year in review

i figure i should probably do this, considering the season has been over for awhile and i have not posted any new entries since august. so here goes.

Sweet Corn: dont think i will be doing sweet corn next year, or if i do, i will have to re-think it. i put in way too much this year, and that in turn meant that there was not enough space for tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cucumbers and peppers. not only that, but it doesnt ripen when you want it too, but rather at a very inconvenient late time in the season. and thirdly, it is just way too cheap at the stores for it to be justified. on that note, i do want to acknowledge the fact that it turned out incredibly tasty this year, with the ruby queen being tops and the yellow variety taking a close second.

Flour Corn: would love to plant more of this next year, but whether or not i will be able to is pending approval from my sister to use her space again. it was by far the most successful of all the items i grew this year. we have over 10 pounds of hopi blue corn, another ten of anasazi, and probably 12 pounds of hopi pink. gonna be making a lot of tortillas :) and hopefully tamales as well, once Christmas rolls around.

Tomatoes: very interesting year for tomatoes. this year, i went all heirloom, with several different colors ranging from neon green to purplish black. most of them were satisfying, several were surprising, and a couple were disappointing at times, but amazing at others. for example, i grew the multi-colored variety called 'pineapple'. it is mostly yellow, with green shoulders, and a orange/red starburst on the blossom end. the flesh is also yellow with streaks of orange and red. i gave a bunch of plants to my brother in law, including some of this variety. the first one i tried was from his garden, and was HUGE. it was probably 18-22 ounces, a behemoth bigger than my hand. but when i tried it, it was bland, too watery, and just overall unimpressive. so i was of the conclusion that while it was an extremely pretty tomato, it was worthless in flavor. a couple of weeks later though, i had a few ripen from my own garden. not saying that it had anything to do with the gardener rather than the tomato :), but the difference was incredible. juicy, but not watery, full of tangy yet sweet tomato flavor, a meaty, crispy, non-mushy texture. tomato perfection at its best. some other impressive ones were amana orange, carbon, black cherry, flame, and green zebra. white tomatoes were excellent too, a very citrusy flavor to them. couldve sworn i was eating limes, but i cant remember the names of the varieties i had. next year, i will still have a lot of these heirloom slicing tomatoes, but i also intend to do a lot more of sauce and salsa grade tomatoes. i found one called costoluto genovese that is the shape of a beefsteak type tomato, but with the meatiness and water content of a roma, making it the best of both worlds. i also found some roma types that are yellow and purple, so hopefully i can make some different colors of salsa and spaghetti sauce. should be a fun year.

Squash: i was a huge fan of the cocozelle that i bought in desperation to replace the watermelon plants i thought were dead. turned out the watermelons lived and the cocozelles grew right on alongside them. the watermelons were eventually eaten by ants before they were ripe, but the cocozelles put off several squash, though not to their full potential as they were put in late. the taste was excellent, and when cooked with red potatoes and served over saffron rice, it was like angels were singing. bought a lot more seeds for this variety and will be growing more next year, along with several other varieties that look like they have some potential. we also had a few fruit off the calabasa de bola that we found in cancun. it was also very delicious, and it was a humbling experience to pick the first one, and to know that it was the same variety that my grandfather had used to make a living in mexico, many many years ago. im thankful for that squash, perhaps more than any other vegetable i grew this year, and for the experience of seeing it grow.

Peppers: interesting year for peppers, both sweet and hot. the habanero plants that i potted seemed to not be putting off anything but growth for the first 3 months of the season, which, in utah, is nearly the entire season. by august i was at my wits end as to why they would not flower, seeing as they had more than enough sun and adequate water. i finally put them in the shade, under a couple of trees, and out of nowhere, the flowers appeared. i thought it was awesome, but all too late as the season was drawing to a close. not so. first one pepper formed, then two, then 10, then 20. they did not have time to ripen, of course, before the first frost hit, but i got ahead of that and brought them inside. the peppers are still forming, and the plants still putting on new growth. should be able to make some salsa pretty soon. as for the sweet peppers, i fell in love with the tequila sunrise pepper. its in the shape of a chile, but has absolutely no heat, and loads of sweet capsicum flavor. it was a wonderful addition to sandwiches, salads, soups, anything that is edible, it made better. i will be growing a lot more plants of them next year, but in a different way. ive decided its not worth it to grow peppers in the ground in utah. the ground is too cold for them, and they never put on any growth at all if they are in the ground. so all the pepper plants, hot and sweet, will be in pots next year.

Cucumbers: cucumbers didnt do so well this year as they did last year. maybe i grew less plants? not sure, but we didnt have many of them, and while the rain was good for all the gardens at first, it quickly became too cold and wet and made flowering and pollinating difficult, but was especially hard on the cucumbers. the lemons were still amazing though, and i was greatly impressed with the experiment variety, richmond green apple, which exceeded my expectations and is tied with lemon for best all around cuke.

Carrots: i cant say enough about how awesome it was to grow carrots, and how amazing they turned out. i grew white, yellow, and orange carrots with the orange and yellow being in the majority. i was impressed with white, but dont think ill be growing them again. the yellow was ridiculously good, by far the best carrots ive ever tasted. so much sweeter and full of flavor than any orange carrot, and especially more than any orange carrot bought from a store. i will be growing a lot more of them next year.

Melons: the honeydews never took, which was disappointing. i had read that the reason most storebought honeydew melons are bland and utterly tasteless is that only the first two melons usually have any flavor at all. but the stores' suppliers pick on up to the 10th melon. i wanted to see if i could grow a honeydew and see for myself if it was actually any good. but the plants only put off a bunch of flowers, never fruited. the cantaloupe on the other hand put out several melons, most of them were only the size of a baseball or softball, but the flavor was so much better than that of storebought, it didnt matter to me. as for the watermelons, i really dont know if ill be growing any more of those. still unsure. first group of plants i bought all died, so i put more in. those ones nearly died, then came back to life, fruited, and then were eaten by ants. frustrating to say the least.

well thats about it. i have to get planning and buying seeds for next year, so ta ta for now.