Strawberries from the Garden

Strawberries from the Garden

Feb 22, 2011

Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant

I don't think I can ever plant enough tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant! We love Italian and Mexican food and these three ingredients are a staple in our house!

I plant a lot of different types of tomatoes. I like to plant tomatoes that are good for sauce, salsa, canning whole, and eating fresh. I have found the heirloom yellow and red pear tomatoes will produce more tomatoes than you can ever eat! My grape tomatoes always look more like the size of small plums, and the Cherokee purple tomatoes are amazing anyway you eat them! For sauce to can, I prefer the meaty San Marzano tomato.

My favorites are; yellow and red pear tomato, grape tomato, Cherokee purple tomato, San Marzano tomato

In terms of peppers, I plant all different colors of sweet belle peppers in order to make my homemade salsa a real visual treat as well as delicious! I enjoy the fish pepper, Italian pepperoncini pepper, patio red marconi pepper, and the serrano pepper. I use them fresh, in canning, and some of them I dry, crush and use in cooking throughout the winter.

I love to grow eggplant and I especially enjoy the smaller ones such as Ichaban, Long Purple, and I like the Black Opal. The trick is to give them plenty of space and treat them like a tomato plant.

I interplant carrots, lettuce and basil around my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.

In early spring, when it is not warm enough yet for this bed, I plant peas and lettuce and then clear everything out in time for the 'warm weather crew'.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the suggestions on what kind of plants. Last year was my first year at heirlooms and I look at the catalogs with no clue what kind to get. They all look amazing! lol

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