Category Archives: VEGETABLES

Santa Fe Spring Garden Fair this Saturday April 27

SFMGA_SpringFair13_Flyer_02

This year’s theme is Food for Thought, with speakers, exhibits, clinics, and demonstrations all tied to the idea of nourishing ourselves, our land, and the creatures that share the land with us. There are 3 speakers this year.  I will be one of the guest speakers and talk on tips for growing tomatoes and other vegetables. Anne Schmauss will talk about providing habitat and food for birds and Les Crowder will talk about bees, how we can help them and what we can plant to support them. Here is the speaker schedule:

Jannine Cabossel       10:45am
Tips for Terrific Tomatoes, Making the Most of Your Vegetable Garden

Anne Schmauss         12:00 noon
How to Attract Birds to Your Backyard Year-ound

Les Crowder               1:15pm
Honeybees: Landscaping with Bee friendly Gardening Practices

You don’t want to miss this event if you are a gardener here in the greater Santa Fe area!

Giant Tomato Seeds Planted

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

2012 Big Zac tomato-this one weighed 2lbs 12.4 ounces and was 19″ in circumference!

Yesterday I planted 6 giant tomato seeds as well. The seeds came from tomato plants that produced anywhere from 5.5 lbs-7 lb tomatoes! Hope I get some BIG ones! I’m trying to break 3 lbs this year! Nothing better than a BLT where the juice from one of these tomatoes runs down your chin! One slice of tomato covers the whole slice of bread.

Tomato Porn

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Feast for the eyes!

2012 Tomatoes Reviewed

Costuluto Genevese tomato

Costuluto Genevese tomatoes

So now that I have the rest of the vegetables reviewed, I want to review my most favorite vegetable in 2012-TOMATOES!! There were many I would keep BUT also a LOT I would dump!

ALL-STAR TOMATO LIST!


RED

-Pantano Romanesco-good producer-medium size, excellent old-fashioned flavor

-Costoluto Genovese-good producer-smaller but such a beautiful tomato and excellent old-fashioned flavor

-Goldsman Italian American-big pear shape-my all time favorite for sauce-takes all season to ripen though
 but worth it

-Fireworks-good early producer-smaller is better for some people and great taste-old fashion flavor

-Beefy Boy-good producer, medium size-good taste

-Matina– smaller earlier tomato-good flavor

-Original Goliath-medium size, few cracks-good taste

-Big Zacs-huge tomato-huge taste! A favorite!

BI-COLOR

-Striped German-supersweet med to large tomato

-Ananas Noir-wonderful complex sweet flavor-green with a blush-need to plant more

-Virginia Sweet-super super sweet-the sweetest of all tomatoes I grow! One of my favorites!

BLACK OR PURPLE

-Paul Robeson-sweet, complex flavor
-Cherokee Purple-sweet, complex flavor

-Cherokee Purple-great sweet complex flavor

-Black Pear-sweet, complex flavor

-Southern Nights-sweet, complex flavor

-Brown Sugar-sweet, complex flavor

ORANGE/YELLOW

-Jaune Flamme-smaller tomato, few cracks-a favorite at the Farmers market

-Lemon Boy-supersweet medium tomato

CHERRY TOMATOES

-Black Cherry-excellent complex flavor-one of my favorites

-Green Grape-sweet fruity flavor

-Sun Sugar-the sweetest flavor of these cherry tomatoes

-Golden Pearl-sweet flavor-very prolific

TOMATO DUMP LIST!

-Beauty Queen-looks great but very bland taste-takes all season to mature

-Gold Medal-looks great but very bland taste, takes all season to mature

-Woodle Orange-not a great producer took all season for a few and taste bland

-Aunt Gertie’s Gold-disappointing flavor

-Honey hybrid-not a great producer-flavor just ok

-Juliet-cherry tomato-some people love it but for me it tasted like grocery store tomatoes

Related articles

The Holy Grail of Beans

tarabais beans

The holy grail of dried beans are Tarabais beans. They are a runner bean (Phaeseolus coccineus). Haricots Tarabais (as they are called in France), have been grown for centuries in Tarbes, at the foot of the French Pyrénées in the southwestern region of France close to the Spanish border. This white bean, which is larger than a navy bean, is thin-skinned, sweet and has creamy flesh and doesn’t fall apart when cooked. They are commonly used in a classic french dish called cassoulet, a rich and savory casserole baked with these beans, duck confit, sausage, pork, sometimes lamb, and topped with crispy breadcrumbs. This is a great winter dish. Different cities in France have different ingredients in their cassoulets, but all of them start with these beans. They are also perfect for any bean salads or bean soups.

