I am REALLY good at growing cucumbers…not sure why, but all I have to do is blindly throw some cuke seeds in the soil and we always end up with more cucumbers than we know what to do with.   This year I only planted three hills and we still had cukes running out of our ears.  We make cucumber slaw, Asian cucumber salad, freezer pickles, relish, and of course lots and lots of pickles.  By the end of the season, we’re sick and tired of cucumbers and just let them go until they turn into giant, yellow footballs that are great compost heap fodder.

A few years ago at a Christmas party, my wife and I were grazing at the relish buffet and discovered these curiously colored, bright red delectable snacks.  We thought they were candied apples, but found out that they were actually cucumbers!  Needless to say, there were no candied cukes in that dish when we made our way to the dinner table!  I inquired about the recipe and was told it was a long, tedious process involving caustic chemicals and loads of sugar.  The next year I vowed to give it a shot despite the warnings.

Before you embark on this adventure, make sure you use the right equipment or you may end up with something dreadful.  Also make sure you have 3-4 days to devote to the process.

Start by searching through your cucumber vines for the biggest, ugliest, largest, yellowest cucumber you can find.  This year I intentionally left several to grow to their mature state for the sole purpose of this recipe.  Peel the cuke with a sharp knife or heavy duty vegetable peeler, slice in half length wise, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices.  The one in the picture is the greenest one I used, I cut the other yellow ones up before I remembered to take a pic.

This is the most important part of the recipe…put the cuke slices in a NON METAL CROCK!  Under no circumstances should you use aluminum…nasty things will happen!   I use an enamel covered crock that works perfect for this.

For every gallon of sliced cucumber, mix one gallon of water with one cup of pickling lime.  I recommend doing this in a clean milk jug so the lime dust doesn’t go everywhere and make a mess…mix this well and then pour over the cukes and let them soak for 24 hours minimum.

After 24 hours has passed, drain the cukes and rinse several times in fresh water.  I put them in an enamel covered colander and switch them back and forth in a large bowl of cold water.  Once they are rinsed, cover them all with fresh water and let them soak 3-6 more hours.  Drain them again and then mix 1 ounce of red food coloring with 1 cup of white vinegar and pour this over the cukes…add water to cover them all up and let them soak another 3-6 hours.

Drain the cukes of the vinegar/food coloring mix after they have soaked.   For each gallon of cukes, mix 1 1/2 cups of water, 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar, 8 cups of sugar, 15 ounces of cinnamon red hot candies, and several cinnamon sticks.  Heat this mix until all the sugar and red hots have dissolved and pour over the cukes in the crock.  Let them soak another 24 hours. (I told you this takes a while!

After 24 hours has passed, drain the liquid into a pan and re-heat until it is boiling.  Pack the cukes into sterile jars (you will have red hands if you don’t use rubber gloves on this step), add a cinnamon stick to each jar, then pour the boiling liquid into the jars leaving some room at the top for headspace.  Make sure you clean the rim of the jars well, seal them and hot water bath them for 20 minutes.

These will wow your guests at holiday meals!  Let them try and guess what they are…I doubt many will figure out that you’ve taken something that could have been tossed in the compost and turned it into a new family favorite when placed next to sweet pickles, olives, and all the other relishes we all love to snack on.  Gift a few jars to chosen friends and family and they’ll appreciate it way more than anything you could have bought at the store.

Every year I vow to dig up some pepper plants and over winter them in the house, but I never get around to it and always have to wait until late summer for a bounty of peppers.  Peppers supposedly do very well as a perennial and produce a lot more as the plant matures.  You can’t really do this with tomato plants, but it is supposed to work with peppers.  I’ll try to dig some up this year, but no promises!  If you do try it, let me know how it works.

At any rate…we’ve got a plethora of peppers now.  Jalapenos, Fat-N-Sassy, California Wonders, Lilacs, Pepperoncini, and a few Habaneros.  I’ve made all the salsa we can handle, so it’s Pepper Jelly Time!  I usually make a large amount of this stuff every other year and we have plenty to devour as well as plenty to give away as gifts and bribes to friends and family.

