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.......

Summer Afternoon...

Long sunny days ......long warm days....and I get lazier and slower....but a person has to eat! the garden is giving me potatoes, carrots, beans, radishes, beets, turnips, lots of greens...kale, lettuce and all the tops from beets and turnips too.

a fire to cook on outside is always tempting since the kitchen is hot and who wants to turn on the stove... the other day I chopped garden potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, kale, greens, beans and some organic frozen corn and peppers and boiled it for an hour with some vegetable bouillon, cayenne pepper, regular ol' pepper (don't take it for granted...it's a good thing to toss in), and some dried thyme.
After an hour of simmering, I mixed some pancake mix with a bit of milk in a bowl, and dropped tablespoons of dough in the boiling soup, and walaa! Dumplings!
I learned that from mom...drop in lumps of dough and you thicken the soup and add a side dish all at the same time. At the end of simmering your soup, drop in dumpling dough, and cover and simmer for another 15 minutes. With all that yummy goodness from the garden, we topped the late  dinner with ice cream and pie. And Screwdrivers!

Here's what I planted in late spring, so I was thrilled to pull some tasty homegrowns the other day and eat....

I had to pull out the peas, and chop back the swiss chard, the kale and the pak choi....the hot weather is not a friend to them. Everything got watered deep and also got a douse of organic fertilizer.

The tomato plants are growing tall, and so are the sunflowers and the corn. The squash has blossoms....late summer is gonna taste great.

I love being barefoot in the kitchen in summer.....and I set up a cooking area outside. It is so cool,  (weather-wise and mood wise), to set a frying pan on the barbeque to fry some oysters and serve them with a cold green salad plucked from the garden in the morning.

Here's a look at the garden in early June. The lychnis, the shasta daisies, the nasturtiums, and the tomatoes planted on teepees made from branches cut from the winter damaged black locust trees...

Late last winter I set cardboard out on the sunny part of the lawn to kill the grass so I could plant tomato plants. I covered the ground with lots of manure and compost, covered it with cardboard and  then I put lawn clippings on top of that after the first mowings of the spring. Then, I cut a hole in the cardboard, set in my tomato plants, and fashioned teepees with branches wired together at the top.

One leg is held in place with an 18" length of iron rebar to hold them in place. This method is great for lazy er, busy gardeners. The cardboard/mulch arrangement holds in water and prevents weeding!
I water every 2 weeks by putting a trickling hose near the base of each tomato plant for about 10 minutes and also fertilize the ground right at the base of the plant. As the plant grows, I gently tie it to the branch. I have lots of blossoms and sooooon I'll have tiny tomatoes........and then Big Tomatoes.........Homegrown Tomatoes!!!!

Screwdriver: Simple. in a canning jar pint glass of orange juice, organic please ...oh a simple little thing...OJ, then I squish basil or mint leaves in the OJ with my fingers (I'm lazy), then add an ice cube or 2, a splash of lemonade, then pour in a jigger or 2 of vodka....the herb oil/leaves add a bit of extra tastiness to the summer Screwdriverand sip slowly in the shade.....

So Narcissistic.

 If it is ancient, if it is obscure, weird, uncommon and hard to find.... in my long long years as a gardener, I've grown it. I feel most attached to the human race when I think of people thousands of years ago seeing, growing and loving a plant I have in my yard.
Green flowers, black flowers, stripes, dots, black leaves, variegated leaves, black tomatoes, white tomatoes, crazy beans and beanstalks.......it's what I love.

One of my favorite heirloom flowers is the Poet's narcissus.....‘Actaea’ is an heirloom beloved for its large and fragrant flowers that open at about the same time as lilacs. The first written description of this narcissus was about 300BC. The poet Virgil  wrote about a narcissus with white single petals and an orange eye.....the Narcissus poeticus. Native to Europe, where it has naturalized it is a breathtaking sight. It is very fragrant, and has medicinal uses that are very well known from ancient times.

As with all narcissus and all daffodils, it is poisonous....don't try to use it to cure any ills...but for the winter time blues......


Narcissus flowers are named for the son of the River God, Cephissus, and mother, Leiriope, a nymph, in Greek mythology.........This boy Narcissus was quite the looker.. according to legend. A prophet told Leiriope her son would live long and prosper if he avoided ever seeing himself in a reflection.
The pretty boy had many women and men (this is a Greek legend) fall in love with him as he grew up into a man, but he chose none of them for a lover.

