Edible plants Ideas, Tips & Guides

WHATEVER POTATO YOU SAY, SWEET OR WHITE, and however you pronounce it, the important thing is this: Are you making plans to grow these two cooperative, prolific crops in your home garden this year? The process begins now with starting or ordering slips (for sweet potatoes) and ordering seed potatoes (for white ones). My instructions for raising and storing a year of white potatoes, and a year of sweets.

Q. What is the difference between a determinate and an indeterminate tomato? Q. Should I grow heirloom or hybrid tomatoes?Q. How much sun do I need to grow tomatoes? Q. How do I prepare the soil for tomato plants? Q. Do I need to plant my tomatoes in a different place each year? Q. Can I grow tomatoes upside-down in one of those new hanging planters I saw?Q. How and when do I start tomatoes from seed?Q. When do I transplant my tomato seedlings into the garden?Q. Can tomato seed be direct-sown in the garden?Q. If I am buying tomato transplants, are big ones better? Q. How do I plant tomatoes?Q. Do I mulch my tomato plants? Q. Should I cage, stake or trellis my tomato plants? Q. Do tomato plants need pruning? Q. When and how much do I water tomato plants? Q. Do tomatoes need to be fed; I have read that they are “heavy feeders”?

By choosing seed farmed in conditions like my own–without chemicals, and if possible, in a geographically similar environment–I can contribute less to the pollution caused by conventional seed growing, and also make a happy “match” between the seeds and my garden. Read the “New York Times” story, and if you feel inclined, share it. My latest public-radio show, produced with Robin Hood Radio, digs into the subject, too.Categoriesedible plants from seed organics vegetables.

Aha! Enter Andrew Beckman, then-garden editor at my former employer Martha Stewart Living, who was also my weekend neighbor and gardening buddy until he moved West to become editor of garden book publisher Timber Press.Normally, I don’t start tomatoes until April 15 here in Zone 5B, but the year we shot these photos, we were trying something new, which required a little headstart. The slides show Phase 1–starting the seeds–of our grafted-tomato experiment (aimed, as you may recall if you read my wintertime post about grafting, at giving heirloom types more vigor and better yields). But you can use the same ho

Joseph and I are two peas in a pod, you see, but also apples and oranges. Joseph, who gardens in Michigan, and I are both seed-catalog madpeople—but we’re mostly mad about different catalogs, and different items.Back on the first of December, I wrote to Joseph, author of “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener,” to ask him if in, say, a month he’d be ready to talk about the latest catalogs.Silly me.“I just finished puttin

CRAZY, BUT TRUE: I ALWAYS THOUGHT the quirky “voice” of the Fedco Seeds catalog, named C.R. Lawn—get it? Lawn?—was a fictitious character, the made-up but pervasive green spirit of the longtime seed cooperative’s brand. But he’s not make-believe. He’s the Maine-based Fedco’s founder, and an organic gardener, market grower and seedsman with more than 30 years’ experience, and he took the time to answer some of my questions on what to grow and how to grow it better. The result is a vegetable-gardening Q&A (from peas to potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, mineral dusts and more), with the very real C.R. Lawn—and the chance to win three $20 Fedco gift certificates I bought to share with you, and say thanks to him. Let’s jump right in:

HOW DID I MISSED MARIA POPOVA’S bee item on her compelling Brain Pickings site in September, when she gathered (or curated, as she calls it) disparate inspirations about the essential creatures, whose plight on earth is so severely challenged?  Through Maria’s filter, their story is told with two very different must-watch videos, some truly up-close-and-personal electron microscope photographs, and her own words.SOMEONE ASKED ME ABOUT EDIBLE LANDSCAPING the other day, and I realized I’d lost track of the important, inspiring work of Rosiland Creasy, but now here she is: in the “Los Angeles Times” this week, for instance, with a new edition o

