Then and Now – Tomatillos

If I judge success of the tomatillo plants last year by the output of tomatillos and the amount of salsa verde we made, we had a resounding success. If I judge the tomatillo success by what the plants looked like when I planted them, I am surprised we had any tomatillos with which to make salsa. About this time last year, towards the end of May, I planted five unhealthy and tiny plants. Over time they eventually adapted to their surroundings and we had lots of fun watching the little lanterns form and then the tomatillos inside.

Last weekend I planted this year’s tomatillos in the garden. I had thirteen good size plants but room for only eight. My aunt and uncle got the extra ones. While the plants were generally in good shape and all had blossoms already, they were starting to show signs of heat stress from being in the Phoenix heat for a week or two too long. They were also almost too big to fit into the car to move up to the garden; the tallest few were over three feet tall and had to be bent over (good thing they are vines at heart) for the trip.

Like tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, tomatillos are a nightshade; and, like their compatriots, they can be planted deep and roots will form along the stem. Because the plants were so big I dug down about eight inches, sprinkled a little fertilizer in the trench, and ran the drip tube to keep them watered. I have read that a single plant can yield between 50 and 200 pounds of tomatillos. While that is a huge spread, either one may overwhelm us. Last year we probably had a between 50 and 75 pounds in total from the five plants.

One of the “fun” things about digging in a previous owner’s garden, installed and maintained by someone who clearly did not understand irrigation or drainage, is you never know what you will find when you dig. Over the years I have severed many irrigation lines that I then had to repair. Luckily I have not severed electrical or gas lines. Digging the trench for the tomatillos this year, the same area as last year, I found both old irrigation lines and, more stressful at first, a drainage line.

In the general area I know we have drain lines for gutters and the driveway, and I was afraid I had just cut and crushed part of that line, that would require a trip to the hardware store to buy replacement parts. I also know there are a few drains that start nowhere and go nowhere, and I was hoping I found one of those lines. After testing the various gutters and needed drains, we determined I had in fact found one of the useless drain lines. Mini-crisis averted.

Last weekend was also the week most of the peppers were planted in the garden. The remaining few will be planted this coming weekend. We planted pimento, serrano, habanero, poblano, and Joe E Parker (a Nu-Mex Anaheim variety). The ghost pepper was also moved up to its summer digs and transferred into a larger container that I can move back down to Phoenix in the fall. The first habanero I have a photo of last year was mid-August. I have already picked a few pimento peppers and the serrano and habanero plants have a nice assortment developing. I expect a bumper pepper crop this summer.

The tea trees, sochi variety, were planted in a shaded area that should provide a good area for them to grow. Right now they are caged up because we do not know if deer and/or javelina will decide that tea trees are their new favorite snack.

A couple of the apple trees seem to have survived a late frost and are producing a lot of apples. The big cherry trees do not seem to have been as lucky. I think it will be a cherryless year for the garden.

The garden is mostly launched. Early plantings of onion, beet, and radish seeds were a disappointment. I will over-seed the onions and beets as I see what decides to grow. Next year I will just wait until the first or second week of May to sow those seeds.

Settling In

There comes a time in every seedlings life that it must move out on its own and into the great big world. Like kids, you know it is time when they can’t help but rebel at their current surroundings. For the tomato seedlings that time came last weekend

The tomatoes were getting too big for the pots I had them in. Leaves were drying out even though they had lots of water. And soon they would just be too big to fit in the car to move up to the garden. Since we are projected to be 100+/- degrees this week in Phoenix, we made a spontaneous trip last Saturday and planted the tomatoes.

When we arrived up by the garden the air was alive with the bzzz of bees and the whirl of hummingbirds. After an afternoon of planting we were sitting out in the courtyard and saw at least four different looking, and different sounding, hummingbirds. I think I saw more birds come to that feeder that one afternoon than all of last summer. Hopefully they know where it is now and will continue to visit.

Over the past couple of years we have worked a fair amount of compost and manure into the garden. Because of all that it was easy digging the trench to add a little more composted manure, tomato fertilizer, and epsom salt and work that into the soil. I then ran a drip irrigation line below where the roots will be, and another towards the top of the roots, and planted away. The only thing that made it harder than years past was the grafted tomatoes cannot be planted deep – the graft line has to stay above ground.

The other change with planting tomatoes this year was that the Avamatoes were planted in the ground instead of containers. We had a few rogue Avamatoes pop up in the garden last year and those did much better than those in the pots. We also decided to cage the little Avamatoes now before they sprawl all over and staking gets almost impossible.

I also planted some red storage onions I started at home months ago. I can now see if I ordered the right seeds for our latitude. Different onions do better in different lengths of daylight. The garden is about on the edge of the zone for the seeds I ordered.

Some of the remaining herbs were moved up also. We planted the sage I started from seed, the tarragon from the store, and thyme from cuttings. I still have very small basil and cilantro to move up to the garden but that is a few weeks away.