A nymph, Echo, loved Narcissus, but she had her own curse to deal because the goddess Hera made poor Echo repeat again the last words she heard said to her....... But Narcissus did not have eyes for her!
Ameinias, another hopeful lover was also rejected by the handsome Narcissus, and Ameinias killed himself. Just before taking his life he asked for the gods to punish  Narcissus.
The gods then set Narcissus to gaze on his loveliness in a clear pond......He fell in love with himself....he was so darn pretty!
When he leaned over to touch the beautiful image of himself, he fell in and drowned......or he killed himself also....we're not too clear on that.
The gods thought the tragedy (this is a Greek legend) ought to be commemorated......and so named the lovely yellow late winter flower.......Narcissus.

Good Day Sunflowers !

If you want sunflowers, you gotta plant seeds.......
here's a few.....
Mammoth Russian, the BIG ones that get to 8' to 12'. Burpee's Evening Sun mix grows to 6' - 7'. Burgundy Moulin Rouge pollen free are short and perfect for cut flowers in the house. Italian White are simple and daisy-like. The Fun 'n Sun mix grows to 4' - 6'. The colors can be yellow, gold, cream, orange, pinkish, maroon, stripes and with dark centers or light centers.

All the flowers in this post are from my gardens in the last 2 years, except the next to last pic.

I love this moment......a day or 2 before the petals curl back to make that great big sunflower.....

The story of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus ) dates back to the American continents as a wild plant that grew freely.
American Indian tribes in North America  cultivated sunflowers in Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC.   The wild sunflower  plant was taken to Europe by Spanish explorers some time around 1500. Peter the Great of Russia adored the sunflower as an ornamental.  By the late 19th century, Russian sunflower seed came back to  the US. By 1880, seed companies were advertising the 'Mammoth Russian' sunflower seed in cataloges.

Sunflowers are used for decoration, as a farm crop for oil, or crushed for sunflower flour and butter, or eaten as um......sunflower seeds! The petals and seeds can be used to make a dye, too.

Sunflower seeds come in different sizes too! the big ones here are the Mammoth Russian, the teeny ones are the multi-color sunflowers that grow about 5' tall, and the medium size are from a Sunspot variety that grow knee-high.


Sunflowers are part of the composite family of flowers......like the dandelion.....

and the Shasta daisy....it started out the size of a quarter or so, and made big as your hand by Luther Burbank....

the composite flowers of dusty miller and a friendly bumble bee.......tho dusty miller is grown for its gray dusty velvet leaves.....I let it go to bloom.......

pink cosmos.......

Just as they start to open...... like the sun.......

and at the end of the season......

random pic from the interwebz.....if you own it let me know for proper credit...

a path of sunflowers above the rose garden..........

Here is the full selection of seeds I planted the last week of April 2013 in the front yard borders........ Beans, squash, gourds, cosmos...marigolds.....sunflowers, sunflowers, sunflowers...........
Indian corn, heirloom corn, alyssum for the bees...

Oh Marilyn, Oh Spring! The gnomes are so happy! so are the flamingoes !! flamingii !!

 the purple alyssum are blooming.....it's spring! they smell so good.....like honey........the white alyssum has a more intense fragrance...but don't pass the purple by....
It's spring......I'm so excited. I've planted a lot in the garden.....here's some tiny Swiss Chard.

little seedlings are springing up........



 and new spring things to wear are coming to the etsy shop....

Lovely candy colors in a printed plaid, this 70s cotton sundress, is from Nordstrom. It's got a wide elastic waist, a full bodice, and a gathered skirt. The skinny ties are so cute and really say "It's a beautiful day and I feel pretty!". 

this pretty dress...... is a classic......scroll down to see its Inspiration!

this pretty dress sure looks like this iconic Marilyn dress!

 Along with the late winter/spring blooming burgundy primroses,  I paired up some greenhouse nicotiana, and a bit of  blue lobelia.........courtesy of the greenhouse....

The flamingos are excited!

60s vintage Blue sharkskin suit !

80s vintage cotton Gant plaid button down short sleeve shirt 

60s vintage Fedora with gold feathers 

60s green cotton check short sleeve shirt 

Jams World shirt in bright blue, turquoise and green

60s vintage blue and green plaid shirt, short sleeve 

The gnomes are excited!! They are sooooooooo ready for spring.....

the little blue chionodoxa are blooming....
they only show their little blue heads in spring......
 known as Glory of the snow, they are a bulb, originally from Turkey. Like bulbs will do, they bloom in spring, sometimes thru the snow, and must be planted in the late fall.
This variety is named for Lucille, the wife of the botanist who named them.....discoverers get to do that....I'm sure Swiss botanist, Boissier wasn't really the first to notice them in Turkey, but he was the first to write it down in Latin, and make a big deal of it!!
these are beloved by gardeners because they are the rarest of colors in the garden, Blue.....
seems odd, eh? One would think blue would be very common....but no. The sky tries to keep as much blue as possible, I suppose..


oh look! a big healthy dandelion.....oh well.....the bugs and the birds and the butterflies appreciate a little wildness.....

pale daffodils.......