- Author: Jan Rhoades
It is definitely harvest time in my garden - I guess it has been for awhile. Like all good gardeners, I browsed the seed catalogs and found two new varieties to try out this season: Burbank Red Slicing Tomato and Crane Melon. My choices were inspired by a trip to Santa Rosa and the Luther Burbank Garden. What a treat to walk in the garden of a man that left such a horticultural legacy. Read on to find out more about these two winners. Both are listed by the The Slow Foods Ark of Taste, a catalog of distinctive foods deemed threatened by industrial standardization. They are definitely two to try!
Crane Melon
In Sonoma County, the last name of Crane is pretty much synonymous with the word melon. The Crane family has been farming melons there for more than a century.
It all started when Richard Crane was enticed to set down roots in the area because of the Gold Rush. But it was his son, Oliver Crane, who succeeded in breeding a golden melon that grew incredibly well in the unique clay soil and climate of Sonoma County, and without much irrigation. Named the Crane melon, it is a cross between several heirloom varieties: a Japanese melon, an ambrosia melon, a white melon and a Persian melon.
Beginning in the 1920s, Oliver sold his melons out of the farmstead's barn in Santa Rosa. Today, six-generations later, it has become an iconic landmark known affectionately as the “Melon Barn” where the family continues to farm and sell these melons. The Crane Melon is not found at grocery stores as it is vine ripened, and does not have the shelf life to be shipped. The Crane family claims that, “The Crane melon's flavor is due to its terroir. The melon was developed to be grown...in a particular soil, within a specific climate zone, farmed in a certain style.”
The Crane Melon has appeared in magazines, newspapers and TV shows. A Los Angeles Times article recognized it as a true heirloom. A striking melon it is slightly pear shaped with a gently tapering end and averages 4 to 7 pounds. Its exterior is a pale dusty green color with dark green blotches that become a rusty orange when fully ripe. The inner orange flesh is firm and succulent This melon is described as highly aromatic and exceptionally sweet and juicy with notes of honey, rose and orange blossom.
Over the past month, I have eaten several of these delectable melons from my own generous vine. They are quite big and make a lovely dessert. I am not sure that the soil here has the same terroir, but I can truly say they are the best melons I have ever tasted.
Burbank Red Slicing Tomato
Developed around 1914 by plant wizard Luther Burbank, this tomato was reportedly the only variety that Mr. Burbank raised for canning. It is a semi-determinate that grows on stocky bushes 18 - 36" tall and produces beautiful 6 - 8 oz fruits perfect for slicing and canning. Quite productive and a fairly early tomato, it has no problem with cool nights and even seems to tolerate drier climates. The fruit is a deep red color with a satisfying bold tomato flavor.
In his own words, Burbank described this tomato as, ”The earliest, smoothest, largest and most productive of all early tomatoes. It is of a bright red, the flesh being firm and of superior quality. The plants resist disease in an unusual manner, and unlike most early tomatoes, it produces heavily all summer. A fine home or market tomato, as it is a fine keeper and shipper."
The 1923 Burbank Seed Catalog reads, ”Fruit, bright crimson; thick, solid, heavy, smooth, medium to large in size, superior quality, unusually heavy and continuous bearer throughout the season. Good keeper and fare shipper. The Burbank has one other unique and most remarkable quality which will be appreciated by those who like fresh sliced tomatoes for the table. Unlike other tomatoes, the skin peels freely from the rich, firm flesh. “
All summer, I have been enjoying these fine tomatoes in sandwiches and salads, as well as cooking them down to paste for winter use.
- Author: Dustin Blakey
I love green beans, but even better are wax beans. For some reason as a kid I thought the yellow color of wax beans was something special. Since then I've preferred them if given a choice, but I'm sure it's all in my head. Kids make food choices based on some illogical characteristics. This one stuck with me.
I've grown three different varieties of wax beans since I've lived in Owens Valley. I always grow bush-type beans since I'm too lazy to set up a trellis. This is the first year I've had enough to make more than a meal.
My first two years I attempted to grow ‘Top Notch' wax beans. They are easy to find and cheap. I like cheap.
I brought my 'Top Notch' seeds from Arkansas, but I didn't have much luck with them in Bishop. My plants had serious problems with fruit set in the dry heat. The plants grew and flowered prolifically, but few pods formed in either year. The other green beans (‘Blue Lake Bush' and ‘Royal Burgundy') I planted those years did fine, so I think it's a case of a poor choice in our area. Or at least that garden.
