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Tomatoes – The Season Notes

August 9, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Tomato Growing 9 Comments

This has been my best tomato season in the eight years I have lived in Houston. My eight years in Midland Texas were a complete bust with gardening save for the peach tree I planted in the spring of 2002, the spring after my father passed away. So, for tomato comparison I would have to go back to 1996, Bakersfield, California for a season that compares. In Bakersfield I could not grow anything poorly. My neighborhood had spent the prior 100 years as some of the best farmland in the San Joaquin Valley prior to being converted to a neighborhood of homes, schools and shops. Put a green stick in the ground, add water and it would have grown.

What made this season so good for my tomatoes? A number of things….an early start – mid-February my tomato plant were planted deep and the weather cooperated. The soil has benefitted from several years of composting – the clay is a lot less sticky and worm friendly now. I added worm castings and rock phosphate into each planting hole this year… I selected a few different varieties this year as well as some known producers for the Houston conditions. I put my yellow and black hoop striped shirt on and buzzed lots of blossoms with my electric toothbrush…..I repeat my toothbrush not my lovely wife”s. I tried to water evenly but did experience some cracking – taste was not impacted. As a design of experiment criteria I added too many variables to know what worked…I think they all worked together…. I will read, learn, listen to others and add some new variables next season….

The varieties this year, several Celebrity plants – produced heavily and well into the heat – as designed. The Oxheart – wonderful heirloom variety, oblong and pink in color with great flavor. Mortgage Lifter, big. lobed and very meaty heirloom variety – over a pound in weight and great on sandwiches. Early Girl, an F1 hybrid….prolific and very pretty dark red tomatoes. I was surprised that it held up as long as it did in the heat. For those in cooler climes – try this –

Dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes are popular in farmers markets in the San
Francisco Bay Area. The variety is also popular with home gardeners in
that region, where it thrives despite the area’s cool and often overcast
summers – the technique: not watering tomatoes after transplanting, forcing the
roots to grow deeper to seek out moisture, producing more “concentrated
flavor,” and saving water.

The Beef Master Plant was a surprise…it started off slow….nearly wound up going through the chipper/shredder!  Produced lots of very large meaty tomatoes, lobed style F1 hybrid plant. Lastly – my volunteer cherry tomato – awesome producer, sweet tasting and one that I would like to grow again…..I have attempted top save some seeds thanks to advice from “Jimmy Cracked Corn” and his blog…chck him out – he is a quick fun read!

I added a Juliet variety yesterday – I love this tomato but did not find any for the spring so July 8th I added it for a fall harvest – very prolific producer in this hot and humid climate.

I am including a handful of old tomato photos from mt archives. No captions so you don’t have to try and read anytthing before the picture scrolls.

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TTFN

Bishop

Worm Castings Harvested & More Yard Chores

August 7, 2012

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Optimism, Philosophical, Rubbermaid , , 5 Comments

If you have read my past posts you know that I measure summer yard work by how many T-shirts I soak through! Yesterday was a 4 T-shirt day and the work is still not complete. It will be at least a two T-shirt day today….need to finish that last chore so Ben and I can take the kayaks down to Galveston and harvest a few Redfish, Speckled Trout or Flounder!!!

The worms had being toiling away in my Rubbermaid bin eating up the kitchen scraps and providing lots of good food for the garden. As I was harvesting I noticed something that the worms wouldn’t eat…..the skins off of my tomatoes. Six or eight weeks ago I made salsa, tomato sauce and gazpacho. I peeled the skin off of the tomatoes after dipping them in boiling water for 30 seconds or so and then dipping them in cold water. The skins just slide off. That old phrase, “waste not want not” is always part of my “green” credo so the skins, cores and bad spots cut out of the tomatoes went into the bin…..Everything was eaten save the skins. I learned something. I went with the fast harvest practice and a pretty good number passed through the 1/4 inch screen but they will do fine in the garden. Compost worms work near the surface and they should be happy living in the compost I recently spread. The process is outlined in the pictures below.

Soaking strips of newspaper to be added as bedding as I transfer those that toil in the dark into their new home.

