urbantomato: July 2010

Tall Tree Farm Market Booth - July 24th

I helped out at the Tall Tree Farm booth on July 24th. It was a hot & beautiful day & the table was full of beautiful produce.

Rachel Broddie demonstrates her enthusiasm for and getting almost all of the produce to peoples homes, plates & stomachs!!

Havelock - July 23rd

Tomatoes. Tomatoes. Tomatoes!!!!! I am one happy lady, almost a month earlier than last year, I have been picking, eating & enjoying tomatoes . . . . & it is only just the beginning!!

Warning this is the first of many many many tomato pictures to come

beautiful beets

red crimson bunching onions

st.valery carrots

arugula going to seed

perfect peas

french beans

zucchini flowers a plenty

crunchy oakleaf lettuce

Peterborough Community Garden Network Picnic

On August 15th, the PCGN is hosting a community garden picnic & garden tour. Join us to meet & share food with fellow community gardeners, share some stories of your gardens & get inspired by other local gardens! For more information see the PCGN website or contact pcgn@greenup.on.ca

urbantomato featured in Pearl Magazine

Check out this month's issue of Pearl Magazine for an article "Promoting crop diversity and long-term food security through time-tested farmer knowledge", By Shannon Mak. The article on pg. 12 features an interview with urbantomato, and the magazine features many great articles about local food, entertainment & arts

Seed Saving

Believe it or not, it is mid-July already, and that means it is almost time to get into some serious seed saving. Here are some photos of some seeds coming along out in the gardens:

These are some snap peas going to seed. The plant starts to brown & die back, & the pea pods themselves start to yellow & swell with pea seeds (peas!). I would leave the peas on the plants for a week or more after this point. Collect the pods & let them dry on a screen . . . . next year, you'll have more peas to plant!

This is a photo of spinach going to seed. As with all greens, when they are done producing (or they bolt), they will send up a flower stock. This flower stock is what will eventually yield seed

These are radishes going to seed. You can see the pods forming out of the purpley flowers

More lettuce creating seed pods . . . wait till the pods go from green to brown before harvesting . . .

Arugula going to seed . . .

How to Sucker Your Tomatoes 101

Okay, so with this season of unprecedented growth, comes a unique set of problems. I have had many a customer & friend tell me that their tomatoes are going crazy or growing out of control . . . .

Suckering Your Tomatoes 101

When your tomato plants are growing like crazy, it is a good idea to "sucker" them. This will help the plant direct vital energy into creating & ripening tomatoes, as opposed to growing more & more greenery . . . . Living up to their name, these "suckers" are sucking energy away from the fruit of your plants . . .

Step #1- Locate the sucker -

The "Sucker" is the growth that appears in the crotch between the stem & a branch (it is the portion of the plant that my fingers are grasping in the picture below:

Step #2 - Snap off the "sucker". If you break it between your thumb & forefinger, you should be able to get smooth snap

Step #3 - Repeat throughout the plant, and enjoy the fruits of your labour in the harvest to come . . . . You may have to continue this process throughout the summer

My Lakefield plants have not started to grow a lot of "suckers" yet, but I will post a before & after photo of suckering at the Havelock garden when I have done it!

Lakefield Garden - July 19th

Went to visit my garden in Lakefield yesterday, although the tomatoes are not as out of control as they are in Havelock, they are growing along splendidly!!!

I even got to eat a few tasty tomatoes from this garden - green grape & black plum.

This is the gorgeous pergola that half the tomatoes grow around

Black Plums ripening

This is my tomato covered hand. I love the way that they turn your hands a deep yellow, and cover you in that heavenly tomato aroma

Tomatoes growing along

This is the second patch of tomatoes in the back corner of the yard

Green Grapes ripening

german red strawberry's about to ripen

This is to try to gage the height of the tomatoes for later comparison . . . .

Tomatoes!! July 15th!!!

The first round & ripe tomatoes that I have spotted this year . . . Yellow Taxi!!

lots & lots of green tomatoes . . .

i was trying to capture just how tall the tomatoes were in comparison to me, not sure that I captured it . . .

mmm. tasty tomatoes to be!!

lots of flowers on every plant!!

Havelock Gardens - July 15th

Beautiful & Bountiful Basil

This garden in Havelock is going crazy. The lovely home of Tall Tree Farms, Peggy-Gene Baillie & Rachel's hardwork has paid off with the beautiful & bountiful garden . . .