So this year, I really did not show any restraint. Although I started alot from seed this year, one trip to Gail's greenhouse and you actually get intoxicated. I actually bought Kale today....I mean really? I have over 40 kale plants that are thriving in my garden, yet Gails alluring tri colored Kale got me! So if you ever go to Gail's, don't have a plan.... the plan is just to let the moment move you and dream big! You will need to if you buy all the plants that tempt you. I promise to make you proud Mama Gail!
So here is the selection this year. Note I usually only allow myself to get 6 tomatoes. Well I already have 4 planted, and I got ten more....oops.
TOMATOES:
- Green Zebra (2)- Love them. Got two just as a backup ??!. Green Zebra is part of my heart and soul. They are deliciously tart and tangy and when married with a sharp cheddar cheese sandwhich, you have perfection. In official terms, Green Zebra is: Developed in 1985 by tomato breeder Tom Wagner, this is an unusual and exquisite tomato chosen by Alice Waters for her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. The 2-inch round fruit ripens to a yellow-gold with dark-green zebra-like stripes. The flesh is lime-emerald in color that has an invigorating lemon-lime flavor. A great tomato for brightening up salads and other tomato dishes.
- San Marzano (2)- From Italy. Compact and prolicic producer of bright-red, slim, 2-3 inch, plum-type, fruit over a long season. A paste tomato with pointy end, heavy walls and little juice, so it's great for tomato sauce. Crack resistant. Better tasting than Roma. Last year I ate these by slicing them and putting them atop crackers with humus. I mean really....just perfection. I think I need to think of some better adjectives cause perfection is about to be used alot!
- Kosovo- A last year's fave. Love the story too. Originally sent to us by Glenn Parker of New Zealand, he writes the following about this variety: "In 2000, an old-timer came into my nursery and said that his son, who was a UN worker in Kosovo, had sent him seed the previous year of a beautiful Kosovoan tomato."
Slightly willowy growth, six to eight feet high, pink, fleshy, slicer-type fruit. Heart, double-heart, and large flat shaped fruit all on the same plant averaging one to two pounds in weight. Very tasty. Very early for such large fruits. - Church's- I haven't tried this one yet.....but grabbed it by a mistake. Was it meant to get into my buy pile? We will see! An heirloom from the Church family of Hot Springs, Virginia collected by Jack Schaeffer. Seed came to me through Chuck Wyatt, who thinks this variety may be a descendent of that great old tomato, Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter. This regular leaf producer delivers superbly flavored 1-2 lb. fruit. The wonderfully big tomatoey flavor has delicious subtle undertones.
- Mexico- One that is a Gail customer favorite...her story was so interesting I had to try! Brought to the America by a Mexican family living in the Midwest. Our Tomatofest organic tomato seeds produce very large, indeterminate, regular-leaf, prolific tomato plants that yield huge sets of 1-2 pound, slightly flattened, irregular-shaped, dark-pink beefsteak tomatoes with terrific bold, tomato flavors. Plenty of sweetness with complementary acid flavors. Several customers who are growers of tomatoes for farmer's markets swear by the taste quality and visual appeal of the Mexico heirloom tomato. A perfect tomato for slicing fresh and thick for sandwiches and sliced up in salads. Once you select this variety it will be in your garden every year. A great showplace tomato for the County Fair. A Gary Ibsen personal favorite.
- Soldacki- I think I remember loving this one. So I got it. Nuf said. A vigorous potato-leaf heirloom variety originally from Krakow, Poland and then to Cleveland around 1900. Yields large, dark-pink, slightly flattened globes that grow to 1-pound and have intensely lucious, sweet flavors.
- Glacier- Gail said this is an early one...so just had to get it. An early, short-season, open-pollinated, potato-leaf variety that flowers when it is only 4-inches tall then sets loads of very flavorful 2 to 3-ounce, round, red tomatoes. Good flavor.
- Old German- Another new one... I got carried away with old favorites and those to try! A Mennonite family heirloom from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Big regular leaf plant yields 1-2 lb. beautiful fruits. Fruit color is yellow with red mottling and striping on the outside and throughout the flesh. Best color of several strains of this heirloom. Not a heavy producer, but fruit harvested is deliciously sweet and very decorative.
- Brandywine- Brandywine heirloom tomato is Probably the first heirloom to achieve "cult status" within the growing popularity of heirloom tomatoes. A pink, potato-leaf, Amish variety from the 1880’s. Years ago, seed saving was done by individuals who understood that the greatest thing they could pass on to the next generation was some of the treasured food plants that had sustained life and had proven their value. One such pioneer was a man named Ben Quinsenbury, who lived in Vermont. He died at the age of 95, passing on his legacy. The Brandywine was Ben’s favorite tomato. In years of my holding tomato tastings for chefs and tomato lovers, the Brandywine has always placed as one of the top three favorites. It is legendary for it’s exceptionally rich, succulent tomato flavor. Fruits are reddish-pink, with light, creamy flesh that average 12 ounces but can grow to 2 pounds.
- Cherokee Purple- Heirloom from Tennessee cultivated by Native American Cherokee tribe. Very productive plants producing loads of dusky rose to purple colored, 12 oz.-1 lb., beefsteak tomatoes with deep red colors to the interior flesh and dark shoulders. A very popular market variety because of it's rich, complex and sweet flavors. One of the best tasting heirloom tomatoes.
- Yellow Pear- Clusters of small bright-yellow, pear-shaped fruit. Very tasty. Like eatin' candy
FLOWERS:
- Nusturtiums
- Forget me nots
- Aster
- Salvia Blue Angel
VEGETABLES: I have planted most of these on my own already, but had to get a few more...just in case :) All of the peppers are for my xmas presents of 'hot pepper powder' for egg omlets and such. Gonna try them in the 'topsy turvy' hot pepper plnater.
- Cabbage Mix
- Scallions
- Sweet Cayenne
- Thai Hot
- Hot Pepper Serrano
- Holy Mole
- Tobasco
Hot Pepper Thai Hot - Kale Mix
- Cabbage Stonehead
- Mix Cabbage
Oh my....gonna be a fun growing season! And hopefully a good canning season too! All the news stories about BPA in the canned food we eat made me so depressed. So here is to not eating BPA!
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