I've talked briefly on tomatillos in the past, but haven't given them enough verbiage on this blog and my excitement on growing them this year.
In my effort to find relatively easy, pest free things to grow that can hold for a good while without refrigeration, I came upon tomatillos. The fact that they sound like "tomatoes" helps too, because just about anything that sounds like/reminds me of a tomato seems to be delicious.
My first encounter with tomatillos was at an amazing international mart in my hometown over last Thanksgiving. I had seen and heard of tomatillos before as I am an authentic cookbook freak and there are a good number of Mexican recipes that cite tomatillos as an ingredient. The fruit itself is very eye catching: papery yellowing husk with a slight stickiness to it and a globular lime green firm fruit popping out from the husk. I didn't want to eat the fruit when I was away from home because I wanted to save the seeds properly and was afraid I'd lose them if I attempted tomatillo seed saving away from home, so I brought the fruits back and after a few weeks, and noticing with glee that they held very well at room and refrigerator temperature, I finally cut into them.
I had actually had never had a tomatillo before then and so I was very surprised by the flavor. It was an intense, green apple flavor with citrus-y tones and other ineffable notes that I can't describe. I was impressed, and my husband was too, and when gets impressed by a fruit/vegetable, I take note because he's quite a bit pickier than me about these things.
The seeds can be saved very easily, just like regular tomato seeds via the fermentation method, though I suspect they could also just be washed and dried for later use. My experience also seems to indicate that the seeds are very vigorous and I've had no troubles with germination.
Tomatillos, also known as Mexican husk tomato, or to get Latin-y: Physalis philadephica, are of the Solanaceae family, where tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are also members of. Closer relatives to tomatillos include: Love-in-a-cage, aka Chinese lantern plants, gooseberries and ground cherries; all of which are edible and can be eaten fresh or made into jams/jellies.
The green varieties of tomatillos tend to be larger and tarter with the purple variety, which I have not personally tried, but hope to this summer, is supposed to be smaller but sweeter and hold longer and are also less sticky than the green kind. The green and purple variety both produce about the same amount of total fruit in volume per plant, with fewer individual green fruits as they are larger, but more purple fruits as they're smaller.
There are few pests that affect tomatillos, though I did encounter tobacco/tomato hornworms on some seedlings recently, I have noticed very little damage on my older plants that are in the garden ground other than maybe some flea beetle nibbles.
I've read that the soil should be rich where you decide to grow tomatillos, but as they are like weeds in Mexico I've heard and if they are like the tomato plants from my compost bin, they'll be forgiving of the soil I'm sure.
Tomatillo vines like tomatoes can be stakes or allowed to roam, though obviously you'll get more clean fruit when staked. The leaves are like a mix of tomato and pepper leaves, though rangier in my opinion. Mine have still yet to show flower, but from pictures they appear to look like tomatoes for the most part with some darkness in the center.
Once the flowers are pollinated and the fruit begins, the fun too begins! The fruit swells and is covered by the calyces of the flower, which will form the husk. The husk covers the fruit and when it's time to harvest, like a turkey with those red pop up things, the fruit breaks the husk to indicate ripeness! How much easier can it get?!
Harvest as often as possible because like other fruits/vegetables, production goes down if you don't harvest. Storage is simple, refrigeration with husks on or off, though I've heard they last longer with the husks off. I've also read that single layers in a cool dark location allow tomatillos to store just fine for months. In addition, like some tomato tales I've heard, natives in Central/South America will just store entire yanked up plants with fruits on them hanging upside-down in a room just fine.
Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply sells both verde and purple tomatillo seeds and if you need other seeds anyways, they do have a current special of 2 free organic vegetable seed packets with every order from now until the end of the year, so take advantage if you already need seeds and want to try a new vegetable or variety! (<-- not affiliated btw, just like their free seed thing).
Many pardons for the lack of pics on my behalf. It's my first year growing growing them, and there hasn't been much activity or flowering, so it's a boring plant to look at now. Please follow the links provided if you wish for more pics or interesting uses for tomatillos:
http://www.google.com/images?q=tomatillo&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_husk_tomato.html
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-tomatillo14-2008may14,0,1107342.story
Showing posts with label tomatillos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatillos. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Gibberellin overload? Lessons in Tomatillo seedlings...
