Tomato Taste Results: Citrine Shines Through

We had more than 300 people come to today's Washington Gardener Magazine 15th Annual Tomato Taste at the FreshFarm Silver Spring Market. Here are the results of the ballots submitted.

1. Citrine from The Farm at Our House
2. Sun Gold from Mock's Greenhouse   
3. Purple Cherry from Mock's Greenhouse   
4. Dixieland Gold (Dixie Golden Giant?) from Ben's Produce
5. Cherry Bomb from The Farm at Our House        
6. Cherokee Purple from Ben's Produce
7. Juliet from Quaker Valley Orchards  
8. Spiral Sweet Grape Tomato from Spiral Path Farm    
9. Sweet Treats from The Farm at Our House     

This year the top three tomatoes had the vast majority of votes -- those sweet cherry varieties are hard to beat! The winner 'Citrine' had 2/3 of the total vote -- it wasn't even close.  The rest of the pack were separated by just a few votes. This shows you that there were no real "losers" in this batch and that every tomato had its share of hard-core fans. Talking to folks, after they voted, they each insisted their chosen tomato was far superior to the others and I heard raves for each of the 9 choices.

Do take a minute to click on the photo link here to view the Facebook album of photos from the event. I think you will agree that the market tomatoes are absolutely gorgeous and very photogenic -- and so are the market patrons!

Big thanks to Chef Sara Hayden of Vita Cooking School who joined us this year and shared her Gazpacho recipe and to Dimitri Olive Oil for the Balsamic Viniagrette we used on additional tomato tasting samples (and they donated a couple more bottles for the prize package!).

In addition to the tastings, many people stopped by to create colorful tomato art and to pick up the free tomato seeds, growing tips, and recipes that we gave out.

We gave out a gift bag full of gardening goodies, tomatoes, and market money to one of the tomato taste voters. Congratulations to EJ!  Her parents told us she is a HIGE tomato fan and was thrilled to win.

Most of the taste attendees were local, though we also had many who came quite a distance. About two-thirds live in Silver Spring. Another third live close by in Washington, DC or the neighboring towns of Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Hyattsville, etc. A few are from far outside of the area, we even had votes from Illinois, South Carolina, and New Hamshire!

Thank you to all who came and participated. Thanks to the farmers for growing great tomatoes and to FreshFarm Markets staff for hosting us. Special thanks also to our interns (Colin Davan, Ian Ferris, and Miguel Zarate) and volunteers (MD Smith and Alexandra Jentz) for helping with all the tomato sample cutting, vote tallying, and helping greet all the tasters in the short, but jam-packed two-hour event!

Fenton Friday: Learning While Growing Tomatoes

 
Guest Blog by Miguel Zarate

At the beginning of the summer, the other interns and I were given a selection of vegetables to grow throughout the course of the summer. I chose the tomatoes as they had always been a subject of interest for me. 

 

I had constantly heard from my mother and grandmother how unruly and difficult to grow they are--needing specific conditions to grow. I decided to take on the challenge, we were growing from seedlings already started in pots. so the difficult task of getting to seed was already taken care of. 

 

On that first day, we took them to the garden to be planted. I also planted a marigold flower right at the edge of the tomato bed. This helps to deter certain pests and keep my tomatoes safe. 

 

With that, the plants were in their spots. I planted five varieties: 'Marriage Mazinera', 'Celebrity', 'Green Zebra', 'Sun Gold', and 'Wild Cherry' (currant). The Marriage Mazinera’s ended up not lasting very long. It wasn’t in the best shape when I planted it, so I wasn’t upset about the death of my plant, but I still had hope. I put it in the center, hoping that being in the middle would promote nutrient cross over from the others. 

 

In the following weeks, we developed a routine. After our weekly indoor meetings, we would head to the garden to weed, water, and fertilize. On weeding, this is definitely my least favorite part of gardening. We also had some aggressive Yarrow, which desperately wanted to be a part of the garden but I had to pull it out each time it grew and got close to the tomatoes. 

 

As a kid my parents would have me help them in the garden, pulling various weeds from the ground. I hated it, sitting in the sun and wrestling with plants wasn’t my idea of a fun morning back then. 

 

As an adult, I still didn’t enjoy it, but this time around it felt like I was growing for myself rather than being told to do it. If I didn’t, my tomatoes would die. 

On that subject, the first week of July brought my summer nemesis: blight.

