Rare Heirloom Tomatoes

The larger, lobed leaves really do look like the leaves growing on top of a potato plant. Fred continued this tradition, growing ‘Potato Top' tomato seedlings in his basement and hardening them off in back yard coldframes.

Since no seed was ever stored, this mythological tomato was thought to be extinct.With that, the leader of the group took a knife from a sheath on his belt and cut open one of the tomatoes that glistened in the sun.

And anyone who compares a tasteless supermarket tomato to ahas to agree. A whole generation grew up without knowing the intense flavor and tender textures of the old open pollinated crops of the first half of the 20They were still there.

, director of the Ethnoecology and Biodiversity Laboratory in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia began thein 1996. They felt the need to address what they felt was the lack of diversity and cultural awareness of modern Southern...

(double yay!)Talk about a WOW factor – these multi-colored cayennes are almost too pretty to eat. These vines are highly prolific and will probably succumb to either squash bugs, cucumber beetles or some sort of disease due to their lack of protective...

These beans are tender and crisp when picked young with an almost sweet flavor profile. These unique pole beans are not just highly productive, they help preserve important botanical traditions and add some great diversity to both your vegetable garden...

It first appeared in Heirloom Farm , a recent issue of the Popular Farming Series. A more eye-catching tomato with a taste that rivals Brandywine, is Cherokee Purple , a plump and meaty, purplish-brown tomato with shoulders that stay green even when fruit...

People today are becoming more concerned with what types of food they eat as well as how it is grown, which has also led them to seek more flavorful and healthy produce—heirlooms provide just that.

I found myself cutting the shoulders off before using the fruits in spaghetti sauce. Persimmon produces tomatoes that are slightly larger than a fist and ripen uniformly to a beautiful, brilliant orange.

The simple gifts on the Thanksgiving table-- the sweet potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie-- all have their roots in the wonderful agricultural heritage of the Americas. Today in the gardens and on our tables are a wealth of foods - all native to these...

Green Zebra : A low-acid, 2-inch round fruit is the sweet-tasting Green Zebra, a tomato stippled with dark green strips that ripen to a yellow-gold with dark green zebra-like stripes.

Those plants fertilized with my homemade blend did pretty well, too, though they didn't grow quite as bushy as those that received the commercial blend. You might recall that last year I ran a little experiment in my tomato patch .

My mom reached out to me across the Rainbow Bridge with a special rose to help me through the worst time of my life. Mom would inhale the rose's scent as she brought it into the house, saying how much she loved the smell and beauty of itSometimes there...

“Since the mid 1990s, progress in conventional plant breeding slowed, despite the phenomenal yield gains of the past. We need to find ways to tap into those traits more effectively.” Jackson, Burke and other organizers of the Crop Wild Relative Genomics...

Here are some exceptional varieties: Black Futsu Jere Gettle, owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Missouri, a retailer of specialty pumpkin and squash seeds, says, “The New York Times listed [Black Futsu] as their favorite pumpkin a few years back.”...

Caging or staking tomatoes rather than letting them sprawl could also improve air flow as well as getting the foliage further away from soil that may harbor disease. Last summer's runaway "late blight" wiped out tomato harvests for a lot of us and left...

But there is not much French spoken around here in this part of Texas.Back to the history. She explained to me that the color which we think of as being a shade of pink, was once considered to be red., which is a seedling of 'Champney's Pink Cluster',...

Spread the seeds in a single layer on the filter to dry - usually 24 hours is sufficient for them to dry thoroughly. Add a half-cup of water to the container and set it aside in the garage or shed, for 3 to 5 days.

This 6- to 7-inch heirloom variety dates back to the mid-19th century and is noted for being essentially coreless. Cosmic Purple and Dragon carrots boast a stunning shade of purple.

Choose the best-looking tomato from that plant (see photo above). It should be fully ripe, but not over-ripe. Cover the seeded towel with 1/4 inch of the starting mix, water, and place the container in bright light, either natural or artificial.The seeds...

To discourage tunneling root maggots and leaf miners, cover new beet seedlings with floating row covers. The fragrance drove my sister and I to the neighbors, and I swore that even as an adult, I would never eat a beet.

Likewise, most hotel restaurants will not be able to buy local. Avoid the temptation to lower your prices to encourage sales. Because price is dependent on so many variables, it is difficult to set hard-and-fast rules.

Botanist John Worlidge, writing in 1691, praised Bosbery and Bareland pears as perry making's best of the best. The Massachusetts Company provided the new American Colonies with seeds in 1629.

I've had the tight-fisted Genovese farmers tell me that they can buy datterino hybrid tomato seeds, grow the plants and then save those seeds for the following year. It is true that they may develop better flavor than the tomatoes grown for the grocery-store...

They also make great hedges an can be easily shaped with a bit of judicious pruning. They are very versatile in the landscape and can be grown alone as individual plants in perennial borders.

For those in milder climates with a longer growing season, another crop can be started in late summer.Larger varieties should be spaced three feet apart, while dwarfs can be closer.

Those irises will always have a place in my garden no matter how common, ugly, plain, boring, or mundane they become. Grandmother always had an iris garden. This goes for style, colors, plants, and yes, even the iris they choose to fill their space with.