So, the tomatillo seedlings. They seem happy. Almost a little too happy. Or just supermodel leggy, which makes no sense because I KNOW they're getting adequate light. Everyone else seems happy and NORMAL in the mini greenhaus.
The tomatillos on the other hand... what the heck?
(pardon for dirty side of greenhaus... too small to get my camera in there properly to show the legginess)
I think I might be needing to transplant/re-pot these sooner than I thought.
I'm really hoping (and assuming) just like tomatoes they're a hardy bunch and will take well to being moved around and yanked out of their little soil-y home because, Immagonnahaveto.
Funny how everything seems to take so long to get started, and once it does, there's a feeling of "SLOW DOWN! PLEASE"
Like I tell my husband when I go garden crazy in the spring and seem manic in the garden, "MOTHER NATURE! I CAN'T STOP HER! I have to plant, NOW!"
By now you're probably wondering, "When's she going to get to that weird thing in her subject heading? Gibb-a-what?"
Gibberellin is this super spiffy thing in nature that has never left my head since I heard about it in a high school biology class. (That and cane toads). Anyways, gibberellin, besides being a fun word to say is a plant hormone that is involved in development. It's involved in the aptly dubbed "foolish seedling" disease. You can read the linked wiki article, but the main point is ridiculous plant growth in the seedling stage that causes it to be tall and thin and thus delicate and easily breakable at an early stage.
I don't really think my tomatillo has this issue, but I just think of gibberellin every time I have seedlings that act this way or I see tall skinny people or my patience wears thin...
That's my bit of science trivia for today!
Hope all is well in your gardens and that you're babies aren't growing up too quick!
The tomatillos on the other hand... what the heck?
I think I might be needing to transplant/re-pot these sooner than I thought.
I'm really hoping (and assuming) just like tomatoes they're a hardy bunch and will take well to being moved around and yanked out of their little soil-y home because, Immagonnahaveto.
Like I tell my husband when I go garden crazy in the spring and seem manic in the garden, "MOTHER NATURE! I CAN'T STOP HER! I have to plant, NOW!"
By now you're probably wondering, "When's she going to get to that weird thing in her subject heading? Gibb-a-what?"
Gibberellin is this super spiffy thing in nature that has never left my head since I heard about it in a high school biology class. (That and cane toads). Anyways, gibberellin, besides being a fun word to say is a plant hormone that is involved in development. It's involved in the aptly dubbed "foolish seedling" disease. You can read the linked wiki article, but the main point is ridiculous plant growth in the seedling stage that causes it to be tall and thin and thus delicate and easily breakable at an early stage.
I don't really think my tomatillo has this issue, but I just think of gibberellin every time I have seedlings that act this way or I see tall skinny people or my patience wears thin...
That's my bit of science trivia for today!
Hope all is well in your gardens and that you're babies aren't growing up too quick!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Ze Seeds! Ze Seeds! A garden fantasy.
The seeds have actually been sprouted up for a few days now, but my have they made progress!
They seem quite happy in my mini greenhouse and I will be sad almost when the greenhouse is empty. I'll be an empty mini-greenhouser "Oh how they grow up so fast!" Wait. Stop. This is too close to the idea of myself propagating, aka having children. I still have a good 5-6 years before my eggs start totally dropping off! There's so much to do, so many vegetables I need to grow to can little jars of pureed stuff I need to make in preparation for that time... But seriously, biological clock is NOT ticking despite all the links my mom sends me about babies.
There's nothing more hopeful than seeing seeds germinate. The swell of the soil by an impatient little plant cracking open its piece of earth. I can totally empathize. Even the part where it is unceremoniously taken from its comfy bit of land and transferred to larger and larger pieces of land UNTIL IT CANNOT BE PAMPERED ANY FURTHER AND MUST COMPETE!
Oh the world can be such a harsh place. But, only the strong can survive in Persephone's garden :P I can forsee my children to probably not be so forgiving to me as a parent...
The tomatillo seeds have been amazing! One night there was nothing and the next, 5 seedlings pop up, all straight and "Hello there!"
I'm a little concerned that maybe they plants will be getting a wee big in the year and I will just have to plant them out earlier than I expect... maybe late March? Mid April? Eh, a cheap bottle cloche and/or sheet will do the trick if need be.
