Heirloom Tomatoes – Have You Tried Black?

Heirloom Tomatoes – Have You Tried Black?

Art Knapps has enjoyed a long association with a well known local grower of heirloom tomatoes. Boy, after a conversation with him, you’ll be pumped up and eager to experiment with all sorts of unique heirloom varieties! The difference between a regular tomatoe and an heirloom variety is often in taste. Commercial tomatoes are grown for hardiness as they often have to travel thousands of miles before landing in your local grocery store. These tomatoes have to stand up to the rigors of much handling but lack the ‘fresh picked from the garden’ taste. Heirloom tomatoes are varieties that were grown pre1950 before mass hybridization began. Our grandparents would have saved their own seed from year to year. Thus each growing season, the tomatoe would have remained true to type.

Heirloom tomatoes are softer than grocery store types but if you are eating them right after picking, then this is not a problem. Sometimes the fruit will be slightly misshapen but if it’s just going in your BLT sandwich, who cares? Great flavor is what home gardeners want and heirlooms trump grocery store tomatoes every time!

There are so many varieties, I’m not even going to try to list them but instead in this article am
concentrating on one category of heirloom, the black tomatoes! They are called black because of their dark blood-red skin and dark flesh. Again, after chatting this week with our heirloom grower, he convinced me to try black tomatoes because he claims they have the most real, from your childhood taste of all colors of tomatoes.

There are 2 types we carry: Black Krim and Black Cherry.

Black Krim – an indeterminate tomatoe, medium size fruit, strong, sweet smokey taste, fantastic depth of flavor

Black Cherry – indeterminate, rare variety, dark flesh, rich complex taste, vigorous, one of the few black cherries

Because both of these varieties are indeterminate, allow more space than if they were bush types. They can grow to 6 feet but I often pinch out the top growth to keep them down to 4-5 feet.

Try these, like me, this year and we can all compare notes in September! (Supplies are limited)

Grow Your Own

Grow Your Own

Want to find a low cost way to grow  your own herbs, veggies and flowers?
We have seed prices starting at only 99¢ per package!  Our seed are from Canadian companies such Westcoast Seeds, Pacific NorthWest Seeds, Nature's Garden and Mr. Fothergill's. Renee's Garden is an international seed company that also has great prices and products. Our selection has organic seeds, seeds for container gardening and kids varieties to fit any style of gardening.

Plus we carry various seed supplies from starter soils to windowsill greenhouses to peat pellets. We have
everything to get your garden growing and get you one step closer to eating for less than if you bought it at the grocery store.

Vegging Out This Spring

Vegging Out This Spring

An often asked question is "Can I grow food at this time of year?" To which I answer, "Sure you can!" Here are a few recommended crops for early spring in this cold weather.

Lettuce: Cool, wet springs are perfect for growing lettuce as it won't bolt and you should get multiple harvests out of each plant. Plus it is simply crisper and tastes better when grown in cooler temperatures.

Peas: Traditionally St. Patrick's Day has been the time to plant your first peas, but planting in April is fine as well. Peas prefer warmer temperatures, but they don't like the heat. Peas are known to grow well after the last frost. Snow Peas and Sugar Snap Peas do especially well in these conditions.

Rhubarb: Rhubarb is a cool season crop that is grown for it's leaf stalks which are both sweet and tart. It is great for pies... or tarts and is a perennial too!

Spinach: Spinach loves cool weather and is a quick grower, so you'll have to keep planting new spinach to extend the harvest. It is great in salads, hot or cold. Mmmmm!

Other cool weather crops including both vegetables and herbs are:
Parsley: Both a traditional curled and tastier flat leafed Italian varieties are available.
Cilantro: Quite flavorful!
Dill: Good with fish, and great for pickling!
Swiss Chard: Great in salads and full of nutrition too!
Arugula: Also called rocket is full of peppery goodness.
Onions and Chives: A perennial crop that adds zest and flavor to any meal.

So there you go! Have at it and start planting your spring crops today to enjoy them tomorrow! Well not really tomorrow tomorrow, but you know what we mean.