Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers
market and boy do we have some bad news for all you non-morning people out
there. Sunday March the 9th is Daylight Savings time and your clocks
should be set forward before bed on Saturday evening or at 2:00 am on Sunday morning
for all you ultra-night owls out there.
I don’t know about you but honestly Daylight savings is really one of
the archaic things in modern society. It was originally conceived to maximize
daylight working hours for an agriculture based population but is now just an
artifact of a time that is long gone. The second president bush moved about the
original daylight savings and caused a lot of people some serious annoyance as
their alarm clocks would auto-reset for the old time.
However you readers out there have LITFM giving a few days
fair warning so hopefully you’re all set for the hour shifting shenanigans of popular
culture.
Now today’s main topic focuses on the raw details of some of
the crops that are listed as coming soon. In this case we’re talking tomatoes
because we tried a number of new varieties this year and well we’d like you to
know all about it. Some favorites are making a nostalgic return and of course
it’s all in good garden fun.
Tomato, Amana
Orange
Amana orange is a beefsteak type heirloom that can produce
up to one pound fruits. We had this at the booth last summer and in trials it
did ok, however this year we brought it back to repeat the trial and to see
what it can really do under high production conditions. As the name suggests
the fruit are a bright and cheery orange color that can really liven up recipes
with its unique color and good flavor.
Tomato, Black Krim
Black Krim is a Russian heirloom variety that originates in
a Crimean town called Krim along the black sea. In early trials black krim was
tougher than most and produced regularly even surviving overwintering as a
cutting and setting fruit very early the next year. The fruit are roughly 9-12
ounces on average and have reddish-brown flesh with an earthy-smoked sort of
flavor.
Tomato, Blue
Berries
Blueberries are a new variety to our list this year. The
seed was sourced from a verified organic non-GMO source. I wanted to carry this
variety last year but the supplier was out of seed very early on due to high
demand and now here it is! The fruit of this tomato are a very dark purple, and
are roughly 1-4 ounces on average making this type a very large cherry or grape
tomato.
Tomato, Brown
Berry
Brown berry is a recurring variety that we’ve brought back
three years in a row. As far as cherry type tomatoes brown berry is positively gorgeous
as the fruit are flecked with bands of golden-brown against a reddish-primary
color. As far as flavor is concerned brownberry is rather tasty and is a nice
surprised sliced in salads.
Tomato, Hillbilly
Potato Leaf
Hillbilly Potato leaf is beefsteak heirloom type that in
truth is a bicolor variety. The fruit will often mainly be yellow with
irregular red streaking along the sides and bottom giving it a variety of
orange shades in the middle. Fruits range up to one pound and are very sweet
and quite meaty.
Tomato, Paul
Robeson
Paul Robeson is a Russian Heirloom variety named for the
famous performer. I can say from last year’s trials this plant is a
super-performer breaking a number of growth and productivity records leading
the entire tomato crop in pounds of produce per plant. The fruit range between
5 and 10 ounces and tend to be a deep red color sometimes with brown or purple
shoulders.
Tomato, San
Marzano
San Marzano was used as the Mascot of the anti-GMO efforts
in California and we at BL2 can see why. These tomatoes survived the 2013
monsoon, drought and neglect and still produced some seriously tasty paste
tomatoes. The fruits are red at maturity and are up to 3” long with an average
weight of 1-3 ounces.
Tomato, Tlacolula
Tal…Tula…Tahlacoo…Ah hell whatever its name is it’s a new
addition! This variety is named for the
town in Mexico it originates from Tlacolula. While we imagine it’s probably
pronounced something like Dracula this new addition seems to be so much fun to
say that the basic details only help its usage. The fruit of Tlacolula are
roughly pear-shaped and bear deep ribs and ruffles giving them an almost bell
shape. The fruit are said to be Pink skinned with gold-splotched shoulders and
the flesh is mild sweet and light pink.
Keep in mind readers this is the first of a number of
detailed posts about the weird and wonderful crops coming down the line so stay
tuned for next weeks continued tomato mayhem! The weather forecast is looking
good and predicts it will be sunny with a high of 66 degrees which is pretty
good. With that said the Fayetteville Farmers market is a 365 day a year event
that occurs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I’m there on Saturdays between 9:00 AM
and 1:00 PM and the market is located on 325 Franklin Street in the parking lot
of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum.
We’re practically surrounded by parking lots and the meter maid brigade
in downtown Fayetteville takes the weekends off so no worries for carrying coin
to feed the meters. You’ve got the basics now let’s get on with the plants and
materials list for the booth this weekend.
Southward Skies: A
northern guide to southern Gardening
This is the second
edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years
of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in
successful garden methods that are targeted for the south east but had proven
to be a valued resource for gardens across the eastern coast. It’s certainly a
good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a
reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00
and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.
Black Magic
Fertilizer
That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer.
This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test
gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive
growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re
making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00
per gallon of fertilizer. You can either order it at the market and pick it up
the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a
delivery charge of an additional $2.00.
House Plants
4x Holiday Cactus ($3.00)
2x Rotary Privet ($3.00)
2x Dancing Bones Cactus ($3.00)
4x Aloe Vera ($5.00)
Garden Plants
10x Dinosaur Kale, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
Herbs
2x Green Fennel, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Black Fennel, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Bloody Sorrel, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
5x Green Lavender-Cotton, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
4x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
Coming Soon:
Ozard Beauty Strawberry
Martha Washington Asparagus
Dark Red Norland Potato
Tomato, Amana Orange
Tomato, Black Krim
Tomato, Blue Berries
Tomato, Brown Berry
Tomato, Hillbilly Potato Leaf
Tomato, Paul Robeson
Tomato, San Marzano
Tomato, Tlacolula
Ironically my appeal to the month of March for better
weather has largely fallen on deaf ears as that frozen rain/sleet event earlier
in the week will attest. However we have received an average precipitation of
0.7” inches so at least there isn’t a winter drought. Just a note for all you propagators out there, if you’ve not
started seed you may want to if your facilities allow. The colder than average
February has set things back but the warm seasonal plants that are finicky
about soil temp can reasonably be started now, whereas tomatoes are fast
growing enough to not care as much as say peppers and eggplant might.
In the end it doesn’t quite matter the method folks just as
long as you can Keep ‘em growing!
No comments:
Post a Comment