I am going to PACK this garden tight this year and really go seriously French Intensive.
The tomatoes will probably be tucked in with the all sorts of lettuces and root vegetables growing this year as they'll grow well above them. The tomatillos could sprawl (like the tomatoes I suppose, but why possibly promote waste and disease and encourage pests?
The goal this year was to not only have high quality and quantity of crops, but also "make it
prettier." "Prettier," is a concept a little more foreign to me, but with this past winter, I have been seriously tired and have been craving color, bees, birds and a place that's more.. approachable. It was mostly attractive before I think, but I'm really looking for something to knock my socks off.
Tall order eh?
Well, we all can have our fantasies.
They seem quite happy in my mini greenhouse and I will be sad almost when the greenhouse is empty. I'll be an empty mini-greenhouser "Oh how they grow up so fast!" Wait. Stop. This is too close to the idea of myself propagating, aka having children. I still have a good 5-6 years before my eggs start totally dropping off! There's so much to do, so many vegetables I need to grow to can little jars of pureed stuff I need to make in preparation for that time... But seriously, biological clock is NOT ticking despite all the links my mom sends me about babies.
There's nothing more hopeful than seeing seeds germinate. The swell of the soil by an impatient little plant cracking open its piece of earth. I can totally empathize. Even the part where it is unceremoniously taken from its comfy bit of land and transferred to larger and larger pieces of land UNTIL IT CANNOT BE PAMPERED ANY FURTHER AND MUST COMPETE!
Oh the world can be such a harsh place. But, only the strong can survive in Persephone's garden :P I can forsee my children to probably not be so forgiving to me as a parent...
The tomatillo seeds have been amazing! One night there was nothing and the next, 5 seedlings pop up, all straight and "Hello there!"
I'm a little concerned that maybe they plants will be getting a wee big in the year and I will just have to plant them out earlier than I expect... maybe late March? Mid April? Eh, a cheap bottle cloche and/or sheet will do the trick if need be.
I am going to PACK this garden tight this year and really go seriously French Intensive.
The tomatoes will probably be tucked in with the all sorts of lettuces and root vegetables growing this year as they'll grow well above them. The tomatillos could sprawl (like the tomatoes I suppose, but why possibly promote waste and disease and encourage pests?
The goal this year was to not only have high quality and quantity of crops, but also "make it
prettier." "Prettier," is a concept a little more foreign to me, but with this past winter, I have been seriously tired and have been craving color, bees, birds and a place that's more.. approachable. It was mostly attractive before I think, but I'm really looking for something to knock my socks off.
Tall order eh?
Well, we all can have our fantasies.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Seeds in the Greenhaus!
Now, it's just time for the waiting.
I say this every year to my husband, "It's only a week of actually real hard work each season, prepping it all and planting seeds..." then it's all just maintenance from there on out.
"Uh huh," he replies tactfully.
I like being outside though, and need to be outside when it gets warmer 1) because I need the vitamin D as I don't drink real milk any more 2) it keeps me sane and 3) it's really my only form of exercise.
Once I start being unable to heave 50lb bags of soil over my shoulder I know I'll need to hit a gym (or a trainer, sorry, I hate gyms to be honest). If it wasn't for the garden or walking the dog (or hiking when possible), I would never be outside sadly as wifi at the house doesn't extend 2 feet from the walls of the house, if I'm even that lucky. Granted I don't need internet all the time, and this year, my netbook has an average battery life of 4 hours vs the 20 minutes of my old clunker, hurrah!
But back to seeds/seed starting:
-I have planted 2 cells of each kind of tomato seed I have/saved/been given: Amish paste, Stupice, Italian Heirloom, Tiny Tom, Brandywine, Nebraska Wedding, and Green Zebra striped.
-2 cells each of 4 different types of bell peppers (unfortunately no official names... but as I received so many seeds, I decided to plant them despite my poor luck in the past with peppers): purple, red, green thick walled and tiny orange ones.
-1 cells of tomatillos that I recently saved and am super excited about. Oddly delicious, bust your mouth open with green apple taste.
-I can't not plant hot peppers, love them so, so I used some leftover seed w/one pot each of: Chinese Ornamental, calico/tricolore garda (I had an extra pod lying around and I can't tell which), cubanelle and serrano!
