Probably not news on a gardening thread! My computer and FR's don't seem to be on speaking terms lately, so this is just a test run for a few other pics that may be of interest this week.
2020 had to take one last shot at us. The year ended here in Central Missouri with ~3/8” of ice deposited on everything. It will take me two solid days to clean up all of the busted tree limbs around the yard.
Nothing going on in the garden. We had intended to pick a mess of greens to have with our black-eye peas yesterday, but nobody volunteered to go out in the freezing rain to pick some. lol
Had a houseful of kids and grandkids the past two days. Hadn’t seen the grands since July. It was nice to have them here, and now it’s nice to be back to peace and quiet. Four screaming little monkeys stuck indoors are hard on old guy’s blood pressure.
Your last post on food insurance was excellent! Happy New Year!
I have leqning towards not growing the San Marzano Tomatoes this year.
I got a lot of tomatoes per square foot last year but I can only use the San Marzanos for 1 purpose....tomato based sauces like spaghetti and chili.
I have 3 other heirloom tomato varieties that produce as much or more tomatoes per square foot....an unknown variety I call Chelan heirloom which produces half to 3/4 lb (an occasional 1 pounder) juicy slicing tomatoes of varying lovely shapes, another large slicer that I believe is Brandywine (delicious and juicy as heck with a pretty pink hue) and some black Krim that I bought from Costco and harvested seeds from.
The brandywine take forever to mature but I actually made some delicious spaghetti sauces out of them.
I also will have some cherry toms (sweet 1000s) but I am open to another medium sized variety that matures in 75 days or so....
Any suggestions for something good for zone 8b? I should add I have a greenhouse to start tomatoes early.
I’ve been walking on Medicine Lake. The ice is about 8” thick. Not thick enough for snow mobiles and trucks. It’s going to get warm, which doesn’t help the ice formation. (highs of 28)
Winter where is your wrath?
Minnesota
Kidding.
It's just a crawdad in a bucket.
THE GARDENS OF THE ORIENTAL PALACE, TIVOLI, ITALY
The most interesting information about these gardens is perhaps the fact that they were established for the wife of an accomplished dignitary of Italy because she was very depressed. Talk about being over pampered. Well love surely is blind. Apart from this little fact, the gardens are famous in the whole world for their beautiful fountains.
Our camellias, which normally bloom late winter, very early spring, are starting to bloom now. One flower is fully out and quite a few other buds are showing color. Looking at low temps this coming week, they’ll probably get frozen before they fully bloom.
Burundi: Farmer finds new technique for preserving tomatoes
Vital Nduwimana hated how many tomatoes he lost every season. For years, his tomatoes started rotting just three or four days after harvest. He felt frustrated.
Mr. Nduwimana explains: “I was not able to sell all my tomatoes; I lost almost half of my production. Worse still, I would sell at a low price in the market. So in 2015, I thought that maybe I should find a tomato conservation technique.”
Mr. Nduwimana grows tomatoes in eastern Burundi, on Kabuyenge hill, five kilometres from the Tanzanian border.
In eastern Burundi, tomatoes are abundant during the harvest months of August and September. But growers find it difficult to keep tomatoes for later sale, which leads to a large number of tomatoes rotting.
Mr. Nduwimana tried several techniques to solve his problem. He tried storing his tomatoes in water, in clay, underground, in cartons, and even in sand. He tried everything that came to his mind—but without success.
Then one day, he noticed that the tomatoes he had kept next to his banana trees were not rotten. Then he noticed the ash at the foot of the banana trees.
He decided to try keeping his tomatoes in ash and found that this was more effective than any of the other techniques he had tried.
He uses ash from a chimney, and sifts it three or four times to remove large residues, debris, and other foreign materials. Then, he dumps the ash into a paper carton and places the tomatoes in the carton. With this technique, Mr. Nduwimana manages to safely store his tomatoes for many months.
He explains: “I keep my tomatoes in the ash for a period of five to six months, so I can sell them in December, January, or February when the price has risen—since tomatoes are rare and become expensive during this period.“
So my question is, which tomatoes should I plant, the hybrid brands or the heirlooms?
The tomatoes I plant will be used for slicing for salads and sandwiches.
Any help will be appreciated........
Thanks