ground cherries – Harmonious Belly

July 23, 2011

Some of My Harvest

I’ve been writing a lot about my garden, but not much about the harvest. Well, it’s been kind of small so far… I expect that will change as we get into August. However, I have gotten to eat a few homegrown tomatoes, and some ground cherries, as well as plenty of apricots.

The first tomato I harvested was a Tommy Toe, which is a large cherry tomato.

These tomatoes are a large cherry tomato with firm flesh, balanced tomato flavor, and there is a creaminess to them that is just delightful. They are super delicious. I’ve harvested a half dozen of these tomatoes.

I’ve also harvested a half dozen or so of the Mexican Midget tomato. This was one of two plants given to me by my friend Alex.

This is a small cherry tomato, almost what I’d consider to be a currant tomato as far as its size goes. It’s small but packs a big flavor punch. So delicious. Their size is perfect for snacking, and when I see ripe ones out on in the garden, I usually just pop them in my mouth and eat them right there. Super tasty.

Apart from the tomatoes, ground cherries have just started to become available for harvest. They are ripe when their husk dries out (the texture reminds me a little bit of onion skin paper) and they drop onto the ground.

I think of ground cherries to be an old fashioned sort of fruit. It has an unusual flavor, kind of a combination between a tomato and a pineapple. The fruit are about 1/3 inches in diameter and they’re full of seeds, sort of like tomatillos (which they also look like, and are related to). Some people consider ground cherries to be much like the cape gooseberry.

They are delicious to snack on and also make good jam, so I’m told. I have a lot of them out there, so jam may be in my future.

The apricot tree also produced enough apricots for jam.

apricots on the three — Apricots on the tree

More on the jam later, which is quite delicious. I picked about 4 pounds of fruit, one pound of which was not usable (blemishes, mostly), but 3 pounds was just enough to make 4.5 pints of delicious apricot jam! It will be nice to have that taste of summer in the winter.

July 12, 2011July 13, 2011

My Early July Garden

The garden is green and plump and everything is working toward blossoming and fruiting. I’ve got plenty of tomatoes showing up, though most are green. However there are a couple of plants – the Mexican Midget and the Tommy Toe – that have reddening fruit. It’s very exciting to see them progress.

tomato collage — Various stages of the tomatoes in the garden

You can see the Tommy Toe in the upper right hand corner and the Mexican Midget in the bottom left hand corner. The plant with the overabundance of blossoms is the Blondköpfchen – I am so looking forward to seeing the tomatoes that come off this plant. The bottom two images in the collage are the Stupice on the left and the Silver Fir on the right. I’m so pleased to see so many tomatoes growing. I really don’t think I can have too many tomatoes.

My squash plant – which threatens to take over the garden with its crazy vines – is starting to produce!

female squash flower — Female squash flower with fruit

As you can see, there is a small fruit at the bottom. This is a volunteer, so I do not know which exact variety it is, but I suspect it is a tromboncino. We’ll see. They get huge.

The male flower has a thin stem and dies off after its usefulness (pollinating the female) is used up. Kind of brutal, but that’s nature.

It’s hard to see the stem, but the flower is gorgeous. When the plant first started to flower, I thought the blossoms were so gorgeous. Then the next day, I’d go out and find them on the ground, seemingly cut off by some nasty. Turns out it was just the dropping off I mentioned above. Such a relief.

There’s some nice herb action going on at our place, too.

summer herbs collage — Many herbs grace our home

Friends of ours moved away (boo hoo) and offloaded their container herbs on me. They seem pretty happy on the back deck. There’s tarragon, thyme, rosemary, and basil. I’ve also got borage growing in the garden and they are flowering like crazy! I love their blue flowers.

Other stuff in the garden are melons, sour gherkins, peppers and ground cherries, which are coming along nicely. You can see more pictures in my Garden 2011 photoset on Flickr.

This post is participating in the inaugural Astoria Blog Carnival hosted by We Heart Astoria.

June 28, 2011June 28, 2011

My Garden Volunteers

the garden in late june 2011 — The garden in late June 2011

There’s a lot going on in my garden right now and the growth is impressive – it seems like there is recognizable growth every day. I love this time in the garden, as it is full of hope and promise. And the green colors are just amazing.

This year I have a good number of volunteers. Volunteers are those plants that just grow on their own out in the dirt, without any planning on my part. In my garden the source is usually something in the compost that I add to the dirt. Or seeds from last season that drop into the dirt, and then sprout the following season.

