Secret Farm: A garden blog

Vintage Wine - It's about time!

Wow - it's been 2 years since I posted? Where has the time gone? To social media I guess. ;) Well, if there's anyone out there - spambots, this does NOT include you! (Die spambots die! etc, etc) Here is a beautiful tomato. It's called Vintage Wine and it's a medium large beefsteak heirloom. One of the largest I've got this year, which isn't saying that much unfortunately. With all the heat and rain you'd think I'd have some giants - but then I never got around to ordering seeds and the stores just did not have the heirlooms I was looking for - lesson learned! Order online if you want the weird (best) tomato varietes! The flavor is generally good on this one, haven't actually busted into one yet this year, but I recall it having a pretty good sweetness and balance. A good slicer for your tomato sandwiches for sure, and pretty to boot. Just about the prettiest I've seen. What is your favorite variety this year? (Spambots, not you! I know it would be a stupid Early Girl or some other mass produced tasteless thing anyway. :P)

Ode to Tomatoes

The street

filled with tomatoes

midday,

summer,

light is halved

like a tomato,

its juice runs through the streets.

In December,

unabated,

the tomato invades the kitchen,

it enters at lunchtime,

takes its ease on countertops,

among glasses,

butter dishes,

blue saltcellars.

It sheds its own light,

benign majesty.

Unfortunately,

we must murder it:

the knife sinks into living flesh,

red viscera,

a cool sun,

profound,

inexhausible,

populates the salads of Chile,

happily, it is wed to the clear onion,

and to celebrate the union

we pour oil,

essential child of the olive,

onto its halved hemispheres,

pepper adds its fragrance,

salt, its magnetism;

it is the wedding of the day,

parsley hoists its flag,

potatoes bubble vigorously,

the aroma of the roast knocks at the door,

it's time!

come on!

and, on the table,

at the midpoint of summer,

the tomato,

star of earth,

recurrent and fertile star,

displays its convolutions,

its canals,

its remarkable amplitude and abundance,

no pit,

no husk,

no leaves or thorns,

the tomato offers its gift of fiery color and cool completeness.

--Pablo Neruda

Amish Gold

These guys are Amish Gold - literally. Well, ok not exactly, but they are damn tasty! They are a cross between an Amish paste tomato and a Sungold Cherry, and they are nice and tangy and great for slicing because of their shape. I really like the longer format tomato, you get such cute little tomato circles out of them.

I will most definitely grow these next year!

Japanese Black Trifele

This fine pair are Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes. These were the ones I was most excited about this year for some reason - I'm sure it is the name. I mean, if they were called Early Boys or something, I wouldn't be interested. As they are named they have the mystique of the black truffle mushroom - or so I thought. Of course, as excited as I was about them it was pretty much assured I'd be disappointed. And yes, I was. They are ok, but I didn't think they even measured up to the Black Prince, which are so far my favorite black tomato. Ok, just to be sure, I'm gonna go cut up another one right now and taste it again...

Ok, yes, they are disappointing! Very mild and really barely any tomato flavor. Hmmm, I think I'm going to have to try them again anyway though, because I really like their pear shape and I didn't get them in early enough to let them fully ripen on the vine. Is that going to make a difference? Stay tuned.

Vintage Wine

This is a Vintage Wine tomato. It's very pretty, but the first one we had was pretty mediocre in flavor I thought. I'm pretty picky though, so anyone else might think it was just fine. As far as growing it again next year - it has decent production and medium size, flavor is as I said, ok, but it kinda makes up for that by being pretty so, yes, I'll grow it again.

Hurry up and grow little 'maters!

They're taking all the tomatoes away from us!

Well, not all and frankly only the worst ones - I'd hardly call those anemic restaurant things tomatoes anyway.

Here's a link to the current story.

Here's a link to a 2006 run of the same thing.

Think now is the time to grow your own - I think so!

Lorika in the Star Tribune!

Hurray! I'm in the Home and Garden section of the Star Tribune today!

The article is on the rise of vegetable gardening in the city.

Check it out!
Homegrown heats up

Golden Queen Tomatoes

Best. Tomato. Ever. EVER! These are seriously the best tasting slicers I have ever had. Tangy, sweet, juicy - with an almost mango like texture and hint o' tropical flavor. Mmmmmmm! Now I'm panicking though, because I got these seeds from a neighbor who got them from someone on the internet, and I don't know if I can get any more. I am trying to save seeds from them, but I've never done that before, so we'll see how that goes. Anyone got any tips?

What's your favorite tomato?

Amish Paste Tomato

Here is one of the first Amish Paste tomatoes. They are big and red and seem to be a great paster - though I have yet to make any paste - ever. I probably won't either. I'm not really a sauce maker, and certainly not a canner. I do like to cook with tomatoes though, which is why I grew these guys and the Black Plum Pastes as well. Having to cook everything so long using my slicers last year made me finally see the light. They taste pretty good uncooked too. I will grow these again.

Another plus is the plant is also really big and branching, or wait, is that a minus. Well anyway, The plant is giving me a really good crop. It's one of my most prolific producers.

Mysterious Yellow

These guys are a complete surprise. I thought they were going to be Green Zebras like the rest of the volunteer tomatoes that I plopped in next to the garage, or maybe a Half Moon China as I had lots of them fall off and rot last year due to squirrel and mice damage, but no. They formed unifom smallish globes and I thought, oh they are Burbank Red Slicing Tomatoes. Oh well. (Not one of my faves from last year.) They started to ripen, and instead of red they were - yellow! With red streaks on the bottom even. Huh. Never grown these before. What gives? The only thing I can think of is cross pollination. Does anyone else have experience with that? How often does it happen? Any other suggestions for what happened?

Well, they're nice sunny little yellow guys anyway, and quite agreeable on the palate as well. Nice and juicy with your regular type tomato twang. A good sandwich or salad tomato. They are also hardy little suckers as they are sandwiched between two zebra plants, have been trampled quite a bit and barely watered.