Oh Yummmmm! Nice take on stuffed peppers.
Bell Pepper Deliciousness
1
Category Archives: Peppers
Tomato Problems and Solutions: Sunscald
I’ve been receiving emails from my customers along with a pictures of some of their tomatoes, asking questions about what is it, what to do about it, etc. I thought I’d share them with you, one at a time, since it’s a good bet that you may be dealing with some of the same issues. This hot weather we’ve been having here in the Pacific Northwest (East of the Cascades), has been making us and our plants a little on the moody side. So here goes…
Customer Question and Picture:
Any idea what this scarring is on the sungold cherty tomatoes. The first couple of weeks of picking was OK but we noticed this several days ago and the scars are spreading to many now. Thanks for your advice.
My Answer:
That looks like sunburn to me. It’s kind of papery, white and then it damages the fruit. If you don’t have enough leaf cover to protect the fruit, try getting some shade cloth or row cover and laying it lightly over the plant.
Sunscald or Sunburn, occurs particulalry during hot, dry weather when the tomatoes (and peppers) are exposed to direct sunlight. It can happen if your plant has sparse foliage, heirloom paste tomates often have sparse foliage or if you have defoliation from leaf spot or blights or you’ve pinched out too many leaves and auxiliary stems. (That is one of the reasons I don’t pinch out the suckers on my plants). Since this is physiological (physical cause) rather than a disease or a fungus,it won’t jump form tomato to tomato. Use a row cover, such as Remay, or shade cloth to cover.
How My Vegetable Garden is Growing
Here are some pictures of my tomatoes, squash and peppers among other things.
These are my compari tomatoes given to me by a customer. Yummy.
A zucchini squash called Eight Ball Forty Niner, both are perfect for pots.
Unripe, Sweet Carernos and Speckled Roman, both striped tomatoes
This is a Giant Marconi that isn’t so giant…yet!
This is Sun Sugar, a golden cherry tomato and Juliet, a grape shaped cherry. These are the first on the plants to ripen. The Sun Suagars are supposed to give Sungolds a run for their money. We will see. The Juliets are terrific, they have a “tomaotey” taste and thicked skin than most other cherries, which makes for a delightful pop when you bite into it. It also means they don’t split their skins when it rains.
My pride and joy, a Hale’s cantaloupe. It’s about the size of a football now and started veining. The first one I gott fruit from. I’m pretty sure it’s because it’s in the greenhouse where is hotter than blazes. That’s also why, there is something thing attacking it besides powdery mildew. Looks like rust. I must do some research on what the problem is.
The Letter of the Day T: “T” is for the Tomato, Tumbler and the Pepper, Tabasco
Tumbler
Specially bred for hanging baskets. Bushy plants look fantastic mixed with lobelia and alyssum. Sweet, bright red fruits. We sell them in the small pots and as baskets. Perfect for someone who wants to hang it on their balcony or patio. Determinate, early
This is a picture of one I had hanging on my patio. It is planted with flowers. Who says veggies can’t be pretty?
Tabasco- HOT
Originally from Mexico—and taking its name from a Mexican state—this small, very hot pepper’s a favorite in the South and East, where the plants can grow tall and are covered with the petite light yellow-green to red fruits. Best known as the pepper that lends the kick to the namesake hot sauce from Avery Island, Louisiana.
The Letter of the Day is N: “N” is for Nebraska Wedding and the North Star Bell Pepper
For those of you who might have gotten the post iwth a red tomato, all I can say is WordPress is fast. I noticed it was the wrong tomato and changed it out to the appropriate yellow pic but apparently not fast enough!
Nebraska Wedding
I know these are yellow…again. We grew these for the first time last year and I was impressed. No cracking, great flavor, decent size. I am beginning ot think I have a an obsession with yellow and gold tomatoes. didn’t set out to do that but when someone asks me my favorites, most of them seem to be that color. In the reds and pinks, my faves are Rose, Mortgage Lifter, Aussie, Willamette, Sweet Treats, Black from Tula and Sub Arctic Plenty to name a few. Ok, so maybe I do like more than the yellows!
