Our home grown tomatoes are gone as off few weeks ago (fresh anyway), miss them! This morning, I was at Giant Foods, last minute shopping for the New Year dinner. Noticed an unusual colored tomato (for the chain food store). In the package of 4, very "homegrown" looking tomatoes are chocolate colored with some faint green shoulders and stripes:
So yes, indeed I bought them! Name - KUMATO
Naturally, excited to try them as soon as I got home. Impression - 2 fruits, both tasted a little different. One had more pronounced acidity, the other one - a bit sweeter. After doing a little online reading, appears to be commercial variety, no info of hybrid or not (I tend to believe that it is), but described as good keeper, and sweet...
To be honest with you, both tomatoes I tried - I would never refer to them as sweet by any means. But, then again, depending on the season, soil, ripening condition and such - this can be the matter of those variables.
What attracted me to this tomato - size, chocolate color, but more importantly - aroma! Very fragrant tomatoes! Even 20 min or so after I tried it, and washed my hands, I can still smell the rich tomato on my hands.
And after a little deliberation:
Yep, saved the seeds from the half of the sweeter one.
I've yet to find a good "long keeper" tomato that I liked the taste. And while not overwhelmed with the flavor of Kumato, I'm still amazed by it's aroma, and for sheer curiosity want to see what it does in the good, rich soil.
So for now - fermenting, and will give it a try in 2010, I'm sure I can find a room for 2 more plants in the garden!
What can I say, we love cucumbers! We them raw, we fry the, we pickle them, we make relish...
But, here, in Virginia, mid-late summer, local weather and micro climate prevents us from enjoying cukes pretty much pass August. They wilt and die in the matter of days.
So, to extend my growing season, in additional of my regular favorites, I'm adding few that are said to be resistant to most diseases. So, after a little research, and suggestions from other gardeners, here is the list of cukes to be grown in 2010:
The Regulars:
Boston Pickling
Homemade Pickling
Poona Kheera
Straight Eight
Resistant Hybrids:
Country Fair
Calypso
Classy
Eureka
Burpless II
Edmonson
Little Leaf H-19
Looking forward to trial those newbies to see if their "resistance" lives up to the expectations and just as important - do they taste good???
2009 was a great year, with plentiful harvest, specially of peppers and tomatoes. Gave them away, cooked, froze, diced and sliced, and indeed, eat fresh off the vine:
There are few, however I would like to mention that are indeed a "keepers" in the garden:
Bychiye Serdtze (Bull's Heart)
Russian origin - abundance of healthy, meaty, juicy and sweet fruit that lasted until the first frost! Just as great tasting as I remember back in Russia
Black from Tula
Great taste to my pallet that has just the right amount of acid and sweetness, some smoky/salty somewhere in there too, and good, steady producer in my garden all season:
Cherokee Purple
While the production was moderate, and wend down south as the weather heated up, it's sweet taste, with creamy flesh was one of the family favorites:
Brandywine Sudduth.
And last but not least by any means! Many report that these guys are not productive at all, and lucky to have 5 good fruits entire season. We had over 30 fruit gathered from 10+ foot high plant. Great flavor with no sweetness, but rich and complex - going back again next year:
As I go through my notes, I will post more of what I felt was worth growing again. As for now - planing expansion of the garden, and a difficult decision to make of what varieties in addition to the 4 mentioned above are going take their place in 2010 garden.
Well, couple of hours of work and $50 - grow lights are complete.
Using 2'x4' residential fixture, 24hr timer, and utility shelving unit (actually half of one) for the base of the table, table top is 3/4" MDF board. Lights are T8 tubes GE Ecolux 32w with the color temperature of 6500K (4 tubes).
All this is in the basement, where I have rather large, insulated but unfinished mechanical room. White wall insulation sheeting serves well as reflecting material, white Styrofoam at the base does the same thing. All in all, very happy withe results!
First true leafs are here!
Pasillo Bajia and Mariachi were the first to germinate, 5 days, and the first with true first leafs.
Slowest out of the group were Purple Beauty and Ancho San Martin, though finally germinated - 13 days from the seeding.
All but the the Purple and Ancho are now under the grow lights, looking healthy, Purple and Ancho are still on the germination heat mat with the dome lid on, temperature steady at 82-83F. Should be ready to come out and join the rest in a day or two...
Going to finally build the large table/grow light "stable" for seedlings and germination in the hobby room downstairs. Should be ready by tomorrow. All the parts are here, timers, bulbs, fixture, wires etc. Not a necessity, but rather an attempt to better organize the process.
Not even 2010 yet, but itching to start the new year and work on the garden... I started Pepper seeds last year in early March, way too late, plants were really small by the time I set them into the garden. This time, started seeds much earlier, maybe too early, but will see. Actually wasn't planning on it, was doing just germination trials, since these seeds are from many different sources.
Full list of what's going into the garden:
Sweet:
Giant Orange
Purple Beauty
Blushing Beauty
Quadrato d’Asti Giallo
Ariane Orange
Golden Summer
Red Marconi Giant
Golden Calwonder
Socrates X3R
Mild:
Mariachi
Pasilla Bajio
Ancho San Martin
Hot:
Casabella
Cowhorn