I had a hard time finding them last year in the states. When I went online to get them from France they were very expensive- $34 an ounce! I had a friend who was in Germany try to get some for me but they were still $15 an ounce. Too rich for my blood and to think these were originally used as a peasant casserole! I was about to give up when I saw them in my 2012 Seed Saver’s Exchange members book last year. There were 4 people offering them in the US. It cost $5 (for postage) to get them. So I spent $20 and got some from all four members. Enough for 2 years. Well this year you’ll be in luck if you want to try these beans-they are in Baker Heirloom Seeds for the first time and are easily available this year in the states.

haricot tarabais bean pods in summer

haricot tarabais bean pods in summer

In growing these beans, I found it tough to get them started having to replant the seeds 3 times before I got them to germinate on my 8 ft long fence. They grew up over the 3 foot tall fence and curled back on the other side which was fine. Once up they are up, they are an easy keeper. You don’t have to do anything special except to be sure to give them adequate water. They did get a little rust on some of the leaves but regrew new leaves  (like all my beans) without it reoccurring again. You’ll need to get them in the ground as early as possible as soon as the ground warms up because it takes all season for the pods to mature. Then I picked them after the pods dried. After I picked them, I brought them inside, shelled them and placed the beans on a cookie sheet until they were really dry. You can tell if they are dry enough to put away by biting one and if it is rock hard and no give, then it is ready. After that I put them in some mason type jars where they are ready for me to start the cassoulet adventure this winter!

Review of 2012 vegetables

fall harvest

2012 VEGGIE LIST

Here is my review of what I will and won’t grow again from last year’s vegetables that I tried and why. I will put tomatoes in another list since there are so many of them!

WILL GROW AGAIN
ARUGULA
-Apollo-nice leaf size and flavor

BEANS
-Rattlesnake bean/pole-remarkably flavored pole bean-grows very tall-great for trellises or arbor
-Tarbais bean/pole-dry bean-after much work FINDING IT last year in the states, you can now get this wonderful bean from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. I will make a french dish called cassoulet with it.
-Fava Bean/bush-wonderful flavor and 2 crops last year. A little work shelling it twice but worth it. Also is a good cover crop replenishing the soil with nitrogen.
-Golden Scarlet Runner/pole-I grow runners for their flowers/foliage-the foliage on this one is a striking chartreuse color against the scarlet flowers-simply beautiful

BEETS
– Craupadine-BEST tasting (but ugly) beet around
-Cylindra-long cylinder shape, great taste, easy cutting into slices

BOK CHOY
-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy-wonderful flavor-I like to cut one in half, saute it in olive oil, and add tamari when you flip it

CARROTS
-Atomic Red-great color and flavor
-Cosmic Purple-one of my favorites

CHARD
-Bright Lights-adds great color tucked into the garden and good flavor
-Argentata-thick juicy stalks with huge leaves-very cold tolerant
-Ruby Red-one of the prettiest and tasty chards out there

CUCUMBERS
-Parisian Pickling-used for making cornichon pickles
-Boothsby Blonde-used for making bread and butter pickles
-Poona Kheera-best flavor for eating
-Armenian– fun to grow, good flavor, few seeds

EGGPLANT
-Fairy Tale-sweet, no bitter taste and tender (not tough) skin

LETTUCES
–Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce

PEAS
-Dwarf Sugar Gray-great in salads or steamed, grows about 3 ft tall

PEPPER–want to try some different varieties from Europe this year as well
-Shishito (Japanese non-hot pepper)-one of my favorites
-Poblanos-mildly hot (I call it warm), great for chile rellanos or scrambled eggs, wonderful smoky flavor

