Adri Barr Crocetti

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes

I love this tomato!

Smaller than the common Roma, with a stout bottom tapering up to narrow straight shoulders, this is one seriously productive plant.  This heirloom variety plum tomato is direct from Italy and produces fruit of about 2 to 3 ounces in weight.  It is a  determinate tomato plant, also known a “bush tomato,” and as such all its fruit will ripen over a period of about two weeks, essentially all at once in tomato talk.  For some uses, that is not desirable, but if you are looking for a deliciously mild tomato to make sauce or paste, this is just what you want – a plant that will yield a bountiful harvest over a short period of time.  At about 75 days the fruit will begin to ripen, and remarkably, this plant is virtually “self-harvesting.”  The wonderfully mild fruit, when ripe, comes off at a touch, or more often, just falls off of its own accord.  The plant needs very little staking and sports a low, compact habit.  The fruit holds well on and off the vine guaranteeing a generous supply for the kitchen.  Martino’s Roma are a vibrant red, meaty and firm enough to stuff and bake.  They are also wonderful for use on an antipasto plate.  This is an all-around winner, and will be back in my garden next year.

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I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes

This English heirloom was new to me last year, and it’s back again for 2011. That is good news for Miss Tigerella. What an amazing plant. Read the remainder of this entry »

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes

Awesome. Exotic. And well worth waiting every one of the 85 days it will take to mature. The Cuore di bue tomato is one of my favorites. Oxheart. What a name. What a tomato. Read the remainder of this entry »

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes

These pear shaped heirlooms are small, averaging about 1.5 inches long. They have been grown in United States gardens for over two hundred years. In the past cooks used the fruit to make a sweet preserved delicacy that was enjoyed throughout the winter. Nowadays gardeners grow them for use in salads, contorni, tomato jam and more. Read the remainder of this entry »

Wake up!  It is time to start your gardens!

Each year Bart and I kick off our garden season with an early morning visit to day one of Tomatomania at Tapia Brothers Farm in Encino. Great name. Great event.

For tomato gardeners the Tomatomania seedling sale is the place to be. Gardeners are presented with a dizzying array of choices. And I do mean dizzying. Hundreds of varieties, thousands of plants, along with herbs, items for soil preparation and fertilizer. This is the time of year to shift into high gear for Spring and Summer gardening.

It is time to clean up the garden area, prepare the soil, decide what to plant and where to put it all, and purchase the plants. We had a ball this morning, looking at the seedlings, chatting with fellow gardeners and listening in on people’s comments about their favorite plants.

I picked up some favorites from last year including Juliet, Ananas Noire, and Sungold. I decided to try some new ones too. Among them are Jaune Flamme, Haley’s Purple Comet (couldn’t resist that one) and Green Envy. Let me say it was hard to choose and harder still to leave all those other little babies behind. Check their web site for a sale near you. If you can not find one, do not despair. They sell seedlings online.

The more I garden the more I am utterly amazed at the tremendous number of choices available to us. I love to grow unusual plants, and so over the years I have settled on a few specialty purveyors. For herb plants look no farther than Goodwin Creek Gardens. They have over 1000 herbs and plants including every herb you can think of and more varieties of lavender, thyme and geranium than I ever knew existed.

If it is peppers you are after, Cross Country Nurseries is the company for you. Again, more plants than you can imagine – hundreds in fact. Their catalogue lists the plants and their culinary uses. Another thing I love about their catalogue is the chart that gives the name and type of pepper, length, width, heat level and country of origin. What more could a gardener possibly ask for?

And finally, never again will you sneak seeds back home in your suitcase. Seeds from Italy is a specialty purveyor of heirloom seeds from Franchi Sementi of Bergamo, and from southern Italy the seeds of a very small company in Andria, Bari. This company is unmatched. Grow these seeds and you will be the talk of your neighborhood. Many of these are things you will never see in an American supermarket. They specialize in traditional heirloom Italian varieties, and lots of them – 9 types of arugula, 14 types of cima di rapa, 7 types of eggplant, 25 varieties of lettuce and 18 types of zucchini! Their catalogue also features growing instructions and recipes. Sign up online for their terrific newsletter.

A gardener’s life is good. I hope you decide to garden this summer. No one says you have to have a huge garden. Just grow something. Anything. Feel the dirt. Plant something, tend it and watch it grow. It’ll taste better than anything you ever bought in a store.

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I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.

Another in the ongoing series – Exploring Tomatoes
 

 
No wonder they call it Gold Medal!  Full, sweet flavor, low acid and almost two pounds, these yellow and red bi-color beauties sport a classic multi-lobed heirloom look.   If you can find some of these, try one. You will not be disappointed.

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.