My poor Wild Cherries were afflicted with the blight. I’m a relatively inexperienced gardener, so I did my best to trim the infected leaves but it didn’t go the best. The infection stayed with the cherries all the way until the end. Luckily, I got a few tomatoes from it before the fungus claimed the life of another tomato. 

Another thing I noticed about my tomatoes was their growth, they started about a foot tall and quickly grew, to just over two to three feet tall. This led to two things: one, they were all over each other which caused the blight to jump to other tomatoes, but removing those infected leaves was simple. The other issue was that my tomatoes were becoming unruly neighbors to my co-intern's Ian Ferris’ peppers. 

It was on me to wrangle these plants, so I used some string and tomato clips that mostly stopped them from stretching over boundaries. 

 

In the end, I harvested handfuls of small 'Sun Gold' tomatoes. For the harvest where we entered the tomatoes into the Montgomery County Fair, I was out of town. Kathy Jentz submitted them for me and they earned third place in the "orange, preserving (aka cherry)" tomato category, which wasn’t something I expected for my first tomato plant. I’m proud of them for growing so well. I will definitely grow more of my own tomatoes in the future. I’m so glad I had this opportunity with the Washington Gardener, definitely not what I expected for my summer when I switched to journalism, but the experience has been incredible. Growing a plant really teaches you about patience, which is something you need a lot of as a writer and reporter.

 

About the Author:

Miguel Zarate is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener. He is majoring in journalism with a minor in sustainability. His favorite thing to grow in his mother’s garden, where he helps out, is mint, because it is so plentiful.

Washington Gardener Magazine's 15th Annual Tomato Tasting at the Silver Spring FreshFarm Market

It’s ‘Green Zebra’ vs. ‘Sun Gold,' heirloom versus hybrid, the tomato wars have just begun. Everyone is sure that their tomato pick is the tastiest. Join Washington Gardener Magazine at the FreshFarm Market in downtown Silver Spring, MD, on Saturday, August 23 from 10am-12noon for a Tomato Tasting. Best of all, this event is FREE!

   Chef Sara Hayden of Vita Cooking School will join us to share tomato recipes and tastings.

   Farmers at the market will contribute their locally grown selections — from super-sweet ‘Sungold’ to not-so-pretty ‘Cherokee Purple’ — and we’ll explore which tomatoes make the short list of favorites. We’ll have tomato gardening tips, tomato recipes, tomato activities for kids, and much more. All to celebrate one of summer’s greatest indulgences — the juicy fresh tomato.

   Tip: Your tomato taste voting ballot is also your entry into our prize drawing for a basket full of gardening goodies. The drawing is at 12noon, so be sure to fully fill out your ballot by 11:45am and then stick around for the prize announcement as you must be present to win!

Tomato Taste Results: Sun Gold Rules Again!

We had more than 150 people come to today's Washington Gardener Magazine 14th Annual Tomato Taste at the FreshFarm Silver Spring Market. Here are the results of the ballots submitted.

1. Sun Gold from The Farm at Our House
2. Cherry Bomb from The Farm at Our House          
3. Sun Sugar from Mock's Greenhouse
4. Sakura Pink from Mock's Greenhouse   
5. Brandy Boy from Spring Valley Farm & Orchard                 
6. Spiral Sweet Grape Tomatoes from Spiral Path Farm                     
7. Beefsteak from The Farm at Our House
8. Artisan Cherry Tomatoes from Ben's Produce     

This year the top three tomatoes had the vast majority of votes -- those sweet cherry varieties are hard to beat! The rest of the pack were separated by just a few votes. This shows you that there were no real "losers" in this batch and that every tomato had its share of hard-core fans. 

Do take a minute to click on the photo link here to view the Facebook album of photos from the event. I think you will agree that the market tomatoes are absolutely gorgeous and very photogenic -- and so are the market patrons!

Big thanks to Chef Sorangel who joined us this year and shared her Gazpacho recipe and samples.

In addition to the tastings, many people stopped by to create colorful tomato art and to pick up the free tomato seeds, growing tips, and recipes that we gave out.

We gave out a gift bag full of gardening goodies, tomatoes, and market money to one of the tomato taste voters. Congratulations to Arlen Salinas! 

Most of the taste attendees were local, though we also had many who came quite a distance. About two-thirds live in Silver Spring. Another third live close by in Washington, DC or the neighboring towns of Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Hyattsville, etc. A few are from far outside of the area, we even had votes from Berlin, Illinois, West Virginia, and Georgia!