Since then I moved to another house and didn't put in a garden, but like everyone else, the coronavirus inspired me to plant a garden.
My current garden spot is even hotter than the last as it's nestled in between my house and a fence, in full sun all day. I figured I need to try a different kind of bean. By the time I decided to put in my garden, there wasn't much left for sale. I ended up growing ‘Borsalino', an Italian variety I frankly paid too much for in desperation for seeds.
‘Borsalino' was highly productive. Each plant yielded about ½ lb of beans. They were fair tasting and tender, but the pods were not very long. Most were 3-4" long. Few looked worthy of entering into the fair, but I can't complain about the yield. They also yielded almost their entire crop in one picking.
About a week after I planted those wax beans, I was given some French rocbrun seeds to plant. The mature seeds look like brown pebbles. Maybe that's what the name means. (This cultivar may actually be ‘Buerre de Rocquencourt' but rocbrun is easier for an Anglophone to say, if that's actually the case.)
My rocbruns were not as productive as ‘Borsalino', but the pods were much larger and generally more tender. I ate a few raw out of the garden. I was glad the pods were larger as that speeds up harvest; however it did take two passes about 5 days apart to get them all. I kept the first ones in the refrigerator until I had the rest harvested.
While they were excellent to eat, I wasn't so happy about cleaning them prior to canning. The pods were very sticky, and little bits of dirt and spent blossoms adhered a bit too well. I had to wash the beans twice to clean them of debris. They were good enough to eat that I plan to let some of the seeds mature and save them for next year.
The moral of the story is that in many cases, the reason something doesn't work could be as simple as the variety not being adapted to one's location. Wax beans definitely seem to grow here, as I would expect they would.
New gardeners: keep in mind that if you don't succeed with something this year, maybe the solution is to try another variety next year.
- Author: Dustin Blakey
Basil is one of my favorite things to grow in the garden. It's easy, mostly pest-free, and best of all: I like it.
I usually go overboard and grow more than one kind of basil in the garden. This year I grew sweet basil, Thai basil, and ‘Mammoth' lettuce-leaf basil.
If you don't raise lettuce-leaf basil, you should consider it for next year. Lettuce-leaf basil is really fast to de-stem for processing which is great for lazy folks like me. ‘Napoletano' is my absolute favorite basil, but it was out-of-stock everywhere this year, so mild-tasting ‘Mammoth' it was.
Although I use fresh basil regularly, I never seem to make a huge dent in my garden's supply because I grow more than I should. Eventually the plants will begin to flower around mid-July. Each type of basil flowers at a different time and previous harvesting will also affect when it flowers.
An efficient time to harvest basil is just as the flower spikes begin to be visible, but aren't fully expanded. The plants will have lots of leaves ready to be used and the flavor is still good.
Today was basil harvest day in my garden, but I probably should have started last week.
I usually dry all my sweet basil, and use the Thai and lettuce-leaf basils fresh, but this year I had a lot of lettuce-leaf basil ready to harvest all at once so I had to preserve some. After drying and freezing, I still had some left to use up. So I went to my backup preservation plan: salt drying.
Salt drying relies on salt to draw out moisture to preserve herbs. Since there is no heat involved, the delicate aroma of the herbs is not as affected as by dehydrating. Any herb can be salt dried, but I'm not sure that's a good idea for every herb. I can't imagine finding a use for salted mint.
To salt dry basil, use a clean, wide-mouth jar. Put some salt in the bottom and alternate layers of washed, dried basil leaves and salt. I use kosher salt, but use whatever suits your fancy. (Remember, the basil will overpower any flavor subtleties of expensive specialty salts.) Sometimes I put a few peppercorns or fennel seed in the salt too. After filling the jar, store it in the refrigerator and it will keep for months.
Whenever you need some basil, pull out some leaves and add them to your recipe, adjusting salt if desired. When you are finished using all the leaves, you are left with a basil-flavored salt, also handy in the kitchen!
I've found that this method is very good with Thai or holy basils. I can pull the leaves out and add them to sauces. They do a good job retaining their distinct flavor this way. The small leaves fit well into the jar to make neat layers. This year I used the small leaves toward the top of my lettuce-leaf basil plants. The ruffles made it a little harder to place into the salt, but it worked if I packed it all down between each layer. I probably didn't get as much basil in the jar as with Thai basil as a result.
