Category Archives: Plants From Seed

What did you grow for dinner?

Aren’t you glad you grew this?

Sun Gold sweet tangerine-orange hybrid cherry tomatoes.

Cherry tomatoes are the first to ripen in the garden. When the full size tomatoes, start to ripen, the little cherries and pears continue to prolifically produce all summer until first frost. I think you can try here to look at this post to learn how to grow the same at your home.

Suddenly you have more tomatoes than you can eat. Time to get out the dehydrator. Halved cherries  make great “sun-dried” tomatoes. The sweet, dried essence of these fruits is a gourmet garden bonus.

Dinner tonight is a Mediterranean style pasta dish made with homegrown sun-dried tomatoes, and colorful bell peppers.

It’s cold outside. My abandoned garden patch looks stark and lonely out there in the single digit weather.

Inside the warm kitchen, I’m cooking up some of the fruits of my labor. Thank heavens I dried the overabundance of cherry tomatoes. They are a gourmet treat too expensive for my budget.

You can grow that! And now is the time. Order seeds for tomato plants. The sun-dried cherry tomatoes make every dish richer, even canned tomato soup.

I ordered Tricolor Cherry Tomatoes, Garden Candy and Heirloom Mini Tomatoes Red & Yellow Pear from Renee’s Garden 

In my zone 6b garden in southeast Missouri, I’ll start tomato and pepper seed in mid March. Start seed 6 to 8 weeks before planting out doors. I start tomatoes under grow lights, Grandmother started seeds in a Dixie cup on the window sill.

To find your plant hardiness zone, simply type in a ZIP Code at the USDA Plant Hardiness web page.

Mini tomatoes are the first to ripen. They will be your first homegrown tomato this summer. As the full size tomatoes come on, begin dehydrating the cherries and pears.

The intense tomato flavor of dried tomatoes is a flavor boost to pizza, salad dressings, and soups.

Tonight’s dinner will have tomatoes and peppers from last summer’s garden.

Pasta salad served hot or cold.

Recipe: Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Main: cooked pasta   (2 ounces dry pasta per person)

Add sun-dried tomatoes, bell pepper, mixed olives. (1 cup of each vegetable)

Dress with Lemon juice and olive oil, you favorite salad dressing, or balsamic vinegar.

Garnish with a handful of fresh, chopped herbs and a tablespoon or two  of toasted nuts or seeds.

Make it your own –  Add meats and cheeses, if you like. Anything you would find on an antipasto plate, could be added. Salami, mini mozzarella cheese balls, canned tuna, giardiniera.

A Black Beauty by any other name

Sweet Bell Pepper Finale

The name of this pepper is Purple Beauty. But I think it should be named Black Beauty. They are so pretty, I’ve left them on the plant until the last-minute. Growing profusely, bell peppers love the cooler days at the end of summer,

The sturdy stemmed plant grew to about 2 1/2′ tall with plenty of leaves to shade the peppers from the sun.

This bell pepper grows on compact plants producing blocky, deep-purple peppers. The mild, sweet flavored peppers are loaded with vitamins C, A and beta carotene.

Purple beauty matures to bright red.

I grew one plant of several varieties this year, including red,  yellow and chocolate-colored bell peppers. The purple beauty was the most prolific. Plant production really picked up after the temperatures cooled.

Bell peppers don’t have to be staked. The stakes are just a precaution because a sudden wind storm can snap a loaded pepper plant.

Purple BeautyCapsicum annuum is thick-walled, mild flavored and juicy like all bell peppers. These shiny dark peppers turn green when cooked. Close your eyes and you can’t taste the difference between green, purple or red peppers.

The purple pepper is so dark it looks black.

All the peppers, large and small must be picked before the first fall frost.

If there are more peppers than can be used fresh, chop and freeze them for winter use. I chop or cut the bells into strips and freeze.

This assortment of frozen chopped peppers are perfect to add to soup, stew, chili and casseroles. Bell pepper strips are perfect to use in fajitas and stir-fry.

I grew these black bells from Peaceful Valley organic seed.

