September 1st, 2010 · 2 Comments
It’s time for our Thursday blog hop, wherein we celebrate living simply, sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
I’ll be conducting this week from the beach! Tomorrow is the day we were supposed to get our truck of produce in from Eastern Washington carrying the tomatoes for canning – only the weather has been so crummy this year they don’t even have ripe tomatoes in Eastern Washington! That coupled with me checking on the weather forecast and realizing it is supposed to be 76 today in Seaside, OR versus maybe 68 in Seattle before the weather plummets yet again led me to grab the boys, jump in the car and drive down on a whim. So here were are not one block away from the Aquarium, right off the prom poised for the last romp of summer. And now back to the blog hop…
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Tags: Simple Lives Thursday
September 1st, 2010 · 5 Comments
Jared here. After Annette took the shot of tonight’s dinner she suggested that I write a guest post on how I created the Loki canned salmon patties.
The setup for tonight’s dinner is classic: I’m late coming home from work and Annette’s doing chores. Really she was making bubbles by pouring vinegar over baking soda on the bathroom tiles under the guise of cleaning. Of course I didn’t ask what’s for dinner – I asked how can I help. She said “salmon melts.” No prob.
But instead of a little mayo-mixed salmon with cheese under the broiler, I stepped it up to salmon patties. Since it’s later than I’ll admit I created the guy’s-fast-patty recipe. I actually appreciate the short-cuts I’m allowed to make when it’s just me whipping up dinner fast. Now when I agreed to post my recipe, I also told Annette to follow this with all the cool things I should’ve done, taking advantage of the EGP.*
Guy’s Fast Fish Patties:
- - 2 cans Loki canned salmon, 7.5 oz
- - few sprigs of parsley (some unknown variety next to the strawberries)
- - shallots (since the chives already headed south for the winter)
- - one egg
- - olive oil
Heat up the skillet with oil. Chop the parsley and shallots, mix the first four ingredients with reckless abandon. A good patty needs the right amount of moisture so it sticks together. Since we don’t have bread crumbs in a can (oh the memories) and I have no interest in making some, I skip this step. Also, the Loki cans have pull tops, so there’s no fast way to drain the water out. The man trick is to squeeze the liquid from the ball of mixture before you make each fancy patty. I’m sure I lose something great here, but this is my dinner. Make four patties, squeeze excessively for brawn over brains, cook covered in skillet, about 4 minutes each side.
Once they’re cooking, run and ask the boss how she wants her patty served. When she heard “patty” instead of melt, she said, “oh great, place them over some lemon sorrel (yes, I looked up the spelling). “Umm, where in the garden is the sorrel…?” Fortunately she let me off the hook, paused her chore, and returned with the greens. Note this idea was brilliant because I forgot to add lemon juice in the recipe. Oh wait, we don’t have lemons in the EGP! If you have the means to grow lemon sorrel, I highly recommend it. You may never use lemon juice on seafood again.
Actually finding the sorrel in the garden, that’s another matter. Enjoy.
*EGP: Experience Garden Project
Variations:
Instead of or in addition to parsley you could use tarragon, dill, sorrel (in the patty), lemon balm or lemon verbena, lemon or English thyme or savory.
Tags: Salmon
Dear Tomato Army,
I’m hoping this makes you all feel better about your gardens this year. The tomatoes are not even ripe in Eastern Washington yet! The produce buy is still on but it won’t be happening next weekend as planned.
I’ll be in contact with the farmers and post a date when they seem to be ripening in quantities large enough to fill the truck! Please keep checking back here for updates and enjoy the last week of summer before school starts.
Yours in sauce,
Annette
Tags: Growing Groceries - Plants, Seeds and Growing Tips
It’s time for our Thursday blog hop, wherein we celebrate living simply, sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Tags: Simple Lives Thursday
Left my cheese aging after only 10 days, Right Mt. Townsend Seastack
When Annette and I started talking about cheesemaking, it didn’t take much time for us to share the woe that many, if not all, cheesemakers experience: cheese failures. For those who have made cheese before, you probably know what I mean.
That gouda that smelled like fresh creamy goodness out of the mold, but has since developed enough hairy mold colonies that it was actually used as a prop in a chia pet commercial, and you’re afraid to come near it because you think it might bite off your kneecap.