I am thankful that basil is so easy to preserve since I'm always swimming in it by mid-summer. Good thing it's something I actually use, unlike the radishes I plant for no apparent reason.
P.S. Before you ask: No you cannot safely can basil at home, even with a pressure canner.
- Author: Dustin Blakey
I am always amazed to find out that some people plant more than one zucchini plant. My single plant is a giant monster that produces more than I can sneak into our dinners.
Zucchini grows great in our area with one big caveat: squash bugs. I suppose they are something of a blessing since if we didn't have them destroying our plants, we would all be neck-deep in them.
The plant we call zucchini in the USA is a kind of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo), The word zucchini comes to us from Italian, but the species is native to the Americas. In the 19th Century, the modern variety as we know it was bred in northern Italy, so zucchini it is.
Because our climate is fairly inhospitable to pathogenic fungi, there aren't too many diseases that affect summer squashes here. Our primary pests are squash bugs.
Summer squash varieties like zucchini are very sensitive to feeding by squash bugs, and plants will begin to wilt and die if these pests aren't controlled. This page has information on their control. Most gardeners on the east side try to manually remove them on a regular basis from susceptible crops.
If you are able to control the squash bugs, you will likely encounter an even bigger problem with zucchini: the fruit. Most zucchini plants are very productive, to the point of annoyance. Gardeners who have more than a couple plants have been known to disappear for weeks on end under the burden of their abundant harvest. This is serious business!
The internet has lots of great recipes for zucchini, but eventually you too will face the Zucchini Apocalypse. The threat of violence caused by a family that refuses to eat one more zucchini dish cannot be understated! (Zucchini chili was not a big hit at the Blakey home.)
The best way I've found to use zucchini is to strike up a conversation (6 feet apart, of course) with a fellow gardener about squash bugs. If they tell you they've given up on zucchini due to squash bugs, you may be in luck: immediately propose a trade for something like chileno peppers or tomatoes. You'll need to act fast before another desperate gardener reaches them first!
Another often overlooked way to use up zucchini is to preserve them for later use. This recipe for zucchini bread and butter pickles will use up 16 cups worth all at once! Since I already have a cupboard full of cucumber bread and butter pickles, I needed to go to Plan B: zucchini chips.
Zucchini sliced into ¼” thick slices can be dehydrated with some seasoning into tasty chips. In my two latest batches I used either chile-lime seasoning or seasoned salt. Lemon pepper, Cajun spice mixes, dehydrated kimchi powder, or salt and pepper all work very well. (Instructions for dehydrating fruits and vegetables can be found in this fact sheet.)
Preserving zucchini allows you to eat it during the off-season when the memory of your Zucchini Apocalypse is distant. Trust me: it tastes better in November.
- Author: Carmen Kappos
Have you ever found an old seed packet and wondered what to do with it? Seeds deteriorate as they age which can give variable results. Fortunately there is a simple way to see if seeds will germinate. You can use this easy rolled paper towel test to check for seed viability.
This seed viability test takes seven to ten days and will give you an idea of how well your seeds will germinate.
- Lay a moistened paper towel flat
- Place a row of ten seeds starting along one edge
- Roll up loosely
- Carefully place the damp towel in a plastic bag and seal it to hold in the moisture
- Place the bag in a warm spot (On top of the refrigerator is ideal as that area is generally a consistent seventy degrees)
- Check every couple of days: if the paper towel is drying out, gently mist with water, but as the bag is sealed, it should not dry out
- At the end of seven days, unroll the towel and see how many seeds have sprouted. (Some seed will need ten days to two weeks to germinate. The seed packet may have this information.)
The recommendations are that if less than seven out of ten (seventy percent) seeds have sprouted, then you are probably better off getting fresh seed. If seventy to ninety percent have sprouted, it should be fine to plant but sow the seed a little thicker than you normally would. If all the seeds have sprouted, plant as you normally would.
If it is time to plant, you can use the sprouted seeds if handled carefully. Often the roots have grown into the damp towel. If so, cut the paper towel between seeds and plant with a little bit of toweling. That way, the roots and growing tip will not be damaged. If not grown into the towel, handle carefully by the top so not to damage the root, planting right away so that it does not dry out.
I was surprised to see that five- and seven-year-old flower seeds that I tested had germinated. Keep in mind that fresh seed usually gives the best results. Vegetable seeds should be no more than two to three years old with some exceptions. Onion, chive, parsnip and parsley seeds are recommended to be stored for only one year.