Saturday, February 23, 2008

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Tomatoes are planted!

I just received 17 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds. The seedlings are all planted and germinating. I plan to make tomato paste, dried tomatoes and plenty of other tomato-y goodness. Some will be planted at the boyfriend's house and some at my house -- and I may bring some containers to other friends to see how the cold weather tolerant varieties do in San Francisco.

I'm sure I'll have lots of extra plants -- if you live in Oakland, add your comment and I'll keep you in mind after we start figuring out how many will survive and how many we can put in the ground.




Moskovich-Tomato Seeds
Early season ("extra early")
Peacevine Cherry-Tomato Seeds
Mid-season, high amino acid content, high Vitamin C content cherry tomato
Super Snow White-Tomato Seeds
Mid-season, very sweet, white ping pong ball size
Wonder Light-Tomato Seeds
Mid season, "plum lemon" w/mild sweet flavor (yellow catsup, anyone?)
Amana Orange-Tomato Seeds
Late season, "huge" beefsteak, fluted/irregular, 2# or more
Aunt Ruby’s German Green-Tomato Seeds
Mid-season, "lime jello" color - super fruity, slightly spicy
Aunt Ruby's Yellow Cherry-Tomato Seeds
Mid-season, Very productive, fruity-tart.
Black Cherry-Tomato Seeds
Early season, tall vigorous plant, sweet, complex, round black cherry tomato.
Blondkopfchen-Tomato Seeds
Mid-season. "Plant produces phenomenal clusters of 20-30 very-very-very tasty gold/yellow grape-sized (1/2") cherries. Put this in your mouth and see if you can keep from smiling."
Brandywine, Red-Tomato Seeds
Late season, 1-1 1/2#, pink/purple meaty fruit, good for canning.
Debarao-Tomato Seeds
Great paste tomato, mid-season
Green Zebra-Tomato Seeds
Developed in 1985 for Alice Waters/Chez Panisse - these are available at farmer's markets, WF, BB and are really yum.
Hawaiian Pineapple-Tomato Seeds
Late season. Large 1-1 1/2# beefsteak, sweet, slightly pineapple flavored - had to have these!
Principe Borghese
Mid-season, good for drying - supposed to be the most flavorful
Yellow Ruffled
Mid-season. Ruffled/indeterminate. Good for stuffing - and they photographed it on a Blue Willow plate!
Paul Robeson
Mid-season. Black beefsteak tomato, good for lower growing temps.
Italian Tree
Late season. These must be staked - the plant grows up to 15' tall and produces a lot of tomatoes - "enormous amounts of meaty, 1-2 pound, 4-5-inch, red tomatoes with superior sweet flavors." I think I'll have the most trouble with this one (wrt over production)


Aker's West Virginia - BONUS from the TomatoFest Folks
A family heirloom tomato of Craig Lehoullier's friend, Carl Aker of Pennsylvania. Originally from West Virginia. These organic tomato seeds produce a vigorous highly productive, regular leaf, heirloom tomato plant that yields an excellent set of large, 10 to 16-ounce, deep-red, slightly flattened tomatoes in clusters of 2. Fruits show little or no cracking and have a well balanced sweetness to acidity. Delicious, robust flavors.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

GIANT Chanterelle


GIANT Chanterelle
Originally uploaded by jennconspiracy
Do you know how big my hands are? My hands are 7.5" long and about 4.5" wide. This mushroom is that much bigger than my hand. Click through for more great Chanterelles!