Or that fresh chevre or crottin that dried up in the fridge to resemble a pre-historic hockey puck that survived Mt Vesuvius. It’s serious business and serious disappointment when that happens, even if the chickens are happy about it.
From there we wondered if it was possible for those disappointments to not happen—to develop a make process that resulted in an aged cheese style suitable for anyone using any type of milk that required little expertise, little ongoing effort, and produced wonderful results. Annette wanted something easy that didn’t keep her up until 3 in the morning. We established the following criteria for the cheese characteristics:
• Must be an aged cheese that keeps for at least 3 months without requiring much intervention or care
• Preferably a cheese that’s ready to eat in 45-60 days
• Make process does not tie up the kitchen for more than 2-3 hours with molds, pots, weights, and other associated cheese paraphernalia
• Must be organic and not use synthetic or chemical preservatives
• Preferably a great snacking cheese without being high in fat
• Must have a rind that requires little maintenance
• Must be as universally applicable as possible (translation: kids would eat it)
• Must be possible to make using old-world technology and techniques
• Must be easy for normal people without extensive experience or tools to make in the kitchen
This was a tall order, and I’m not a novice cheesemaker. I’ve reverse engineered many cheeses, have helped dairies fine tune their processes and business operations, have spent more money over the years than I care to admit on textbooks, supplies, and failures, and manage to fit in teaching cheese classes, but I was stumped at first. Whenever I thought of a family of cheeses that might fit, it wouldn’t fit all criteria. A very basic cheese that’s acid-coagulated or acid-coagulated with a little rennet, like boulette d’avesnes, chevre, or labneh doesn’t fit because rind maintenance was not a set-it-and-forget-it affair.
One of the simplest of aged cheeses, a tomme, doesn’t fit because it either takes too long, or requires too much rind maintenance, or an herb/spice rub on the rind that not everyone likes, or similar challenges. A classic brie or camembert doesn’t fit because it takes too long to wait for the acid to develop, and the curd must be ladled at the right time, which ties up the kitchen, and unless done well can develop issues like slip skin, or too rapid paste development. Some French goat cheeses, like crottin, picodon, pelardon, rocamandour, etc seemed like a decent fit, but which one?
As I thought about the possibilities some trends emerged that eliminated most cheese families, such as rind issues, time to maturity, make time, etc. Hard cheeses were out because they require rind maintenance or treatment, and that is too much work. Most soft cheeses were also out because although the rind maintenance can be easy, most did not fit all criteria. Specialty cheeses, like suluguni preserved in brine, or bocconcini in a pickle didn’t exactly fit because pasta filata cheeses are notorious for not stretching correctly, or take too long to make. In short, we had to overcome the following challenges:
• Natural mold control on the cheese rind without resorting to natamycin, PVA cheese paint, vacuum sealing, or waxing
• Flexible make process that accommodates variable times in the steps of the process
• Aged taste in a short period of time
• Some shelf stability for a ~90 day shelf life
There were many ways to overcome the challenges. The table below covers some common approaches for commercial producers and artisan producers.
| Challenge |
Commercial Plant Approach* |
Artisan Approach* |
| Natural mold control |
• Stainless and plastic that’s thoroughly cleaned to minimize contamination
• Plastic, wax, or natamycin/sorbate
• Basically, prevent mold, and then kill it if it occurs, or maintain it through labor-intensive work such as brushing and washing |
• Leave in brine (like for feta)
• Inoculate cheese with penicillin mold like p candidum or p roqueforti that kills other molds. |
| Flexible make process |
• Standardize milk to create flexibility up front
• Pasteurize milk and inoculate with specific amount and culture with defined acidification curve |
• Use lactic coagulation or semi-lactic whose time to set varies with starter amount and temperature. |
| Aged taste |
• Use flavor distillates
• Use flavor adjuncts
• Specific mold and culture blend targeted to mature in defined timeframe |
• Use molds and bacteria that produce enzymes leading to flavor development |
| Shelf stability |
• Use preservatives
• Reformulate recipes to use stabilized mix (meso+thermo cultures)
• Age and store cold |
• Age at a cooler temperature to prolong natural cycle of maturation, and store cold. |
*Not all plants are the same, and some artisan practices are common in commercial practice, and vice versa.
