Tag Archives: vegetable gardening

Turk’s Turban Squash

turk's turban squash

This year, one of the squash I grew is called Turk’s Turban (Curcubita Maxima). I picked all of them last week right after the first frost which killed the vines. Winter squash gets sweeter if you leave it outside for one frost. It’s a beautiful heirloom winter squash with a cap like a turban hence the name and is orange, green and white with some warts. It is also known as French Turban and Turk’s Cap and is an old variety from France (predates the 1820’s). They can get up to 12″ in diameter but my biggest was about 9 inches. It was easy to grow and didn’t get squash bugs which was great. Many people use them as a gourd because of their beauty but I’m going to eat it to see how it compares to other winter squashes. They say it is sweet, rich and nutty—I’ll let you know!

Mexican Sour Gherkins

MEX SOUR GHERKIN PLANT

This year I tried growing a few new things in the garden. One of them was Mexican Sour Gherkins. What is so cute about them is they look like miniature watermelons. They are about the size of a large olive and taste like a tart cucumber. They are native to Central and South America and are in the Curcubit family like a cucumber but are not cucumbers but are a cousin being in a different genus-Melothria scabra. They call them Sandita (little watermelon) in Spanish. They are also known as Mouse Melons and other names. They’ve been domesticated for eons. They were very hardy being drought tolerant and both disease and pest resistant.

MEX SOUR GHERKINS_BOWL

I grew them as novelty items to try out in martinis in place of olives. They are a vining plant and took forever to grow but once they took off, they were very prolific as pictured above.  I harvested them about a month ago and a friend, Mernie, came over and we pickled them using two different recipes. One as a simple salt/vinegar brine with some garlic and red pepper and the other way had all kinds of other ingredients for the martinis.

MEX SOUR GHERKINS_CANNED

Well yesterday we opened up one of each jar after letting them soak up all the ingredients for a month. I liked the simple brined ones the best and imagined them in martinis (we just ate them, no martinis yet) or served with a cheese plate. I thought they were both a bit too crunchy so I am taking some of my jars and use the water bath method to hopefully soften them up a bit (we used the refrigerator method on all of them) and see how that is. I do think they will be quite the conversation piece when we serve them with martinis (are you listening Jerry and Laura?)! The rest of you can eat them with cheese!

Curing Potatoes

potatoes just dug up

Dig up potatoes when the soil is drier so not much dirt sticks to them.

A friend of mine asked me why a few of her potatoes that she just harvested are soft. I honestly don’t know except that I know we need to ‘cure’ potatoes for about a week before we store them to heal any abrasions, minor cuts and thicken the skins a bit. So here’s how to cure potatoes.

Dig up potatoes in the fall, when the plants are dying, then the tubers will be as big as they will get. When you first dig up your potatoes, don’t wash them right away. Dig up potatoes when the soil is a little drier so not much dirt sticks to them. Discard any bruised, green ones or soft ones. Use up any damaged ones right away. Put them somewhere where it is a little cooler and they get good air circulation out of direct sunlight. I put mine in a basket lined with newspaper (so the dirt doesn’t get everywhere) with the dirt still on them inside my pantry as it is darker in there. If I had a garage, I’d put them in there but I don’t. They just need to be out of direct sunlight. Then after about a week, I take them out and brush off the dirt well with my hand but I still don’t wash them. I wash them as I use them. You want the skins to be dry. I also again look for any soft ones and discard them as they can ruin the rest and I put them back where the sun don’t shine as I don’t want them to turn green. Don’t eat any green ones as the skin has some photo toxins in them from being exposed to too much sunlight. I’ve never gotten sick from eating one as it is mildly toxic but why eat anything that is toxic. That’s the point of organic gardening right? I use to think store bought potatoes tasted the same as home grown potatoes but not so. Nothing better then fresh potatoes. They’re fantastic and not so starchy tasting.

MIA (missing in action)

JC at Farmer's MarketI can’t believe I haven’t written in a month on this blog. Not that I haven’ thought about it often. In fact I write ideas and shoot pics all the time, all summer and throughout the year. But summer is particularly hard to write more because there is always so much to do in the garden and then there’s harvest time. This year was particularly busy for me what with the garden tour, farmers market and now harvest time. I am busy as a bee as they say. It would be good if I did write more as I always am learning something in my garden and from my garden and from all my gardening friends-you! So now that the garden is slowing down, I can slow down and share those thoughts and ideas. Not that I’m not busy anymore–I’m always busy, that’s the nature of this busy bee! So stay tuned as I’m about to flood your brains with more information then you’ll ever want to know…

 

I’m Baaack-Tomato Lady returned to Farmer’s Market last Saturday

tomato lady2

So last Saturday I returned to the Farmer’s Market here in Santa Fe and plan to be there on Saturdays until the end of the season when it freezes. I saw many friends and old faces there-people who have been waiting for my return and it was good to see them come back. Thank you!