This coming weekend it will be time to move the tomatillos and various peppers up to the garden. I anticipate having a few tomatillo plants to trade since I have more than the allotted area will fit. I will be able to pick our first pimento pepper this week before the move. I should also have enough serrano peppers soon to make a hot sauce. The original recipe calls for using just habanero peppers but I figure I can make a milder version with serrano peppers. The ghost pepper plant keeps getting bigger and producing lots of blossoms. That might move up to the garden also, but stay in a pot, to see if the temperatures are right to set fruit. Jake has it all planned out what we can do with the peppers. Of course that is mostly limited to me eating a few and him watching me squirm, so we might need a few different ideas.

The other noteworthy event was that the tea plants arrived healthy and in good shape in the mail over the weekend. They will be moved up this weekend also. We will see how fast they grow to see if we can harvest enough leaves to make our own tea this summer.

Find a Seed, Plant a Seed

This past weekend we made a quick trip to the garden. I am no longer able to leave the plants alone for two nights because it is both hot (Phoenix broke 100 for the first time this past weekend) and the plants are getting big. One of the primary projects I wanted to accomplish was to get a good way along on adding a new zone to the irrigation system. We are decommissioning two other zones, so I can steal the program one of them used. The new line will be used to relieve some of the overuse of one zone and allow us to expand the garden area.

I had been mentally plugging in that we would have to drill through the foundation to run a new line. While not looking forward to that aspect of the project, I felt the extra water and flexibility a new zone would add more than made up for the hassle. Not everyone involved shared that notion. Turns out there was an old 3/4″ line already through an opening and we could run the new 1/2″ line right through that; so, no drilling required. We have not actually laid the entire line down yet, but I won’t really need it until we bring the plants I have at home up to the garden. I anticipate that being a mere 2-3 weeks away, depending upon weather forecasts. We might have to redo one of the connections, but I can get the parts before I next head up that way.

The other projects I wanted to accomplish were far easier. A few sweet potatoes had sprouted on the counter so I decided they should be planted. We used the traditional potato method versus the method recommended for sweet potatoes of growing slips and planting slips. We just planted them in a pot last year and they seemed to do fine. This year they are at least in deeply loosened soil.

I also wanted to overseed the radishes and beets. I thought I was getting a good start on things a few weeks ago when we planted radishes, beets, and bunching onions, but they have not done much yet. The nights are still fairly cool so maybe they are just taking a long time. I will be in trouble if the beet harvest is not good this year so hopefully this will work. If we do not have a good start in a couple of weeks I will have to order more seeds and try again.

The last easy project I wanted to do was spread crushed egg shells where the tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos will go. We have been saving shells for months, including the colorful shells that were dyed for Easter. Hopefully they will start to break down and add some nice calcium for the plants.

My little helpers made it up to the garden this weekend also. They helped with plumbing and electrical for the new irrigation valve and digging a trench for the line. They also, of course, helped plant the seeds and spread the egg shells. Every time they help out they get better and better at it. Ava had an appropriate shirt for the weekend, it said: “Find a Seed, Plant a Seed.”

At home, the plants are doing well. I have blossoms on over half of the tomatoes. The tomatillos are getting big and all have blossoms. The pimento peppers have lots of peppers and a couple have a slight tinge of red. The serrano and habanero peppers continue to blossom and set fruit. I think this is about 3 months earlier than last year, so there might be a continuing bumper crop of hot peppers. The ghost pepper is growing nicely and setting out lots of blossoms. No peppers that I can tell yet. Once the temperature and all are right I expect a lot of peppers as there are lots of blossoms at any given time. I still don’t know what I will do with a large crop of ghost peppers.

I will soon be planting the last of my seeds for now. The last things I have to plant before moving them into the garden are the squash type plants. I have cucumbers, gourds, pie pumpkins, and butternut squash. We’ll see if I forgot any when I go get the seeds.

Let’s all go plant some found (or purchased) seeds.

Rhubarb

Rhubarb. A harbinger of spring. Staple in pies. Plant of giant leaves. My first experience with rhubarb was when I was in 5th or 6th grade (it was a long time ago). Our entire class went on a retreat or camp for a few days. We did odd things not generally associated with school. One of the “classes” I participated in was wild edible plants. Another was Indian food where I sampled rattlesnake; yes, it does taste like chicken. We identified and sampled many plants, including rhubarb. Although the leaves are poisonous, the stocks are not; however, they are bitter. After sampling far too much raw rhubarb I did not feel that well. My next adventure with rhubarb was not until I was in graduate school.

One summer in Maine a friend brought over a big bag of rhubarb. Not being a plant we were used to dealing with we had to find uses beyond a pie or two. After scouring recipes we decided to try rhubarb chutney; chutney being another thing we were not very familiar with at the time. Since that first experiment with rhubarb chutney it has become a favorite. We hoarded the dwindling supply while we pursued other options after leaving Maine. It is great on cheese and crackers and as a side for pork and chicken.

We were a bit overwhelmed by all the other produce that came in last summer to get to canning it then. We also don’t generally harvest enough at one time to make a whole batch or two. For these reasons we clean the rhubarb, slice it into about 2″ pieces, and freeze it in vacuum bags. Having seen how fast the rhubarb is growing this spring we decided we better make last year’s into chutney.