Of course, I knew Annette wanted to be as organic, old world, and natural as possible, making artisan approaches the obvious choice. So taking from the list of possibilities, the following cheese type emerged: one that had a lactic or semi-lactic set, like chevre, one that uses either a bloomy white rind or blue marbling, like blues or French goat cheeses, and one that was aged on the cooler side for slower flavor development. From there, I crafted a make process that would try to address all the goals we originally set, to create the following bloomy rind, chevre-based aged cheese I call “Annette”.
Left curd set wheeping whey, right molds over a mesh dehydrator screen used as plastic drain mesh placed over a jelly roll pan
Annette – The Cheese
This recipe makes approximately 2, 8-ounce wheels that are 4” in diameter and 1.25-1.5” high. It features the following deliberate make choices:
• DVI culture for repeatable results
• Ash coating to help with rind moisture control and prevent slip-skin
• Direct molding with no predraining for ease of cleanup and smoother more delicate paste
• Direct inoculation of mold culture into milk
• Mold combination is Geo candidum and P Candidum for a more traditional taste and additional mushroomy notes. This is not traditionally French because lactic styles often use just Geo, or will use a P. Candidum along with Kluyveromyces yeasts, or Micrococci like S. xylosus or even strains of B linens. Those are all valid options to produce a different type of cheese or to add nuances and layers to Annette.
• Whole milk that is approximately 3.4-3.6% fat. The proper PF ratio is about .9
Ingredients
- 1 gallon whole milk
- 1/8 tsp Flora Danica DVI. Commercial rate is 1 DCU per 50 lbs of milk.
- 1 drop (.05 ml) single strength liquid rennet, or 1 drop double strength rennet
- 1/32 tsp P. candidum DVI, such as VS. Commercial rate is 1 unit per 450 lbs milk.
- 1/160 tsp Geo candidum DVI, the mild form of Geo, like Geo 13/15. This is a miniscule pinch, 1/5 the amount of p. candidum. Use very sparingly, it is just for additional flavor nuances. If using liquid Geo, it’s less than a drop per gallon of milk.
- 1/160 tsp (optional) Kl71. If you want to bring out some earthy and hay notes, add Kluyveromyces. Same rate as Geo.
- 1/160 tsp (optional) B linens with milky oligopeptide sensory characteristics, like Chr Hansen’s BC
- 2 tsp Salt, noniodized
- 1-2 TBsp Ash.
Equipment and Supplies
- Pot big enough to contain milk: ~5-6 quarts
- Thermometer, 0-212 F.
- LadleAging chamber (plastic container)
- Small spoons to measure out culture, or gram scale that goes to thousands place.
- Plastic drain mesh, base for the mesh that lets liquid through, and catch basin, like a baking pan, for the liquid.
- White mold paper or crumpled aluminum foil pieces (10×10”) with pin holes poked in them
Process
| Step |
Step time |
Time from Step 1 |
pH Target |
- Gather all your ingredients and equipment in one place.
|
0:05 |
0:00 |
N/A |
- Sanitize all the tools by filling the pot with a few inches of water, and putting everything that fits in it, closing the lid and letting it steam for 30 seconds. You can also dip everything in a solution of 1 gal water with 1 tablespoon of chlorine in it. If using chlorine, rinse with water after. Or sanitize using whichever method you commonly use (iodine, no-rinse acid sanitizer, etc)
|
0:05 |
0:05 |
N/A |
- Pour the milk in the pot and heat on the stove to 85⁰ F. Turn off stove. The high temp is to favor acid development and avoid too much diacetyl. For more diacetyl (buttery flavor), use 75F.
|
0:30 |
0:35 |
6.5-6.6 |
- Add the FD mesophilic culture, as well as the P. candidum and the Geo candidum to the milk. Stir.
|
0:01 |
0:36 |
6.5-6.6 |
- Take 1/4 cup distilled water and one drop of rennet to it. Stir to mix it in. If using double strength rennet, take one half of the liquid and add to the milk. If using single strength, add it all to the milk. Stir the milk up and down 10-15 strokes to mix in the rennet and DVI cultures.