POTATOES–first year grower and I’m hooked!
-French Fingerling-OMG, the best flavor!
-Peruvian Purple-I loved the flavor of these as well

SPINACH
-Bloomsdale and Tyee

SUMMER SQUASH
ZUCCHINI
-Costata Romanesco-best tasting zuke around

SUNFLOWERS-technically a flower but they are veggies for the birds!
-will grow another huge patch of different varieties-beautiful and the birds love them
-Russian Mammoth AND Titan– for us/birds to eat
-Black Oil-for the birds only

TOMATILLO-Green-good for tomatillo salsa-only need one plant as they are so prolific.

WON’T GROW AGAIN
BEAN-Emerite bean/pole bean- great flavor but didn’t grow high enough to cover my teepee and I will grow others this year.

CARROTS
-Paris Market-too small, bland flavor, not impressed

CALABICITAS SQUASH
-seed from local grower-turns out it was a native winter squash, not calabacitas squash.

CORN-again not this year (I’ll get it from our Farmers Market)

FENNEL/FINOCCHIO
-Di Firenze-might grow one or two but not 25 plants like last year!

PEPPER
-Jalapeno-I don’t use them enough to call for space in the garden. I’ll just buy the few I use throughout the year.

POTATOES
-Russian Banana-too crunchy and watery

My favorite sauce tomato to grow-Goldman’s Italian American tomato

Goldmans Italian American tomato

Psst, I’ve got to let you in on a big secret of mine-Goldman’s Italian American Tomato. I think it’s the best heirloom tomato to grow for sauce bar none. It’s a big, meaty, ribbed, pear-shaped red tomato with exceptional flavor. Not too acidic, not too sweet.

Every year I grow a couple of plants of this tomato but never sell it at the Santa Fe Farmers Market as ‘The Tomato Lady’ because I’m too selfish! I want all of them for making the various pasta sauces I make. I sell all my other varieties of tomatoes, but not this one. A friend of mine said, ‘Well why don’t you grow more to sell?” A novel idea I should consider! It’s only downside is it does take 80 days to mature so you’ll get some of them sun-ripened and have to bring the rest in before it freezes. No matter-they ripen in the house just as well as outside. The plant gets big about 6-7 foot tall so you’ll need some space but it will be well worth it.

The Heirloom Tomato book

Amy Goldman found it at a roadside stand in Italy, and named it after her father’s grocery store in Brooklyn. Amy Goldman wrote the book, “The Heirloom Tomato” and I use it as the gospel for helping me pick my tomatoes to grow each year.

I start the seeds inside sometime around the beginning of April each year under lights and on a heating mat. You’ll have to get the seeds online as no one sells either the seeds or the starts around here. I get my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds here.

Cook green beans and other vegetables-Julia Child’s way!

Watch Julia Child/The French Chef cook vegetables the french way! Bon Appetit! Part 1

I found this video on you tube on Julia Child back in 60’s when she had her TV cooking show.  Besides finding it very entertaining (I kept thinking of the ‘Saturday Night Live’ skits on her), I also learned a lot. In it she cooks green beans, carrots, stuffed mushrooms and braised spinach. I was most interested in how she cooked green beans. I use to steam my homegrown green beans but I think this might be a better way to cook them as they keep their color and flavor (yes even store-bought beans). Besides I like her accent! Yessss. Watch it and see!

 

Watch Julia Child/The French Chef cook vegetables the french way! Bon Appetit! Part 2

What do your carrots sound like?

Watch this-too cool!

Cosmic Atomic Carrot Soup

Check out the color in this carrot soup!

Check out the color in this carrot soup!

If you haven’t had carrot soup before, this is really good. I’m not a huge carrot eater but went back for seconds with this soup! It is made with Cosmic Purple carrots and Atomic Red carrots (hence the name) but can be made with any other variety of carrot as well.