The new home waiting for the transfer. Newspaper strips are wrung out so they are not too wet!

That great garden supplement – worm castings….screen box in the background

I pulled weeds, cut back the canes on the rest of the blackberries, cut some flowers for Kathy…..yes I do grow a few flowers. My son Joe had cut John’s lawn and brought back a couple of sacks of grass clippings for my compost pile that I dumped on top of the watermelon rinds and remnants of the fresh pineapple we cored the night before. I sweated some more….made up some organic fertilizer to help the veggies along and then we, Ben, Sierra and I jumped into the next project.

Station 5 on my sprinkler system has needed repair for a long time….I had some young blood to help with the digging so in we dove. First we had to find the valve boxes. I knew approximate locations so it was soon done. Then to decide which valve wa number 5…… Now that was done. We uncovered it and found that it was an inexpensive valve, the diaphragm was horribly mangled so off to Alspaugh’s Ace Hardware I went…. no luck on parts so off to the internet…. part located but with shipping I can replace the valve with a new one….with parts that are readily available.

I order to replace the valve we need to enlarge the hole in order to cut the pipe……no screwed fittings – all glued! Problem two. As the hole was enlarge the signal wires got in the way of the axe…..oh yes an axe – lots of roots and the shovel…… now we have to do some splicing…..got that done.

I installed the sprinkler system in our yard back in Bakersfield California. I worked in the oil patch and was a fan of having the valves arranged in a manifold, with union couplings so if one needed to be removed for replacement I didn’t have to cut pipe. The other benefit is that all if the wiring was run to one spot, location known and protected…. I ran it in a pvc sleeve. The drawback is more PVC to run but that is dirt cheap. My current yard – no map for the valve locations…they are scattered and the wires run willy-nilly!!!!

Ok – glue one side in and move the piping just a little and the pvc behind the valve breaks off – I am on shirt # 4 and I am not changing again. We probe a little and discover that where the next cuts will need to be made there is another PVC line snuggled up against it……Let’s drink a good pale ale Ben and plan to finish in the morning…..Good choice a thunderstorm rolls in, fills the hole with water knocks the power ou as my wife was doing ravioli on the electric stove…….No problem, I am an ex-camper. I brought out my single burner stove and finished the meal off outside…..Hope the power comes back on soon as I am beginning to soak another T-shirt  – need my AC!

This hole keeps getting bigger and more complicated! Ben, Sierra and me…the old sweaty guy.

Ben and his rescue dog, Sierra checking on the progess.

Today will be a better day!

TTFN

Bishop

 

 

 

Hands in the Garden – And Fishing

August 5, 2012

Bishop Composting, Family, Gardening, Philosophical, Relationships, Vermicoposting , , , , 3 Comments

My son Ben walked into the house with his fishing pole. “Going fishing?” I asked. “Yep!”, was his concise answer with no fluff! A man of fewest words!

Then the surprise, a multiple word sentence….”Wanna go with me”, he asks? There was no hesitation on my part so off to the garden we go to dig up some worms. The first shovel full was loaded with big fat wrigglers…..the soil is healthy because of the work these guys do behind the scenes as they churn the compost I add to  the beds…. they add their castings, aerate to soil and create drainage….sorry guys, I need some volunteers to give the up the life of toiling in the garden. I needed some volunteers to go out in a blaze of glory, sacrificing for that trophy catfish waiting in the pond!

On a side note – I probably have three, four or more types of earthworms helping me in the garden. I have added the big store-bought night crawlers left over from past fishing trip. They a larger and seem to thrive in my well composted beds. I have an abundance now of the red wriggler type that stay near the surface and do not burrow. These are also working away in my compost bins – that reminds me….I need to add harvesting the castings to list of chores for the week.

The worms sacrificed themselves but I was a little disappointed in the results – it was as if Ben and I were competing to see who would the smallest fish and the second category was for the fewest fish caught. Not our usual competitive measures of success. I caught the fewest(4) and Ben caught the smallest fish(small perch). All were returned in good health to be caught again. The pond near the house is a great place to take young ones – I love the smile on a child when they catch their first fish…and for that matter their second, third, fourth – and you get the idea….. always a smile.