|
0:05 |
0:41 |
6.5-6.6 |
- Wait 6-12 hours, which is when the milk should coagulate. When it has coagulated, take a ladle and ladle the curd into the molds. The curd pieces should be about 2-3” long by 1” high. Meaning don’t scoop curd chunks that are huge. Thinner, longer curds work better because you want them to drain. The size of the curds influences the final moisture content. If there’s too much moisture, the cheese may be very gooey and liquefy. 1 gallon of curds should fill 2 molds. After you scoop everything in, the whey will start to drain. Do not wait longer than 14 hours to scoop curds from the time you added culture, or the cheese will not be as creamy.
|
9:00 |
9:41 |
4.7-4.8 |
- Let the whey drain for 30-60 minutes and flip the molds to invert them. You’ll see a nice pattern on the bottom from the draining mesh.
|
1:00 |
10:41 |
4.7-4.8 |
- Let the whey drain again for 60 minutes and flip again.
|
1:00 |
11:41 |
4.7-4.8 |
- Flip 4-6 more times over the next 10 hours for a total of 6-8 flips over 12 hours. Check the cheese to see if it has drained. It should be somewhat firm, like chevre (which is basically what you just made).
|
10:00 |
24:00 |
4.5-4.7 |
- After it has drained, take the wheels out of the molds. They’re still fragile at this point, so be careful. Salt with 1 tsp of salt per wheel, evenly on all sides. Some more moisture will come through from the cheese because of the salt. Leave on a mat for several hours where there’s circulation all around the wheels at about 65F, room temperature.
|
2:00 |
26:00 |
N/A |
- It is important that the cheese surface dry up as quickly as possible because the white molds are active at this point and if the surface is moist when the spores grow, there is a great chance of slip skin. So let the salt work in for a few hours, and then come back. The surface should be mostly dry. If it is not, use a fan and dry it off. If you do not get the acidity right (pH ~4.8) when ladling curds and wait too long, the cheese will not drain quickly and will weep whey. Start ladling shortly after coagulation to ensure a strong curd.
|
2:00 |
28:00 |
N/A |
- In addition to fan drying, the other precaution this recipe uses against slip skin is ash. This is optional, but helps to avoid issues when making this cheese at home. If you want, coat the cheeses evenly on all sides with ash. It’s messy; use an old salt shaker or similar device to shake it on. Apply ash after the surface has dried.
|
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
- After making sure that the surface is dry, put the cheeses in the curing chamber on a mat so there’s circulation all around and put into a 50F fridge or your basement or other cool spot. If the surface is still not dry to the touch, take a small fan and let it blow on the top of the cheese, invert cheese, and on the bottom. If a thin rind that’s a different color has formed, you’ve dried too much. If it starts cracking, you’ve dried too much. It doesn’t take long to dry out the surface.
|
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
- Keep in the fridge for 10-14 days, flipping daily. Once there’s a bloom of mold all around the cheese and it seems like the rind is stable (takes 7-14 days), wrap in mold paper or roughly crumpled aluminum foil that has many pinholes in it, and place in the fridge at the warmest part where the temperature is 40F-45F. You can also continue to age at 50F, but the cheese will mature faster that way and you need to eat it sooner.
|
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
- Wait for 4-8 weeks, unwrap, and enjoy. The cheese will start to become gooey from the outside in and the mold enzymes do their work. You can eat as young as two weeks, where you’ll get a little gooey cheese around the rind, but it’s best when fully ripe.
|
N/A |
N/A |
~6.5 |
Notes
• Slip skin. Most likely, surface not dry enough, or humidity too high in curing chamber too early. Humidity should be about 90% to start, and then increase after day 4-5 to ensure a thick bloom of P Candidum. Check on it once a day to air it out, or take out to let it breathe.
Tags: Cheesemaking · Local Dairy - Where To Get It And What To Do With It
My family eats a lot of pressed cheeses – cheddar being their favorite, a washed rind tomme is mine. And while we can get Beecher’s cheddar (local but still somewhat dairy pool, not organic but they don’t use growth hormones, etc) I’ve tried several times to make tomme, monterey jack and cheddar.
In order to age cheese at a precise temperature you need a cheese cave and I’ve hijacked our mini wine fridge, bumping the temperature up or down as needed. At one point it was accidentally unplugged and the cheeses inside molded – now the wine bottles are also covered with mold.
