New Varieties and One Failure
Every year, I like to try at least one new variety of vegetable or fruit.
This year I grew a Marmande tomato and Gypsy sweet pepper.
The Marmande is an old French heirloom beefsteak tomato. I usually grow one type of slicing tomato, though I tend to concentrate more on the plum tomatoes for sauce. This one I found as a seedling at a master gardener plant sale. I was intrigued by the grower's description so I took a chance.
The Marmande was very sweet for a beefsteak. We like it fresh, drizzled with a little balsamic reduction.
And we liked it so much, I decided to save the seeds to this one so I can grow it again. Fortunately, I grew it in the greenhouse so I'm assured it didn't cross pollinate with anything else. We'll see how it does next year.
The Gypsy sweet pepper had an oddly unhelpful name, but we both loved it.
It's sweet, mild, yet hearty. I've used it in everything that might welcome a crunchy, peppery taste with no heat whatsoever.
Both are winners. I saved the seed for the pepper as well, but I may go ahead and start a few more plants this year. I think it'll keep very well. I love eating this one fresh though, hence my reason to try to grow them year round. They're so sweet and thick walled, it's almost like biting into an apple.
A good start.
This year I bought seed potato online. Usually I pick them up locally, but I missed my window for the freshest potato seed.
It was just as well. It gave me the chance to try a new variety of potato. I planted Yukon Gold and a potato called Nicola. Nicola is supposed to have a lower glycemic value than other potatoes. I just dug up a few tubers and will test the results in a couple of days. When Greg tests his blood, I'll see if it made a difference.
Now for my big failure.
I don't know how it happened, but I screwed up big time with one blackberry plant. When I bought my plants last year, I wanted to be sure they were all thornless.
I must've picked up one thorny variety by accident when I was looking them over. It was tiny when I planted it, and I noticed the fuzzy branches, but I thought it wasn't that bad. I would've returned it if I had remembered where I got it.
Now that it's a giant, I realize it was a mistake. It's drawn blood out of me twice.
I plan to dig it up in the winter, but it might be futile. It's so vigorous, it's already sprouted several two foot shoots in other parts of the bed. I'll probably be digging and cutting that bush for years.
At least my blueberry bushes and strawberry plants are behaving. Both produced very sweet fruit, but not nearly as many as I expected. They're young yet, though. They might be more prolific next year.
I covered my berry plants this year. Last year, every wasp and bunny kept noshing on my fruit, so I made a preemtive strike by covering them with mesh fabric after the flowers had been pollinated.
Lessons learned this year: Always cover your fruit, and never trust a thorny bush no matter how innocent it looks as a baby.
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Comments
Wellll...long story short, I had some fried green tomatoes that day and that was one of the yummiest dish I had ever tasted. Not at all what I thought they would taste like. And I love me some blackberry jam...😋 Maria, do you have long rubber gloves for the prickly thorns?
re: melanzzane
Many, many years ago Greg made me dinner. I know. Hard to believe. But he made a stuffed eggplant dish. To this day, neither of us can remember what he stuffed it with, but it was absolutely delicious.
I hope for eggplants this year. I will have to see if I can hunt down what it could've been.
re: thorns
No. Blackberries are so fragile, gloves would take away the sensitive dexterity necessary to pull them off without crushing them.
Maria, my mom made melanzzane by slicing the eggplant down the middle and hull it out (save the eggplant you hulled out). Then rub olive oil on the outside and inside. I use my hands. She took the ground beef, the cut up hulled out eggplant into the frying pan with onion, garlic and parsley and some olive oil. When onion is translucent, she added diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Place the eggplants in a baking dish and fill the hulled out eggplant with the meat mixture. Place it in the oven on 350° for 30 min. BTW Maria, I planted 2 eggplants in my garden this year. [silent yeah] 🤭
This weekend, I'm grilling burgers, corn on the cobb, and "fried green maters..."🤭🍽😋
(Maria, I know you didn't ask for the recipe, but I got such a chuckle when you told me Greg made you melanzzane years ago, etc. I was compelled to share my mom's recipe. You don't have to follow it. Just for fun...) Hugs 🤗💖🌹
re: jam
This year will be my first attempt to make jam. Wish me luck. I want to wait until my bushes stop giving fruit and then I'll see how much jam I can make from what I got.
They are beautiful though. They're the biggest blackberries I've ever seen.