Have you ever grown German Johnson heirloom tomatoes?
We visited a cousin in NC back in July & he gave my mom a German Johnson tomato. He said those are his ‘sandwich’ tomatoes - he grows Celebrities, but those are his canning tomatoes because most of them tend to come in at the same time.
Mom LOVED that German Johnson - said it was one of the best tomatoes she’s ever eaten. I am probably going to have one German Johnson next year and one cherry tomato plant and that is all. I tore myself up (GI tract - I have a nightshade ‘allergy’) eating too many tomatoes this year, trying not to waste the Celebrity produce. I did do some ripe tomato canning, had 8 lbs of green tomatoes for relish canning, plus we gave tomatoes away to the neighbor & to the fire department (twice!), too. All this with only TWO Celebrity plants!
I have to grow jalapenos for pepper jelly or certain relatives will come ‘looking’ for me LOL! I had one bell plant & one Giant Marconi pepper plant this year - waaaay too many peppers & they are still producing. Usually bell peppers are a ‘bust’ in my garden, but this was an outstanding pepper year - ALL the peppers did great.
Spaghetti squash - will grow it again, but not in a raised bed. The plants are ‘prickly’ (very!) so the deer won’t touch them. They also did not chew on any of the squash that developed outside of the fencing. I will plant them ‘out’ somewhere ... they take up a lot of room.
Next year, I would like some green beans .... tried last year, but with the knee, I planted too late. The leaves were eaten up by something.
More flowers for sure - will spread the dahlias out more & support them better as well.
Barely garden thread related, but yesterday, I cooked a regenerative farm pasture raised meat chicken in the slow cooker until the legs were falling off - literally, one got left in the cooker when I lifted the bird out! I made chicken soup out of it - the standard ingredients - chicken, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves, salt/pepper, chicken stock. It was so “blah” ... I added some ground thyme which helped a little. There was no ‘depth’ or ‘complexity’ to the soup/stew. What to do ... I had an idea, but looked up ‘flavors to add to chicken soup’ and on one blog, I saw my idea .... fish sauce! It doesn’t taste fishy for those that are going ‘yuck!’. I tried it in a bowl of soup & boy, that was the answer. I added 2 tablespoons to the slow cooker & it was perfect. Even my mom was saying ‘this is such a tasty soup broth!’ The missing ingredient was “umami” & the fish sauce gave me that.
Umami: often described as ‘the fifth taste’.In the U.S., there are four words that we often use to compartmentalize the taste of food: sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. But what’s the word you use to describe more complex flavors such as the ones prominent in various types of cheese, miso, and even mushrooms? The answer is umami. Umami is a flavor often attributed to meats, but you can find them in eggs, plant-based foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, miso, seaweed, fish sauce, and soy sauce. [https://www.eatthis.com/umami-taste/]
Great tip! Those are all the things I use when making chicken stock, and it usually turns out OK, but I will try the fish sauce for that ‘something extra.’ :)
Re: German Johnson tomato.
Oh, yes. That is a tasty one. My home gardens had been ‘test plots’ for both Seed Savers and Jung tomato varieties through the years.
Highly recommended. ‘Mom Was Right.’ :)