Despite that, my first attempt at tomme came out fine but each successive batch has gotten more and more molded and I’ve ended up having to throw them out or split them open to feed to the chickens (minus the glass of pinot noir.)
It can take several gallons of milk to make just over a pound of pressed cheese depending on butterfat percentage, which can make it infinitely more expensive to make at home than to buy anything but the priciest artisan cheese (unless you have goats or cows.) I’ve been compromising by making soft cheese that doesn’t require aging. But while un-aged cheese is simple, inexpensive and nearly foolproof, it just lacks that character and ethereal eating experience that I crave.
I was bemoaning my cheese woes one day to a friend. Pav recently turned his closet cheese geek into The Washington Cheese Guild, a sorely needed online resource for fledgling home cheesemakers. Pav has used cheese as a means to embrace local dairy, cool science and amazing flavor.
To solve my dilemma, he set about creating a cheese that is simple to make but has a lot of flavor in a short amount of time. Pav’s post to follow…
In the meantime if you are looking for local cheese resources you can find some supplies both at Cellar Homebrew in Greenwood and Bob’s Homebrew Supply in the University District. If you are just starting out, I recommend making chevre or fromage blanc (chevre’s cow milk cousin), or feta. It’s definitely worth doing!
Tags: Cheesemaking · Local Dairy - Where To Get It And What To Do With It
I wanted to let you Seattle-ites know that we are getting closer to the summer produce buy! I’m working with Skeeter (the farmer) on timing the harvest and coordinating delivery of some much needed tomatoes and other summer and winter fruits to this side of the mountain.
Why buy from Eastern Washington? Because we can get bulk pricing while helping out small farmers from the Methow Valley.
And although the date is not yet finalized, I’m shooting for delivery on Friday, September 3rd.
Here is my plan:
Produce will arrive in 2 or 3 shipments ranging from beginning of September to October. There will be 2 rounds of tomatoes and other summer crops and 1 final round of storing produce (potatoes, winter squashes, onions, apples.)
Storing produce lasts many moons in cardboard boxes in your garage in this climate. Carrots will last a month or two in a bag in your fridge, longer if buried in your sand box. Beets will last a month in a closed plastic bag with some humidity in your fridge. Both can be lacto-fermented and will last 6 months or more in a cool pantry (or you can pickle and water bath can or use a pressure canner without vinegar.)
Perhaps we can have a session just on lacto-fermenting if there is enough interest.
I’m still working out the final details but wanted to give you an idea of what there will be so you can plan accordingly:
Tomatoes, $1 to $2 a pound.
$2# for the #1 heirloom varieties (almost all large sized)
$1.50# for non heirlooms.
$1# for canner tomatoes that have some cosmetic defects.
Green peppers, $2#
Hot peppers, Jalapeno and other varieties $2.50#
Sweet corn. $5/dozen if big $4 if small
Eggplants. Several different varieties, $1.50#
Apples, $1 to $2 a pound depending on variety. Goldens, Gala, Cameo (best keeper), honeycrisp,
Winter keeper veggies
Potatoes, Yellow Finn, Butterburr, Red-gold, Ozette, Price depends on variety. 75 cents to $1# for most
Carrots, $1.50#
Beets, $1#
Parsnips. $1.50#
Leeks $1.50#
Onions $1#
Shallots, $5#
Burdock, $3#
Jerusalem artichokes. 75 cents#
Winter squash, 75 cents to $1.50# depending on variety
Melons, a diversity of tasty gourmet melons later at $1#
My plan is to have produce delivered to a central, Greenlake kitchen on Friday and have one daytime canning session and one evening canning session. I will then deputize team leaders and they can take charge on Saturday at other kitchens across the area.
The goal is to transfer as much knowledge and share as many tasks as possible so that we, none of us, are going it alone. We are a village, united by tomatoes.
Right now there is no need for you to do anything. Once I have the final pricing (still subject to change based on variety, etc but hopefully not much) I will load it all into a database where you can enter your own orders.
Saucily yours,
Annette
Tags: Tomatoes · Wholesale Local Food Buys
I need your help. I hear frequently from people who get what I do that it’s overwhelming. And those are the people who want to do this and understand the difference it makes. But trying to communicate this to people who are just beginning to consider sustainability is not going so well.