First, even if your tomatoes faltered or died, you may not have had late blight (I did not, to the best of my knowledge). An examination by a plant pathologist is the only way to be sure, but extensive late-blight photos at this Cornell link provided visual clues.Instead, one of a number of fungal diseases, particularly in a wet year like 2009, may have infected your plants, and/or a bacterial infection may have been present—such as a speck, spot or canker—oh, and there are viruses, too. We’ve talked about them before here. There is no shortage of possibilities; every time I look at Cornell’s Vegetable MD Online site, I am amazed and humbled that we ever ripen a tomato. Some surprising facts, and my intended tactics:Assuming this year’s last blight was the same strain normally seen, it can only overwinter on live plant tissues, not dead, in a cold zone like the Nort

I first heard about “Bird Songs Bible: The Complete, Illustrated Reference for North American Birds,” edited by Les Beletsky, featuring sound from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and published by Chronicle Books, in this NPR segment last month. One caveat: The book-cum-boombox (birdbox?) ain’t cheap (cheep?) at $125.‘Millions Against Monsanto’ CampaignIWON’T ELABORATE OR START SHOUTING, but rather leave it at this: One of the things that scares me most is GMO crops, whether in the field or in our food. The Organic Consumers Union offers education, and also an advocacy program (aimed squarely at Monsanto, of course, whom they label “the biotech bully”) to make it easy for us all to add our names to the fight.

The evolving rainbow of peas at Peace Seedlings—with more colors to come—got its start with decades of breeding by Alan Kapuler, Dylana’s father, a longtime public-domain plant breeder and the founder of Peace Seeds.(More on him, and on some of the other combined Kapuler treasures, from marigolds and zinnias to edible Andean tubers like oca and yacon, to a rainbow of beautiful beets, is at the end of this story.)“We’re doing a lot of crosses and selecting ourselves now, too,” says Dylana of the work she and partner Mario DiBenedetto continue in collaboration with Alan and his wife, Linda, in Corvallis, Orego

“In a way,” she writes in the introduction to “Vegetarian India,” “I have been traveling for this book forever.” I suspect other readers will be grateful as I am for every mile she logged and every recipe gleaned from a vast and diverse nation of many cuisines.In Madhur’s talk and in the book since, I’ve been transported to India’s roadside food stands offering spiced potato fritters or perhaps mung-bean pancakes (topped with chutney and perhaps an egg, please). We stopped in home kitchens, and for a workplace lunch with a Bombay jeweler; at an ashram, enjoying a simple, not-too-spicy cauliflower dish; in Southwest India for an unexpected fusion of ingredients: mushroom curry made with coconut milk.About 200 simple-to-prepare recipes

MY MOTHER KEEPS SPOUTING some crap about how my catnip is really called Nepeta cataria. See the words “pet” and “cat” in there?—I’m telling you, she talks in word puzzles, though she’s no Will Shortz. She blathers on that it’s “a perennial that self-sows” (what?).

I love ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes, the tangerine-colored cherry, and wouldn’t be without one plant each year, but I’m always wishing there was a red cherry-sized fruit that was a little different—not your predictable ‘Sweet 100’ or ‘Sweet Million’ kind of character. The larger ‘Chadwick’s Cherry’ is someone special, but an indeterminate grower and later to yield. Perhaps in ‘Riesentraube’ I have finally found my dreamboat?‘Riesentraube’ (which means giant grape, probably for the way the fruits are bunched) is various said to have good flavor—beefsteak-like, says Southern Exposure—in a highly prolific plant that produces several hundred flowers and then giant clusters of 20 or even 40-plus fruits apiece. I can hardly wait, but I must, as it’s not time to start tomato seeds here yet by a longshot. Though some sources say ‘Riesentraube’ is a compact

First, let’s do a little learning on the topic of local as it applies to heirloom seeds.  I loved where the conversation led in my Q&A with Ken:Q. “Local heirlooms” is a primary message, and mission, of Hudson Valley Seed Library. Explain. A. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder and taste is on the tongue of the eater, defining the term “local heirloom” is in the hands of the gardener. Most seeds have traveled more miles than any of us will in our lifetimes. Very few of the varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers that we love originally came from the places where we live. Many favorites, like tomatoes, originated in warm, sunny places like Central and South America. As the seeds traveled to new places, met new people with their own ideas of flavor, beauty, and use, they changed.So local do

