While the kidz had their thyme, we had our first Garden Gritz gathering last Wednesday night at 6:30 and talked about maters and taters. Briefly, we discussed the two different types of tomato plants (Determinate-having a set amount of fruit produced, a bushy type plant with no pruning necessary; and Indeterminitate-plant/vine continually grows with an indeterminate amt of fruit and needs to be pruned regularly to keep under control..especially the suckers). We talked about the varieties planted in the garden to include "Brandywine" (A tomato sandwich tomato dark pink/red in color) The first two beds planted in May and we just harvested our first 4 maters today!; Next up, "Amish Paste" (A smaller Roma type tomato..new to the garden this year) Planted 1 1/2 beds of this heirloom tomato; Rutgers (a fav from last year. Good tomato for slicing or saucing...the tomato that Campbell's Soup grows for their soup!); Our yellow tomato bed consists of "Valencia" (which we grew last year and they were de-lish), "Amana Orange", and "Yellow Pear Cherry" (cute as anything) all of which are low acid tomatoes great for those that don't do well with regular maters. Next up is the locals' favorite.."German Johnson". A whole bed..so stock up on the Duke's mayo! Last but not least (and to be the longest!) we have planted "Longkeeper Tomatoes" recommended to us by our own Marion and Bobbie Hargrove. They were so excited about this breed of tomatoes which enabled them to enjoy a tomato in March saved from their last season's harvest in VA...sounds good to me! We have planted each bed a couple weeks apart to prolong the harvest of fresh sweet maters until the first frost and hopefully if the Longkeeper's pan out, we will enjoy our favorite fruits of the garden while the snow is falling!
We also talked about potatoes and the importance of harvesting them on a cloudy day or as the sun sets. A natural forming toxin called solanine that develops in sunlight turns the taters green. Ironically, when the potatoes are cut and planted, we set them out in the sun to develop a thin layer of solanine which helps protect them from diseases and pests. After harvest, however, the solanine is not needed nor wanted because in small does if consumed, they can be toxic and in large amounts, fatal (yikes!). So if you can't wait until our next garden harvest of potatoes and have to buy them from the store and you notice green on them, either cut that section out or better yet, just throw out and wait till our next harvest!
Thank you everyone for a great first Garden Gritz! Next week we will chat about composting from collection to completion. It WILL be good!
