Browse Month: June 2018

HARVESTING: Ox Heart Carrots

June 10, 2018. More often than not, I grow for the fun of seeing plants like these ‘Ox Heart’ carrots. The larger carrots weigh around 20 ounces (a little over a pound.) Carrots make good edible landscaping plants. Especially when the goal is seed saving. They can grown as ornamentals and in the process frees gardening space for other crops. Carrots are also fun to harvest and I got to share the fun with our oldest. Large harvest like these are rare for us these days as we have turned our focus onto very small and super fresh harvests. These ‘ox heart’ carrots were pulled to grow something else. We will be sharing this abundance with our rabbit, tortoises, and ducks (from carrot top to carrot bottom. The actual carrot itself will be given as treats.)

This carrot is one of the easiest carrots to grow– easy in terms of getting a straight and filled out looking carrot. As imagined, the flavor becomes more mild as they get bigger. This flavor profile makes them ideal for stewing and dishes that incorporate a lot of seasoning. While probably not a great one for the kitchen, they are excellent in permaculture soil breaking applications. ‘Ox heart’ carrots may be grown in compacted soil as a way to naturally loosen soil.

Special acknowledgement to Owen for his fine camera work in one of the scenes.

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

Music: Dan Lebowitz, “Parkside.”
E’s Jammy Jams, “Shine on Harvest Moon”

2018 Tomato Growing: Ep5 ‘Suncherry Extra Sweet’ 2nd Tasting + Update

After the last episode, more tomato samples were had from the plant in the greenhouse. The sweetness level did not change much. It is worth noting that allowing the tomato more time to ripen did increase the sweetness a bit.

In this episode, we sample from a different plant grown in a different part of the yard; in soil that is more established. The tomato test was allow to vine ripen.
Like the first plant, the tomatoes from this plant missed the expectation for the level of sweetness. Additionally, the peel is tough.

Seed packet description: Suncherry Extra Sweet is a leading variety in Japan. Colorful and sweet, these bite-sized, deep red cherry tomatoes can be harvested over a long growing season with steady fruit set. They resist cracking and are particularly disease resistant to fusarium wilt race 1 and TMV. The fruits are very sweet with a 9-10 brix degree in sugar content.

Additional remarks: in the video, I said that 36 cents per seed is expensive. I mean that in relative terms. Additionally, these being hybrid means that the seeds from these tomatoes may not grow into plants that produce the same fruit characteristics. This means that unlike heirloom varieties that allow us to seed save, hybrid seeds will have to purchased every time we run out.

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

2018 June 05 — Garden Update

Many of these plants were started much earlier in the year (early February) than last. The early starts is an ongoing trial to see how soon we can start our plants outside here in the Los Angeles area.