You see, I was just over at Planet : Home with a table set up in between a small table of “green” products and a table demonstrating canning. Because of the kiddos I wasn’t able to be at the table the whole time but I had a board up with my list of the top 5 things I think you can do to make BIG changes.
Top 5 Things You can Do to Make Your Kitchen More Sustainable
1. Eat only seasonally – no need to preserve.
2. Grow your own or buy only local, organic, sustainably produced vegetables, fruits, eggs, dairy, meats and grains.
3. Learn to properly store things to eliminate waste
cellar long storing things like potatoes, onions, garlic, winter squashes, apples
ferment short storing things like cucumbers, carrots, beets, cabbage
dry fuits
freeze or can things you would otherwise be tempted to buy during the off season (peas, tomatoes, berries)
4. Ditch the grocery store – Grind your own and learn to make from scratch
5. Compost
These things would make what was on the tables flanking me obsolete.
I watched as people came and looked at the items on the table, picking up the Mrs. Meyers (which I consider more greenwashing than green and could be easily replaced by baking soda, vinegar and Dr. Bronner’s), the compostable toilet bags (which you don’t need if you don’t have wet waste) and then gravitate over to the canning table (which you don’t need if you eat seasonally all the time.)
On my table I had books about fermenting, cheesemaking, gardening and baking. I had a grain grinder for folks to try it out and see that it was indeed the same size as a burr coffee grinder and smaller than an espresso machine. I had a jar of spelt.
They would read the board for a moment, shake their heads when I asked if they wanted to know about anything in specific, and then move on.
I’m trying to think of ways to let people know they can start with small steps. You don’t need to rip out your entire lawn. You can buy that produce from a farmer’s market or at PCC when they have it (and you can encourage them to carry it more frequently).
You don’t need to learn to can or dry or freeze or ferment or cellar if you simply eat in season.
And if you stop buying processed foods you won’t have any waste that is not compostable or recyclable.
I’m still trying to come up with a good way to present this information to people in a way that makes it simple for them to understand. I think part of the problem is this is a HUGE paradigm shift. Moving away from a largely grain based and nutritionally-bereft diet towards a more seasonal, nutrient dense diet is a huge shift for folks.
But it is THE thing you can do to become more sustainable. Healthier. Leaner and Greener.
If you have ideas on how best to present this apparently ground breaking information – Help! I’m all ears. Just not ears of corn.
Tags: Sustainable Kitchen
August 19th, 2010 · 1 Comment
It’s time for our Thursday blog hop, wherein we celebrate living simply, sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Tags: Simple Lives Thursday
I asked my friend Joshua, master composter, writer, stained glass artist, father, gardener extraordinaire, architect and builder of beautiful garden structures just how he gets his tomatoes to resemble HERKIN’ TREES.
You see, earlier in the season when we both had starts of similar size and his were actually even yellower than mine, we discussed having a tomato off. He said he was only planting 6 bushes, I was planting 9. I had a smaller space than he did. I bet him I would get more fruit off mine. The jury is still out on the quantity of fruit although we are comparing notes this summer but I have to admit to you that his tomatoes look like HERKIN’ TREES compared to mine. He has a jungle o’ tomato vines and I, I have 9 tomato bushes.
Sure, we’ve been eating from the 4th of July bush for nearly 6 weeks now and Joshua is just now getting his first ripe tomatoes but he just may surpass me by next month in tomato output. So I asked him to tell me just how he had grown his tomato forest and here, in his own words, is his answer.
How to Grow Tomatoes That Look Like HERKIN’ TREES!
In most matters related to the garden, I still consider myself a novice; but when it comes to tomatoes, I am the master. This method might not work everywhere. But in the Pacific Northwest, it results in massive plants that churn out buckets of tomatoes from late August through mid October.
Here’s how to grow tomatoes that, in Annette’s words, look like Herkin’ trees!
First, pick up starts at Seattle Tilth’s spring edible plant sale in late April or early May. This is too early to plant tomatoes unprotected. But late enough that they’ll thrive inside a WALL O WATER.
The wall-of-water is manufactured by several companies under different names – I buy mine at Fred Meyer the summer before for around 3 or 4 dollars each (there must be a cheaper place to get this).