Heaps of peppers, a rainbow of colorful bells and every Anaheim and Poblano had to brought in before the first freeze. There are several ways to quickly preserve those peppers while they are still crisp and fresh.

I canned a couple of half pint jars of roasted red peppers. Most bell peppers are chopped and frozen. Chilies are roasted, peeled, chopped and frozen into ice-cube trays.

Yellow peppers will make a tasty golden salsa.

Roasted red peppers are perfect for pasta dishes and antipasto trays. Chopped frozen peppers, can be dropped directly into pots of chili, vegetable soups and baked dishes. Roasted chili peppers will brighten winter casseroles, enchiladas, stews.

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The Last Tomato

 Tomato reviews

A big green Omar’s Lebanese tomato will ripen to a juicy pink, almost red color. The last tomato of the season is also the biggest one of the year. As the green tomatoes slowly ripen, we’ll have home-grown tomatoes for at least a week.

The best of Dr. Carolyn Male’s extensive 1995 heirloom tomato trials, Omar’s Lebanese Tomato.

This is the day a gardener runs out to the garden gathering up the last vegetable remnants of the season. The kitchen counter is heaped with any tomato with a touch of color. They will ripen gradually, depending how ripe they are when picked.

Garden season is nearly done for me. There’s still sweet potatoes to dig and garlic to plant. The stars of the garden, tomatoes, herbs and peppers are finished in the garden.

Best Big Tomato

Omar’s Lebanese

Omar’s Lebanese is an heirloom variety from Omar Saab of Lebanon. This pink indeterminate grows big tomatoes on heavy vines that must be strongly supported or staked.

An heirloom grown by farmers in a Lebanese hill town, it is a juicy and meaty beefsteak type tomato. The regular leaf plant produces  irregularly shaped 1-pound+ tomatoes mid to late season.

Some of the tomatoes in my garden suffered from blight. But Omar’s Lebanese was producing hefty fruit on healthy vines right up until the freeze.

Pick all tomatoes with a hint of color. Extend the tomato season by a week or two.

It’s been a great run, home-grown tomatoes June to October.

 

 

 

 

Best Dwarf Tomato

 Bush 506 Container Tomato

Bush 506 is drought tolerant and blemish free.

Bush 506 dwarf plant, full-sized tomatoes.

The earliest tomato and one of the latest tomatoes on the deck is the Bush 506 Container Tomato. This dwarf bush tomato plant will only reach 18-24″ tall and has a medium-large sized red juicy fruits.

They are great for container growing as the plants stay compact and have thick, upright stems producing 9 oz. fruits. Bush 506 is a good choice for dwarf size plants that produces full-sized tomatoes.

Bush 506 produced the earliest and latest tomatoes of the season.

Best new cocktail tomato

Red Racer F1, cocktail tomato

Red Racer, perfect red, round, tomatoes

On June 7, I planted 3 tomato plants sent by Harris seed. I planted the Red Racer 2018 AAS Edible – Vegetable Winner. Red Racer, a cocktail size tomato, producing small, round red fruits.

Although larger than cherry or grape tomatoes, cocktail tomatoes are a smaller variety tomato. These round, red, blemish free cocktail tomatoes have a good sweet/acid balance.

The compact determinate plants produce fruit a week earlier than comparison plants. They thrived in the planter boxes on a deck in the full sun. Red Racer is a great choice for small spaces and container gardens.

Padrón, the surprise party pepper

Fun & Tasty Little Snack Peppers

Padrón Peppers (Pimientos de Padrón)

These little Spanish peppers are usually fried in oil, salted and served as tapas. I first tried them in a restaurant and soon began a search for seed. They are easy to find in many seed catalogs.

Padrón Peppers are picked when about 1 1/2″ long.

They are cone-shaped and picked when very small, at about 1″ or 1 1/2″ long. They are pictured here with medium-sized red bell peppers for size comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with your food

Eating these snack peppers is a great garden party game. It’s “Spanish roulette,”  nine out of ten peppers are mildly flavored. One in ten is a taste explosion in you mouth.

Size is not an indicator of heat.