It is barely May, and I have two things in my northern garden to eat, both perennials: the start of the asparagus crop (the previous installment of this collaborative Spring Fling online recipe swap, remember?), and likewise the earliest rhubarb.I’m crazy about how tropical and zaftig my old rhubarb plants looks alongside the vegetable garden—and oh, those sexy, urgent-looking unfurling parts!—so I don’t harvest all its stalks at any time, but rather pick selectively to have both food and ornament.From among the forest, I judiciously cut out some young, tender stems, picking regularly (you’d never notice, the plant is so quick to cover up my withdrawals). The big, old stems are great for holding up the biggest

BY LUMPING THE CROPS I SOW INDOORS in spring into three simple groups with similar time needs, I streamline my seed-starting. You’ll need to memorize only one fact to use my “lumped-together” countdown formula, and that’s your local date of average final frost (mine isn’t until close to June).The brassicas, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi, all have the same requirements: a month to six weeks indoors under lights before they go outside, which is safe about a month before final frost. This group therefore gets its start between March 15 and April 1 in my household. (Note with Brussels sprouts: many resources say sow them later, like May 1 or so, so they stand well into frost, when they achieve their best flavor. Today there are varieties requiring as few as 82ish days to maturity and as many as 100-plus, so take into consideration which you’re growing when you plan when to sow.)Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants make up my second group, each getting si

Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same. (Their names and links will be on each of my posts, and mine on theirs.)The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. Yes, copy and paste them everywhere! That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dia

MY LATEST WEEKLY SHOW with NPR affiliate Robin Hood Radio, WHDD in Sharon, Connecticut, tackles the topic of replanting your vegetable garden for a harvest well into the fall. Stream it, or subscribe free on iTunes.Soil Too Hot and Dry for Germination?SOME SEEDS WON’T GERMINATE in baking soil, so a day or two before I sow things in high summer, I moisten and shade the bed-to-be. Cultivate at least lightly to prepare the seedbed, then water well and erect knitted shade fabric on hoops (over the area, or just lay it on the ground).  With heat-sensitive crops like salad things and spinach, I leave the shade cloth up as the plants develop.But When Exactly to Sow What?IT DOESN’T ALL GO IN AT ONCE—each crop has its timing, thoug

http://vimeo.com/13985863 SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW Shauna James Ahern, the Gluten-Free Girl, who has participated in many Summer Fest and Fall Fest events here with me the last couple of years. Her extremely popular blog is for people who love food—and great writing.Don’t let the “gluten-free” part of Shauna and her chef husband Danny’s website or their new cookbook scare you off, if wheat and other glutens aren’t something you worry about eating because you don’t have the kind of sensitivity that prompted Shauna to go gluten-free in 2005. This is just plain delicious food, made from fresh ingredients—and (surprise! rapture!) there is plenty of baking in the mix, including carrot-ginger cake and focaccia–and a pear tart, made with Asian pears and a sorghum, potato and sweet-rice flour crust. There is even hom

The fruits above (which are ‘San Marzano 2’) got exposed to too much heat and sun while ripening, which caused the chlorophyll up toward the stem end to fail to break down and give way to other pigments. Again, apparently some varieties are more inclined to have this issue surface under such stress than others that are more resistant; I have read that heirlooms are more inclined to green shoulders than hybrids, but who knows if that is so? Sometimes the color shifts to yellow (called yellow shoulders, of course)–but even then, not to red.The good news is that assuming subsequent fruits don’t get roasted and toasted on the vine, they’ll be fine. These two were on the lower part of the plant where some foliage had dried and dropped off, leaving them out in the altogether during the recent heatwave. If the plants had lost foliage where other fruit are forming, leaving them vulnerable, too, I’d provide some shade with a knitted fabric, forming a loose tent to block maybe 30 percent

