save your seeds!

Every fruit and vegetable has a hidden history. Some come from far away, some were crossbred and cultivated for strange reasons (a monarch's favourite colour, for example), while many others mirror human stories of slavery and destruction (bananas come to mind).

These are Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes. This little tomato has a happy story: it comes from Eastern Mexico, which is the region where tomatoes were first domesticated. The wild seeds were brought to North America a few decades ago, and these tasty, tiny tomatoes have become a popular staple in many gardens. They're tiny, sweet and prolific. Since buying a package of seeds four years ago, I've been saving seeds from my favourite plant each year. That investment of 3 dollars for that first pack of seeds has turned into thousands and thousands of delicious, tiny tomatoes. What a bargain!

It's fall, and that means it's seed saving time. Don't forget to take a few minutes to save some seeds from all your favourite plants. Or, you can pick out some favourites from the market - save the watermelon or squash seeds from your favourite vendor, and next year you can grow your own.

eat your flowers

Who says vegetable gardens can't have flowers? My mum is constantly bugging me to grow more flowers, but my argument is that vegetable plants have beautiful flowers. I seem to only be able to buy things that are edible. They may not be large and showy, but they are more subtle in their beauty. Plus, you know they are going to grow into something delicious.

A Geranium (gift from mum, obviously, but the petals are edible), pepper and tomato blossoms, and scarlet runner beans.

Springtime! Only two months away...

It's -30 out today, so what better pastime than to stay in bed and peruse online seed catalogues? I had some inspiration from a recent visit to The Stop's greenhouse at Wychwood Barns. That compost smell, the tiny green leaves ... I could make a list of the sites I'm going to be looking through, or I could direct you to these lovely ladies, who have already done a much better job than I could:

Seasonal Ontario's extensive list of seed companies,

and You Grow Girl's info about how to steer clear of Monsanto.

hot, hot heat

Updates from the jungle that is my garden:

Some garlic 'bulbi.' This isn't the part you eat (that's under the ground), but you can plant these in the fall for garlic in the spring!

The garlic bulbis a week later, after loosing the protective covering.

From right to left: upside-down cherry tomatoes (in the red bucket), a sunflower with no flower (yet), butternut squash vines, and scarlet runner beans.

Baby pepper that will one day be red!

Sigh, they grow up so fast.

It hitched a ride inside on some swiss chard. I saved it from a death by drowning.

Prolific rainbow chard, the first tomatoes and hard-necked garlic.

Lime basil. It tastes like lime!

Back from winter, ready for spring

Oh vey, it's been a long time. I don't seem to have much inspiration in the winter. It's not that I haven't been cooking, but it's been a transitional time of gluten-full to gluten-free. It also seems that the less busy I am with other projects, the less inclined I am to write about cooking. Stupid? Yes.

Well, it's gardening time, and I couldn't be more excited. I built - well, assembled is more like it- a grow light. (Although I totally built the shelf underneath, with some power tool help from my bf). The garlic I planted last fall is peeking out, and it's warm enough to dig around! I created a makeshift cold frame to start some greens... more on that experiment later.

I went out and bought a heating pad for my peppers. Please germinate! Here's looking forward to a dry and hot summer, unlike the last one. Maybe my pepper plants will actually produce fruit this year.

And yet again, I have way too many veggies to fit in my yard.

gardening update

Almost time to clean things up for the winter - ripping up plants, throwing around compost, pulling up bamboo rods and stacking pots. By some divine miracle, the tomato plants are still thriving. Here's some harvest from last weekend: 2 New England Pie pumpkins, some potatoes (actually, the only two potatoes my plant produced), and three tomato varieties: Juliet, Green Zebra and Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes.

For the first time this year, I'm saving seeds! It's about time, I'm kicking myself for not saving some Montreal Tasty tomato seeds from last year. There are numerous containers of fermenting seeds on my kitchen table. I should probably let my roommates know what they are before someone throws them out. Here's what I'll have for next year - planting and trading:

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes

Juliet Tomatoes

New England Pie Pumpkin

Butternut Squash

Marketmore Cucumbers

And - look! I grew fruit! Somehow more exciting than carrots and beets, this year I grew gooseberries and 'Hearts of Gold' melon (below).

Also, I just realized I like blackberries. Usually, I'm lured towards the raspberries and blueberries and give the blackberries a pass, but last week I read a recipe for blackberry sauce in the book Gluten-free Girl (also an awesome blog), and picked some up at St. Lawrence. I only used 1/2 pint for the sauce, and was forced to eat the other half. How have I lasted this long without realizing how delicious they are?

Blackberry Sauce

adapted from Gluten-free Girl

I used this sauce for my once-monthly fish extravaganza - it's delicious on a pan-fried salmon fillet. I used up the rest in some plain yogurt, and I imagine it would be amazing on ice cream, too.