An old Great Plains heirloom Produces huge, globe- shaped fruits of a deep orange color, weighing up to 10 oz. each. Vigorous plants yield a heavy, concentrated set of fruit. In the old days The seeds were givento the married couple to help them start their lives and start their farm together.
80 days
North Star
Extremely early, and ideal for short-season areas. Plants are particularly well adapted to set blocky fruit even under unfavorable conditions. Deep green fruits become bright red at full maturity.
For more information on these and other varities, check out my website at www.thetomatolady.com
The Letter of the Day is J: “J” is for the Tomato , Jetsetter and the Pepper, Jimmy Nardello,
Jetsetter
Short season gardeners especially will be happy for this variety that doesn’t sacrifice size or flavor for early maturity. Tomatoes are at least 8 ozs. and often larger with really good, rich flavor. Yields are plentiful on vigorous plants that have lots of disease resistance. VFFNTA Indeterminate, 64 days
Jimmy Nardello
I love these peppers, they look fiery hot but they arent.
From the small village of Ruoti in the Basilicata region of southern Italy, this heirloom was brought to the states, and introduced in 1887. 
These are a popular frying pepper.
Growing 20-24″, these plants produce loads of long, thin peppers, up to 10″ long.
The peppers are delicious and sweet. Cooked in a little olive oil, and grilled or fried, or chopped and used raw in salsas and salads.
These peppers are perfect for pickling or drying.
The Wonderful World of Tomatoes (And Some Peppers) My A to Z Theme
Does anyone REALLY know how many varieties of tomatoes there are in the world? I am going to hazard a guess that no one does. I do know that there are hundreds and hundreds of tomatoes, with different colors, shapes, uses, flavors and growing habits. New hybrids are always on the forefront. I even developed my own – “Mister E” which started as a mystery, but is now one of our favorites.
I raise tomato and pepper plants using organic methods and sell them every April and May. This year I have 1300 pepper plants (41 varieties) and about 6500 tomato plants (154 varieties). Not only do I sell, but I like to educate people about growing their own food. during this A-Z Challenge I will showcase some of the tomatoes I grow and hopefully have the time to throw in a few peppers.
Now, you probably want to know what my credentials are, what makes me an “expert”. Read on…
I started my gardening journey as a child – my parents had a HUGE garden, and grew Early Girls, Beefsteaks and Roma tomatoes as well as other vegetables and plants. While I loved seeing things grow, I did not like weeding, although my mother claims I actually enjoyed it!
Eighteen years ago – the dark ages to some of you – I started gardening again in Spokane. I started with the standard varieties, but soon became bored and searched for others. Oh, the seed catalogs wooed me with their glossy pages and colorful pictures and tantalizing descriptions of tomatoes I had never even heard of. I started ordering tomatoes with names like Mortgage Lifter, Green Zebra, Orange Russian, Ananis Noir, and Sungold. I was in heaven and as every good gardener does, I planted the entire seed packet. Usually 25-40 seeds with almost 100% germination! What was I going to do with all my tomato plants?
That first year the excess plants were put in the driveway along with a coffee can as a money box and a sign inviting folks to buy them. People loved them and were as happy as I was to try the different kinds of tomatoes. From there I started doing a local garden show – “The Garden Expo.” In a sense, I have grown with them. I started with one booth and a small greenhouse when it was a small show. Now it is a regional event held at the local community college campus, with 15,000+ customers anticipated this spring, and I have 3 greenhouses growing 6,500 tomato plants, 1,300 peppers, and some herbs. If you make to Spokane on Mother’s Day weekend, stop by on Saturday; my 4 booths are located just beyond the entrance.
Since I started my business, I have researched and grown all kinds of tomatoes – heirloom, patio, early, etc. This year we are planting over 154 varieties! I will be highlighting many of them in my blog in the days to come. I have also developed my own garden soil mix and determined the best fertilizers and additives to get great, tasty tomatoes. I became a Master Gardener for six years to learn more, and also to teach others. Now, my husband calls me the Garden Master, but I am not sure if that is because he thinks that I know a lot about gardening, or because I am always putting him to work in the garden!
Each year we grow something new and learn something as well. Do I know everything? No, but I am always learning and I like to share with others what I know. My next challenge is figuring out how to ship my plants – I have had a number of inquiries from across the United States for plants.