Don’t be afraid of this stuff, it’s very easy to make and the heat from the peppers is not a problem even for those that can’t normally handle spicy foods.  We serve it with rice crackers and cream cheese…put a dollop of this jelly on there and you’ve got a snack that will prove to be highly addictive and a favorite of all that you share it with.  The sugar and cream cheese kill the heat from the peppers just seconds after the heat hits your tongue.  It’s a wonderful pain/pleasure sensation that’s decadent to say the least!

Rice Crackers

Ok…here we go.  First, go pick all the peppers you can…a 50/50 mix of hot and sweet is usually what I use.  Toss in ONE OR TWO habaneros or Thai Chilies or whatever super hot pepper you have growing, but are afraid to do anything with.  Get some rubber gloves and open some windows and turn on some fans for ventilation.  Trust me on the rubber gloves!

Peppers, knife and gloves

Don’t get too fancy with the knife…just cut the tops off the jalapenos and other slender peppers.  With the bell peppers, take the top off and remove the bulk of the seed locules.  Toss these in a food processor or blender and puree into a finely chopped slush.  Keep those gloves on!

Pureed peppers

12 cups of peppers

Put the peppers in a large pot with an equal amount of white or apple cider vinegar.  I make large batches so 6 cups of pureed peppers and 6 cups of vinegar.  Then add 3 cups of sugar per cup of peppers you use.  18 cups of sugar for my batch.  Cook all of this on medium heat until it reaches a low boil.  Don’t heat it too quickly or the sugar may scorch.  Stir frequently and keep those fans on to vent the pepper fumes.

Once it reaches a boil, turn off the heat and add a tablespoon of food coloring…I prefer red, but have used green.  I’d avoid blue!

Also add Liquid Pectin at a rate of around 1 and 1/2 ounces per cup of peppers you used.  You can use more pectin for a thicker jelly or less if you want a more syrupy texture.

If you want to, you can now strain the whole pot through a strainer to remove the seeds and chunks of peppers.  This will make for less heat in your jelly and a true jelly or syrup appearance.  I prefer to leave all the chunks and seeds in there so mine is more of a marmalade and has more heat to it.

Pour the hot jelly into sterilized jars, and follow the USDA guidelines for canning.  I like to use a variety of sized jars so I can give small ones away as small gifts, give medium ones away as gifts for the ones that are addicted to this stuff, and some large ones for big parties.

I only make this every other year, so I make two big batches and end up with a supply that I don’t have to horde!

Jars of Jelly

With 39 varieties and about 40 tomato lovers from across the city, the first annual KCTTTT was a great success!  The weather was great and it was so wonderful to see all the gardeners talking shop about the trials and tribulations of growing tomatoes!  Thanks so much to all the folks that brought tomatoes and dishes to share!

I took some pictures of when we first started filling up the tables with tomatoes, but I didn’t get any pics of all the people enjoying the day!  If you have any pics, please add them to the flickr group at the link below.  If you can’t get them to upload, just send the to me at jworley1@hotmail.com and I’ll add them to the group.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1184226@N20/

Again…it was so nice to see all of you today and if you didn’t make it, we’ll hope to see you next year!

James

Well, we have a big basket of tomatoes ready to bring…many different varieties, but I can’t wait to try some we didn’t plant!  I’ll make a bunch of bruschetta in the morning and have three French loaves ready to pick up.  We’re so looking forward to visiting everyone and hearing gardening tales of triumph and woe.  The weather looks to be perfect!

I’ll likely be at the park on Roe around 10:00 so if you want to stop by early to help set up, feel free to come early.  I also have a few prizes we’ll draw for so you might go home with a goody or a gift certificate!

As a reminder…bring something to drink if you’d like (I’ll have some bottled water for thirsty folks)and a lawn chair to rest in between trips to try all the tomato dishes and samples.  Kids and leashed pets are welcome!

See you in the morning with the bounty from your gardens!

James

It’s been a crazy year for growing tomatoes…heavy rains, flooding, hail, excessive heat, record lows, and now we’re in the midst of another heat wave…who knows what fall and winter will bring!