It’s such a short market for an heirloom tomato grower. Our end of season is always dependent on when the first freeze happens. Sometime it happens in late October, once it happened in September (God forbid), and only once in November! Pray for a nice long fall or as we say around here, an Indian summer, so I can get all those wonderful tomatoes that are just coming in on my mini farm to the market.

I have 31 varieties this year and 125 plants. Someone asked me if they are all there at the market at the same time and alas the answer is no as I have early varieties, mid-varieties and late season varieties growing in the garden. What I can tell you is that I grow many unusual varieties of heirloom and open pollinated tomatoes whose seeds come from all over the world. Many of them you will not find here at our market or even be able to get the plants in the garden nurseries. I start them in April inside the house and transfer them to the garden after the last freeze in spring and this year, our last snow was May 16. So as you can see, it takes a long time to get these babies to the market. And after spending so much time with them I do indeed call them my ‘babies’.

Every year I have some new varieties I try. This year some of them are Black and Brown Boar, Cascade Lava, Artisan Blush Tiger and Purple Bumblebees. I also have my favorites that I grow every year for the market like Costuluto Genevese, Pantano Romanesco, Marmande Garnier Rouge, Juane Flamme, Paul Robeson, Indigo Rose and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye plus many more varieties. Then at the end of the season I evaluate them based on your taste buds and input and some of the new ones make it on my ‘all star’ list and some don’t. So come down to the market and check out what other tomatoes I have going on. I also sell other heirloom veggies like Fairytale eggplant, Shishito peppers, many varieties of beans and other veggies but as you all know tomatoes are my speciality!

Produce for sale from the Tomato Lady-Friday August 21

Jannine's bean tee pee

Hi folks.  I know many of you locals follow my blog. I have 125 tomato plants and 3o heirloom varieties this year.  For some unknown reason my tomatoes are taking their time turning red (or orange or striped or black or purple). This is weird as I would have thought that they would all be kicking ass by now and I would be at the Farmers Market. The weather has been nice and warm, the rain wonderful and the tomatoes look great-just still green. Ah mother nature! Whata ya going do? I’ve learned years ago to just surrender to her. So…

Since I don’t have enough tomatoes ready (I need boxes and boxes of them) for the Farmer’s Market this Saturday, I do have some heirloom tomatoes to sell plus I have LOTS of other heirloom veggies—Shishito peppers, wonderful varieties of french and Italian green beans—Rattlesnake beans, Italian Romano beans, Trionfo Violetto beans, Royal Burgundy beans and some french filets, tasty sweet cucumbers and fantastic huge ruby red chard that melts in your mouth when steamed and drizzled with a fine balsamic vinaigrette.

I will be selling them from 2 -4 pm this Friday August 21 at our studio:

Liquid Light Glass
926 Baca Street #3
Santa Fe, NM
Call me if you have questions. 660-4986

I will be starting at the Santa Fe Farmer’s market Saturday August 29th from 7 am-1 pm. But don’t be late as I will sell out probably by 11 am. You can find me inside the building-just look for my ‘TOMATO LADY’ SIGN above my booth.

So come catch up with me and get some fantastic veggies for yourself this Friday without the parking hassles! Hope to see you here at the studio!

Santoro lettuce-a great butterhead variety

IMG_5764

This year, one of the lettuces I grew is called Santoro, a type of butterhead lettuce that is heat-resistant, cold resistant, has a wonderful taste and grows really big if given the chance. I got the seeds from Cooks Garden seed catalog. I started them inside the house on Jan 29, transplanted them into 2″ pots on Feb 14 and transplanted them again into the greenhouse in mid April.  I read somewhere Santoro lettuce can produce 12″ heads if you give them the room. So I spaced them really far apart to see if they could get that big. They say if you crowd big varieties they will never reach their maximum size. In the picture above I’ve picked the outer leaves to eat and wanted to see if they would grow back. The heads on the right haven’t been touched yet. As you can see I picked pretty hard. They grew back almost to the same size as the ones that weren’t picked.