You’ll notice that I said sweet potato-greens soup in the headline, though Anna Thomas’s original has it the other way round, with the greens first. I suspect her soup is greener in color than mine comes out, too. That why I say mine is an adaptation (that, and the fact that once I read a recipe and follow it the first time, I rarely look again, and just keep on adapting).my version of sweet potato-greens soup with sageNote: This soup freezes very well, but as with all soups, I refrigerate it for a day first to let the flavors meld.ingredients1¼-2 pounds sweet potatoes (Anna recommends 1¼; I use about 2 to shift the flavor and color balance) 1½  tsp. sea salt 2 to 3 Tbsp. sage leaves chopped 1 bunch kale 1 bunch chard 8 cloves garlic 3 cups vegetable broth 3 cups of water 2 large yellow onions 2 Tbsp. olive oil black pepper really good olive oil for garnish stepsPeel and cube the sweets, and put them w

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-based but Southeast-bred Kevin West strikes me at once as a very modern and also a very old-fashioned guy–a great combination to my mind. Quotes from the classical Roman poet Virgil open the chapters in his book, “Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling and Preserving,” which is also loaded with old-fashioned fruits he hopes we haven’t forgotten about.

THE ANNUAL RITUAL BEGINS: At tax time in the Northeast, we start our tomato seeds indoors, though many of you may be putting your seedlings out in the garden already or otherwise way ahead of me.

IT’S TOMATO TIME HERE: time to plant out the seedlings, and therefore a perfect moment to review the particulars of growing this favorite crop: Are bigger seedlings really better? Determinate or indeterminate; hybrid or heirloom? How deep do you plant them in the garden? When and what to feed? All this and more, in my Tomato-Growing FAQ (and if you’re farther along, and seeing issues like spotted or yellowing leaves, review this Tomato-Troubles FAQ page, too). So study up: We’ll be having a quiz later.

Four Winds Growers was founded around the idea of developing and promoting dwarf varieties of citrus to fit the scale of the new-home boom in post-war California and beyond–including on all those patios, and also in pots as the container-gardening trend began to take hold. Four Winds remains a family business, and a multi-generational one. It was taken over by the founder’s son, who ran it from the early 1950s until recently, when his son took charge, along with his daughter; her husband, and a grandson.In his own home garden, Four Winds marketing director Ed Laivo has potted citrus that he has been growing for “upwards of 25 or even 30 years.” He joined me on the radio and podcast to share his tips on container growing and pest control. (The transcript of the Nov. 3, 2014 show is below.)citrus-growing q&a with e

A. Sometimes when I’ve brought our seeds to a farmer’s market or event I hear people muttering as they pass our table, “I can’t start from seed.” At first it broke my heart a little. But then I started getting brave and asking people what they meant.In my mind I couldn’t fathom how someone might think they can’t grow a plant from seed. To me it’s natural, that’s how plants grow! Once I began talking to people I realized it was a fear based on previous attempts to grow from seed that did not work out–particularly seeds that need to be started early indoors in short-season areas, like tomatoes and peppers.But there are so many more seeds that can be direct sown–put in the ground at the right time and left to their own magical will to grow.Good examples of direct-sown seeds are peas, beans, corn, lettuce, arugula, calendula, nasturtium, and Asian greens. The only plants we Northerners and those in similar zones r

A READER WROTE IN THE OTHER DAY saying a storm had toppled her tomatoes, breaking off a fruit-laden branch or two. What to do with all those green tomatoes, she wondered? Well, there’s more than one way to ripen a tomato (and if all else fails there is always green tomato-apple mincemeat or chutney to be made).

IAM WAITING, WATCHFULLY, FOR THE MOMENT–the garlic-harvest moment. Unlike its botanical cousin the onion, garlic doesn’t want to be left to go completely brown in the garden–but digging it too soon can diminish storage life as well.