It was nice to sit with Ben and even though he is a man of few words, with the right questions we can converse. I was pleased a few months ago when he built a small raised bed at his house in Baton Rouge. I smiled when he told me what he had planted – not the best choices for mid summer but he wass working thee soil, watering and seeing his efforts produce some green foliage. A success in my eyes. We did discuss what to plant when he returns to Baton Rouge August 19th….should be his last year of school at LSU!!!! He doesn’t eat much green stuff  so growing food that he would consume is a challenge. Maybe one of his roommates will be able to enjoy the harvest.

Both off my sons have built raised beds this summer, Joe for his girlfriend and Ben for himself – converts in the making. I have also done somethingelse  right! They fish and fish and find time to fish again. Earlier this summer Ben was home for a week or so for the summer session at LSU he and my youngest joe went off to the lake in our canoe for some bonding and fishing. It looks like success on both fronts. Click on an imaage to display the slideshow.

TTFN

Bishop

It Grows Underground

August 4, 2012

Bishop Gardening, Travel , , 5 Comments

A look at the landscape near Carlsbad Caverns

Looks bleak at the surface but if you look closely the it is just amazing how pretty it can be.

 

It is amazing – from the desolate macro view to the thorny beauty right at your feet.

The beautiful yet thorny plants on the surface.

A 30 minute walk down into the depths of Carlsbad Cavern and a different growth emerges. Growths from the ceiling – stalactites, from the floor – stalagmites and interesting variations – you’ll see what I mean…

A stalactite or stalagmite…..now I remember…..a stalagtite holds tight from the ceiling! So this is a stalagmite.

Interesting shapes abound deep into this cavern….

A drapery type of deposit

Sometimes natural rock can mimic living forms…. I promise that tis was not photoshopped!!!!

Hmmmmmm – lovely

Toes?

The shapes, textures and sizes overwhelm the eye and the imagination.

Textures and shadows

Massive Pillars of stone.

Wonderful and whimsical combinations!

I am back in Houston for a couple of weeks following weeks of work and weeks of vacation travel…..Lots of sweat in the garden today – August 3rd….. and more to come. I have a couple of posts in the draft mode so there may be a mini flood coming.

TTFN

Bishop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainy Day Musings

July 13, 2012

Bishop Canning, Composting, Cucumber gazpacho, Gardening, Vegetables , , , , 3 Comments

Yes Lord I know we needed the rain…..couldn’t you have at least spread the bounty over many weeks rather than this past 8-10 days….? I did wade out into the garden to gather up some cherry tomatoes for my daughter. My tomatoes are swelling up and splitting! I snack on a few of those immediately as the they go bad fast and the fruit flies just materialize out of thin air to their damage.

I want to get out and ride the bicycle a little this week and have only been able to sneak in one decent ride and a couple of runs to the store on the bike with the shopping bags…. I can get about 4 grocery sacks in the panniers without overdoing it. On one of the grocery runs it began to rain and I had to pull up under an overhang in front of the local grill, “Three B’s”. While waiting out the rain I had a St Arnold’s Double IPA – very nice. FYI – St Arnold’s is a local Houston craft Brewery that is garnering a great reputation. The wait was about a pint in length and then dash off to the house before the next shower.

While it is raining I have been reading through the current issue of the “Urban Farm”. Two articles were of perfect timing. One was concerning the resurgence in home canning. It fit very nicely with my efforts over the  past several weeks. Jams, pickles, salsa, spaghetti sauce and some uncanned but frozen tomato and cucumber gazpachos. The family really enjoyed the salsa last night…..a lot like Pace Picante sauce made right here in Houston. Article was written by Lindsay Evans living in rural North Central Washington.

The second article of interest was about trench composting. Seems like a great way to get nutrients into he soil in an easy and straight forward way. Let mother nature and her earthworm and microbe warriors do the heavy lifting…. I will consider the method as the beds begin to ready themselves for fall and winter plantings. An option for smaller amounts is to use an auger and drill a hole to be filled with kitchen wastes… I have a post hole digger that would accomplish the same thing.  Article was written by Jessica Walliser – Pittsburg, PA composter by trench and bin.

http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/

2.5 + inches of rain this morning – over 6.5 cm for those that know how to measure uniformly and more on the way!

