It's Gardening Time

While I deplore the labor involved in hoeing, tilling and weeding I love garden fresh vegetables.  I also love to try new things so this year I ordered some so-called heirloom seeds.  I've often heard the adage that modern seed varieties and hybrids are selected on the basis of looks and shelf-life rather than on taste and texture.  This year our garden promises to put this adage to an anecdotal test.

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Tomatoes

Black Krim Tomatoes

We're growing a mix of conventional and 'Heirloom varieties.  Last year we had a poor but tasty crop of black cherry tomatoes, this year we are branching out with a black beefsteak tomato called Black Krim.  It is supposed to be salty, smoky and great for slicing or in salads.  I'm looking forward to trying them out and I will be using them again if they produce well.

We also have a repeat of the black cherry tomato and some conventional tomatoes that we had success with over the years.  In all I believe we have about twenty tomato plants in about 6 different varieties which include 2 -3 varieties of cherry tomato.

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Carrots

Dragon Carrots

I'm not much of a fan of carrots, or most other root vegetables.  However, I do enjoy pulling a fresh carrot out of the ground and eating them raw (after cleaning the dirty off of course).  Since the older Little Miss Bugbear has expressed a preference for purple beans and the movie "How to Train your Dragon"  I decided to go for some Dragon Carrots.  I'm looking forward to trying this purple skinned carrot later this summer.

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Beans

Great Northern Beans

While carrots may not be my preferred vegetable beans are.  I like almost any legume (with the exception of green peas).  Yesterday Mrs. Bugbear bought the obligatory Yellow, Green and Purple beans at our local greenhouse but I decided that some Great Northern Beans would be an nice addition.  For Thanksgiving this fall I will be making baked beans using beans from our garden if all goes well!

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Melons, Cucumbers, Squash and Pumpkins

I'm not the biggest fan of squash so this year I won't be trying any but I do like pumpkin seeds and the ladies of the Bugbear clan seem to love watermelon.  This year's crop of melons cucumbers squash and pumpkins  include:

Cream of Saskatchewan Watermelon

Rouge Vif d'Etampes Pumpkins

Kakai Pumpkins

I've also included some pickling cumbers since the whole McBugbear clan loves homemade dill pickles.

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Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry

Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry

I've saved the best for last.  Last fall, while on vacation, my wife and I went to the local farmers market while we were shopping downtown.  While we were sampling some Russian or Polish finger food from one of the vendors I noticed an older gentleman eating a fruit that I was unfamiliar with.  He was kind enough to offer my wife and I a couple of  the fruits and we both were astonished at the pleasant subtle flavor.  We ended up buying a couple of bags from one of the market gardeners and the little Miss Bugbears were big fans of ground cherries when they tried them.  The two bags didn't last long.

I'm unsure but the ground cherry might properly belong under the tomato heading.  Different sources cite it as either being a tomato or just related to the tomato but frankly it's edible and I judge the controversy to be academic.

This year we'll be planting between 4 and six plants and if successful we'll continue to plant them as the small cherry sized fruit are truly a unique and exquisite taste.  I've seen a couple of pie recipes and I think that the ground cherries would make an interesting wine.