Thank you to all who came and participated. Thanks to the farmers for growing great tomatoes and to FreshFarm Markets staff for hosting us. Special thanks also to our volunteers MD Smith, Josh Panepento, and Alexandra Jentz for helping with all the tomato sample cutting, vote tallying, and helping greet all the tasters in the short, but jam-packed two-hour event!

Washington Gardener Magazine's 14th Annual Tomato Tasting at the Silver Spring FreshFarm Market

It’s ‘Green Zebra’ vs. ‘Sun Gold,' heirloom versus hybrid, the tomato wars have just begun. Everyone is sure that their tomato pick is the tastiest. Join Washington Gardener Magazine at the FreshFarm Market in downtown Silver Spring, MD, on Saturday, August 17 from 10am-12noon for a Tomato Tasting. Best of all, this event is FREE!

   Farmers at the market will contribute their locally grown selections — from super-sweet ‘Sungold’ to not-so-pretty ‘Cherokee Purple’ — and we’ll explore which tomatoes make the short list of favorites. We’ll have tomato gardening tips, tomato recipes, tomato activities for kids, and much more. All to celebrate one of summer’s greatest indulgences — the juicy fresh tomato.

   Tip: Your tomato taste voting ballot is also your entry into our prize drawing for a basket full of gardening goodies. The drawing is at 12noon, so be sure to fully fill out your ballot by 11:45am and then stick around for the prize announcement as you must be present to win!

Tomato Taste Results: Sun Gold on Top

We had more than 150 people come to yesterday's Washington Gardener Magazine 13th Annual Tomato Taste at the FreshFarm Silver Spring Market. Here are the results of the ballots submitted.

1. Sun Gold from The Farm at Our House 
2. Cherry Bomb from The Farm at Our House 
3. Chocolate Cherry from Mock's Greenhouse
4. Cherokee Purple from Mock's Greenhouse
5. Heirloom Mix from Audia's Farm North
6. Carolina Sun from Barajas Produce
7. Red Morning from Barajas Produce
8. Sweet Grape from Spiral Path Farm

This year the #1 tomato had double the votes that the #2 tomato did -- so it was a true land-slide. The rest of the pack were separated by just a few votes. This shows you that there were no real "losers" in this batch and that every tomato had its share of hard-core fans. 

Do take a minute to click on the photo link here to view the Facebook album of photos from the event. I think you will agree that the market tomatoes are absolutely gorgeous and very photogenic -- and so are the market patrons!

In addition to the tasting, many people stopped by to create colorful tomato art and to pick up the free tomato seeds, growing tips, and recipes that we gave out.

We gave out a gift bag full of gardening goodies, tomatoes, and market money to one of the tomato taste voters! 

Most of the taste attendees were local, though we also had many who came quite a distance. About two-thirds live in Silver Spring. Another third live close by in Washington, DC or the neighboring towns of Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, etc. A few are from far outside of the area, we even had votes from New York, South Carolina, California, and Georgia!

Thank you to all who came and participated. Thanks to the farmers for growing great tomatoes and to FreshFarm Markets staff for hosting us. Special thanks also to our volunteers MD Smith and Alexandra Jentz for helping with all the tomato sample cutting, vote tallying, and helping greet all the tasters in the short, but jam-packed two-hour event!

Washington Gardener Magazine's 13th Annual Tomato Tasting at the Silver Spring FreshFarm Market

   It’s ‘Big Boy’ vs. ‘Mortgage Lifter,’ hybrid vs. heirloom, the tomato wars have just begun. Everyone is sure that their tomato pick is the tastiest. Join Washington Gardener Magazine at the FreshFarm Market in downtown Silver Spring, MD, on Saturday, August 26 from 10am-12noon for a Tomato Tasting. Best of all, this event is FREE!

   Farmers at the market will contribute their locally grown selections — from super-sweet ‘Sungold’ to not-so-pretty ‘Cherokee Purple’ — and we’ll explore which tomatoes make the short list of favorites. We’ll have tomato gardening tips, tomato recipes, tomato activities for kids, and much more. All to celebrate one of summer’s greatest indulgences — the juicy fresh tomato.

   Tip: Your tomato taste voting ballot is also your entry into our prize drawing for a basket full of gardening goodies. The drawing is at 12noon, so be sure to fully fill out your ballot by 11:45am and then stick around for the prize announcement as you must be present to win!