This Morning’s Rain Total

TTFN

Bishop

Canning Some Salsa

July 12, 2012

Bishop Canning, Cucumber gazpacho, Gardening, Tomato Growing , , , 3 Comments

Today I picked a bunch of tomatoes and peppers and decided to make some salsa. I was able to provide most of the ingredients from my garden. Nothing like the freshest of ingredients! I wound up with almost 3 quarts after it all cooked down prior to canning. The aroma coming off of the kettle was very, very nice!

Home Made Salsa

Ingredients

    • 7 lbs tomatoes ( about 20) –  I used celebrity, ox heart & early girl from the garden – Roma tomatoes also work well
    • 6 Anaheim chilies, diced – my Anaheim  chiles
    • 4 Poblano chiles, diced –  I used Ancho chiles from the garden
    • 5 Jalapeno chiles, diced
    • 3 Serrano chilies, diced
    • 2 cups rough chopped yellow       onions – used fresh white and red onions and green from my garden
    • 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
    • 5 cloves garlic, minced – also       from my garden
    • 1/2 cup white vinegar ( 5 %       acidity)
    • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

  1. ** Wear gloves or cut chiles under cold running water, leave the seeds if you want, chile pepper heat comes from a vein in the flesh of the chile not the seeds.
  2. Peel, seed and chop tomatoes.
  3. I leave the tomatoes in large chunks for a chunkier salsa.
  4. You can plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for about 30 seconds then run under cold water to make peeling easier.
  5. Place chopped tomatoes into a colander to drain for 30 minutes – mas o menos.
  6. You will want about 14 cups of chopped tomatoes.
  7. Chop chiles.
  8. Remove seeds.
  9. You want about 4 cups total chopped peppers.
  1. Set aside.
  2. Chop onions, mince garlic and chop cilantro.
  3. Place tomatoes into an 8 quart Dutch oven or a large sauce pan.
  4. Bring to a boil.
  5. Boil 30-45 minutes or until desired consistency.
  6. I boil for 20 minutes, we like chunky.
  7. Add peppers, cilantro, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar.
  8. Return to a boil.
  9. Fill hot sterile jars 1/2 inch from top.
  10. Wipe rim off with clean towel, place lid and screw band on and tighten to finger tight.
  11. Set each jar into water bath canner right after filling.
  12. Bring water bath canner back to boil and bath for 35 minutes.
  13. Remove jars and cool on a wire rack or towels.

The rain has backed off a little – 6 inches in my garden since last Saturday. I can use a bit of a dry stretch. I have some garden clean-up chores planned if I get a few dry days this coming weekend.

The gazpacho – the cucumber gazpacho is much better with the addition of some Tabasco – Very refreshing in the is hot and humid Houston summer weather.

TTFN

Bishop

Busy, Busy, Busy – Catching up in the Garden and the Kitchen

July 9, 2012

Bishop American IPA, Berry Preserves, Canning, Cucumber gazpacho, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Making Jam, Tomato Growing , , , 9 Comments

I went out and picked a little this morning before the sky opened up and poured buckets of rain. I wound up with a bunch of cucumbers, a few ox-heart tomatoes and peppers. I will go out tomorrow and gather many more tomatoes and peppers. Into the kitchen now for a recipe experiment – I had a bowl of cucumber gazpacho in Carlsbad New Mexico this past week. It was very nice and refreshing but just a bit too peppery hot for my tastes. I searched the web and found a few similar recipes that seem to match my tastes.