In the mail today came SIX more tomato varieties that my Mother in Law had extras lying around and I had professed interest in, so now when I have time (and can buy/eat/finish a plastic dozen grocery store bakery container of donuts to make a greenhouse from) I will plant those lovelies and round out my tomato plan to THIRTEEN varieties of tomatoes this year! It's a little overwhelming, but exciting. I need to note which are determinate and indeterminate though before I plant them out or it'll be the mess of last year's "Gurney's Oop's we dropped a pile of tomato seeds, let's sell them as a set!" incident.
I tended to put 3-4 seeds/cell or pot, though sometimes more got in. I'll just thin them out later if they go crazy before transplanting to bigger pots. Some of the seeds we're the plumpest, so I wasn't sure if they'd be healthy enough to germinate.
I was thinking of one variety of tomato plant apiece in my backyard garden... maybe trellis a few along the fence if I need room, but I think I may need to grow tomatoes in the front yard this year! Ooh, DRAPED over my brick mailbox... I think it might like that. I think it would be nice to also give the mail man a treat whenever he likes too. He always puts candy in our mailboxes too as odd as it is and milkbones for the dog. Am I supposed to tip him?
The weather is supposed to warm up in the low 50s this weekend, but then goes down to lows in the freezings. Dagnabbit! (sp?) I want to plant some seeds outside! I know that some of my peas and other kales and things can germinate at low temps (I actually have some peas that have hung on/sprouted despite the weather that I planted earlier this winter outside!)... I just hate working out in the cold and worry worry worry about screwing up germination still. Cold wet soil, never good. But some plants can handle it.
March is coming along soon, and if the past is of any worth, I can ignore "proper" planting time and just get seeds in and put milk jug cloches on top if I'm really worried.
I'm going to watch my seeds now, k'thanx, bye ;)
Monday, January 18, 2010
Spoiled (oh, the simple things)
Went up to visit family in Ohio just over the weekend (thus no post-age) to pick up an old car that I was VERY grateful to get from my dad as my old mini-van crapped out. My parents are very generous with giving us any old stuff they have around, and as they take care of things very well, I'll accept a '94 Toyota with 120,000 miles just fine if it doesn't mean spending thousands on fixing this stupid engine issue on my Sienna.
ANYWAYS, on top of that spoilage (I suppose that can be in the "me being spoiled sense" and the booty/bounty kind), my dad gave me a slightly better digital camera than my current one which has been crapping out and the lens got weird and not focus-y (3 years old, but like I've said, I'm not picky) and my mom gave me some Swiss chard seeds that a friend of hers harvest (red and white chards, but no specific variety name.. oh well).
(seeds my mom gave me)
The only thing about the Swiss chard seeds she gave me is that the seeds don't look like swiss chard seeds that I've dealt with before... and luckily had a few leftover as reference. I had heard that chard and beet seeds are actually a large seed head with many teeny tiny seeds inside, so I crushed up one chard seed to see if there were any seeds within that looked like the ones my mom gave me.
(leftover chard seed I had, w/crushed up one on bottom)
Nada.
Oy. MooOOoOOoooom!!!!!!!!!
So, may I also explain that my mom is NOT a gardener and after 10 years of owning herb plants that I planted years ago she still cannot recognize what is what?
I'mma gonna call my mom and get her to find out what seeds I have been given before I plant them because I just had a near garden blow-up experience! (It's still too cold to have planted them but knowing me, I might have "experimented" planting some anyways as "chard" is a cool weather crop, but THIS is definitely not chard.)
I think it looks more like salad/lettuce seed of some sort or maybe even black eyed susan seed. Sheesh.
On another spoilage note, husband and I went to my favorite store of all time, a grocery store by the name of Jungle Jim's. If you live in the Cincy region or even around the tri-state of Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio, Jungle Jim's is your go-to destination for food. I could literally spend the entire day there in bliss checking out all the exotic foods, vegetables, teas, honeys, international this and thats. Mmmmm. Their okra still isn't as fresh as mine, but whatever, they had reduced red peppers at $1.59/lb (we got about 5 flats of them)! I can't find that ANYWHERE in Memphis.
(Woot! Red peppers!)
