to the farm, and our complete list WITH description of the 125 different tomato varieties we will be selling this year.

Photo courtesy of Tana Butler.

Questioning my Sanity and getting an Answer

Sometimes I get a little doubtful about the path I've chosen for myself.  Why am I out here in a quasi hurricane on my knees with frozen fingers meticulously cutting individual leaves off of my patch of Bordeaux spinach?  Why am I out here in 110 degree weather desperately trying to fix an irrigation break before the heat kills every living thing that I've spent the last six months nurturing?  Why do I do these things when I could go get a cushy desk job, go back to wearing tailored suits and high heels, go out to lunch with other similarly-attired professionals, getting manicures and carrying a briefcase instead of carrying 50 pound feed sacks around?  Here's part of the answer - an email I received yesterday from a stranger in Chicago:

Hi Cynthia,

I happened to view a television program, about Love Apple farm, at a friends house on satellite. I searched for your site in Google, and went through all of your site.  In fact, I am ordering various heirloom tomato seeds.

I wanted to tell you what your site has done for me, personally. I am a 56-year old guy from the Chicagoland area.  I am of Italian ancestry (of which I am VERY proud)!  Your site, and Love Apple Farm, brought me back to my childhood.  I can remember my wonderful grandfather, very much an old-world Italian man.  We lived, as many immigrant families did, in an apartment building. My grandmother and grandfather owned a 3-flat.  They lived on the first floor, we lived on the second, and their other child, and his family, lived on the third floor.  In those days, immigrant families  stayed very close. My grandparents owned the vacant lot next to the 3-flat.

My grandfather took that vacant lot, and turned it into a little farm….in the heart of Chicago.  In that lot, he had peach trees, sweet and sour cherry trees, pear trees, apricot trees…. you name it, and if it grew, it was in that garden!  I remember rows of beans, peppers, lettuce, celery, and TOMATOES!  I remember just strolling through the rows of tomato plants, and picking tomatoes, rubbing them on my shirt to clean them, and eating them on-the-spot!  There is a memory burned into my brain, and to this day, there is NOTHING like the smell of tomatoes fresh off the plant…in fact, I STILL like to run the stem of a tomato plant between my thumb and index finger, and just savor the scent that is released on my fingers!  There is also NOTHING in the world like the flavor of a warm tomato (from the heat of the sun), the smell of the tomato, and the taste right off of the plant!  God, did your site bring back some happy, and yes, some sad memories!

Thank you so much, Cynthia, for your site, and what you do!  I'll bet you NEVER received an email like this…..it's amazing what you have rekindled in my mind!  Again, I want to SINCERELY thank you!  It has been quite a few years since I have been in your part of the Country, and I don't know if I will ever be back there, but California also holds a very special place in my heart.  I have been through your area several times, and of all the vacation experiences I have had in my life, NONE match the  experiences that I have had in California!  It ranks #1 in my heart, and in my vacation memories!  Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco….mine is in California….as a whole!

You have a wonderful site, and you are doing a wonderful thing at that Farm!

Thank You So Much, Cynthia!

Sincerely,

Mike Optie

(printed with Mike's permission - what can I say, I'm verklempt!)

Tomato Seed Winners!

As always, I run a contest each time I send out a newsletter, and my last one was to give ten lucky folks a set of TomatoFest seed packets.  These seed varieties are wonderful:

Black Cherry

Dagma's Perfection

Tobolsk

Sunset's Red Horizon

and Black Prince:

(All photos, courtesy www.TomatoFest.com)

The winners are, according to the "name" they listed when they entered the contest: Annette, Cathy S., Jeph Remley, Annie, William Barnard, Cheryl, Breadl, Aggie, E., and Jen.  I have sent each of you an email letting you know how to claim your seeds.  And if any of you who are not yet on my newsletter list want to join in on all these free-wheelin' give-aways, click here to sign up.

Check back here for a series of posts I'll be having soon on starting tomato seeds.

   

Celeriac - Would You Eat Something This Ugly?

This looks God-awful, doesn't it?  Maybe not quite as intimidating of an initial bite as the brave soul who first sampled an oyster, but unappetizing-looking nevertheless.  But after you cut away the rough exterior (no peeler I've found seems to work), the interior white flesh has all the pleasant taste of celery, and none of the strings.  And did you know that the stalk of the lush, showy, parsley-esque foliage can be cut and used as a straw?  I'm thinking really tasty Bloody Marys!

I like growing celeriac, and the chef certainly appreciates it (give him a root veggie, any root veg, and he goes to town on it).  The downside to it is that it takes FOREVER from seed to harvest.  My last batch I sowed in flats in the greenhouse a year ago January, and we were picking it from August through the last harvest, which was when the above picture was taken, on January 19th.  From 8 months to a whole year!  One of the nice things about celeriac is that you can harvest it and store the bulbs for two or three months.  We don't do that here; we fresh pick Manresa's celeriac and they use it immediately.

Also called celery root, the seeds are very tiny, and they can take up to three weeks to germinate.  They need to be kept constantly moist, which  makes it a challenge, as it is sometimes hard to be that vigilant.  That's the first reason I sow in flats rather than directly sow the seeds in the ground.  The second reason is that once germination happens, they are frustratingly slow to grow. They seem not to be doing anything for a long time, then you prick them out thinking they are way too small. Then they kind of sit there in their little pots not seeming to do much.  Finally one day you realize they're actually growing.  At that point you can happily transplant them out into your prepared bed, spacing them about six inches apart on all sides. Here is a newly planted bed:

Once the babies are safely tucked into their new bed, another wait is in order, about three months before you can harvest them.  It's perfectly fine, though, to start picking them once they are showing a couple of inch diameter bulb.  You'll be able to see the bulb poking up out of the soil.

The cultivar I use is called "Brilliant," and it's a biodynamically grown seed available from Turtle Tree Seeds.  They carry only biodynamic and organic seed of many old heirloom varieties.  Every time I order from them, I've been extremely pleased with both the health and vigor of the plants, as well as the taste.

I'd love to hear if any of you grow celeriac and what wonderful things you might do with it.