Most folks that I’ve talked to though are having a great season with big harvests and little problems to speak of especially when it comes to blight.  My good friends the Denesha’s from Tomatotown sent me a NYT article about the problems of diseases that are affecting gardeners this year.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Here are a few important snippets from the article that are particularly interesting:

“According to plant pathologists, this killer round of blight began with a widespread infiltration of the disease in tomato starter plants. Large retailers like Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart bought starter plants from industrial breeding operations in the South”

“So what do we do?

For starters, if you’re planning a garden (and not growing from seed — the preferable, if less convenient, choice), then buy starter plants from a local grower or nursery. A tomato plant that travels 2,000 miles is no different from a tomato that has traveled 2,000 miles to your plate. It’s an effective way to help local growers, who rely on sales of these plants before the harvest arrives. It’s also a way to protect agriculture. If late blight occurs in a small nursery it’s relatively easy to recognize, as straightforward as being able to see the plant, recognize its symptoms and isolate it before it has a chance to spread.”

I’m not in this to make a lot of money…I’m in it because I love growing tomatoes and enjoy meeting and helping people that have the same interests thaat I do.  I’ll always sell my plants at a lower cost than the nuresries and big box stores and will always provide help throughout the year to make your garden as successful as possible.  Thanks so much for your support and I’ll see you on the 22nd!

James

With only 2 and a half weeks to go, we’ve got close to 30 people RSVP’d for the KCTTTT! It should be a great afternoon to taste some tomatoes and talk gardening in the city.  I hope to see you there!

It’s to the point in the garden that everything is at peak, but we’ll still have peppers, tomatoes, and beans until cold weather sets in…peppers can hang in there until first frost.   If you want to save some of this peak summer flavor to enjoy all year long, then you need to learn how to freeze or can your surplus harvest.

If you don’t have a surplus of some things, it’s no sin to go to the farmer’s market and stock up on veggies at a great price.  I went to the River Market this morning and bought peppers, tomatillos, cilantro, and lemons..all at a great value.  I then stopped by one of the coolest stores in town…Planter’s Seed.  They sell bulk spices there that are a great deal and very fresh.

Once you’re stocked up on veggies and supplies…make sure you’ve got a sharp knife and a few hours to spare!

The best tomatoes to use for salsa are the paste types…Romas and Opalka are my favorite as they have lots of meat, fewer seeds, and not much juice.  Set a big pot of water to boil and another big bowl of water with a good amount of ice.  If you don’t have some of these bowls…you need to add a few to your cabinets!  If you are using romas or opalkas, cut the stem end of the tomatoes off.  If you use bigger tomatoes, you need to core them out with a sharp knife.  When the water is boiling, drop a dozen tomatoes at a time in the water and let them cook cor about 1 minute.  Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and drop in the ice water.  This blanching process makes removing the skins very easy…just give them a squeeze!  If you like chunky salsa or are just canning chunks of tomatoes, use a butcher knife to chop them to your desired size.  If you want to save some time, plop them in the food processor and pulse them a few times…saves a lot of chopping!

If you’re making salsa, then do a search for salsa canning recipe…you’ll find one you like I’m sure.  I make mine differently each year and none ever goes to waste!  This year I am using roasted garlic (like I used for the bruschetta), tomatillos, onions, yellow peppers, jalapenos, Planter’s Hot Picante Seasoning, Ancho seasoning, Cumin (always use this!), lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt, and plenty of fresh cilantro.  If you want the pepper taste, but not so much heat, take the seeds and ribs out of the jalapenos…if you like it hot…leave them in.  Either way…use disposable gloves when handling peppers…you’ll thank me later!

When you’re done chopping…it should look something like this:

Cook this down until the onions are soft and translucent, then save some back to eat in the next week or two and can the rest.

Canning isn’t a difficult process…most canning does not require a pressure cooker…just a hot water bath.  If you can beans or meats, a pressure cooker is needed though.

One thing to make sure you do whenever you can tomatoes is to add lemon juice.  We always talk about how much acid tomatoes have, but they don’t have enough to ward off some nasty bacteria so I always add a tablespoon of lemon juice per quart of any tomato product I can.  Don’t forget this step!