In truth, I never intended to become The Tomato Lady. However my customers came up with the name and I liked it so much that I registered it with the state. When I am not in the garden, I am a graphic artist and I am married to a talented illustrator (We have to do something in the off-season!) We designed the logo and marketing materials.
I hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy sharing it with you. Feel free to also check out my website, TheTomatoLady.com and Facebook page, https://www.Facebook.com/theTomatoLady. God willing, we will continue the journey into tomato gardening together.
Tomato Terms: What Does It Mean When I Say…Early, Main and Late Season?
Siberia This might be the earliest tomato ever – only 7 weeks from transplanting to table. Capable of setting fruits at 38 F on sturdy dark green plants. The fruits are bright red, 3 to 5 oz. and bunch in clusters. Also good for a patio. Determinate, 48 days
Along with these words usually comes a range of days in which you can expect to start eating tomatoes. (The days are from transplanting not sowing the seed).
Where I live, it can be colder in some areas than others. For instance, Deer Park, is about 10-15 miles north from Spokane. It has predictably colder weather and earlier frosts than we do. Their growing season is a lot shorter than ours and we aren’t geographically that far away. Cheney is colder plus they always have a lot of wind. Different growing conditions is a small area.
After reading my descriptions (www.thetomatolady.com) on my tomatoes or peppers, one of the things my customers ask is if it really will be ripe in 45 days or 60 days. I have to be honest with them and say I can’t give a definitive answer. There are so many variables involved in growing a garden. Weather, soil temps, amount of watering and fertilizing, where did they site the plant and variety.
The biggest one is the weather, which we have no control over. Last June, it seemed like it rained avery day and was cold. That will keep plants sitting there, in the ground, just waiting. (The only good thing about that is the plant is working on root development so that when it gets warm they have a good foundation to shoot up). I think I remember having a light frost in early June.
I would like to change my descriptions to early, mid, late and really late. It’s true that a Siberia or a Fourth of July will produce fruit before a late season variety such as Orange Russian or a Gold Medal.
Gold Medal These are fabulous, reminiscent of Big Rainbow. A Ben Quisenberry tomato. Wonderful, 1-1/2 lb., yellow and red bi-color beefsteak tomato with pink marbeling in blossom end, thin skin and luscious sweet, well-balanced flavors. Indeterminate, 85 days
That being said, I have seen some early varieties (48-60 day) that are only about 2 weeks earlier than a 70-75 day tomato. There again it depends on a lot of variables.
It must be nice in the South where have you a longer growing season, if you have to wait longer to get them into the ground it’s ok because you won’t get a frost until November.
There are many ways you can extend your season. Some years if you wait until all signs of frost are gone you won’t have any tomatoes. At some point you have to get them into the ground. Especially if you live in an area the gets an early fall frost.
I will discuss some ways in later posts
Onions are up and Hot Peppers planted
Onions are up! Impatiens are up! Snapdragons and lobelia too! It’s nice to see signs of spring, even if it’s only under lights in the house. Oh, and I have Yugoslavian Buttercrunch coming up too.
I tried something different with my onions, I planted them individually in plug trays since they don’t seem to like being transplanted at a young age.
Yesterday I planted hot peppers, Hot peppers are notoriously slow to germinate and then sometimes they are spotty. Depends on the freshness of the seed and the variety. First I soaked them in weak tea. Pain in the butt to separate them, stuck to my fingers. Here is the list: Arbol, Bhut Jolokia (yes, the infamous ghost), Cayenne, Early Jalapeno, Habanero, Hungarian Yellow Wax, Maules Red Hot, Pasilla, Pepperoncini, Serrano, Tabasco, Anaheim, Shishitso
I don’t like hot peppers although I have been know to use a smidgen of jalapeno in my salsa.
We’ve had snow and cold weather until the pineapple express rolled in last night. Now it’s 45 degrees. Melting all our snow.
Link
Making and Canning Pasta Sauce
This is a nice basic recipe for making pasta sauce. Soon, we will have a glut of tomatoes on our hands and will need ways to preserve them.
Notes From The Tomato Lady 