May 20, 2011 - Video Update

May 15, 2011 - Tomato and Pepper Varieties

So here's the breakdown of what tomato and pepper varieties are in the garden this season:

TOMATOES

Green Zebra - "Bred by Thomas Wagner of Tater Mater Seeds and introduced in 1983. Olive yellow 1½ - 2½" fruits with deep green zebra stripes. Sweet zingy flavor." [source]

Golden the Best Yellow - No reference can be found!  WTF!?

Pink Brandywine - "A large beefsteak-type tomato with a superior flavor unrivaled from most other varieties. There are numerous Brandywine strains, with the classic Brandywine tomato itself having a pink-skinned color. The named 'Pink Brandywine' differs only slightly from its more famous namesake. Fruits generally weigh over a pound, and have a rich tomato taste." [source]

Golden Jubilee - "This is a large yellow-orange round beefsteak that has a high Vitamin C content and less acid than most other varieties. The tomato fruits are produced in a heavy yield from upright and uniform Indeterminate vines, which make this variety easy to manage. This tomato variety was originally introduced in 1943 by the Wm. Henry Maule Seed Company of Philadelphia."  [source]

'Be My Baby' Cherry - "This productive cherry is the ongoing result of a cross of three famous tomatoes, an heirloom potato-leaf beefsteak and two cherries, one orange and one red. The crossing and selection process began in 1997. Although it has been selected for a red cherry with regular tomato foliage, about 10% of the plants still showed potato-leaf foliage in 2006, and you can expect some in your patch. Rogue them out because their flavor is not as desirable as the rest." [source]

Roma - "A Roma tomato is a paste tomato. Paste tomatoes, like roma tomatoes, generally have a thicker fruit wall, fewer seeds and a denser but more grainy flesh. Roma tomatoes tend to be oblong in shape and heavy for their size. The also tend to be more firm than a non-roma or paste tomato." [source]

Amish Paste - "First listed in the 1987 SSE Yearbook by Thane Earl of Whitewater, Wisconsin. Commercialized by Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds, who acquired it from the Amish near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Bright red 8-12 ounce fruits vary in shape from oxheart to rounded plum. Delicious flesh is juicy and meaty, excellent for sauce or fresh eating." [source]

Pineapple - "This heirloom tomato is a stand-out in everyone's garden. Bicolored red and yellow fruit grows very large, up to 2 lbs., and is streaked with red both inside and out. The flavor is wonderful, rich, fruity and sweet." [source]

Granny Cantell  - "Regular leaf plant with a good yield of 12-18 oz pink beefsteak fruit with very good flavor, family heirloom of Lettie Cantrell of West Liberty, KY, Lettie passed away 12-21-05 at age 96." [source]

PEPPERS! 

Granada Seasoning -"Mild; Habanero Type; 1.75 to 2 inches long by 1 to 1.5 inches wide; medium thick flesh; matures from green to bright yellow; pendant pods; green leaves; 30 to 36 inches tall" (1 - 1,000 Scoville Units) [source]

Anaheim Chili -"Very mild, medium sized chile to 6-10", often used when green. The basic variety ripens to a dark green/reddish color, but other strains ripen to full red." (500-1,000 Scoville Units) [source]

Hot Banana - "Medium sized, waxy yellow pepper up to 6-8" long. Flavor is quite good when eaten in its ripe yellow state. The Hot Banana is mildly hot in taste." [source]

Corno di Toro - "Big, plump, twisted 8-inch red peppers are jammed with spicy-sweet tang." [source]

 

Golden Wonder x 2 - " Golden Wonder is a heavy-bearing, disease-resistant, vigorous pepper plant. Thick-walled and blocky, about 4" tall and wide, with a crisp, mild flavor and terrific sweetness. They mature from golden-yellow to red on the plant" [source]

Long Red Cayenne - "Very hot fruits 5 in. long and ½ in. thick. Use fresh or easily dried for winter use. Harvest starts about 75 days after plants are set out." [source]

Sweet Italian - Frying Pepper

Red Knight - "A large, early, green-to-red pepper. Big, blocky, thick-walled, and turns red early. Fruity and sweet." [source]

Early Red Pepper - "Another easy to grow pepper, very full of flavour leaving aweful glass grown hydroponic peppers in the shops way behind in the flavour stakes! These old traditional cultivars crop very heavily.This one is red when mature but can be eaten at the green stage, and is bell shaped." [source]

May 11, 2011 - All Set!

 

With much anticipation the West Chester Growers Market opened this past weekend! I've been waiting for it ever since the first marathon snow shoveling day back back in January- and now it's finally here.  We didn't have much time to browse and explore since we were heading on a road trip to visit friends at the Crooked Farmhouse as soon as we finished, but it's looking to be a great market season complete with all the usual vendors and a few new ones.

 

Here's my Tomato Guy Paul, who is affectionately known as "Neil Young"

 

 The herbs this year were a bit expensive (4 for $10), but they were real nice and healthy looking. And a great variety!

What a helpful wife!

Here's the final list of what's going in this year... well there's still a few purchases this weekend (weather pending) that need to be made that are listed as 'coming soon'.

In the Garden:
Pink Brandywine
Grandma Cantrell's Tomato
Amish Paste
Golden Yellow
Be My Baby Cherry
King Aurthur Red Pepper x2
Eggplant x 2
Peas
Butternut Squash
Crystal Apple Cucumber
Cucumber
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Golden Midget Watermelon
Orangello Watermelon
Purple String Beans (coming soon, almost ready to transplant)
Green Beans (coming soon, almost ready to transplant)
Hot Peppers (coming soon)
Sweet Pepper (Frying Pepper maybe? coming soon)
Another (or two) Heirloom Tomato
Another Plum Tomato


In Containers:
Red Leaf Lettuce
Deer Tongue Lettuce
Spinach
French Breakfast Radishes
Dragon Carrots

Herbs:
Rosemary
Lemon Thyme
Majorum
Spicy Oregeno
Cilantro
Dill
Taragon
Sage
Purple Opal basil
Lemon Basil
Italian Basil x 2 (coming soon)
Flat Leaf Parsley (coming soon)


I finally admitted defeat and determined that my hose mending skills were not up to the challenge of so many busted and neglected hoses.  It seemed that every one I pulled up was cracked and the connections were bad.  So I finally broke down (after some encouragement from Stacey) and bought all new hoses).

The new system isn't too complicated, but I made a few improvements as to what was previously there.  Now  hose runs out out of the barn through a bit of PVC pipe.  I ran it slightly underground (about 4-6 inches) to the post I replaced.  From here it splits into a 4-way array.  One of the arrays flows slightly underground again along the north side of the plot to a second post.  From here I put a 2-way split on it.  One leads to a 50' hose with a spray nossel, the other to a timer connected to the irrigation system - which is now fully operational!

After some testing, I also admitted defeat with the electric fence.  The apparatus that sends the current to the fence itself seems to have stopped working.   The landlord now has it in his possession and will try to repair it, but to be honest I'm not expecting him to be successful.  For one thing it says "not for outdoor use" on the box and it has been an 'outdoor' fence for several years- which begged the question: who uses indoor electric fences?  So now I'm trying out Plan B: Liquid Deer Fence.  It smells like "the rotten asshole of a roadkill skunk" (sorry but it does, it was the only way for me to convey how foul it is) so it better work!  The spray bottle lives outside BTW.

On that note: Cheers!