The Tomato Salad Days

It's tomato season.  Mary put three plants in during the spring, so we're seeing the results from one conventional and one heirloom variety - while the third looks healthy, it's not giving fruit.  Still, the little sample here is only half of the weekly yield.

We'll eat them in salads mostly, but she also puts them together with mozzarella and balsamic vinegar for an appetizer.  That dish will complete any summertime meal.

She's also sharing them with the Alexandria neighbors, especially old Herb, who used to keep a huge truck patch and was something of the inspiration for all of this, I think.

But seeing so many tomatoes also reminded me of the "agribusiness internship" I did at Public House Produce back in August 2011.  I wrote about David's success with tomatoes there in a post called "The Tomato King" (link here: http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2011/08/tomato-king.html).

This time of year is more a tomato riot over there.  I asked him about this year's crop, and he shared some details with me.

His crop is comprised of 3,000 plants in 15 varieties.  The yields vary - they are slightly lower for the traditional/heirloom plants (they make up for it in their rich flavor and delightful colors)...but it you consider that on average there are 25 pounds per plants, well - that's an incredible 75,000 pounds of tomatoes.  They'll be distributed out to shareholders in the CSA, at the Luray-Page Farmers Market, at the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction in Dayton, and some even make their way to the DC area (practically to our doorstep - I understand they are served at Arlington's Tallulah, only 2 miles from the Alexandria house!).

So back to the truck patch - Mary's two producing plants can be expected to give us around 50 pounds of tomatoes, and that's plenty for the season.  At some point we probably need to think about canning them though - I can imagine they'd be a burst of sunshine in depths of next winter.

New Vines at Hawksbill Cabin

So, after checking out all the new vines over at Wisteria and Beaver Run Brewery, I ended up with a half dozen rhizomes for hops vines from Dan.  During his harvest last fall - there are a couple of posts on this if you click on the Beaver Run Brewery label at the end of this blog post - he'd talked about thinning out the Willamette and Centennial sections of the hopyard.  He gave me three of each.

I plan to grow two of them out at Hawksbill Cabin, and I will container-grow two more at the Alexandria house.  For the third pair, I'm planning to share them with my USAF buddy and homebrewer Stan, who will container-grow them in Arlington. 

For the planting at HC, I chose a sunny spot in the backyard that should have summer sun for most of the day.  It is on the east side of the old shed, and far enough away from the north wall of the house to get good southern exposure.  This is also the area where I had a "bag garden" a couple of years, so there is old top soil still working its way into the marine clay of the yard - should be a post on that project under the container garden label below.

To plant the rhizomes, I dug a four inch hole.  I filled the bottom with compost, put the rhizome on that, and then covered it over with a mixture of soil and compost.  After gently tamping the soil, I watered them, about a half gallon each.

Now to watch and wait.

Mary's Truck Patch

I was awakened at 7am Saturday to the squeak-squeak-squeak of Mary turning the spigot to water her truck patch.  I usually don't hear this sound - I get up earlier to walk the dog, and by the time this watering chore gets going on most days I am down in the basement faithfully posting here.

This morning, Mary was quite chipper as she came back in the house.  She'd worked over the cherry tomatoes and proclaimed that she might set up over at the farmers market today.  I've got a photo of much of the take from her truck patch - this is all since Thursday night.

Here's also a look at the patch.  I'm guessing it takes up a spot that is 6x15 feet along the western fence of the Alexandria yard.  As you can see, there's yellow squash, eggplant, cherry and traditional tomatoes, peppers...and the okra there, which was a late addition, a gift from Herb. 

Herb also gave her about three dozen perfect, baseball sized tomatoes from his garden, which she ended up sharing with our neighbors.  Although on Thursday night, Mary sliced one up and we enjoyed it as a featured item on a BLT.

The patch is still going strong, although the heat and drought it taking its toll on the plants...I'll post again with progress.

Mary's Container Garden Update

On Tuesday, Mary went out into the truck patch and came back laden with yellow squash.  Now, she's been getting squash out of there already this season, but these big fellas were something else.  They must have been ready last Friday and then plumped up over the weekend while we were out at Hawksbill Cabin.

Also, there are the first pepper and tomatoes - she has three vines going, and they have absolutely taken over.  Dwarfed here is an eggplant...we've enjoyed about a dozen of these already too.

Still to come is the okra, Mary inherited six plants from our neighbor Herb. 

More to come, I'm sure!

Hydrangeas and Herbs

When I was out taking pictures of Mary's container garden yesterday there was no getting around the seasonal beauty of one of our summer favorites, the hydrangeas.  So today we'll have some photos of them in bloom.