Last weekend we made two double batches. The original recipe calls for raisins. The chutney is great with raisins, but we wanted a little variety. We made one double batch with blueberries. We made the other double batch with 1/2 raisins and 1/2 pitted cherries. We also substituted Aleppo pepper for the cayenne pepper. In the coming weeks we will try a batch with dried blueberries. Like usual, we processed the jars an extra five minutes to account for altitude. A couple of us also want to try some with a few hot peppers. Maybe we will try that mid-summer when our hot peppers will be harvestable. If we get the crop it looks like we might we might also have to find a few new culinary uses.

The rhubarb we are growing in our little garden comes from Maine and Vermont, both from long-time friends. The variety from Maine is a green type, and is from the friend who gave us the big bag oh so many years ago. The variety from the friend in Vermont is the more traditional red. The rhubarb is starting to take hold in the garden. This spring we can see a few new clumps along with the old.

Picking rhubarb is a bit of an art. You can harvest as the season progresses and the plant keeps growing. I have read stalks harvested mid-summer are better for chutney and that type of thing because they generally have lower moisture levels. To harvest rhubarb you have to pull, not cut, the stem off the plant. If you pull too much you can damage the plant. If you don’t pull enough you leave your future chutney in the ground.

The leaves from a mature rhubarb plant can be very large. Large enough that they can be used as hats to protect the gardener from the hot summer sun. Historically we have not used the leaves for anything, including not composting them. I think we can compost them safely so we can do that this summer. I have also read that if the leaves are boiled with water, then strained after the mixture has cooled, and soap flakes are added, the mixture can be used as a natural aphid control. We might have to try that this summer as our roses and wisteria usually get aphids.

Gardening is like Golf

Baby Pimento Pepper

Gardening can be a lot like golf, especially when both are being done by amateurs. Sure, they both start with the letter “G”; not as prime a letter as, say “M”, but a good letter nonetheless.  They also both involve a lot of, hopefully, educated guess-work and a little luck. Let’s take golf for a minute. I have a general idea of how far I should be able to hit a particular club. Seldom does the ball go that distance. Usually it is shorter, sometimes longer (assuming it is not longer because it bounced ahead off a rock or the cart path I assume my swing is getting better). There are far too many variables for me to guess why it went how it did. My equivalent in the garden is not distance, but yield – how many tomatoes, or tomatillos or whatever it is, will the garden produce this year, which means I have to estimate, largely based on past experience, how many seeds to start.

To estimate the number of seeds I started this winter I read what the production of a particular plant variety should be. This is not as easy as it sounds. I have yet to find estimates, in pounds, for actual yields for different plants. Usually it says something like “prolific.” I don’t know about you, but that is almost meaningless to me. Or, I find estimates such as, “plant two plants per person for fresh harvest.” What does that mean? Are they eating the plant like I want to with enough to share? What if I want to can some of the harvest? Because my research generally does not find definitive answers I interject my past experience. Now, I have not been growing a garden that long, so I don’t have years of experience to draw from. Two years ago the tomatoes did great and from less than 20 plants there were weeks we harvested 50 – 60 pounds of tomatoes. Last year, a year that started with issues (for the plants, not me – my issues continue year to year), resulted in limited growth and limited production. Even with many more tomato plants we never had the large harvests like the year before. I also had seedlings die or otherwise fade away last year.

Now let’s come to this past February. I knew I want more tomatoes than last year. I also knew I was going to try grafting for the first time so I guessed a few plants would likely die. So, what did I decide? To plant a lot of seeds and hope a sufficient number were healthy when they go into the garden. What has happened so far? All but a few of the seeds are thriving. The same thing is happening with the various peppers and the tomatillos, which I repotted today. I’m not really one for heartlessly throwing thriving plants on the compost pile just because they don’t fit into where I planned to put them. Somewhere there has to be enough room or I can dig-out a new area for additional plants. I’m infinitely flexible that way.

What does all this mean? It means I think we will need many, many more canning jars to preserve lots of garden goodies. I think it also means tomatoes will comprise the bulk of my diet once they start coming in. It further means we better start eating what we canned last summer faster because the vegetable wave is coming.  And like a tidal wave, it may start slow, but they will just keep coming and coming until the system is overwhelmed. Lock your doors this summer or I might just stash a few extra in your fridge and your cabinets.

In slightly less esoteric ramblings, the peas I planted at my house are doing well and I have been able to pick a few. The beans and lettuce at my house are growing nicely. Some of the pimento pepper blossoms are becoming pimento peppers (no clear sign of ghost pepper blossoms becoming ghost peppers, yet). A tomato is ripening on a plant my uncle sent down (we may have to talk about what variety it is as it does not look like what we thought it should be). I learned today that tomatillos can be planted like tomatoes – that is, buried deep and roots will sprout along the stem. This is good for me since the garden is in a mountain desert area of Arizona and it tends to be a bit dry in the summer, so planting them deep will help slow evaporation and keep the roots moist. It is also hot enough now that the pavers in my backyard are getting hot enough to burn the soles of my feet so I have to wear shoes when I water the plants. Ahh, life in the desert.

Happy eating