You won’t know until you eat the pepper whether it is hot or mild. The look or size of the Padrón peppers offer no clues. The weather or time of the growing season is not a heat indicator.

I grew Padrón peppers on the deck in 5-gallon buckets and in the garden along side other hot and sweet peppers. Next year, I’ll grow more plants because I love the taste of these tiny peppers.

 

 

recipe

Blistered Padrón Peppers

1/2 pound of Padrón peppers

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Course sea salt

Heat a large skillet over high heat, add oil.  Add peppers to the hot oil, tossing to stir. Cook for about 3 or 4 minutes or, until skins are blistered and peppers are softened. Transfer to a bowl, sprinkle with salt, and toss to coat.

 

Sizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with salt, the flavor of these delicious peppers is down right tasty. Course salt will add not only flavor but also some texture to this simple summer appetizer.

 

Padrón Peppers (Pimientos de Padrón) Ready to serve in 4 minutes.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 10/19

Basket of Gold

Pineapple tomatoes, eggplant, golden bell peppers.

The harvest basket is loaded with end-of-the-season vegetables. Four of the tomatoes hover just around the one-pound mark.

One of my favorite heirloom tomatoes. The beautiful yellow fruit with red marbling through the flesh. The flavor is very sweet and fruity; good yields!

Simply replace red tomatoes with yellow in your favorite recipe.

One slice of these big tomatoes will cover a slice of bread. Tomato sandwiches, BLT’s and fresh eating are where these tomatoes shine. The late glut of 1-pound globes will also make a small batch of golden salsa.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Seed

I purchased the original Pineapple tomato seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This year, I am going to save seed. These are beautiful tomatoes, though not always high yielding. Try them.

These are big plants that need heavy staking. Pineapple tomatoes are late season producers, sometimes weighing as much as 2 pounds. While some tomato plants succumbed to blight, this plant remained healthy all season.

Also grown from seed:

Long yellow eggplant is a mild, prolific Asian eggplant. The peppers are sweet Golden Cal Wonder Peppers.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 10/17

Tomatoes in October

Tomatoes weighing a pound to and ounce fill the basket. Makings for the last garden fresh ratatouille and gazpacho are in this basket.

October 2017 tomato, pepper and eggplant harvest is the biggest all year. Everyday from now on is borrowed time. Green tomatoes just a few days from ripening can be picked just before that first frost warning.

The dehydrator is filled with tomatoes. Some will be made into tomato powder. It will thicken and enrich soups and sauces. Plus, this dehydrated bounty takes up very little room. A good thing since the pantry and freezer are loaded.

All the tomatoes and peppers that the family will eat from now till next summer, are canned, dried or frozen. I bought some of the produce at the farmers market, including onions, corn and green beans. I know where this food came from and how it is grown.

True homesteading isn’t possible in our case. But eating locally grown, tomatoes all year is possible. That includes fresh tomatoes for 5 or 6 months, plus, all the salsa, pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato soup we will eat for one year.

The canned, dried or frozen tomatoes will go into, chili, soups, stew, enchiladas, and casseroles. It’s comforting to know that we won’t have to buy any tasteless mass market tomatoes or imported peppers all year.

Tomato soup made fresh from scratch.

Whole paste tomatoes are frozen. On a cold snowy day the full bag will simmer on the stove top into something “tomatoey”. Maybe a dark, thick tomato sauce simmered low and slow, or vegetable soup.

These fresh picked heirloom tomatoes will be savored fresh as insalata Caprese, ratatouille, gazpacho and in salads.

There are a few more tomatoes, peppers, eggplant. The only other produce left in the garden are herbs and sweet potatoes. Butternut squash is curing on the covered porch.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 10/1

Beautiful bells, a few mildly hot peppers, and this seasons best surprise pepper.

Chocolate peppers, named for their color, will go from a chocolate brown and turn green when cooked.

It’s October. The cooler weather is producing more peppers. A little rain could only help.

Several loaded branches of the pepper plants have snapped with the weight of this year’s crop. The heavy foliage protects the pepper from sunburn.