As for materials to can…it’s simple.  Sterilized jars…use the HOT setting on your dishwasher or wash by hand and rinse with near boiling water.  A big pot to boil water for the hot water bath.  A pair of jar tongs, a lid magnet, and a canning funnel.  You’ll need some fresh lids that you’ll sterilize in a small pot of boiling water and rings to match them.  All of this can be bought at local hardware stores or if you must…Wal-Mart.

I could spend an hour trying to explain the process, but if you go to the Ball site: http://www.freshpreserving.com/ This site has allllllll the safety information and step by step guides.  If you get stuck or have questions…feel free to ask me though and I’ll do what I can to help.

The KC Tomato Times Edition #7

I hope everyone is getting their share of heirloom tomatoes from the garden these past two weeks!  It took three trips to the house this weekend to get all of our tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash and beans in!

Needless to say…we’re eating fresh veggies every day and are always looking for delicious ways to use lots of tomatoes!  We’re big fans of Thai and Indian cuisine and have made some awesome curries with eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes.  On Friday we had some Bruschetta that was out of this world…if you’d like to try some I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

First start with some of your favorite heirloom tomatoes…Box Car Willie and Brandywine were the star of the show this evening.  Dice them up and put in a bowl with some fresh basil chiffonade, some balsamic vinegar, a few dashes of olive oil, and some salt and pepper to taste.  Toss these together until they look like this:

While this is soaking in the juices,  take a couple of bulbs of garlic, chop off the top, brush with olive oil and roast them in a 350 degree ven until they are brown and carmalized like this:

Squeeze the garlic out into a bowl and mush it with a fork to make a spread…you can mix in some butter if you’d like.

While the oven is on, you might as well make some french bread!  Home-made is best, but the kind in the can works in a pinch…if you aren’t hungry by now you must have just eaten a Thanksgiving Feast!

While the bread is baking, slice up some fresh mozzerella or even better use some goat cheese.  We were out of goat cheese so we made do.

Now to put it all together!  Put a small smear of the garlic on a slice of bread, top with a half slice of cheese or a smear of goat cheese (you really need to try this with goat cheese!), and then PILE ON the tomato vinegar mix that has been soaking in it’s juices for a while.  Don’t be bashful…pile it on!

I’m very much a meat and potatoes kind of guy, but a huge plate of this and I forget about (well…almost forget about) protein.

In the next week or so I hope to blog about how to process tomatoes with a food mill and some canning tips to preserve your harvest to use all year long.

We’re less than a month from the KCTTTT…please RSVP as soon as you can so I can plan for a crowd.  We’ve got 27 so far…the more the merrier!

Until then…happy gardening!

James

Kansas City Tomato Times

Edition # 6

Well, we’re finally turning from green to red and all of the other colors of the rainbows in our KC gardens!  I trust that my E-vites went out ok for the August 22nd Tomato Tasting Event, but if you didn’t get one, feel free to click the link and RSVP.

KCTTT E-Vite

One big question a lot of gardeners have this time of year is “When do I pick X?”

When it comes to tomatoes…pick them AS SOON AS THEY START TO BLUSH!  When the tomato changes from green to any shade of red or purple or yellow, the plant is done with it.  The plant actually makes a seal at the stem so no more nutrients go into the fruit.  This fruit is now “vine ripened”.  Don’t wait another second…pick it!  Take it in the house and put in a pretty bowl on your table for everyone to admire.  DO NOT PUT IT IN THE REFRIGERATOR!  Cold ruins the flavor!  Keep it out of direct sun and heat and in a few days the fruit will change completely to it’s ripened stage.  Grab a knife and the salt shaker and have at it as you like!  If you leave the fruits on the vine after they change color, you might as well put out a signal flare to all the squirrels and other critters in your yard to come and have a snack.  Pick at first blush and you’ll have way more tomatoes than the critters.

