The Potted Garden of Eatin'

 

My garden this year was planted in pots, big big pots and a few smaller ones. I scored all of them at yard sales, and I shoulda bought more than I did. Well, next time I will. I bought organic vegetable starts because I got such a late start this year with traveling and moving in March and April, but I did plant some seeds.

In the big pots I stuffed my favorite heirloom tomato of all that I've grown in the last 45 years... the Cherokee Purple, and one Early Girl, and a mini tomato, Sweet Million. Damn, those little ones are so sweet and tasty.

I also planted 2 kinds of eating and grilling peppers, a tomatillo, a small zuke, and a Japanese eggplant.  Since mid-June we've been eating tomatoes and peppers, and now the tomatillo and eggplant are producing.
I planted some climbing purple tiger beans and red flowering beans. No I didn't plant everything I wanted but I did get a lot......
Also, marigolds, sunflowers, nasturtiums, alyssum, geranium, fennel, zinnas, morning glories, chartreuse potato vine, rosemary, lavender, lots of succulents, and  a few corns for fun.

Here's what we started with in the yard.......

We got rocks, cement and asphalt. We got a back fence. And empty space. So...we put up a cheapo pop-up, and a shed. So far so good! Then I planted all the pots with 1/2 good organic potting soil, and for substance, 1/2 of organic garden soil.

this was the garden in early July and then I decide to move all the pots around for less hot sun exposure. This ain't Washington! It gets HOT in California. Too much sun dries out the plants in the pots, even with careful morning watering and a mid-afternoon watering for the smaller pots if need be, when the temp hits 90. Which is almost everyday.

Here's a little tour of the yard. This is right before everything Took Off!!!

The patio under the pop-up, the shed, the backyard, a view from the street, the pallet steps and front yard pots of flowers, a vintage wood dresser for cooking outside (the Winnie gets hot....) and lots of flowers, and lots of good food from just a few pots this spring and summer.
In August, the fall crops will go in the new pots I intend to score at the yard sales around town.

pallet steps (love them!), lots of pots of succulents and sedums. A wood spool (so hippie) and a big pot of trailing nasturtium.

Looking under the awning towards the back yard, the patio with pots of flowers and climbing beans across the front.
To the right is the  shed where we make stuff. I hung a lace curtain in the doorway to help block the sun, but it doesn't keep the neighbor cats from coming in and taking a nap.

Inside the patio........ oh yes the Avocado made the transition just fine and is loving the shady warm patio. Hung up fabric and shades on the sides for sun protection and look.....a cat!

Looking to the backyard between the shed and patio and sunflowers!!

this here in the bottom of the pic is my Meyer Lemon. I am so excited because it's gonna bloom any second now, and then this winter Lemons! yummmmy.

The first Japanese eggplants in early July, and below a zuke with marigolds. I like to plant a lot of annuals that are very attractive to bees and boy are they!
I had 3 pretty bright green squash bugs come a visitin' and a eatin' so I had to squash them. They are hard to kill with chemicals, which I don't use anyway, so squash squash squash.

We're getting something from the garden everyday.... a few tomatoes, a few peppers. Next year I'll start everything I can from seed, and put in pumpkins and squash, and lots more corn too. But for the little effort and the few big pots, we're pretty darn happy.

What does fall require?

well, it certainly requires some tomato recipes! Tomatoes, to. mate. o's. We wait for months....we deprive ourselves of supermarket red balls of mushy goo....that ain't no tomato.  Here's a mess o' pics of my tomatoes...... I only planted 2 varieties this year.... weird I know. the Heirloom Russian Krim, and the simple old-fashioned tried and true, Cherry tomato.

Just a sample of the first tomatoes this year.... splitting because we had a big rainstorm as the biggest toms were ripening, so they soaked up a lot of water very quickly. I have in the past, covered the whole tomato patch with a makeshift cover of a wood frame and plastic. This is unslightly but it does work!
I didn't do it this year because I was busy being on vacation and swimming, and generally enjoying summer.... a very short season.

I've been growing heirlooms all my life...my parents were gardeners, and the vets that lived at my dad's hotel also had big gardens. Most often, they were planted with seeds that had been saved from last season! Take that Monsanto!
If you can do nothing else.....I implore you to never ever buy a Monsanto seed. Here's a list of companies that are independent and believe food is too precious to make it a corporate property.  Garden of Eatin' blog is a wonderful and detailed resource for quality seeds.