When we first moved in here in 2003, they had basically taken over the place.  This is apparently a natural habitat for them and they thrive, and the previous owner said that it was a situation he just took advantage of - he did no work to maintain them, and let them survive or fail on their own, he told us.

There are fewer of them now then they were back then.  We've had some hot, dry summers and then there have been those winter storms, so a few of the shrubs have died off.  But we still have quite a selection and they occupy some major territory in the backyard.

Yesterday I showed off Mary's container garden featuring the vegetables.  For the last few years, we've also had a permanent rosemary plant going in the back yard, some lavender, and then containers of parsley and basil.

This also reminds me of something important.  They tell me that this will be the weekend that sweet corn starts showing up at the Luray Farmers' Market.  That's one thing Mary hasn't taken on yet in the back yard.

The Container Garden Takes Over

Mary planted a container garden this spring.  Actually it's quite a bit more than that this time, and it has already produced edible food, much better than what I was able to do with my feeble attempt last year.

She has yellow squash, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers going.  So far, we've harvested squash and eggplant - I grilled some of these over the weekend.  The tomatoes are coming along, probably will have a few ready by the end of this week; I'm not sure about the peppers.

These crops are in the space where our beautiful green wall of leland cypress used to be.  They were casualties of the 2010 winter storms - the snowpocalypse.

Mary visited some neighbors the other day, and they had okra plants to spare...so they gave her six of them.  She planted them at the end of the row, as shown here.  And there's our doggie!



The end of the bag garden

Mary still has tomatoes ripening in the Alexandria container garden – that’s not unusual for her, as she typically can continue harvesting until just before the first frost kills off the vines. Meanwhile my little experiment with bag gardening at the Hawksbill Cabin has ended – although we didn’t eat the zucchinis that came in (the backyard gopher did though, and the deer finally found the vines and ate the leaves off of the plants), I would call this a success.


Despite the skeptics (you know who you are!), the bag garden was a success because the bagged topsoil did keep the weeds away, and I didn’t see a single cucumber beetle on those plants, while the infestation in Alexandria was a natural spectacle. I saw a letter in the October/November 2010 Mother Earth News about another reader’s success with the approach, and I’d like to reprint an excerpt below:

"…This summer, our branch of the Adams Public Library attending our summer cooking class grow some of their own food, but most of these children had no access to a garden. Your article allowed us to think in a different direction. We planted four bags with green beans, cabbage, zucchini, radishes and lettuce.” The letter goes on to report that they didn’t have much success with the leaf vegetables or the radishes, but they did well with the beans and zucchini." - Rose Bryan, Geneva, Indiana

I imagine, just like in my case, the time for the summer bag garden has passed. In the photo above you can see the aftermath, where I turned the soil out of the bags and cleaned up the area. Now over the winter that topsoil will mix into the back yard. I am already thinking about whether or not to try it again next year – maybe with an earlier start, and maybe with a little fencing to keep the varmints out.

The Love Apple

We had a conversation about tomatoes with Heather and David at the Farmers Market last weekend – it was centered on the nick name “love apple” that tomatoes are sometimes called. With a bumper crop in the Alexandria container garden, exposure to all the varieties last month at the Mountain View market (photo below), a note about the tomato fest at the H-burg market (link: http://harrisonburgfarmersmarket.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/945/ ) – not to mention the standard and heirloom varieties you can find in the Luray market, as well as at Public House Produce – it’s a topic I thought I might look into further.


As far as I can tell from my online scan, the tomato was discovered in Europe, but made its way to South America, where it was cultivated by the Incas and Aztecs. It was rediscovered and brought back to Europe by Spanish explorers, notably Pizarro, Cortez, and Columbus, in the 15th and 16th Centuries. As it migrated across the continent, it picked up a variety of names in the different countries, and its reputation was as varied as the cultures discovering it.

For example, until the 1800’s, in England, apparently it was considered poisonous and was avoided – but the plant was cultivated in gardens anyway. Since the plant was reintroduced in Spain, in neighboring Italy it was nicknamed “apple of the Moors” – pomo dei Mori – which was subsequently altered in France to pomme d’amour.

Somehow, it gained a reputation as an aphrodisiac during all of this, which built on the French name (there is also a German variation of “apple of love” that refers to tomatoes).

Although it was his first encounter with the moniker, for his part, David wasn’t surprised by all of this. Since he eats tomatoes all the time, in fact, he said this helped explain some things for him. I couldn’t quite understand the point he was trying to make here – he may have been saying that he thought he was the aphrodisiac.

...anybody can grow zucchini, she says

So at last I have a zucchini I could harvest.  It's actually quite an accomplishment - as you can see here, it's on the cover of Mother Earth News, no less.