When it comes to peppers or eggplant…pick them whenever you want.  Leaving them on the vine will allow the walls of peppers to get thicker and they will develop more sugars and in turn a more sweet fruit.  They may also change to other colors and develop different flavors as the age on the vine.  If you pick them sooner, the plants will respond by producing more flowers and in turn more fruit.  You may choose to do a little of both…leave a pepper plant alone and allow the fruit to develop to full maturity.  The rest of  your plants, pick as many of the peppers off as you can and the plant will get more and more vigorous with production.  As for eggplant…don’t let them get too big or they may get tough and the seeds may become too big.

Here’s a picture of my harvest for the week…I hope you like the colors of my garden!

KC Tomato Times Edition #5

Well fellow gardeners…Summer has finally arrived and she arrived with a vengeance!  These high temps should make those tomato, pepper, and eggplant plants grow, grow, grow!!!  Make sure you keep an eye on your plants in this high heat.  With this weather,  they may need up to 2 inches of water per week.  Remember it’s best to water DEEPLY once or twice a week in the mornings instead of a little bit each day.  Avoid watering the foliage and keep up your weekly fungicide applications because blight and fungal diseases can happen fast with this high humidity and evening storms.  Also make sure you’re keeping those plants off the ground and keep the plants mulched well so the roots can stay cool.

Keep an eye out for Aphids and Flea Beetles as they’ve been voracious this year in some folk’s gardens.  Give them a squirt of Pyola and they’ll go away!

One thing you can do in the garden to help with pollination is to give your plants a few vigorous shakes each day…especially on windless days.  Tomato plants are open pollinated, meaning they do not need insects to pollinate each other.  When it is very hot and still out there, the pollen won’t move around on the flowers, so shake them a bit to get things moving around.  If your plants are on a fence or in a cage, you can whack the cage with the handle of a hoe or rake.  This shakes the whole plant and gets things going.  If your neighbors think you are abusing your plants, just send them to my blog to set them straight!

If you’re holed up in the air conditioning or lounging by the pool, here are some great books I highly recommend to improve your gardening knowledge.  I use half.com to buy most of my books as the deals there can’t be beat!

The Ultimate Tomato Lover’s book:  100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden

A great all around Missouri Gardening Book:  The Missouri Gardener’s Companion: An Insider’s Guide to Gardening in the Show Me State

An excellent book for solving insect and disease problems:  Ortho’s Home Gardener’s Problem Solver

Any book by Jerry Baker is worth reading….I have a bunch!:  Jerry Baker’s Backyard Problem Solver: 2,364 Simple Solutions

Another one by Jerry: The Impatient Gardener

Mel is a gardening God!  All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!

Some beautiful photography of raised bed gardening here:  Vegetable Gardening With Derek Fell

For some humor and insight, check out this one.  My copy was given to me by me good friend and fellow urban gardener Eric:  The $64 Tomato

Add one or two of these books to your library and you’ll find your thumb getting just a bit greener with each turn of the page!

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for!  I’ve decided on a name: The Kansas City Tomato Times Tomato Tasting (KCTTTT) Saturday, August 22nd is the date and the location is Roe Park.  Roe Park is just north of 435 and Roe.

I’ll be sending out an e-vite in the next couple of weeks.  I’m thinking it will be a picnic type event with folks brining in different varieties of tomatoes, and maybe some tomato dishes from your favorite recipes.  They have nice picnic tables, trash cans, a restroom, and a great play area for kids so we’ll set aside a few hours to enjoy the fruits of our labors and share gardening stories and advice.  Stay tuned to your e-mail for the e-vite invitation in mid July.

Until then…keep shaking those vines and waiting for that first ripe tomato of the season!