There are four volunteers in my garden – a cucumber, some kind of summer squash, ground cherries, and a tomatillo plant. I think this is a cucumber:

cucumber flowers — Cucumber flower from volunteer

And this is some sort of summer squash – could be zucchini, could be yellow crookneck, could be some other kind. I hope it’s crookneck.

summer squash volunteer — Summer squash volunteer

If it is indeed a kind of summer squash, I hope to make something tasty with the squash blossoms.

A lone tomatillo plant grows in the back of the garden, and it’s flowering!

tomatillo flowering — Tomatillo flowering

I’ve been told that you need at least two tomatillo plants in order to get fruit, but last year I had two plants and nothing happened. Both plants flowered but no fruit resulted. So frustrating! Maybe it will work out differently for me this year. I sure hope so, as I love tomatillos!

Finally, my ground cherries. So many of these little plants popped up this spring – probably close to 3 dozen, no doubt from dropped seeds in the ground from last year.

ground cherries growth — Ground cherries

They are even starting to fruit! I hope to make some ground cherry jam this year.

Let’s hear it for volunteers!

June 9, 2011June 9, 2011

Progress of My Garden

garden plot beginning of june — My garden at the beginning of June

I’m happy to say that my garden is planted and on its way to providing me with a harvest. Most of it will likely come at the end of summer, but some things are happening right now. I was especially pleased to spy some tomatoes on my Tommy Toe plant!

first tommy toe tomates — The first of the Tommy Toe tomatoes

As you can see in the picture, there are some creepy crawlies on the tomato plant. I’ve been having to deal with aphids and such this year – they were not an issue last year, so I find this bizarro. I guess it’s just nature, though – unpredictable.

So far, they haven’t wrecked havoc on my plants, and I hope it stays that way. Ladybugs and garlic spray are certainly options. I do check the plants each morning and shake off the bugs, which has seemed to work fine so far.

I’m actually growing a variety of tomatoes: Tommy Toe, Mexican Midget, Blondköpfchen, Silver Fir, and Stupice. The Blondköpfchen, Silver Fir, and Stupice are small but chugging along.

june 2011 tomato collage — June tomatoes

I’m also growing peppers! Tolli, a sweet italian pepper; Jalepeño, which is of course hot; and Bull Nose, a sweet bell type pepper. Thanks to my friend Alex for gifting me these peppers. I was also given a bunch of bean starts from my neighbor Nick. I asked him what kind of beans they are and he said “long”. So, we’ll see how they end up.

peppers and beans june 2011 collage — Peppers and beans

My boarge is doing well. Since I planted it, I’ve learned about all sorts of things to do with this plant. I originally planted it for the beautiful blue flowers – I thought I’d put them in iced tea or lemonade, and also use them as bee attractors. But I’ve learned that you can also use the leaves, too. Apparently they have a taste reminiscent of cucumbers. I would consider using the flowers also in fresh goat cheese and in salads.

Borage is an herbalist’s favorite, so it seems. Lots of information can be found here.

I’m also pleased that some volunteers have made themselves known:

a volunteer — A volunteer - maybe a cucumber?

volunteer ground cherries — Ground cherries from last year

As far as volunteers go in the garden, there’s another cucumbery looking plant, and a tomatillo, of all things (none of my tomatillos fruited last year). I’ve also planted a Mexican Sour Gherkin, Edens Gem melon, and a Charentais melon. They are a bit thin, thanks to the leggyness from the spring, but I expect they’ll grow and get stronger. I’ll post photos of them soon.

Summer gardens are always very exciting! More images of my garden can be found in my Garden 2011 photoset on Flickr.

July 27, 2010

Garden Update – Waiting for Red-o

Well, my garden is still pretty green – foliage is thriving, though no red tomatoes are to be seen. I did spy my neighbor’s garden from the back deck Sunday afternoon, and saw only one red tomato amongst the urban-vast stretches of green, so perhaps our little microclimate is just sluggish in getting our tomatoes to turn red.

The tomatoes that are on the vine are green, firm and healthy… except for another small tomato found with blossom end rot (BER). This tomato was on the same plant, in the same part of the plant as the other tomato with BER. Both tomatoes were sharing a branch that created “big bertha”, as I endearingly call her – a gigantic tomato, probably 5 inches across. I wonder if that tomato is just sucking up all the nutrients, denying the other two tomatoes any chance of thriving. This question will be answered perhaps if this gigantomato turns red without any rot.

I also picked this beast of a lemon cucumber last weekend:

lemon cucumbinator

It’s about 3 inches across, by far the largest lemon cucumber I’ve ever seen. It was hiding under the leaves in the corner, so I’m glad I found it when I did.

