Fritule

Here is my first deviation away from the garden and onto the topic of food!

On Good Friday of every year, my mother-in-law makes a wonderful fritter treat called Fritule.  Here is a picture of Fritule.

Seeing how this Friday is Good Friday and we will not be able to see her this year, I thought I would post these 6 videos of her on YouTube making Firtule.  They are the best!  Watch the videos in order, and hopefully you be inspired to try it yourself.







 

It's Time to Order the Tomatoes

I buy my Heirloom Tomato seedlings through, Verrill Farm.   Today I'm going to place my order for seedlings.  To see their list of Tomatoes for this year, download their PDF order form here...  Tomato Order Form.  You can call Verrill farm at: 978-369-4494 to place your order or you can email them at info@verrillfarm.com. 

Take your time in reading through the varieties of tomatoes that they have, their description, timing and where you will eventually plant them.

Here is what I will be ordering this year. 

Cherry
I like Cherry tomatoes for many reasons, but the main reason why I grow them is for their versatility with respect to use in cooking or salads, their early arrival and their high yields- enough said!  For my family two plants suffice.  Here are the two I will be ordering.

• 1 Sun Gold

• 1 Super Sweet 100

Heirlooms

Look back to my previous blog titled Heirloom Tomatoes on my perspective as to why I like them.  Here is what I will be ordering this year:

1 Green Zebra








1 Lemon Boy

1 Paul Robeson

2 Moskvich










1  Mr. Stripy

2 New Big Dwarf








1 Black Prince

1 Aunt Ginny's Purple







Plum Tomatoes
The primary purpose why I grow these tomatoes is for cooking. 

2 San Marzano








Take your time in reviewing the Tomato Order Form and the different varieties.  If you live in the greater Boston area I recommend you consider Verrill Farm. If not, check with your local farm's or nurseries if they have these varieties.  Have fun!

First Food from the Garden Today - March 28th

A few days ago I noticed that the chives I grew last year were starting to come back.

Today my wife harvested a nice handful which she chopped up and put into a great soup we shared with another family and a few good friends.  It was a nice starter to a Sunday lunch of Sarma, a Croatian dish that my wife's family makes for special occasions.

Just like the Daffodils and Crocuses that are in bloom right now in Cambridge, so are the Chives.  Hopefully your chives are returning back right now, and if not you should plan on planting some for this upcoming year!

Here are two images of  my chives.  Enjoy!

What, When and Where on Heirloom Tomatoes

OK in my last blog I told you about what Heirloom Tomatoes I grew last year and how they did.

Well, it's time to start thinking about this year.  If you are going to grow tomatoes, grow heirloom's for the reason I mentioned in my last blog.  You have two choices here.  Start with seeds, or buy seedlings.  If you start with seeds, you are too late with respect to getting your more mature plants in the ground by May 15th.

Starting with seeds is great, and you can collect the seeds from the tomatoes you grow in the previous year.  I've done this a few times, but now, I buy all of my seedlings from one farm.  Why?  I did not have the appropriate  physical space in my house. to accommodate.  It is easier for me to buy my seedlings from a reputable farm and support their family business.

The place where I buy my seedlings from is from Verrill Farm in Concord.  They have a great selection of great quality  Heirlooms. 

If you do want to grow from seed, a great book that I own which I find very helpful is Tomato by Gail Harland.

 There are many other books out there but this one has some very good practical tips as well as some recipes.

Heirloom Tomatoes

In my garden I only grow Heirloom Tomatoes.  They are, in my opinion, the best tasting and most interesting tasting tomatoes out there.  A blog dedicated specially for heirlooms can be written and there are many sources on the web where you can find information about them.  Start with Wikipedia and dive deeper from there into cultivars and the many varieties.

This is my favorite thing to grow in the garden and I will be dedicating many blog posts to Heirloom Tomatoes.  For now I'd like to share with you the varieties I planted last year and how they did through the rainy summer of 2009.  In total I had 21 tomato plants plus 3 seedings that sprouted up unexpectedly.  Here is what I planted:

1. One Sun Gold - This is a cherry tomato plant with great flavor, generates fruit early and grows at a rapid pace.  I like this one a lot as it is a great producer, very versatile.

 

 Paul Robeson- One plant-  This is a medium black tomato with a very complex flavor.  It was sweet and tangy all at the same time.  What I really liked about this Tomato is that it yielded many tomatoes and did well against the blight.  I plan to grow this one again this year.

Moskvich- 2 Plants - This is a medium, hardy and deep red tomato with great flavor.  Like the Sun Gold, I like this one for the fact that it yields fruit early.

 

Aussie- one plant.  H,I - These are really big red tomatoes with rich flavor and a nice blend of acidity and sugars.  In my opinion they are better than Brandwine

Lemon Boy- one plant.  This is a yellow, medium sized tomato that did very well given the rain last summer.  The flavor of this tomato is very sweet.  The other thing I really liked about this plant was that it produced early.

Cherokee Chocolate- one plant.  This is a dark red, purplish tomato blend that grows medium to large.  Unfortunately this plant did not do very well with the rain and was hit by the blight in early July.  I don't think I will plant his one again.

Aunt Ginny's Purple - one plant.  When the name has purple in it, the tomato was more of a deep pink, very large and had a lot of flavor.  Only complaint is that it did not produce that many tomatoes.

Garden Peach- one plant.  This was a pale yellow tomato that had strangely enough a fuzzy skin like a peach. This plant provided a high yield.  Favor was medium and I used these tomatoes mostly in a mixed salad.

   Jaune Flame - one plant.  This was an orange / red colored tomato, small and very sweet.  It produced well early but the blight took its toll on this plant.  

Green Zebra- one plant.  Very hardy and tangy green striped tomato that I've grown every year.  High yielder and very happy in New England.

Red Zebra - one plant.  Similar to the green zebra, great taste and a very strong small to medium tomato.  Great in salads.

Black Prince - two plants.  A really good and consistent producer of small to medium black tomatoes.  This did very well last year given all the rain.

San Marzano- two plants.  Well, they can never taste as good as the ones from Italy thanks to that wonderful volcanic soil of Vesuvius, but I do grow them every year for the purpose of cooking with them.  They are the your typical plum / pepper shaped red tomatoes that here in New England you should use for cooking and not for salads.

Brandy Wine - one plant.  Large light red widely available Heirloom tomato with a great rich flavor.  Last year the yield was horrible.  Blight hit this one hard.

Black Krim - one plant.  This is a Russian variety that is dark red mahogany colored beefsteak style tomato.  It did well, but was attached by the blight.  

Sun Cherry - one plant.  This tomato plant that was prolific and an early yielder of very sweet red cherry tomato.

Striped German- one plant.  This is a large red / yellow tomato with a lot of flavor.  Unfortunately this only yielded a few tomatoes and did not do well in my garden.