1/2 pint blackberries

1/4 cup water

1 lemon, juice and zest

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Just simmer everything together for 10 minutes. Shauna's recipe suggests straining the sauce, but I like the crunchy seeds, so I left it as is.

gardening in the rain

My garden's been slow to get going this year - cold May weather, too much work, too much graduating and partying. Yesterday I finally had a whole day to weed, plant, mulch and tidy. At least a hour of that was spent wading through the lamb's quarters that were engulfing my snow peas and beets. 

The squirrels and cats have been (mostly) foiled by large amounts of chicken wire covering every possible surface. Something small is still getting in, but it definitely isn't my 15 pound cats. They aren't that agile.

Foraging in the recycling bin has become a habit - containers for seed starting, toilet paper rolls for protecting tomato seedlings, water and pop bottles for make-shift cloches. 

Also, I've discovered the joys of gardening in the rain. No bugs, no sun, nice temperature, and soil so easy to work with! Nice spring surprise- (below) I'm overjoyed to see that my cosmos and cilantro both re-seeded themselves!

Visiting farmer's markets over the past month, I've been tempted by a few tasty-sounding tomato plants. Along with the five Matt's Wild Cherry I grew from seed, there's a Green Zebra, two Purple Cherokees, four Candy Cherries, two Golden Cherries, and a giant Plum - with tomatoes growing already! I'm also growing peppers for the first time - Marconi Long Red and Purple Beauty.   

seedy excitement

(Sad, sad kale, but still putting new leaves out after being abandoned in december. Kale is a biennial, so I'm hoping it will come back to life with new vigor when it comes out of its deep freeze.)

Last Thursday I was wandering around Dufferin Grove Market, picking up some sprouts and carrots, when I happened upon a beautiful oasis (in the form of a seed display set up by Urban Harvest). I completely forgot they were going to be at the market this week, and was SO excited. I'm sure my friends will mock me at the excitement I felt to see rows and rows of growing possibilities, but after I started my first full-size garden last year, I really just can't wait to get back outside and dig my hands into the dirt. The only thing that gets me through the dreary, dreary Toronto January-March hump is dreaming about new varieties of winter squash and lima beans. Especially when all that beautiful white snow has turned into frozen grey banks filled with cigarette butts. Spring is less than a month away! Soon my garden will look like this again:

(salad greens from last year's garden) 

Here's the seeds I picked up:

Cape Gooseberries - I've never even eaten gooseberries, so this will be a surprise! They're a member of the tomato family, have husks, and look kind of like tomatillos

Hearts of Gold Melon - a heirloom from 1895, with 1kg fruit

Christmas Lima Bean - I only bought this because the woman selling them told me to. She had me hooked on "tastes chestnutty and has the texture of baked potatoes." Heirloom from 1840. I needed something to replace my Kentucky Pole Wonder Beans from last year - which were ok, but not my favorite.

Marketmore Cucumber - dependable. I haven't grown cukes before, but the butternut squash last year was so easy, I can't wait for more vining plants.

Tatsoi - a green with an interesting name! use it in salads, or by itself.

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato - the possible precursor of the modern day tomato! tall vines, many tomatoes - apparently they taste like raspberries. I will get back to you on that. You hear about this tomato everywhere, and I can't wait to start it off in a few weeks. Dates to 1889!

New England Pie Pumpkin - I have recipes already planned for these babies: some gluten-free pumpkin waffles, a delicious pumpkin loaf my mom made me last year, and some of those nifty pumpkin-as-soup-tureen recipes. You cook the soup/stew right in the pumpkin! From 1860.

Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Peas - Don't heirlooms just have the best names? Seriously, they can make the vegetable-hater just want to give it a try. Mammoth melting? Who wouldn't want to plant these? My peas were not the most productive last year, but I have my fingers crossed.  

winter garden dreams

This out-of-character Spring weather has me dreaming about gardening... ripe tomatoes, fresh kale, cilantro straight from my backyard. Last year was my first attempt at gardening, and I can't wait for this year; new heirloom varieties to try, more of the delicious butternut squash - from the seeds I saved from last year! Anyway, since this weather certainly won't last, the only thing to do is start planning, and I'm looking forward to attending my first Seedy Saturday, an annual gardening fair and seed exchange run by the Toronto Community Gardening Network. This years, it's being held at the new Wychwood barns on February 28th, 2-6 pm. Last year, I got most of my seeds from Urban Harvest, who I discovered at a booth at Canada Blooms. Just looking at the names is exciting and intriguing: Sweet Mammoth Basil, Atomic Red Carrot, Dinosaur Kale. I can't wait to put on my mud-caked keds and get covered in dirt.