What really excited me is when I saw SUNCHOKE roots:
and
TOMATILLOS:
there, when gave me hope because I wanted to grow these fun things this coming season as I 1) couldn't find the seed for these anywhere without resorting to going online and paying shipping which I am trying to avoid as much as I can to save costs, and 2) I like the idea of seed saving and growing from the grocery store. Plus, now I can give them a little tasty-taste :)
My only nervousness about the sunchokes, aka Jerusalem artichokes is that they can be invasive (not always a bad thing when it comes to food... "oh no! I have too much deliciousness!) and I've heard that sunchokes can give a person massive gas. Pleasant, I know. The description of it in the wiki link is sort of frightening, but as I am sort of vegetarian and eat lots of beans already, well...
Finally, my being spoiled and gratitude towards others went through the roof when a very nice fellow local gardener gave me some tomato and other plant seeds earlier last week to help me out.
He had some great varieties and I only need about 5 seeds of each kind because I have yet to find a non-viable/hardy tomato seed. I find that I tend to grow more tomatoes than I need so this is a great way to keep my garden from becoming overgrown. Plus, now we can see who can grow a meaner tomato as that we have the same type and live in the same climate! (I'm sure he'll blow me out of the water on this one :P)
ANYWAYS, on top of that spoilage (I suppose that can be in the "me being spoiled sense" and the booty/bounty kind), my dad gave me a slightly better digital camera than my current one which has been crapping out and the lens got weird and not focus-y (3 years old, but like I've said, I'm not picky) and my mom gave me some Swiss chard seeds that a friend of hers harvest (red and white chards, but no specific variety name.. oh well).
(seeds my mom gave me)
The only thing about the Swiss chard seeds she gave me is that the seeds don't look like swiss chard seeds that I've dealt with before... and luckily had a few leftover as reference. I had heard that chard and beet seeds are actually a large seed head with many teeny tiny seeds inside, so I crushed up one chard seed to see if there were any seeds within that looked like the ones my mom gave me.
(leftover chard seed I had, w/crushed up one on bottom)
Nada.
Oy. MooOOoOOoooom!!!!!!!!!
So, may I also explain that my mom is NOT a gardener and after 10 years of owning herb plants that I planted years ago she still cannot recognize what is what?
I'mma gonna call my mom and get her to find out what seeds I have been given before I plant them because I just had a near garden blow-up experience! (It's still too cold to have planted them but knowing me, I might have "experimented" planting some anyways as "chard" is a cool weather crop, but THIS is definitely not chard.)
I think it looks more like salad/lettuce seed of some sort or maybe even black eyed susan seed. Sheesh.
On another spoilage note, husband and I went to my favorite store of all time, a grocery store by the name of Jungle Jim's. If you live in the Cincy region or even around the tri-state of Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio, Jungle Jim's is your go-to destination for food. I could literally spend the entire day there in bliss checking out all the exotic foods, vegetables, teas, honeys, international this and thats. Mmmmm. Their okra still isn't as fresh as mine, but whatever, they had reduced red peppers at $1.59/lb (we got about 5 flats of them)! I can't find that ANYWHERE in Memphis.
(Woot! Red peppers!)
What really excited me is when I saw SUNCHOKE roots:
and
TOMATILLOS:
there, when gave me hope because I wanted to grow these fun things this coming season as I 1) couldn't find the seed for these anywhere without resorting to going online and paying shipping which I am trying to avoid as much as I can to save costs, and 2) I like the idea of seed saving and growing from the grocery store. Plus, now I can give them a little tasty-taste :)
My only nervousness about the sunchokes, aka Jerusalem artichokes is that they can be invasive (not always a bad thing when it comes to food... "oh no! I have too much deliciousness!) and I've heard that sunchokes can give a person massive gas. Pleasant, I know. The description of it in the wiki link is sort of frightening, but as I am sort of vegetarian and eat lots of beans already, well...
Finally, my being spoiled and gratitude towards others went through the roof when a very nice fellow local gardener gave me some tomato and other plant seeds earlier last week to help me out.
He had some great varieties and I only need about 5 seeds of each kind because I have yet to find a non-viable/hardy tomato seed. I find that I tend to grow more tomatoes than I need so this is a great way to keep my garden from becoming overgrown. Plus, now we can see who can grow a meaner tomato as that we have the same type and live in the same climate! (I'm sure he'll blow me out of the water on this one :P)
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