My Cucumber Gazpacho

  • 7-8 Cucumbers – several varieties, seeded and cut into chunks
  • 2 Ancho peppers – warm enough and a very nice dark green in color – seeded
  • 2 – Anaheim peppers seeded – one that had turned red and the other a reddish-brown – for color and flavor
  • A couple of garlic cloves – skinned and crushed
  • 1 tsp coarse black pepper
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup ice water
  • ½ cup white tequila
  • Tabasco sauce – season to taste – added a lot more after taste testing on day two!
  • Lime oil
  • Chopped fresh mint leaves

Puree the cucumbers with the olive oil, water, lemon juice, tequila, garlic, salt, black pepper and Tabasco. Add the coarse chopped Ancho and Anaheim peppers and pulse to chop coarsely…leaves a little bits of pepper chunks for color and texture. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with a bit chopped fresh mint and a few drops of lime oil.

Next up for the kitchen before my wife returns from California – brew my American IPA Ale with Cascade and Chinook hops, can my strawberry and blackberry preserves and possibly a few more quarts of spaghetti sauce…..the last batch was very good – now where did I put that recipe????

Enjoy the slide show from the garden and –

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TTFN

Bishop

Ahhhhhhhh – Back Home!

July 8, 2012

Bishop Family, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, Philosophical, Tomato Growing , , 7 Comments

I have been on the road for much of the past 6 weeks with brief trips home for laundry and repacking. The travels were not without a bit of fun and a few new learnings, but I am tired off the road. I received a nice goodnight text message from my wife last night – oh, by the way I am home but she is still visiting family in California – The message, ” ‘Night – sleep well in our bed Hun.” and I certainly did. I have been waking up multiple times every night in the hotel beds, tripping off to shed some water….last night – I closed my eyes at 10:30 and opened them at 6:30 – Yee haw!

I did a quick walk through the garden yesterday evening and Lisa did a wonderful job keeping things green. I will be picking tomatoes and cucumbers today. I will take a lesson learned from a restaurant in Carlsbad New Mexico, The Stock Exchange, and make some cucumber gazpacho. I may not add quite as much of the hot peppers but it was both refreshing as well as having a good “bite” in the mouth. I will post an update to my culinary efforts soon.

Today – weeding is high on the list – They seem to enjoy my garden beds and grow like – well weeds – with the water, warmth and sun. Rain has helped keep the water meter from spinning too much. Son Joe will need to crank up the mower and fill up the compost bin today – The grass  is ankle-deep – at least!

I may do something I haven’t tried in twenty plus years….I will try to direct seed a few tomatoes for fall replacements – The Oxheart, Mortgage Lifter and Early girl tomato plants are succumbing tot he Houston heat and humidity. In their place I will plant some Juliette seeds(couldn’t find plants this past spring…they do so well here) Arkansas Traveler and ????? not sure for the third yet until I review my seed inventory. The volunteer cherry tomato is still “kicking butt” – the term is not as violent as it sounds….it means “out producing everything in the garden”!

It is so nice to be home!

A Composting We Will Go!

July 7, 2012

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, mulching, Vegetables 2 Comments

Hi Ho the Dairy Oh, A Composting We Will Go! This is a delayed post….I created this blog posting and set aside as a draft then forgot about it….such is life with CRS. (can’t remember shtuff) – 3 weeks ago maybe. Why can I remember my third grade teacher, Miss Keck with such clarity and can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday?

It is a hot and sweaty job in the Houston heat to turn the pile and harvest to black gold…no, not Texas Tea or commonly known as crude oil! I am talking about the organic ,material piled high in my bins and rotted down through microbial action of probably billions of too small to be seen critters’ munching away and converting the browns and greens into the almost black rich compost that every garden craves. The microscopic critters do get some help from the worms…just under the surface are the red wrigglers that have found their way out of the vermicomposting bin and the big ole earthworms the migrate to the deeper, cooler and more mature regions of the pile.

This recent turning of the pile has produced 2 and a half wheel barrow loads of rich compost. One load has been added to my most recently established raised bed. It is in need of big help. When I built this bed I used quite a bite of supposedly organic materials, existing heavy clay soil, organic compost, composted cow manure and topsoil. Not money well spent. The 4 bags of “Miracle Grow” organic labeled compost were primarily sawdust and very small wood chips. Technically, yes it is organic but it is a far from being a source of plant nutrition – the sawdust and wood products lock up nitrogen until they break down sufficiently…probably in a year or less for our hot humid climate. The composted cow manure was at least 30% sand and probably 10-15% wood chips… some readily available nutrients but not what I wanted. The top soil again was loaded with small wood chips, sand and some “soil”. I realized the error of my ways when most of the seedlings came up looking anemic and with most the growth was stunted. This recent wheel barrow load supplemented two other loads that I had added 3 months ago to this bed … growth is improving so I am feeling better.

