“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

For the Love of Tomatoes


The best reason for a home garden is the delicious flavor of a summer tomato
picked fresh from your own vine.




 
There is a mysterious thing about a homegrown tomato that is different from the store-bought versions.  It is that special aroma and taste that occurs only when the fruit is picked and kept at the plant's ideal growing temperature.   The perfect temperature to keep a tomato living so that it sweetens and continues to ripen is 65°F to 85° F in an open oxygen-rich location.

Commercial tomato growers have tried to convince us that the red balls that appear in most grocery stores are "fresh" tomatoes. Often they are picked while still green and tasteless. Usually packed in plastic and cellophane and gassed with ethylene gas to redden their skins on their trip to the northern markets.

Now we have greenhouse-grown fruit that has been raised under grow lights so they will turn color and are left on the vine in clusters.  This again is an illusion to convince the buyer that this is a vine-fresh product.  Better, but still missing something.

Now that genetic engineering has improved the shelf  life of tomatoes, they can remain in a kind of suspended animation for several weeks or even up to a month without turning to mush.  However.....they're still missing something. That something is aroma, flavor and nutrients!

I  have to admit that some of the grape tomato varieties are sweet, but they still don't have that elusive taste of a homegrown tomato.  In the winter I buy them and dream of summer when I can have a truly delectable tomato right off my own tomato plant. 

This year with our hot weather, the tomatoes have done well.  I was very stringent about keeping them watered and they are looking wonderful.  As you see in the photos below, my tomatoes are planted in large pots. I decided that since sunlight is at a premium and the tomatoes could not compete with my five foot tall Bee Balm (monarda) that this would give them a better chance of survival. This places the plants about two feet higher than the surrounding flowers. So far, so good! We should have some ripe ones in just a few days.  I can't wait for a good old fashioned BLT sandwich!






A "Traveling Onion" (on left) tries to plant it's new bulbs in the tomato pot. A baseball size tomato showing color!

This year the varieties I am growing are Celebrity and Better Boy. Last year I grew an heirloom Brandywine and while they were really delicious, I ended up with less than a dozen tomatoes.  This years harvest is going to be much better! I usually use them up fresh, but occasionally I will freeze them whole.  I just throw them in a plastic zip bag and they go right into the freezer.  I use them within a few months to make  pasta sauce.

While I was reading up on tomatoes for this post, I found the cute quote below.




 
"Only two things
that money can't buy:  
That's true love 
and
homegrown tomatoes." 
                   Guy Clark
 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Few Summer Flowers

I simply cannot let the month close without adding a few more photos of my summer garden. The day lilies are finishing their blooms and the phlox are just getting started. The queen of the prairie has now turned from pink to brown, but I still like the texture in the garden. I have also noticed that the goldfinch love to eat seeds from the cone-flower, cat-mint, blue giant hyssop plant and a few others, so I don't cut them until later in the fall.



Big Daddy Hosta


We have had terrible hot weather and it has taken a tole on some of my plants.  Thankfully we had a wonderful two inches of rain the other night.  Our temperatures are supposed to stay cooler through the weekend and then return to the 90's by next week.

Queen of the Prairie

Pink Prairie Mallow




Cherry Monarda




Have a wonderful weekend everyone. ~ Diane ~~~