IMG_5763

A couple of weeks later-Check out the size of these heads-a full 12 inches across. They are still growing in the greenhouse but now I’m picking the whole head  (instead of just the outer leaves) as I had to make way for the tomatoes that will grow in there. In fact I already have all 18 tomato plants (in wall of waters) inside the greenhouse as of May 13. I know it will get too hot for lettuces inside the greenhouse this summer so I’m starting to pull them to eat.

santoro lettuce_17 inches

May 31-I just picked this last head of Santoro lettuce yesterday (shown above between the tomatoes in the wall of waters) and it hadn’t bolted yet even though the temperatures in the greenhouse have gotten over 80 degrees. It’s handled 19 degrees to over 80 degrees! It reached 17 inches across! Hasn’t gotten bitter and is still soft and wonderful to eat. I’ve never had such great lettuce as this year, not only with this lettuce but with all of them in the greenhouse. Seems I’ve figured out how to be successful with them. I’ve done a lot of research on them from Nov-Dec to find some great varieties that were cold tolerant and now I’ve researched out what varieties of lettuce are heat tolerant, hoping to grow them in the shade this summer here in Santa Fe without bolting. Most of us don’t even try to grow lettuce in the summer as it is pretty warm here. I will list the heat tolerant varieties of lettuce in the next post and do an experiment with some of them outside in the garden.

May 21-ALL TOMATO PLANTS IN

growfood,not lawns

It’s time to get growing!

Now is the time to seriously get into your garden. This is the busiest time of the gardening season with everybody wanting to get everything in their gardens. The day temperatures are now in the mid-high 70’s and the evenings are in the mid-high 40’s. PERFECT PLANTING WEATHER! Here is what’s been going on at my place. I feel I’m ahead so I actually have time to post something.

May 21-I waited to plant till after that last snow right after the May 15 date. All 120 tomato plants were in the gardens by May 21 with the help of Elodie Holmes, Lava Ewersmeyer, Mernie Ellessner and Janet Hirons and of course me! Many thanks to all my friends for their help! Boy, was I tired by the end of last week. This is the most tomato plants I’ve ever planted-hopefully it will be a great year and I will have many tomatoes to sell at the Farmer’s Market later this summer! I have 31 varieties this year. My favorites plus many new varieties. They are all in Wall of Waters (WOW) and I wouldn’t attempt to plant them at this date at our 7000 ft high altitude without them. Later the WOWs will be removed once the tomato plants reach the tops of them which will be sometime in June.

May 24-Meanwhile I’ve already put SEEDS in for Atomic Red carrots, Cosmic Purple carrots, Cylindra beets and Craupadine beets, transplanted broccoli-raab, Lacinto kale, Ruby chard, Argentata chard, Burgundy Amaranth and Zino fennel bulbs as of this week. All got row cover over them to give the transplants time to adjust in their new environment.

May 25-The peppers and eggplants are still inside, the little finicky darlings, basking in the windows as the nights are still too cold to plant them yet. If it stays warm I will put them in by the end of the first week of June.

May 26-I will NOW plant bean, corn, cucumber seeds, many flower seeds AND my giant pumpkins. I will also put row cover over them till they come up about 4 inches to keep the birds from eating them.

HAPPY GARDENING!!

Wait! Not quite yet-Patience!

snow2_april 26

Snow-April 26, 2015!

Just when we are all chomping to get growing, here comes another snow.  Big wet snowflakes. Not surprising as we are still in April, (although late April). Yesterday I went to the Farmer’s Market to sell greens and tomato plants and I told everyone-don’t plant them yet, put them in a warm window sill, we still could have cold weather coming and here it is. Of course most of us know that the first frost-free day is around May 15th  to start planting but still I always fantasize getting everything in early and usually must wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

Patience! It seems gardening is a lesson in patience and patience is one of  life’s lessons. We must be patient for the winter weather to end so we can put our plants in the garden. Patient for the seeds to germinate. Patient when they don’t and must reseed. Patient for the soil to warm up so the plants will grow in earnest. Patient that the crops will grow and prosper. Patient for the all elusive harvest. So keep the faith, be patient, we will be able to plant soon, not just yet.