Remember this?

mystery plants

This is a mystery plant that appeared under my ground cherries and in the middle of my tomato plants. I thought it was summer squash but now believe it to be more cucumber plants; the flowers are quite similar to the cucumber flower on my lemon cucumber plants. I’ll know for sure once it starts fruiting.

I’ve also started harvesting ground cherries.

lemon cucumbers and ground cherries

These ones beat the pants off of the ones I grew last year – they are sweeter, tastier, and bigger. I believe the quality of soil I’m using is just much better than the soil I had access to at the community garden. The weather – hot, hot, hot – probably has something to do with that, too.

I really can’t wait until the tomatoes ripen!

June 21, 2010June 20, 2010

Garden Update – Happy Growth

Happy Summer Solstice! Hope you are enjoying the first day of summer. Summer is my favorite time of year!

garden overview

Well, we’ve had more hot days, which means great growing environment for my plants, even though it might be uncomfortable for me (however, I’m in a large air conditioned office building M-F). I’ve spent time watering, aerating soil, and feeding the plants with compost when necessary. They are looking great!

First, tomatoes.

june tomato collage

I’m growing 7 tomato plants total. From the top left image, clockwise:

Amish Paste, Pruden’s Purple, Yellow Pear, Amish Paste, detail of Silver Fir, Silver Fir, mystery volunteer, Pruden’s Purple flower.

Both the small paste tomato and the Yellow Pear looked just awful Saturday afternoon – droopy and flaccid, and just not in good shape. I sturdied up their dirt, added compost, and plenty of water. On Sunday they looked great! I think they are on the mend.

I’m particularly impressed with the Pruden’s Purple flower – it doesn’t look like any tomato flower I’ve ever seen, and it’s a gorgeous shape. I’m looking forward to seeing it in bloom.

Cucumbers – my lemon cucumber isn’t fruiting yet, and I found a volunteer cucumber plant across the yard! That was a very fun discovery.

june cucumber collage

The lemon cucumber is in the top left corner photo, and the rest are of the volunteer. Looks like the volunteer will produce a more classic shaped cucumber. I’m happy with this discovery and can’t wait to see what happens with it.

Ground cherries and tomatillos continue to increase in size, and I’ve even seen one or two flowers.

ground cherry

vibrant tomatillos

I’m going to have to stake the tomatillos, or perhaps get a tomato cage for them. Tomatillos are very sprawling plants and need support early on. I’ve inserted a bamboo post for right now, which is helping with support. I can’t wait for tomatillos! I plan to make lots of salsa verde.

There’s plenty of wild stuff in the garden, too.

wild june

Although they are a bit of a pest, these morning glories sure are pretty. I’ve seen a number of ladybugs in the garden, which makes me happy. Saw a bunch of yellowjackets, too, and honey bees!

Thyme is slow growing but steady, and tatsoi is steady and fast growing! It makes for a delicious salad, simply dressed in lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper. I like it a lot – it’s like a gentle arugula as far as the peppery taste goes. It’s delicious.

thyme update

abundant tatsoi

I spent time weeding on Saturday and there were far less weeds than a couple weeks ago. This is a good sign. Hoping that my weeding efforts here in June will make for a mostly weed-less summer.

Happy for all this growth!

June 2, 2010May 30, 2010

Gardening: I Grow It In the Ground

As I’ve written before, I am very fortunate to have a garden plot in the backyard behind my apartment. I’m not growing a wide variety of things, mostly tomatoes of varying sorts, and cucumbers. Speaking of cucumbers here is one of my lemon cukes:

lemon cucumber plant

I’ve got four plants in the ground right now.

I’m also growing tomatillos:

tomatillos

These have really taken to the soil and are quite large now compared to when I put them in the ground. Tomatillos are crazy growers and two plants should supply me with plenty of fruit this summer.

I’m growing ground cherries:

ground cherry

There are about four plants in there, and when they get a little bigger, I’ll separate them.

I’m growing tomatoes, too. Two of the varieties are Prudens Purple and Silver Fir. Thanks to the urban gardener meetup a few months ago for the Silver Fir seeds!

prudens purple

silver fir

I’m also growing an Amish paste tomato, and I attempted to grow a yellow pear. The yellow pear especially is not thriving – I think it’s because of the location in the plot. Unfortunately, this space doesn’t get as much sun as I would like. I may put one of the remaining pear tomatoes in a container on the deck.

And finally, another gratuitous tree shot:

through the trees

Hooray for the warm weather growing season!