TOO MANY BEANS? Kale galore? Tomatoes finally ripening faster than you can use them fresh? Make soup, and freeze it—my favorite and most satisfying way to preserve the harvest, since there’s hardly a winter day when I don’t feel like a bowl of soup. Three favorite, easy recipes to turn your garden into right now:My basic vegetable soup, taught to me by my food-writer friend Irene Sax, is loaded with carrots, onions, green beans (and/or peas if you have them), dry beans, leafy greens or broccoli or both, plus tomatoes.

I love thee simply roasted, then skinned, sliced and tossed with Balsamic and oil—beets vinaigrette, so to speak, and a salad unto itself. (For a variation on the dressing, use fresh orange juice in place of some of the vinegar.)I love thee (vinaigrette and all) on top of tender salad greens, whose slightly sweet taste offsets your all-undergroundly, Fruit-of-the-Earth flavor.I love thee even better when a dollop of warmed chevre and a handful of pepitas (pumpkin seeds) are the third and fourth layer in the above-described deal (top photo).And sweetheart, you aren’t bad with crumbles of blue cheese and eith

I already sowed my first short rows of salad greens and arugula, one in the coldframe and one in open ground. The protected ones are up; I’ll repeat the modest sowings in open ground every 10 days or two weeks all season long, a little bit at a time, for a continuous bowl of greens. This is how I sow salad stuff.My seed potatoes—which is what small potatoes for planting are called—should be arriving before long, and will go into the garden late this month. How I plant potatoes.My asparagus bed

John, whose dramatic and delicious purple ‘Dragon’ carrot is bright orange inside, was reassuring as ever. First, don’t feel bad, he said. “Carrots are one of the harder vegetables to grow,” confirms John (with flowering carrots in an OSA photo, above), and for a few reasons:They’re such small plants when they first sprout (the seed isn’t too big, either; I like to use pelleted, shown below, and there are now pelleted ones that meet organic certification requirements).To get really good quality you need “unchecked growth”—no obstacles either literal (like rocky or otherwise tough soil) or meteorological (extremes of heat, cold or especially dryness). “Succulence and flavor wi

“If you can force us to ripen,” the few lingering tomatoes seem to say, “we dare you to do so.”  (Apparently they don’t know I have my ripening tricks.) “If not,” they add, “then give up already and make us into green tomato-apple mincemeat, or pickle us, won’t you?”“If instead of letting repeat frosts have their way,” the parsley utters, “you know you’ll be happier with me tucked safely in the freezer in those things you call your parsley logs.”“If you can figure out what to do with me,” a particularly raggedy row of kale (apparently visited by a cabbage-worm convention) says in a shrill and challenging tone, and I think, Hey, don’t get fresh with me!Yes I can, dear kale, because once you’re b

THE HARVEST IS FINALLY ACCELERATING, which got me thinking about a tool that’s as critical to success right about now as my mower and spade: the perfect canning jar. One morning this week, over a cup of tea on Skype with my friend Gayla Trail a.k.a. You Grow Girl, we ended up having an entire conversation about them, in fact.

As vegetable beds or portions of beds come empty, sow cover crops, growing “green manure” to build soil health organically.Get after mice and voles (but never with mothballs!), before they set up winter housekeeping with you.Make easy herbed salts (great as gifts!) or flavored vinegars (ditto). Freeze som

Like everything in gardening—a pursuit I always remind myself is part art, part science—experts differ on just how to save tomato seed. I’ve listed links to some variations below. But basically, here’s the idea:1. Working with one variety at a time, select fully mature fruits to collect your seed from. The fruits you use should be true to type for that variety—not the runts, and not oddities like double fruit. Seed Savers Exchange says to avoid the first fruit from large-fruited varieties, too.Suggestion: If you’re going to save a lot of tomato seed, plan to do this when you are making soup or sauce or maybe gazpacho, because there will be lots of tomato flesh that would otherwise go to waste.2. Simply cut the fruits in half or quar