I have bought a lot of heirloom seeds in the 80s and on, from these companies... Totally Tomato, Tomato Growers Supply, Seymour’s Selected Seeds, R.H. Shumway, Park Seed, Territorial Seed, Shepherd's Seeds, and lots of seeds from European companies.
My mom used Burpee seeds a lot. So, I'm naturally drawn to them, and they are very sentimental.

One of my favorite cookbooks is The World In Your Kitchen, by Troth Wells, pub. 1993. It's all vegetarian.  It's a delightful book with lots of pics of people from all over the world cooking the food they and their families and tribes have eaten for centuries.
That is kickin' it Old School! If you want good food, go back to basics and learn what the classics are....then venture out to Thomas Keller....et al.
;-)

from the Middle East, stuffed tomatoes, Mahasha. this is really great because you probably have all the ingredients right in your cupboards.

Cut your 4 big tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Turn on the oven to 325 degrees. Heat up oil in a frying pan and add 2 tbs of cilantro or coriander leaves, and crisp them. Add 1 tsp. of curry powder, 1/2 - 1 tsp of chili powder, 2 tsps of cumin seeds, 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 clove of crushed garlic to the cilantro and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat, and add salt.
Add 1/2 pound of mashed potatoes, or the same amount cooked bulghur, 1/3 cup of peas, to the reserved tomato pulp.
Stir it together, and fill the tomato halves and place in an ovenproof dish. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

A simple relish from Africa.  A peanut and tomato relish.  We substitute walnuts, or cashews for the peanuts, because we are allergic! Again, simple ingredients you have on hand.

a favorite picture from the book......look at those tomatoes!!

and........when you just wanna eat some of those many many many green tomatoes....
I took this picture and the rising steam fogged my camera lens!

You can just slice and fry in oil, or coat them with flour..... and there are a lot of variations.... do a search on TEH InterWebs!

Homegrown Tomatoes are worth waiting for...

I have said it many a time.....but I don't eat fresh fruit out of season......especially tomatoes.
Those mushy wet cold ice cubes restaurants serve and are at grocery stores from October thru April are gak.

I know they can be shipped up from Chile or where ev' but no.
I grew only 2 varieties this year from seed.

Frst up, is an heirloom cherry tomato, called Cherry tomato.
simple.
And I planted Russian Krim, both from seed. 

Typical little round marble shape cherry tomato. This will start to ripen in about 65 days after planting.
Oh, I waited until June 10th to plant them out and I planted them deep, so they would grow roots along the stems. Yup, that's what they do!
Last April, I was out side spreading a lot of compost and manure, then covered that with cardboard, then tossed my grass clippings on that.....
here's the set up....
...be sure to notice how tiny they were!
And the big husky branch  teepees I set up to tie the tomato plants to as they grow....and boy have they grown!

This variety of Cherry tomato is indeterminate.

yeah, the broccolis, and the spinach is doing well too, and we are eating it now.

Look at that fluted tomato baby! That's Russian Krim, from the area of Russia (the former Soviet Union) around the Black Sea.

They've been grown in the area in the Crimea since the 19th century.

 

They grow to a big fist size 4" - 6" flat ball, with those great flutes that look so charming when sliced. The tomato is a dark red, rather black, and the inside is also a deep reddish-black.
It is a fairly short season variety, about 75 days, and it does love long warm days. I hope it does well this summer.....it looks like a hot one, with many many days over 80 degrees! Weeeeee!

It's a beefsteak type, and indeterminate, so I do prune out some of the "suckers" from the main branches and keep strong side branches. I want all the tomato energy to go to tomatoes.....rather than to leaves leaves leaves. Tho....the leaves are quite handsome!  They look like their cousins, the potato. Broad, and deep, they look like a small shrub, and not like some ol' rangy scrubby plant.

I've grown this one time and time again because I love the weirdness of it...and the flavor is so rich, so sweet, with just a bit of sparky tangness. It's deep and rich. If you didn't grow it this year, I hope you can find it at a Farmer's Market near you.
Along with Brandywine, Mr. Stripey, Mortgage Lifter, Lemon, Cherokee Purple (another fave of mine), and several others, Black Krim, were the first heirloom tomatoes I grew at the farm for Gig Harbor's Farmers Market in 1993 and 1994.

Even the tomato blossoms of Krim are large and lush..

Russian Krim....tomato seeds, and Hungarian Wax peppers, which were eaten to nubbins as tiny seedlings by nasty mean slugs.
Beer was poured on them and they died (the slugs).......I am mean!

 

And here, in late July, just six weeks from planting in the ground, are the tomato plants now! Wow!

it always a pleasure to hear Guy Clark.....here's his tribute about the rare special thing........Homegrown Tomatoes.......