The last salads.
It’s getting hot next week and I’ve been so busy, haven’t had time to properly harvest and maintain the lettuce and mustard in the hydro tubs. The aphids moved in on much of the mustard. Grew loads of Wasabi and Southern Giant Curled, love those hot mustards. The Japanese Giant Red and several Asian mustards also did well. In winter we also had lots of Arugula.
I don’t harvest like commercial growers, cutting the entire plant down to 2 inches and then letting it grow out again. Finally I understand why there are always brown rotting leaves in store-bought lettuce even when it was recently harvested.
You can see that the green Celtuce has been harvested for several weeks, one leaf at a time. I always harvest the lowest leaves, and that’s how I prevent aphids and whiteflies until about now — when it gets so hot the plants get stressed. I also try not to let leaves touch other plants. Keep it clean, with good airflow and little insect habitat.
4/5/24: Forellenschluss, Red Saladbowl, Red Romaine, Bronze Beauty and Celtuce
Some days I’ve eaten at least a pound of lettuce and mustard! Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Grey Poupon are currently my favorite dressing. It’s been a good run since we started harvesting in December.
I often plant old onions and have almost always onion greens ready to harvest.
LOVE those Peace Vine cherry tomatoes.
I overwintered a couple of Peace Vine cuttings in the hydro tubs and that worked out quite well.
5/5/24: Peace Vine tomato clones
A week ago they just started to get pink and today I harvested.
From https://www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/heirloom-tomatoes/past-research-2008/
… Peacevine Cherry is a fascinating variety. Of the 7 plants we grew. 5 produced red tomatoes and 2 produced yellow tomatoes. Apparently this is a characteristic of this variety, that it may throw tomatoes of either colour. Information on the internet suggests that Peacevine Cherry has been analysed before (in a study at Rutgers University) and found to produce gamma amino butyric acid, a natural sedative, hence its name – Peacevine! It is also apparently one of the highest vitamin C tomatoes on the market.
[– mine have always been red]
Our research is highly indicative that those tomato varieties in their most natural state – i.e. wild varieties that have not been involved in a commercial breeding program – will contain superior levels of phytonutrients against modern hybrid varieties. Our study to date has also brought us to the realisation and understanding of how much tomatoes have changed over the years due to the influence of commercial breeding. The modern commercially grown hybrid variety is red, round and perfectly shaped, as well as blemish free. This appearance has been deliberately bred over the years to maximise consumer appeal. Yet this has been achieved at the expense of nutritional and medicinal qualities of the fruit (indicated by the reduced levels of carotenoid and polyphenolic compounds in modern varieties).
I have often read about the high gamma amino butyric acid content in Peace Vine tomatoes and that’s why I grow them, aside from the great flavor. Not too sweet, more acidic, just how I like them. I don’t think a tomato should taste like a sugar cube, although I also enjoy variety. And when we don’t harvest for a while the Peace Vine tomatoes get quite sweet too, but still have that “tomato” flavor.
Next fall I’ll try to take at least ten cuttings each from Peace Vine and Mountain Magic plants.
In previous years I’ve planted some tomatoes into pots in fall, but the few tomatoes we might get in winter don’t taste as good, it’s not worth it. It’s too cold even in the greenhouse and not enough sunshine, and they take up a lot of space. One hydro tray holds about 25 plants until they get a foot tall and then I can separate them into two trays for flowering and fruiting.
I ordered 100 Mountain Magic seeds at Johnny’s since smaller quantities were sold out and I planted them all:
They’re the closest variety I could find to the Campari tomatoes in the stores, the only tomatoes I buy anymore because sometimes they actually taste like tomatoes. Not always.
Tomatoes have been one of my favorite foods since I was a kid and I enjoyed the tomatoes my grandma grew, but storebought … not so much.
Usually, I don’t get to harvest tomatoes until after the summer heat. This season I already planted the first Peace Vine tomatoes into the garden a couple of weeks ago. A few days ago I planted about 15 Mountain Magic plants into the walapini.
That leaves about 80 more! I have no idea where to put them all. I don’t want to cross-pollinate the heirloom Peace Vines in the garden. This is my 2nd generation, finally saved seeds last year. The Mountain Magic is a hybrid, so I have to buy the seeds.
Hoping we’ll have a cool spring so the Mountain Magic tomatoes set fruit before it gets too hot. We’ll see how it goes!
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