Like and follow our Facebook event page for all updates and to see the voting results afterward:

https://www.facebook.com/events/803509038120764/

Fenton Friday: Tasty Tomato

Guest blog by Tori Vandergriff

At the beginning of my internship with the Washington Gardener Magazine, Editor Kathy Jentz let me choose three flowering plants to grow as well as some tomatoes. I was tasked with tracking these plants along their journey in the community garden. I had some failures, but there were also beautiful successes that taught me so much about gardening and journalism. 

For my plants, I chose Verbena bonariensis, Bergamot, and 'Queeny Lemon Peach' zinnias. We planted all of these from seed in rows in the community garden plot, watered them generously, and then waited. After about three weeks, the zinnias began showing signs of viability, but the monarda and verbena weren’t yet germinating. I gave the verbena and monarda until the beginning of July to start blooming and when they didn’t, Kathy planted Holy Basil and Celosia (that had self-sown elsewhere in the plot) in their place. I was a little bummed about two of my three plants failing, but I learned that sometimes seeds just are bad from the start. I knew it wasn’t anything I did so I let my monarda and verbena dream rest in peace.

My zinnias, however, began shooting up in the middle of the summer. It was producing beautiful leafy stalks with tiny buds where the flowers were destined to be. I was so excited for them to start flowering because I am a flower girl through and through. I wasn’t sure what color they’d be but they ended up being a beautiful pale yellow color. Every week, I looked forward to my zinnia harvest and couldn’t wait to see how they were doing.

In addition to the flowers, I grew 'Sun Dipper', 'Sun Gold', 'Cherokee Purple' heirloom, and 'Paul Robeson' tomatoes. Tomatoes are seriously my favorite thing that grows in the summer and I even love eating raw tomatoes, so I was really excited to grow my own. The tomatoes were grown from little transplant seedlings. I placed supports into the beds then inserted the plants into each corner of the square bed. Over the weeks, they grew a few inches every time I went back to check on them. We had a few issues with yellowing leaves and some critters getting into the low-hanging tomatoes, but this didn’t ruin the plant or the experience for me. The 'Sun Dipper' and 'Sun Gold' started producing tiny yellow tomatoes but I waited until they were more orange to pick them. The heirlooms took a bit longer to produce any fruit but when they did, they were gorgeous. 

Like I said before, I love tomatoes so I ended up eating the 'Sun Dipper' ones as they were with a little bit of veggie dip. They were juicy and flavorful. For the heirlooms, I used them in a mozzarella, pasta, and basil salad with lots of olive oil, salt, and pepper. This pasta salad was so satisfying and tasted like all the best parts of summertime. I truly loved growing tomatoes and it felt so rewarding to cook with them knowing that I grew them! 

Growing my own plants in the community garden plot this summer was such a rewarding and fun experience. I loved talking to Kathy about why things weren’t going the way I thought they would and hearing her advice. I would highly recommend anyone who has access to a small plot or even a container to do some gardening next summer. You won’t be disappointed!

About the Author: Victoria Vandergriff is finishing up her senior year at the University of Maryland as a journalism major with a history minor. She is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener.

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Dipping into a New Tomato

It has been another hot and humid week, but we had a couple decent rains. The tomato plants are starting to produce heavily now, though they are mainly still green.

The star tomato so far is the 'Sun Dipper'. It is a new variety for 2023 by PanAmerican Seed. Sun Dipper is described as: "an orange 'dipper' tomato with elongated fruit that is easily held between your fingers for dipping in dressing on a vegetable platter. This unique fruit shape is eye-catching and delicious." Shown at right is a set of fruits starting to ripen on our plant. I'd say right now there are roughly 20 more in various stages of growth on the same plant. I picked and ate one. It was delicious. I'm a big fan of dips and sauces, but I actually don't think this tomato needs any garnish or addition.

What varieties of tomato are you growing this year in your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Good News, Bad News

This week was hot, humid, and stormy, which means things are growing well and the weeds are rampant. We thinned out the flower and basil seedlings. We weeded a bit and started fertilizing the tomatoes and peppers.

Speaking of the tomatoes, the bad news is that we had our first sign on early blight on one of the plants. We pinched out the leaves and hope it doesn't spread too rapidly to the others.

In the good news department, we pulled out 1/3 of our garlic and they all look big and healthy. I plan to pull the other 2/3 in the next few days. In their place, I want to plant zucchini, cucumber, and/or mini pumpkins.

What are you growing and eating this week from your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: A Quartet of Tomato Plants

 

Another wet week - but I'm not complaining! Temps have been fairly mild and I haven't had to water the plot much at all.