James

KC Tomato Times

Edition #4

Growing a garden in Kansas City is akin to riding a roller coaster most years.  We’ve had our ups and downs with temps and rainfall and it’s been both smooth and quiet as well as rough and bumpy!  The good news is that the cool season crops are still doing well as our temps have stayed in the 70’s for the most part.  My spinach bolted FAST this year and we didn’t get to eat much of it, but the lettuce is still doing well and we’ve had many salads all spring. Once it does get hot enough for those cool season crops to be finished producing, you can plant squash, okra, or beans in behind them.  If you’re done with that part of the garden, I highly recommend mulching over the area to avoid having it become a weed bed.  Newspaper works very well for this even though it is a bit unsightly at first.  The paper will break down and can be worked into the soil next year adding more humus. The bad news is that we’ve not had the heat to really make those tropicals (tomatoes and peppers) take off.  It’s not all bad news though…those plants are growing…roots!  The deeper that root zone, the more able they are to withstand the rigors of July and August when they will grow amazingly fast.

Most of my tomato plants are around3-4 foot tall now with the exception of the romas which never get that tall.  I’ve been tying the ones up that are on fences with this stuff: STRETCH TIE .The ones in the cages I’m just guiding them up and up.  Next year I’d like to grow all plants in cages…it’s just so much easier to do.  Also, most of my plants have finally set their first wave of fruit.  It’s always the second best day of the gardening year when you spot those first baby green fruits ( the best day of the year should be obvious!).

With all of this rain, it is critical that you keep a daily eye on your plants.  A heavy rain can knock a vine over and if you set it upright and tie it, there will be no damage usually.  If it stays bent for a day or more, it can kill that part of the plant.  Also with all of this rain and high humidity there can be fungal problems in the garden.  To avoid this, make sure all of those bottom branches are kept off the ground.  Just prune them with some scissors or garden shears and toss them in the compost bin.  You may also want to get on a weekly fungicide regimen during times of high humidity and rain.  I try to stay organic as much as possible, but one non-organic, but very safe product to use is Daconil also known as Chlorothalonil which is available locally as Ortho Garden Disease Control .  You can buy it in a 29.6% diluted rate and add 2tsp of it to a gallon of water in your sprayer and it’s very safe to use.  In fact, you can harvest fruit the day after application.  It’s not organic, but from what research I’ve done, it’s less toxic than some commercially available organics .  If you absolutely want to try something organic, here’s a recipe I found on GardenWeb that a lot of people recommend.

“Start with 1 Gallon of Compost Tea — If you buy a commercial compost tea concentrate, dilute it according to label directions. If using homemade compost tea, use 1 cup to 1 gallon of water.

To 1 gallon of compost tea, add the following:

1 ounce of black strap molasses
1 ounce of liquid seaweed concentrate or 1 teaspoon of powdered seaweed
1 ounce of apple cider vinegar

That is the general formula for Garrett Juice.

To use it as a fungicide, add 1/4 cup garlic tea and 1 tablespoon of baking soda.

Apply to plants with a sprayer, making sure to spray undersides of leaves.”

Whatever method you use, do it regularly to avoid blight or other fungal problems that can wipe out a lot of plants quickly.

When these heavy rains hit, having well mulched plants is essential.  Plants that have the soil around them exposed to heavy rains can be leached of nutrients and the plant can suffer.  If you notice yellowing leaves, it is likely that the rains have washed all of your Nitrogen away and you’ll need to fertilize.  Using the plastic film mulch all but eliminates this problem for me as the heavy rains run off the sides of my beds and don’t pound the soil and knock out the nutrients.  Side dress your plants now with some more 5-10-5 or even some 5-10-10 fertilizer about 2 tablespoons per plant…don’t let it touch the stems though.  With all of this rain and humidity, I’d avoid foliar feeding for a while though.

For those of you growing peppers, there’s one bit of advice I can give you for now…PICK THEM!  The more you pick peppers, the more productive they will be.  As soon as those pepperoncini and jalapenos are the size of your thumb, pick them and the plant will immediately get to work making more peppers.  With the bell peppers, you can leave the fruits on the plant until they ripen to yellow or red, but if a plant sets a fruit in the main fork of the plant, pick it or move it out of the way or it will split the plant in half as it grows.

If you’re growing cucumbers or beans, avoid handling them when there is water on the leaves as fungal diseases are easily spread this way.  wait until the dew has dried up in mid-morning and then pick your cukes or beans.

Hopefully by the next time I blog, we’ll be counting the days until that first tomato ripens!  Until then…enjoy yourselves out there!