Dark Purple Bells

We grow peppers to freeze and use all winter in stew, chili, fajitas and soup. Chopped or cut into strips, bell peppers are easy to freeze. A couple of trays of stuffed peppers are already in the freezer ready for quick winter meals.

Some of the prettiest bells were the Sweet Purple Beauty, Sweet Cal Wonder and Sweet Chocolate**. Sweet Cal Wonder is the one pepper that should always be in a small space home garden, the thick-walled and juicy bright green bell turns red when ripe.

Padron peppers

Pick when 1″.

Padron chile peppers, Pimientos de Padron*, are the summer’s best garden discovery. My only regret was not growing more of these 1″ to 1-1/2″ surprise peppers. They are delicious. Except maybe 1 out of every 10 is hot.

These peppers are bright green to yellowish-green and best picked small. Size or color is not an indicator of heat.

Padron

The Padron peppers are a tapas bar and restaurant favorite throughout Spain. Padron chile peppers, Pimientos de Padron, are an heirloom non-hybrid variety of chile. Let one or two peppers continue to grow and save some seed for next year.

Picked small, then blistered in a hot, oiled skillet, and finally, salted. They are the perfect appetizer, or tappa.

Mildly hot Poblano and Anaheim peppers

Once charred, peppers easily peel apart from the skin.

The poblano (Capsicum annuum) is a mild Mexican chili pepper. Dried, it is called ancho or chile ancho.

Anaheim and poblano peppers are first roasted then peeled. These chilies are finely chopped and frozen into cubes for easy storage. To use, drop the frozen peppers into what ever dish you are cooking.

You can exchange these peppers for each other in recipes.

A poblano chili ages to brown and has an earthier, almost smoky flavor. When dried, it becomes the ancho pepper with a smoky sweet taste.

The green California Anaheim becomes sweeter as it ages to red. Pick at any stage. These are the pepper I use in salsa. I mix the colors in my salsa, using what ever is available at canning time.

Seed Source:

* The Tapas Peppers,Spanish Padron are from Renee’s Garden and started from seed.

** Organic Bell Peppers, Sweet Cal Wonder, Sweet Purple Beauty and Sweet Chocolate at Peaceful Valley Farm

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Today’s Harvest Basket 9/28

The Tomato Basket is full

The yellow ones that are still a little green weigh about a pound each.

It’s been a few days since I could be in the garden, so when I went out today, I found an abundance of tomatoes in all sizes, colors and shapes.

Some of the big tomatoes are picked green to keep them from the squirrels. Big ripe tomatoes are also a favorite of the squirrel gang here at the Hobson Estate. Once tomatoes start to turn color, go ahead and pick.

Tomatoes are not pretty this time of the year. But they are still tasty and ideal for juicing and smoothies. Some of these are destined to become spiced tomato jam. The recipe is perfect for small batch  canning.

Ball® freshTECH Automatic Home Canning System is an easy way to prepare small batches. It’s safer for me than trying to haul heavy canners and boiling water. I make small batches of salsa, jam, tomato sauce all summer as I collect enough tomatoes to can.

Small tomatoes

Six pints of cherry tomatoes went into the dehydrator. This version of sun-dried tomatoes, will add richness to any recipe. If you are looking to add layers of flavor to a dish, try adding the sweet, intense flavor of dried tomatoes.

Grape, cherry and pear tomatoes come in a rainbow of colors.

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes

6 cups cherry tomatoes
6 big sprigs of fresh dill, rosemary, or thyme
3 cloves of garlic sliced in half
2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt

Prepare and sterilize three-pint jars, lid and rings.

Pack the jars with the tomatoes, herbs, garlic, dividing each ingredient evenly among the jars.

In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, salt and sugar over medium-high heat until all the ingredients are boiling. Using a funnel, pour the hot liquid into the jars, leaving about a half-inch of headspace.

Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Look for container varieties for small space gardening.

Cherry tomatoes are the first to ripen at the beginning of the season. When the full size tomatoes begin producing, the cherries go into the food dehydrator.

