Posted in fruits, market, photo, vegetables, tagged farmers market, heirloom tomatoes on April 23, 2011| 1 Comment »
This coming Sunday is the last day that Bee Heaven Farm/Redland Organics is going to be at the Pinecrest Gardens Green Market. Come get the last of the heirloom tomatoes! In honor of the bumper crop we had this season, I put together a non-encyclopedic image of some of the 60+ varieties that Farmer Margie grows.
Bring your market tote! Margie is flooded with a sea of carrots, lettuce, onions, and there will be the legendary, farm-fresh Rachel’s Eggs grown by happy, pastured hens at Bee Heaven.
Posted in fruits, photo, vegetables, tagged heirloom tomatoes on April 17, 2011|
Heirloom tomato season is winding down.
This season it looked uncertain if there would be a good crop of heirloom tomatoes because of the freeze in December. Some plants were killed by cold (and replanted) but about half survived. Happily, there’s been a bumper crop and the barn was loaded for the past few weeks.
Double decker heirloom tomatoes ripening in the barn.
Tomatoes are picked as they start to turn color and ripen. If they stayed on the vine until they were completely ripe, there’s a good chance that birds and bugs would get to them before you would. The tomatoes are grouped by variety and stored in flats, which are stacked all over the barn to allow them to continue ripening.
But now the torrent is tapering to a trickle, and that means trouble for tomato-heads. Tomato season is slowly coming to an end. Vines are shaggy and some are flopping to the ground. They are definitely showing stress from heat and bugs.
I like zigzag streaks of gold along the sides of speckled romans. It looks like the planet Jupiter, doesn’t it? No two are alike. You’ll never see these in the grocery store!
Close up view of a speckled roman heirloom tomato.
Posted in farm, fruits, photo, tagged mullberries on March 27, 2011| 3 Comments »
Mullberry picking in full swing.
On a farm visit last Friday, I strolled past one of the mulberry trees and saw something going on. Human legs showing from under the full, leafy branches, and also the legs of a wooden step ladder. I circled around and saw packages of mulberries lying on the grass. The legs belonged to Pedro, the farm’s helper.
Weber was perched on the ladder, searching for the darkest, sweetest fruit.
I ducked under the branches and looked around. Weber, the new intern, was partly visible in the sea of leaves and branches. He was standing on the ladder reaching and picking fruit. “I’ve never seen a tree this full of fruit,” Weber told me. And it was true, every branch was loaded with ripe, ripening or still green berries. “The bees have been doing their job,” I told him. The tree is right by the hives and a flight path the bees take in and out of the hive area. They had done a thorough job of pollinating blossoms a few months before, and seems every one had set fruit.
The berries don’t all ripen at once.
I offered to help pick, and scouted branches for the darkest, ripest fruit. They were deep purple and fell off into my hand at the slightest touch. The darker they are, the sweeter the flavor. The thing with me and mulberries is that for every two that go into the box, at least one goes into my mouth!
But don’t worry, I didn’t eat all of them. There’s plenty left. Look for ripe, juicy mulberries at market this Sunday and in the next week or so. But once they’re gone, they’re gone until next spring.
Friday’s harvest.
Posted in fruits, market, photo, vegetables, tagged heirloom tomatoes on March 17, 2011|
Come early for the best selection. By noon, the supply of small tomatoes dwindles considerably.
The heirloom tomato season is in full swing! It was off to a late start compared to last year because of cold weather we had back in December. You may remember that some varieties died from freezing cold temperatures. Those that survived were dormant for a while, just hanging out, getting their energy back. Now comes the explosion of tomatoes unlike anything you will find at most stores. Farmer Margie calls it madness and it is best kind, a wild madness of colors, shapes, textures and flavors — especially the flavors!
Tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes!
Heirloom tomatoes are the jewels of the vegetable kingdom. They come in all different colors — yellow, orange, rose, pink, red and black, which really are deep red veering into shades of brown and purple. Green tomatoes are a bit tricky. They stay green (with either a pale blush or golden hue) when they are ripe, and have a bit of lemony tartness along with their tomato flavor. If you look carefully, some red ones have golden flecks and others have stripes. Yellows and oranges are sweeter, less acidic. A new discovery this year is garden peach — a yellow tomato that is fuzzy like a peach, thus the name.
Look carefully — can you see the fuzz? Yes, it’s a tomato called Garden Peach.
Margie is raising about 60 varieties this year and I’ve learned some of them by name. The ones I recognize are: cherokee purple, green zebra, Matt’s wild cherry (great for snacking), the pleated and ruffly Costoluto Genovese, sun gold, lemon drop, brown berry and black cherry (almost identical), red zebra, zapotec pleated, and podland pink.
Marauders in the vines.
You can save the seeds from your favorite kinds, plant them next season and grow the exact same thing you ate. That’s because heirloom vegetables are open pollinated, meaning they keep their traits from one generation to the next, unlike hybrids. Farmers and gardeners saved seeds of the varieties they liked over the generations. Just think, people grew and ate hundreds of different kinds of tomatoes, not three or four kinds we find in stores today. Each heirloom tomato variety is unique and valued for its ability to fight off disease and insects, or adapt to growing conditions, and of course, have an excellent flavor.
I’m partial to Matt’s wild cherry, lemon drop, brown berry, sun gold and green zebra. Which varieties are your favorites?
You’re not going to find something like this at the supermarket!
Posted in fruits, photo, tagged black sapote on January 9, 2011|
Looking into a tote of green black sapote.
The share is very colorful this week — green peppers, red grapefruit, black sapote. Wait a minute! Why is the black sapote green?! Because it’s not ripe yet…
Don’t try to eat it now or you’ll be very disappointed. Wait until the fruit turns very, very soft and totally black. Then you can eat it.
I’ve blogged about black sapote last season. Check out the post here.
Redland Rambles 