Cosmic Atomic Carrot Soup

1 large onion

½ lb. Russet potatoes

½ stick butter

1½-2 lbs fresh carrots, cleaned and sliced

6-8 cups veggie or chicken broth

1 cup cream (or half and half)

salt/pepper to taste

honey (to taste) – tablespoon+

Saute onions in butter on medium heat in a SOUP POT till tender. That way you can just add the other ingredients without using more pots. Add carrots, potatoes and broth and cook till they are fork tender. Pour into a blender and blend till smooth. You will have to do it in batches. You could use a ‘wand’ but I find the blender purees it better and it should be silky smooth. Pour it back into the soup pot. Add honey to taste to just bring out the sweetness of the carrots and stir in well. Taste. Add more honey if needed.  Stir in cream. Reheat till warm but do not boil. Delicious!

Reflections on a Carrot

I like to take time at the end of the season and reflect on some of the new veggies I grow. It may help you decide if you want to grow something but it definitely helps me decide for the next year especially when my thoughts are fresh about them.  Mind you I’m no expert so this is strictly my opinion. This year I planted 3 varieties of carrots: Paris, Cosmic Purple and Atomic Red.

Paris carrot-photo courtesy of Huffington Post.com

Paris carrot-photo courtesy of Huffington Post.com

Let me start with Paris carrots. They are considered a gourmet variety from France. They look like large radishes only orange and are suppose to have superior flavor. They would be great in very hard soil where a long root would have a hard time penetrating. However, I was disappointed in the taste-rather bland and not all that flavorful so I wouldn’t be growing them again. Perhaps the New Mexico soil isn’t right for them.

cosmic carrot_kitazawaseed com

Cosmic Purple carrot-photo courtesy of Kitazawaseed.com

Next carrot that I grew was a Cosmic Purple carrot. The color is a very dark purple on the outside and bright orange on the inside-very pretty and they are about 6-8 inches long. The taste is excellent with an almost spicy carrot flavor-hard to describe but very good. I have grown these in the past and will grow these again.

AtomicRedCarrot_artefactual org

Atomic Red carrot-photo courtesy of artefactual.org

The last carrot I grew was an Atomic Red carrot-I love everything about this carrot. Although it isn’t a supersweet carrot, it still has excellent carrot flavor. It is also about 6 inches long. But the best thing about this carrot is it has the most fantastic red color.  When added to a carrot soup with other carrots, it gives the soup a deep rich reddish-orange color that is almost neon. It is also wonderful in salads. I will definitely grow these next year.

‘Rouge Crapaudine’ Beets-say what?!!

Rouge Crapaudine beet. Photo courtesy of www.frenchgardening.com

Rouge Crapaudine beet. Photo courtesy of http://www.frenchgardening.com

I tried a new variety of beet this year-a heirloom beet named ‘Rouge Crapaudine’. Do I dare try to pronounce it?! Ha! This beet hails from France and is one of the oldest varieties of beet in history possibly dating back 1000 years and still around! Craupadine means female toad in french! It’s not pretty-it’s shaped like a very rough fat carrot  (definitely toadlike) and it’s skin looks like tree bark (toadlike again) hence the name. In fact it’s downright ugly BUT the dense purple flesh is divinely sweet and sought out by chefs. In France they sell them at farmers markets both raw and roasted. I was curious so I looked up how they cook it over there.

craupadine beet cooked

Cooked Crapaudine beet. Now it needs to be skinned.

First wash the beets (you don’t have to oil  or skin them) and place them in several layers of foil (beets on shiny side) and close it up tight on the top and both ends. Then put it directly on hot coals in your fireplace (yes that’s right) but not on a direct flame. A fun thing to do in the winter after having a nice warm fire.

It will cook inside the foil on the coals. How long to cook it depends on how hot your coals are. Mine took about 45-50 minutes total turning halfway through. You’ll have to take it off the coals and check it for tenderness with a fork from time to time as there is no exact science as this is an art!

Wear gloves if you don't like your hands red after skinning beets

Wear gloves if you don’t like your hands red after skinning beets

The skin will come off easy after they are cooked once they cool down.  But be aware your hands will turn a lovely shade of magenta! For more details you can go here  at the website frenchgardening.com where I learned about this beet and French cooking method.

Crapaudine bet skinned and ready to eat!

Crapaudine bet skinned and ready to eat!