2014 garden-then and now

long shot of garden

The Tomato Lady
Tomato Lady’s mini-farm

My tomatoes love the sun and warmth!

tomatoes ready for market

Tomatoes ready for the Santa Fe Farmer’s market

Last week was warm and sunny-just what tomatoes need to ripen. Temperatures in the mid 80s. It’s a little cooler this week but still nice. Suddenly I have all kinds of tomatoes ripening-yea!

tomato lady at Santa Fe Farmer's Market

Up till last week I’ve barely had enough ripe ones to go to the Farmer’s Market much less make tomato sauce but now I have plenty to sell-just get there early as I sell out pretty early even with all these tomatoes. Here’s my booth at the Farmer’s Market. It is located inside the big building. Just look up for a big sign that says, ‘Tomato Lady’ to find me.

I noticed the number of ripe tomatoes have been growing here at my little farm and now they are exploding! Yea! I’m hoping for an Indian summer-that means the rest of September will be nice and warm which should keep them coming.

2014 Tomato Season in Santa Fe

closeup of virginia sweet

My all time favorite-an heirloom-a ‘Virginia Sweet’ tomato-a super sweet tomato worth the wait and weight.

Every year I try to get to the Farmers Market EARLY to sell tomatoes. Early to me would be end of July. Actually I would be delighted to even get to the market the first week of August. But no. Never. It’s not me I swear-I do my job. I get the tomato plants in the ground early enough. It’s THE WEATHER! Every year someone will ask me at the market how come they:

1. Don’t have any tomatoes or

2. Only have lots of green ones.

This year it’s the later because of THE WEATHER. So let me explain-No. 1 and No. 2 above and how both relate to THE WEATHER. This year we didn’t have a super hot June which was great because our tomato blossoms were able to set fruit in June. (If it’s really hot in June, then we experience blossom drop. Tomato blossoms won’t set fruit in temperatures 92°F and hotter.  They would have all dropped off all their little blossoms in our stinking hot Junes – hence no fruit and they grow more blossoms and set fruit up in July when it’s cooler but that puts us behind-see no. 1.)  But that’s not the case this year.

So on to no.2-we got LOTS of fruit now but they are mostly still green so we are still behind. Why? THE WEATHER! Now I don’t mean to pass the buck here as they say, but it’s true. July and now August this year has been delightfully cool and rainy. Daytime temperatures are cooler and nighttime temperatures are definitely cooler. Just like the old days with a real monsoon season. Now those of you new to the area (meaning you have moved here sometime in the last 12 years) have not really experienced the monsoon season, so enjoy it. Who knows when we will get another since we’ve been in drought like conditions the last 12 years.

Ok, back to why it’s THE WEATHER’S FAULT! So what’s happen is we have lots of green fruit but now we need some WARM SUNNY days to ripen the fruit. Even though the fruit can’t tolerate too hot of weather when trying to set fruit, after it’s set, they need warm sunny days to ripen up. All we’ve been mostly experiencing is very cool weather. Ah, what are we gonna do? It’s either too hot when they set blossoms or too cool to ripen.  Both scenarios make for a very late tomato season. Ah crumba!  I hope we get the warm days soon before fall comes as I have a ton of tomatoes on the vines! I sometimes wonder why I even bother and then I remember! I love tomatoes! I love trying new varieties! I’m a tomato addict!

Tomato Lady will return to SF Farmer’s Market this Saturday!

first tomatoes

Here are some of my tomatoes of the 2014 season. I’ll be back at the SF Farmer’s Market this Saturday, August 16th from 7-12 noon inside the building. Just look up high (above my booth) for my Tomato Lady sign to find me. I don’t have a ton of tomatoes yet and so they should go pretty quick and then I’ll be out but have many other items to sell like rhubarb, green and purple beans, Shishito peppers, various eggplants including the infamous fairytale eggplant and maybe some Kale. Hopefully next week I will have more!

But if you want tomatoes-come early!

Artisan Farm Tour-2014

It’s been a very busy summer for me. I’ve been preparing for my tour here on the property since spring. Nothing like having people over to get things done. I’ve had a punch list that I’ve chipped away at and finally got almost all of them done before last weekend when I had an educational tour for the Santa Fe Master Gardeners of my little Artisan Farm here in Santa Fe. Between the Home Grown Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour (different tour the week before) and my tour last weekend, I’ve pretty much been headless all summer. Now it’s all over and I can get back to a more normal pace. But wait, I’m getting ready to go to the SF Farmer’s Market! Always something. I guess I can rest in the winter! Here are some pictures of my Artisan Farm tour last weekend. The garden looks the best ever…