So as I am reporting this to my - friends - I get the comment that is this post's title.  Well there you go. 

Actually this squash got a little long in the tooth - so even though it was edible, it was so laden with seeds we decided not to use it in the recipe Mary selected, which came from the Moosewood cookbook, Amazon link below.

Also, this will be the only one we get from my container garden at the Hawksbill Cabin.  The hungry deer found the vegetable patch, and there are no leaves left on any of my vines.  The summer growing season is officially over.

Fortunately, we had some farmers' market squash leftover, and Mary decided to make a side dish for us:  "Stuffed Zucchini, Turkish Style."

The ingredients include the squash, minced onion, butter, crushed garlic, eggs, feta and swiss cheese, parley, dill, flour, salt and pepper and paprika.  The idea is to stuff the halves with the mixture (and the innards of the squash) after cooking it in the butter.  Then it is baked at 375 until the stuffing solidifies.

We paired this with tomato salad, because Moosewood recommends it and that's the other thing we have going right now - Mary's garden in Alexandria is under no threat of deer, and she is still getting tomatoes off of all the plants.

So, lessons learned:  you can do this container garden in a bag thing.  And it is an effective way to fight insects for the small timer.  But, if you are not going to be able to attend to the garden, and you are going to have to let it go native, like I did - you might be well served to protect it with a fence if you have deer.  And everything needed water this year, which is part of why not all my plants made it to bearing fruit.

I think we may try again next year.  But until then, we've always got the market.

Skeptics

As Hawksbill Cabin blog readers know, I was away for a couple of weeks and did not check on the vegetable garden during that time.  The cabin garden was planted under the assumption that the plants would mostly be on their own in any case.

Recall that I found the idea to plant directly in bags of top soil in Mother Earth News and decided to try it.  While my cucumbers and eggplant failed to germinate, I did get squash plants - zucchini and yellow gooseneck, and after the failures, I planted a white petite pan and a small watermelon plant.

Unfortunately, the dry summer is causing slow going on the watermelon, so at this stage, I don't expect anything from it.  The lack of water probably has something to do with the odd shape of this zucchini also.  We'll keep an eye on the petite pan, which was blossoming last weekend.

The big story is the zucchini - I finally had on ripe squash which I picked on Saturday.  Unfortunately, it looked like a bunny had nibbled a bit on it to see if it was ready - so I deemed it not fit for human consumption.  I sliced it and put it out in the yard for the deer (they've eaten all of the hostas and still might be hungry).  Before I tossed it I decided I had to have a photo of it for the record.

There are also goosenecks coming around.  Hopefully this one will make it until our next visit, when it might be our first produce from this garden.  Meanwhile, Mary is getting tomatoes and peppers from the Alexandria patch - the organic squash plants have succumbed to the heat and the cucumber beetles.

A final note - I saw that the cabin's Rose of Sharon hibiscus was in bloom.  This plant was a volunteer in the Alexandria yard, off of a plant that was a volunteer at our previous house in Alexandria.  So there's a tradition that will continue.

The Vegetable Patches

It occurred to me that I haven't posted with a status on the two vegetable patches we have going on - the traditional container garden in Alexandria, or the bag-patch I am trying out in Stanley. 

Starting with the patch out in Stanley - where I have started a variety of plants from seed, planting directly into bags of topsoil from Wal-Mart.  I took the idea from "Mother Earth News" - the advantages are that the soil is pastuerized before it is shipped, so weed seeds and insects are eliminated, and the bags provide a barrier to any lurking in the soil beneath.  I have green and yellow summer squash here, and also tried cucumbers and eggplants.

The cucumber did not germinate, so I replaced that with a watermelon vine I found at Wal-Mart, although I am not seeing a lot of progress.  The eggplants germinated, but never grew more than an inch and ultimately were fried in the sun, so I replaced them with some white petit pan squash.  The yellow and green squash are going absolutely crazy though, and I saw quite a few blossoms - some just opening, some already pollinated and closed. 

So we'll see what we get next weekend.  Walking around back there to water, the area is a riot of other life, including spiders, grasshoppers, and praying mantises.  Hopefully all of this, combined with the source of the soil, will keep the hated cucumber beetles away; just to make sure, I have a Sevin-like product I have been using - doesn't seem to be causing problems with the other garden residents, which is great news.

Back in Alexandria, Mary is having her usual great success with the tomatoes and peppers.  We haven't hit full stride on the harvest yet but she is already getting tomatoes, and there are a bunch of peppers on the plant just starting to form and grow.