We planted the four tomato plants I had each in one corner of the front, left bed. The tomatoes were in the back, right bed last year, so I figure this the best attempt at crop rotation that I can do in my small plot.

The four tomatoes are 'White Currant', 'Cherokee Purple', 'Paul Robeson', and 'Sun Dipper'. They will be in the care of intern Tori. The first three are heirloom varieties that I got from the Silver Spring Garden Club plant sale I ran last month. They are tried-and-true, so I have high hopes for them. However, I'm most excited to try out 'Sun Dipper' as it is from PanAmerican Seed and is bred to be disease-resistant -- plus I love snacking tomatoes!

I'm still harvesting a handful of strawberries and a few purple podded snap peas every few days.

We pulled one of the hardneck garlic plants to make way for the 'Biquinho' Pepper plant aka Little Beak peppers that I got from the ladies at Garden Spots. It will be in the care of intern Jamie. The garlic we pulled was not fully developed, so we'll definitely leave all the others in the ground for another few weeks.

What are you growing and eating this week from your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Sun Gold Tomatoes

These next few weeks, I'm letting the summer interns take over the community garden plot reports to share what they grew and how that went.

By Jackie DiBartolomeo

At the start of the summer, all the way back in early June, we planted a 'Sun Gold' tomato plant in our community garden plot. It was a modest plant to start with, and we had high hopes for it. 'Sun Gold' tomatoes are sweet, tangy, and rich, perfect to grow in the summer. You know they’re ready for harvest when they take on their signature red-orange, “sun-kissed” look. 

Over the weeks since the 'Sun Gold' tomato plant first went in the ground, the plant has proven to be a bit of a challenge. Though it started off small, the plant demonstrated its mighty growing potential when it began growing upward and outward rapidly, even trying to overtake some of the other plants in the plot! It especially targeted the 'Shishito' peppers right next to it, so we took care to tie parts of the plant back that were sticking out beyond their trellis. 

Little tomatoes appeared on the plant a few weeks after we planted it, as we continued to give the plant fertilizer every few weeks, along with regular watering and weeding. The tomatoes were taking a while to turn from green to orange, but when we saw that first spot of orange, it was a beautiful sight. For a few weeks at the end of July and into August, it seemed that the tomatoes were so close to ripening, but just weren’t there yet. But on August 10, the 'Sun Gold' tomatoes were ready to be harvested. They finally had that perfect sun-kissed look.

I picked off a few 'Sun Gold' tomatoes for myself, and I’m currently brainstorming on what recipe I should put them to the test with. Their flavor would taste great with a campanelle recipe. This tomato plant wasn’t the easiest to grow this summer, but the rewarding feeling of growing it ourselves makes it all worth it. 

What is growing in your kitchen garden?

About the Author

Jackie DiBartolomeo is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and was an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a staff reporter with The Campus Trainer.

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Monday Thoughts: It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato."

- Lewis Grizzard

Monday Thoughts: "Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes."

"Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes."

- anonymous

TikTok Tuesday: Tomato Party

@wdcgardener

Check out the recent Tomato 🍅 Party hosted by Common Good City Farm in Washington, DC. ##gardendc ##urbanfarm ##tomato ##dmv ##tomatotaste ##dc

♬ original sound - Kathy Jentz

By Molly Cuddy

Last Thursday, I attended the Tomato Party at Common Good City Farm. I’ll be doing a more indepth article on this event in the August 2021 issue of Washington Gardener, so look out for that in about a month.

The urban farm had been closed to visitors because of COVID-19, but has recently started hosting events again. They’ll be having cooking demos, a cocktail demo, and plenty more all happening over the summer. You can find the links to all the events on this page. Most of the events are free and for many of them you have to register in order to attend them. 

The farm was just a quick walk from the Shaw Metro station. They had arts and crafts for kids, as well as gardening themed books. 

There was plenty of free food to try, which you can see in my TikTok video for this week posted above. My favorite was definitely the catfish taco with a cucumber and tomato salsa, from Fish Scale. Everything was delicious, and the tomatoes from the farm were so fresh. 

I would definitely recommend attending the farm’s future events if you are in the area and available! It’s a great place to spend time with friends and family.

About the Author

Molly Cuddy is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a campus tour guide and will be a teaching assistant for a professional writing class next semester.

GardenDC Podcast Episode 26: Heirloom Tomatoes and Straw Bale Gardening

This episode we talk with Craig LeHoullier, author of Epic Tomatoes, about Heirloom Tomatoes and Straw Bale Gardening . The plant profile is on Cannas and I debate the merits of Foliage versus Flowers.