teepee
view of section 3b
view of garden
tomato forest
the crowd3
the crowd2
spears
the crowd arrives
tarbais beans
sea of sunflowers
rocks and bowls
old plow
view of section 3 in garden
outside greenhouse
red barn and KOKO
resting area
looking inside greenhouse
looking at garden plan
new bee garden by barn
inside greenhouse looking out2
jc in the garden
long shot of garden
native bee house
inside greenhouse looking out
in the garden
glass rocks and water bowls
Hun wee hamming it up
greenhouse
jc after it all-dirt tired
glass spears in strawberry patch
garden view
garden spears2
garden shot
garden shot 2
garden shed and old plough
garden entrance
flowers at entrance
first bee garden
favorite cucumber Poona Kheera
entrance
dragon eggs and nest in bean teepee
crowds walking around
closeup of sunflower blossom
closeup of spears
bee flags by entrance
birdhouse
chicken and duck flags
closeup of native bee house
BEAN TOWER
30 feet of grape vine!
2 attendees

Home Grown New Mexico’s ‘Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour’!

I’m on the Board of Directors of Home Grown New Mexico organization and we are putting on our main fundraiser this Sunday, July 27 from 9 am – 2 pm. Please come out and support us, you won’t be disappointed! I just went by all 5 houses this week and they are totally inspiring! Here is the post from our website.

FINALWEB 2014 HGNM KItchen Garden Tour

IT’S HERE! The print version of the 2014 Kitchen Garden Tour addresses and map

Just print it out and come out for the tour. Read on for more info on how to purchase tickets and the homes on the tour!

Our 4th Annual Kitchen Garden and Coop Tour is on Sunday, July 27  from 9 am – 2 pm.  Come get inspired for your own gardens! See five of Santa Fe’s most inspirational gardens.  Pick up ideas that you can use at your place or just enjoy these beautiful edible and functional landscapes.

‘The 5 properties on the tour this year will feature many gardening ideas—beautiful vegetable gardens, backyard chicken coops, beehives, composting, greywater systems, hoophouses, a neighborhood community farm, permaculture sites, edible landscapes and rainwater harvesting systems.’
Excerpts from: Edible Magazine, our premiere sponsor

 Tickets are $25 this year and children under 12 are free.

*Tickets can be purchased 2 ways:
1-Pre-purchase tickets online here.
2-Purchase on day of tour at homes. Cash or checks accepted at each house and credit cards accepted at house #1 only.

HERE ARE THE ADDRESSES FOR THE 5 SPECIAL PROPERTIES ON THE TOUR:

1. Linda and Jim Archibald- 1105 Caminito Alegre
This Casa Solana home features chicken coops, fruit trees, large raised vegetable gardens, perennial and annual flowerbeds.

2. Jesus and Charlotte Rivera – 405 Salazar Place
Tune-Up Café’s owners, Jesus and Charlotte Rivera’s home features raised vegetable gardens, fruit trees, herbs and greywater systems. Charlotte’s goal is to use greywater only for watering all her gardens.

3. Reese Baker – 2053 Camino Lado
The RainCatcher’s owner, Reese Baker’s home incorporates many Permaculture designs. His mature gardens will amaze and inspire all. His edible landscaping includes fruit trees, berries, edible bushes and vegetables. He has chickens, a fishpond and passive water harvesting systems including Zuni bowls, rainwater catchment and greywater systems that channel water to the fruit trees and pond. This site is a great example of what can be done on a small city lot!

4. Poki Pottin/Gaia Gardens – 2255 Paseo de los Chamisos
Poki who started Gaia gardens is known from the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market where he sells his vegetables. This is a phenomenal property that is a neighborhood community farm based on biodynamic principles. The farm features many vegetable gardens, chickens, composting systems, hoophouses and even has ducks! Poki will have lots of  plant starts for sale if you still need some.

5. Jeremiah Kidd – 29 Hidden Valley Road
San Isidro Permaculture’s owner, property in the foothills of the Sangre De Cristos showcases permaculture designs in keeping with our arid high desert. His property features edible landscaping, erosion control installations, grey and blackwater systems, rainwater catchment and a hoophouse. His edible landscaping includes berries, grapes, fruit and nut trees and many other exotic edible plants.

Master Gardeners and the homeowners will be present to answer questions at each site. Don’t miss this exciting Kitchen Garden & Coop tour in Santa Fe this year!

Other contributing sponsors for the tour are: Joes’ Diner, Osuna Nursery and Whole Foods