My two squash plants here are casualties to the cucumber beetle.  Each blossom that has been pollinated and closes produces a feeble little squash that soon withers on the vine.  I have tried the Sevin-like product here, but I think the problem is complex, starting with the old soil that has been in the garden for a couple of years.  While the plants are still alive and still giving blossoms, I've pretty much given up on seeing any squash from these.

Complementing both gardens are some purple flowers - the hostas finally bloomed out in Stanley, and the hydrangeas in Alexandria are still going strong.  In Stanley, we've also got a nice mature planting of bee balm near the garden.

Container Gardens Update

We’ve got some squash blossoms on the plants in Alexandria – honestly, I can’t remember whether the yellow squash is on the left or right, and zucchini will be the other choice. One of Mary’s tomatoes (she put three varieties out this year) has fruit showing, while the others are blossoming. And there is at least one pepper blossom showing.


The squash plants came from Whole Foods and were advertised as organic, so they are pretty much on their own there in their little planter.  I did see some beetles and other bugs there in the plants so I have to go on line to identify them - unless a reader can help me.  The little guys were less than 1/4 inch long, and were striped lengthwise with yellow and brown.

For the simplified garden out in the country, the seeds have germinated – the yellow and green squash there is also robust. I probably should have thinned the squash plants this weekend, but will take care of that next week. The eggplant and cukes have just barely broken the surface of the soil – I thought I might wait and do my thinning all at once.

Looks like some stray grass seed has gotten into my little plot, so while I had hoped that weeding would be minimized, that's not going to be the case. 

We may only be thirty days or less from our first home grown summer vegetables, which will be from the Alexandria plants. We are still 60 plus days from harvest at the country garden.  However, with the Farmers’ market already up and running, we’re looking forward to picking up some nice vegetables out there soon.

The Cabin Container Garden, and Spring Flowers Update

A combined entry today – on spring flowers and the new “container garden” I planted out at the cabin last weekend.


First on the spring flowers – we have irises up, but it has been so sunny that they were already past peak last weekend and I didn’t take photos. These peonies, on the other hand, were blooming away, and there were a couple of other plants just getting ready to open up – if I recall, there will be some white ones, and another bunch that is a dark red.

As far as container gardens go, this year will be an experiment for us – Mary’s done so well with the one in Alexandria I thought we should try one at the cabin. I saw this approach in Mother Earth News and thought I would try it out. You keep the soil in the bags – for a couple of reasons:

• Eliminates the need to till
• Soil is pasteurized – no weeds
• Plastic bag keeps the native soil parasites away from the seedlings
• Recycle the bags at the end of the season, leaving the soil in place for next year

So I’ve got eggplant, cucumbers (a round, yellow variety), zucchini and yellow squash going in this plot. They are all vines, which is why I’ve done this trellising. These plants are going to be on their own for a lot of the time, so we’ll see how they do – germination ranges from 7 to 10 days, and harvests are up to 80 days after…that puts us into August, so we’ll see.

If we are successful, next year we will remove these hostas and have a second row.  But the bet, as neighbor Terry says, is that all I am really doing is feeding the deer and rabbits.

By the way, here's the link to the inaugural post about Mary's container garden in Alexandria:
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2010/05/container-gardens-here-and-there.html

This is an old shed that is directly behind the house.  It used to have power but doesn't anymore.  I think the Thompsons kept their freezer here, and Britt and Lori kept their pellets for the wood stove (which they bought in bulk by the ton) in a bin here.  A big black rat snake (the one that kept getting into the laundry room) used to live under it...who am I kidding, "used to" ...

Container Gardens Here and There

Over the last week or so, Mary has put together a container farm out there in back yard at out Alexandria house. I'll use this space to keep track of how it's going.

Shown here in the photo are the tomatoes and pepper plant she has started, mixed in with all the cuttings of curly willows - more on those in a minute. The vegetables weren't grown from seed, but are transplants she got from a local garden store - we had great success with this method last year, and hope to see that again this year.

On the curly willow - these cuttings come from the larger tree, in this photo, that has established itself in the backyard over the last six years. That tree actually originated from a branch that was part of a flower arrangement she received a few years earlier, which rooted and then grew. We are planning to transplant these down in the hollow near the stream out at Hawksbill Cabin later this spring.

We were also at Whole Foods early in the weekend, and they had little squash plants available, mixed in with their own range of tomatoes and peppers. Since I often cook up squash with whatever I'm grilling, we thought it would be fun to see if we could get these to grow in the containers as well.

We also have plans for a small container garden out at the cabin, but I won't be planting that until next weekend. And of course, whether we have great success with these or not, we'll be avid farmer's market fans out there!