For even MORE on Tomatoes, listen to our interview with Doug Oster in GardenDC Episode 4 at: https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2020/03/gardendc-podcast-episode-4-all-about.html

BTW, YOU can become a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month!See how at: https://anchor.fm/kathy-jentz/support. 

The episode is posted at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/episodes/August-29--2020---Heirloom-Tomatoes-and-Straw-Bale-Gardening-eioonv

It is also available on -

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gardendc/id1502631179

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AsWArNpQo8OlzHoMDMSI8

• RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/gardendc-G2ql5V

• Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/gardendc

• PocketCasts: https://pca.st/9phvd8bk

• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1502631179/gardendc

• Google Podcasts at this link, either now or soon (note that currently, this link will only work on Android devices)

We welcome your questions and comments!

You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/kathy-jentz/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

Fenton Friday: Tomato Trials

By Hadley Baker

This summer, I grew cherry tomatoes in the Fenton Street Community Garden plot. While my mom is a landscape designer and I grew up watching her care for the plants in our yard and helping her plant some flowers, I never grew anything edible until this summer.

On June 2nd I planted six different types of cherry tomatoes from starter seedling plants. I grew two ‘Early Resilience’ plants, an ‘Apple Yellow’, a ‘White Currant’, a ‘Sungold’, a ‘Sunsugar’, and a ‘Celano’. I planted each about a foot apart and 4 to 5 inches deep in the soil, covering a significant portion of each stem. I added a few stakes by each in preparation for them to (hopefully) grow tall enough to need that support.

I went to the plot once a week to weed and water (while Kathy Jentz watered in between), and after about two weeks I added some fertilizer to the soil and continued adding it every other week following that. Early on, a bird or some other animal plucked one of my ‘Early Resilience’ plants out of the plot, but luckily Kathy Jentz had another starter plant that I could replace it with.

The tomatoes ripened much faster than I expected and by the end of June, I had my first tomatoes! The first ones to ripen were the ‘Sungold’ and ‘Sunsugar’ and after a few weeks, most of the other varieties started ripening. The only ones that did not ripen until this week were the ‘Early Resilience’ tomatoes.

Tomato 'Apple Yellow'

My favorite variety was probably the ‘Apple Yellow’, which was the least similar to most other cherry tomatoes I’ve tried. They are a bright yellow color and are larger than the cherry tomatoes you can buy at a grocery store. They have a thick skin and look almost like a tiny bell pepper, and are my favorite to snack on out of all the varieties I grew.

The ‘Sungold’, ‘Sunsugar’, and ‘Celano’ varieties all tasted the most similar to the typical cherry tomatoes I’m used to. The ‘Sungold’ and ‘Sunsugar’ were all a classic cherry tomato size that you can buy in stores and were yellow or sometimes orange varieties that are very juicy and flavorful. The ‘Celano’ was bright red and very juicy and flavorful and one of the smallest varieties I grew this summer.

While I liked the juicy and unique taste of the yellow-white ‘White Currant’ variety, these were the quickest to over-ripen and split. They were hard to eat fast enough before they became a bit too mushy to eat by themselves.

Tomato 'Early Resilience'

The ‘Early Resilience’ plum tomato is only ripening just now. I kept one in a paper bag for a few days to ripen and finally got to try it! It is by far the largest variety I grew. While a little less juicy and flavorful than the other varieties, it was still delicious—especially when I added some salt and pepper, olive oil, and fresh basil.

By the time it got to August, I was carrying several bags of tomatoes home every week (and sometimes twice a week), as the tomatoes just kept coming. I started using them in salads, quiches, with mozzarella and basil, and just snacking on them by themselves throughout the summer.

I did have some issues with disease, as all of my plants had yellowing and spotted-brown leaves as the summer went on and it became more hot and humid, though this is pretty normal and I would just pick off and dispose of the diseased leaves. The only other issue I had was that after a thunderstorm with several inches of rain falling in an hour, some of the tomatoes would become waterlogged and split, but this is also pretty normal especially in this area.

Overall, my first attempt at growing tomatoes was a huge success! I loved learning how to care for them and what to watch out for, as well as being able to successfully harvest tons of delicious tomatoes, which I was not sure if I’d be able to do!

About the Author: Hadley Baker is a rising senior studying English and Spanish at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is from Takoma Park, MD, and her mother is a landscape designer in the area, She is an intern this summer with Washington Gardener.

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.