Tilth also has an EARLY spring plant sale for cool season crops, so don’t show up at that one accidentally.
The key to my success is this: the wall-of-water allows me to get an extra month of luxuriant growth out of my tomatoes. Unprotected, the plants would be stunted by the cold nights. Unlike a simple greenhouse, the wall-of-water contains thermal mass. The water inside absorbs heat from the sun during the day and radiates it back to the tomatoes at night.
After amending my garden soil with compost and organic fertilizer, I plant my starts as deep as I can, breaking off all but the top 4 to 6 leaves. The remaining leaves will be an inch or two above the soil. The rest of the plant will become a giant root.
Then I place three short bamboo stakes in a sort of tee pee, to protect the plants from any collapsing walls-of-water.
I wrap the wall-of-water around a 5 gallon bucket and fill it about half way. Then I carefully feed it over the bamboo stakes, watching out for sharp points that will pierce the wall-of-water.
During May and June, I make sure the tomatoes get water about once a week. The rain usually takes care of this.
Around the fourth of July, when nights are consistently well above 50 degrees, the tomatoes will be sprawling out of the top of the wall-of-water. With the help of a friend, it’s time to carefully lift the wall-of-water off the tomatoes. You’ll notice the tomatoes have put out aerial roots, since the environment inside is so warm and moist.
The tomatoes, now unprotected, collapse into a tangled heap on the ground. I select between 5 and 9 major branches and tie these up, as high as they can be stretched, to 8 foot bamboo poles, arranged in a circle around the each tomato. After successfully staking my major branches, I prune most of the remaining branches away. For six plants, this process takes a few hours. At this point, the plants should be around 5 feet tall.
This is the last time I step on the soil around the tomatoes. Soil compaction hampers root growth. I make an exception for my kids, who at 2 and 5 years old are lighter than I.
In July, I water my plants deeply once a week. You must be careful not to pamper them, or they won’t grow deep roots. By using tough-love on your tomatoes, they’ll be ready for the drought when you stop watering them in early to mid august. That’s right, not a drop. A stressed tomato is a ripe tomato. In my yard, the mulched paths ensure the ground around the tomato beds will retain some moisture. But the tomatoes must find this moisture themselves – I won’t give it to them. I might act differently if the soil were compacted or low in compost.
By mid August, the tomato plants will be Herkin’ Trees,loaded with green tomatoes. Now it’s time to hope for dry weather. A rainy week can delay ripening by half a month. You might consider protecting the soil with plastic to prevent water infiltration.
There are some drawbacks to this method. Although fruit set is amazing, other gardeners succeed in getting ripe tomatoes earlier, though not so abundantly as I. You might consider planting another tomato elsewhere in your yard, perhaps a cherry tomato, and following a different method to get cherry tomatoes for your late July salads.
Another drawback is that the high stress can cause blossom end rot on the most tender Roma tomatoes – the disease is a symptom of inconsistent watering. I’ve learned to favor Romas less susceptible to that disease, such as the Polish Linguisa.
Were my tomatoes smaller, I’d probably put clear plastic over them in October to extend their season further in the other direction. But they’re just too huge. Instead, I do a little early October pruning to increase air circulation and avoid tomato blight. Around mid October, the cold is just too much for them, and I take them out. By this time, it’s too late to get good coverage from a cover crop, so I pile the empty bed with fall leaves. In the spring, I’ll dig in the rotting leaves and use this bed for peas, rotating the tomatoes to another bed.
Most tomatoes respond well to this regimen. I always plant a sungold for the kids, a brandywine for myself, a hardy Roma for saucing, and a couple other breeds I’m experimenting with. I love old breeds, like Cherokees. Besides Brandywine, my favorite is Purple Calabash, though with this lobed tomato you have to pick ripe ones quickly or their deep folds trap moisture and rot. This year I also planted a stupice, though I’ve been underwhelmed by that breed in the past.
In late August, we’re usually giving away, canning and consuming tomatoes at every meal. I slice them half-an-inch thick and eat them on sandwiches. We make pasta sauce from scratch. We cut them up, toss them with mozzerella or feta, salt, basil and olive oil. In the end, we’re left with tons of green tomatoes which we might try pickling this year (I’ve never successfully ripened green tomatoes over the winter).
Tags: Tomatoes
