The Tomatoes are Here

Yesterday I enjoyed the first tomatoes ripe off the vine from my garden. It’s been a long process to get them here, but they were definitely worth it. I started growing this variety of Tigerella tomatoes plant back in December, you can read about how I grew it inside under my LED light at the linked blog posts. I was really interested in the size and amazing coloration of this variety of tomato. The plants grown like crazy indoors, with just regular fertilizing, and as soon as it got warm enough I wrestled the pot outside and into a sunny spot in the yard. Overnight two of the tomatoes ripened, I let them stay on the vine another two days just to be sure, but when I couldn’t wait any longer, I just had to pick them.  The flavor was incredible, really rich, and slightly salty. I was worried they would lack flavor since they were mostly grown indoors, but this definitely did not taste like a hot house tomato.

The Tigerella tomato is a plum/cherry type tomato that is bi colored, red with yellow stripes. The plant which takes 59 days to mature is an indeterminate variety, with fruit that range in size from 2 to 4 ounces. It can grow to be 9 ft tall without pruning.

https://thepaintedrabbit.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/small-scale-indoor-gardening/
https://thepaintedrabbit.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/my-winter-garden/

Small Scale Indoor Gardening

The indoor closet garden is exploding, with a deep heady fragrance, that smells like a hot-house, coming from the very center of our home. It’s filled with all sort’s of yummy edible vegetables. From the sweet pea’s climbing up the ropes that I hung from the hanging rails that the builders put in, I don’t think when they were designing a hanging closet they ever imagined sweet pea’s growing from them, to the budding tomato’s that are now starting to get the very first of their fruit, basil, and peppers.

Each week I get 5 maybe 10 big pea pods off of the pea plant not a ton, but it’s just getting into its big production period and it’s nice for topping on salads. Plus the wonderful smell of the flower blossoms is a great treat. Next time I think I will pick a variety with a larger crop, even if it takes longer to get to its harvest period. These sweet pea’s had a really quick time to harvest.

The other tip I would recommend is to always keep your lights LED 3-5 inches above your plants. While the plants will still survive with them even a few feet above your plants, they wont have the super growth you’ll see with the plants nice and close to the lights. It’s hard to manage keeping everything this close when you have plants which are big like the tomatoes and peas, and small, like some of my pots of basil, so I have been trying to stack pots together and pot things doubled up.

The weird thing about our garden is that the only light coming from the room is a deep dark fuchsia. It seems alien, or like something you would imagine seeing in the far reaches of space, or on a Sci Fi show. I love it. I think the coolest part of the LED UFO lights that I use, is how they confuse your eyes, while you’re in the room everything is so pink, the leaves are black, blue, or white if they have died back, but once you leave the room everything white turns a strange yellowy green. It’s trippy, until you get used to it.

I’d like to keep expanding our indoor garden, in the next few weeks we’ll be adding some Genovese basil, as well as some cutting flowers. I can’t wait to see how these Tigerella tomatoes develop!

My Winter Garden

Just like so many gardeners, I dread the winter, when everything dies back and there is just nothing to do. It is just so boring! Living in the south our winter is pretty short but, we’re still lacking the fresh produce that I crave all year round, this year I decided to start my first indoor farming experience. A few months age I started growing two types of peas, purple basil, tomatoes, and an extra licoricy green basil, growing inside a windowless closet and they have been coming in amazingly ever since.

For me the big question was lighting, I have central pain syndrome and the normal  grow lights that are used in doors, sets CPS’s alydonia skin pain flaring like crazy, so I needed lights with a really low frequency, but heavy output for the plants. Plus the regular lights are a major fire hazard, I don’t want my house going up in flames because I need my pesto once a week. I finally decided on these really cool LED lights. They look hot pink to the human eye and are made up of the exact wavelengths of light that the plants need to grow, the lights look dim since they are only producing the spectrums needed for the plants to grow in.

So have fun looking at pictures of my garden, I’m amazed how much I have produced in a 4ft square space. Especially when I can’t seem to keep the dogs and cats out of there.

Fresh From The Garden, Roma Tomato Sauce

I’ve been trying, and trying to make tomato sauce for weeks now.  The first recipe I found was from Alton Brown, so I expected it to be phenomenal. Well, it turned into a soggy burned mess.  The second I had really high hopes for, since it was also a roasted tomato recipe, but with a much shorter cooking time. It was so burnt, we had to chip the tomatoes of the cookie sheets.

So this week with another 8 pounds of Roma tomatoes coming in off the vine, I decided to try one last time. This go around I decided on a simple recipe from AllRecipes.com, that could be spiced up with some fresh growing herbs from my garden. And the result was delicious, light and fruity with a heady fragrance, and an amazing velvety texture!

Ingredients
•    8 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
•    1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
•    2 large stems Rosemary
•    3 tablespoons fresh oregano
•    1 large onion, minced
•    3 cloves garlic, minced
•    1 tsp sugar
•    1/2 cup olive oil
•    salt and pepper to taste

1. Carefully wash tomatoes, make sure to remove any leaves or branches. Put them in a large bowl next to your stove, to get ready to remove the tomato skins.

2. In a medium pot heat your water to a simmer, and put in your first batch of tomatoes. While you are waiting for the skin of the tomatoes to crack, set up a bowl of ice water on the side.

3. Once the tomato skin cracks, remove the tomatoes from the simmering water with a slotted spoon. Put the cracked tomatoes into ice water to cool them. At this point you want to put your second batch of tomatoes into the simmering water. Once the second batch of tomatoes are all in the hot water,  pick up a tomato from the ice water and peal the skin off. Place your skinned tomatoes on a baking sheet.

4. Now that you have pealed all 8 pounds of tomatoes, it’s time to seed them. To seed the tomato cut it in half, and then with a small spoon, or your favorite seeding device, I just use my fingers, scoop out all of the seeds. Then before putting the tomato into the bowl, I tear them up into small pieces.

Here are some more images of pretty pealed tomatoes!!!!

5. And now we make sauce. In large saucepan, cook tomatoes, basil, and herbs over medium-low heat until tomatoes are soft.

6. Meanwhile, in medium skillet, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent.

7. Add onion mixture to tomato mixture and add salt and pepper. Let simmer on low heat for 2 hours or until thick.

8. Remove the Rosemary stems, and then using an immersion blender process the tomato sauce. After braking down the sauce, I simmered it for another half an hour until it had reduced to a perfect consistency.