Crapaudine beets get a sweet smoky flavor cooking it this way. You can also cook them in a more traditional way in an oven for about 45-60 minutes at 350°F. They’ll still be good but without the smokiness. Do try it in the fireplace for a treat.

After cooking them in the fireplace, I made a salad with the beets sliced and placed on a bed of greens with some crumbled goat cheese, pinon nuts sprinkled on them and topped with a balsamic dressing-absolutely fantastic. I didn’t even like beets-until now.

Crapaudine beet seeds are hard to find but I found them at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Sow them next spring and just be sure you sow more seeds than you think necessary as they are tough to germinate and some won’t come up. Plant them in spring as they will take at least 3 months to be ready to harvest. Then harvest in late summer and store in a refrigerator all winter if you like and save for a wonderful fall-winter treat. Crapaudine beets can also be used in any beet recipe.

Potatoes harvested! Garden asleep!

Potatoes dug out just in the nick of time!

Potatoes dug out just in the nick of time!

Well all my potatoes were harvested before the first snow fall last week. Lava, Adam, Janet, Bob and Mernie all helped dig them out (and of course they all got some too). Thanks to all! I have about a half a bushel left of potatoes after we dug them out. I’m going to try a buttermilk potato leek soup with some of them and will share the recipe later.

From left-Peruvian Purple, French Fingerling and Russian Banana

From left-Peruvian Purple, French Fingerling and Russian Banana

I only grew gourmet fingerlings for my first try at growing potatoes this year. Here are the three kinds of fingerlings I grew-Peruvian Purples, French Fingerlings and Russian Bananas (I think). I loved the Peruvian purples but they  were small and I didn’t get many of them. I also loved the French Fingerling which are the red ones and the whitish ones are Russian Banana fingerlings. Both the Peruvian purples and the French Fingerlings have a wonderful flavor-kind of  a sweet, nutty potato flavor and are creamy in texture. I will definitely grow them again. The Russian Bananas were watery, not sweet, and when never got completely soft when cooked-they stayed crunchy. I won’t be growing these again. Plus I think I will try to grow a little bigger purple potato as the Peruvians were very small. You can check out hundreds of varieties at Irish Eyes Garden Seeds where I got mine online. They have a great choice of potatoes. I will definitely grow potatoes again.

Garden finally asleep!

Garden finally asleep!

Lava helped me unload 2000 lbs of manure in the garden and Beto and Beto Jr. came by and dug in the manure in each bed and finished cleaning up the main garden and pumpkin patch.  Nice to get it all done before winter really hit. So now the veggie gardens are sleeping!

Catch Up in the Veggie Garden

I can’t believe I haven’t posted in almost a month! Not like me! But I have an excuse-I’ve been headless with the final harvesting of giant pumpkins, tomatoes, harvesting the rest of the veggie garden, being ‘The Tomato Lady’ selling tomatoes at the Santa Fe Farmers Market AND planting the fall garden. What’s that you say? Planting a fall garden? Am I not burned out yet of the season? Well almost, but I know I will crave something green in Dec-Jan so I sucked it up and planted some greens in my cold frame. They are already looking so pretty and green. So now that it has gotten cold at night and the garden has been put to sleep (I disconnected the drip systems), I will catch you up on what’s been happening in the garden in the next few posts and what to do with all that produce!

Fall-Time to trim tomato blossoms off

As the tomato season starts to wind down in the fall, I believe it’s time to redirect the plants’ energy so I trimmed off most of my blossoms on the tomato plants. This helps ripen the remaining tomatoes on the plant.  I also cut off those crazy branches that are overgrown (and have blossoms) back to the last tomatoes that have been set on that branch. The idea here is to redirect the plant’s energy to stop making blossoms and put its energy into ripening as many tomatoes as possible before it freezes.

I also trim off any diseased branches where the leaves are dying or turning yellow and spray with Serenade again (probably for the last time). Late in the season, tomato plants are getting older and are more susceptible to diseases so my hope isn’t to cure any diseases but just keep it under control so we can still get many tomatoes. Besides we want all those green ones still on the vine that we have been patiently waiting for!