The first of several loads heading to the garden.

Getting down to the bottom of the bin. What luscious yummy garden food!

I am pretty well done adding new beds to my backyard farm so from this point forward all additions will be Bishop made compost. I am looking for some well-rotted or composted horse manure and I may have located some.  Craigslist is for more than finding casual encounters, or at least it is here in Houston. The farm and garden section has me drooling….yes, not a pretty sight but when you can get a pick-up load of aged horse manure for little more than $40.00 – gas included, you can get a little excited. That is a little more than 2 cubic yards if not mounded high – about 2 cubic meters for those lucky enough to be on the metric system.

While typing that last paragraph it reminded me to remind Joe, my youngest son, to remember to mow the grass….and most importantly dump the grass into the left bin of my two bin compost pile. Although it should be obvious I decided to be a Dad and give explicit instructions…..leave nothing to chance with a teenager! Dear iPhone, please send my text message ASAP! The right bin has about a wheelbarrow and a half of luscious compost waiting to start feeding the hungry plants….I don’t want it buried under a couple of weeks of grass cuttings. The only cost of moving the grass cuttings over to the left side is copious amounts of Houston inspired sweat required for the task….I will sweat when I want and when I know that I must… I will try to conserve my sweating for NEEDED activities!

I am still in California( update left New Mexico yesterday in Midland TX this morning and back in Houston before night fall)  but I have traded the cool foggy evenings and mornings for the heat of the central California Valley in my “real” home town of Bakersfield California. I am trying to think of something that does not grow well here???????  My mother-in-law’s backyard, besides looking like a park, has a variety of citrus trees. The grapefruit tree is loaded to the point of sagging heavily. FYI, my mother-in-low just poked her head into the room and reminded me about the fresh apricots just picked off of the neighbor’s tree. My, my, my, California, if the government here wasn’t so broke I would consider returning – maybe!

A garden tool hook that reminds me of how easy it is to sweat in Houston and also a reminder of the fruits of hard labor!

TTFN

Bishop

Wandering About in a Different Garden

June 28, 2012

Bishop Gardening , , , , 1 Comment

I have been away from my little backyard garden for several weeks. My able helpers, Farmer Kathy and Surrogate Farmer Lisa, have done an admirable job in my absence. I have been spoiled by the vistas, the farms and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in my recent travels. It all started with my niece’s wedding in Livermore California. The area has become a superb wine growing area boasting many wineries with great reputations. The link lists a number of good wineries in the area; http://sf.cityvoter.com/best/livermore-winery/wineries/the-bay-area

After the wedding and a little consulting work in Concord, CA, I was off to my home town of Bakersfield. Growing up in this area you take for granted to amazing variety of farming activities in the surrounding area. There are ten’s thousands of acres planted in citrus, 100’s of thousands of acres in cotton and hay. Latest reports have over 800,000 acres of almond orchards and over 100,000 acres of pistachios. In addition to the big crops carrots have emerged as a dominate crop with Kern County supplying the lion’s share around the world through two big operations, Grimway Farms and William H. Bolthouse…..look at the next package of baby carrots to see where they came from.

We spent a couple of days up in the Sierra’s at Huntington Lake  – the drive takes you through an amazing variety of crops. Expansive tracts of grapes, table grapes, wine grapes and grapes grown for raisins. Peaches and nectarines in huge orchards. Watermelon, cantaloupes, processing tomatoes, garlic, onions, beans, beets, potatoes, strawberries and in Wasco the rose growers there supply over 50% of the US supply of plants. What I want to share with you is the wonderful natural garden that is not planted in neat rows or in expansive irrigated fields, but scattered in diverse patterns creating stunning vistas accented with streams, waterfalls and lakes. The slideshow below is just a sample. Enjoy – TTFN

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Bishop

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