These over achievers will keep producing until the first freeze. It’s worth having at least one cherry tomato plant in every garden or patio.

 

 

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Today’s Harvest Basket 9/2

Peppers kick into high gear, watering required.

All these vegetables are grown from seed.

Cherry tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, Swiss chard, Padron peppers, bell and, Anaheim.

Peppers, growing in the garden or in containers, do better when the weather gets cooler.

Padron, little one inch long peppers, could be called surprise peppers. Or, Russian Roulette peppers. These are a mild tasty pepper. Most of the time. But now and then, WOW! you get a hot one.

Randomly Hot

Blistered Padron Peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound Padrón or shishito peppers
Course sea salt

Heat large skillet over high heat, add 1 tablespoon oil. Add half of the peppers, tossing to cook until peppers are softened and blistered. You may cook in multiple batches in a single layer, not over crowding.

Empty skillet onto a warmed platter, add half the salt. Repeat, blistering the rest of the peppers in more hot oil. Add more salt. Serve right away.

Black Bell Peppers

There is a big color choice of bell peppers in the garden. Red, yellow, green, purple, milk chocolate color and these beautiful black peppers. The plants are loaded with medium-sized thick-walled sweet peppers.

All the bell peppers taste alike, some bigger or thicker. Regardless of color, peppers not eaten fresh are chopped or cut into strips and frozen for winter use. Freeze chopped peppers in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, pop peppers into a heavy zip lock bag and return to freezer. Easy to do.

Cherry tomatoes

Pickled cherry tomatoes with rosemary and thyme.

Cherry tomatoes are the first to ripen in the summer. As full-sized tomatoes come on, the cherries just keep producing until frost.

I dehydrate most of them, making sun-dried tomatoes. These little jelly jars are filled with tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, vinegar and salt. These pickled cherry tomatoes will be served on appetizer trays or anti pasta platters.

Peppermint Stick Chard

This chard is heat tolerant and pretty enough to be in flower containers or planted in the garden. I use chard leaves like spinach in casserole dishes, vegetable lasagna, of enchiladas.

Stems can be pickled like Jardiniere. I just pop the stems in an empty jar of pickle juice after I’ve eaten all the Jardiniere. The chard stems become a crispy refrigerator pickle in a couple of days.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 8/28

Wrapping up summer

Summer wraps up with rich, ripe vegetables; golden carrots, red okra, bell peppers, green beans.

yellow carrots, red okra, sweet peppers, green beans.

Carrots

Jaune Obtuse du Doubs Carrot is a French heirloom. These tender carrots are yellow and about 8″ long. The key to long straight carrots is preparing the soil before planting.

Well worked soil with plenty of compost or organic matter, is the secret. Keep carrots thinned and weeded. Carrots store well in the refrigerator, or can be canned or frozen.

We can usually grow two crops of carrots each year. Spring carrots and then the seeds started in late summer that will thrive in the fall garden. Once the seeds are started and spaced, carrots only need regular water.

Grated carrot salad of yellow and orange carrots, a sprinkle of parsley in a vinaigrette dressing.

Peppers, carrots, okra and beans are some very good reason to grow your own vegetables. Diversity. These are not varieties that you usually find in the grocery store. You can navigate to this website to know more about opening up a grocery franchise around your neighborhood.

Grocery store vegetables are grown for transport not taste. Taste and nutrients are never the point in mass market. The goal of a grocery store vegetable is durability and longevity.

Lots of carrot and root vegetable recipes are on the Pintrest Carrots, Potatoes, Root Vegetables.

Second season green beans

It’s not too late to grow another batch of green beans. The soil is warm and will quickly germinate. Keep the plants watered and you may have your biggest crop ever.

French Green Beans Almondine

Plant seeds one inch deep and water well. If your hanging baskets or  container gardens are exhausted, replant them with beans or greens. Space pole beans about 2 inches apart and bush beans 4 to 6 inches apart.

Keep your beans picked for steady production until frost. Plants are dependent on you for food and fertilizer.

Other crops you may plant at the end of the summer are, lettuce, leafy greens, radishes, turnips.

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