Breeding Tomatoes for the "Holy Grail"
With a reputation for unusual and wildly popular tomato varieties, tomato breeder Brad Gates focuses above all else on flavour.
Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms on breeding tomatoes.
“I was looking for the holy grail that would have my customers come crawling back on their hands and knees.”
With a reputation for unusual and wildly popular tomato varieties, tomato breeder Brad Gates focuses above all else on flavour.
He didn’t start out working in tomato breeding. While working in the landscape industry, he was asked by a friend to help sell heirloom tomatoes at a farmers market. Gates loved the energy at the market—and he was fascinated with the unusual heirloom tomatoes.
So he started growing, and, eventually, breeding tomatoes.
Tomato Breeding
Gates says that flavour is always his top goal. Other important traits include:
pest and disease resistance
yield
shelf life
Tomato Flavour
Gates says, “Tomatoes have the potential of so many flavour aspects.” These include:
umami
richness
tartness
sweetness
He says that in general, he finds store-bought tomatoes are “one-dimensional.”
Looking Ahead
Heat and cool tolerance are traits that he has found in some of his varieties. For example,
Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye does well in cooler climates such as San Francisco, which is cool and foggy.
Lucid Gem has proven to be very tolerant of hot weather. In heat waves, when other varieties do poorly, Lucid Gem stands up well.
Gates says that he is currently working on small, two-foot-high tomato varieties that produce gourmet tomatoes.
Why small? Gates says, “Why grow one or two varieties when you can grow 10 or 15?”
More on Tomatoes
Harvest More With Garden Bed Covers
Find out how to use garden bed covers to harvest more and deter pests: row covers, cloches, cold frames, greenhouses.
Niki Jabbour, author of Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden, talks about using garden bed covers.
In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour about using garden bed covers. She is the author of the new book, Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden.
Jabbour is a Halifax-based, award-winning author, host of The Weekend Gardener radio show, and one of the experts behind the gardening website Savvygardening.com.
She discusses the benefits of using garden bed covers, choosing covers suited to your situation, how to boost insulation of cold frames, tips for people thinking of a greenhouse, and greenhouse covering materials.
Why use Garden Bed Covers
Jabbour says that there are many reasons to use garden bed covers. “It’s about gardening smarter, not harder,” she says.
Reasons to use garden bed covers include:
Larger harvests
Better ability to control the growing environment
Year-round harvests
Including more “hyper-local” food on the menu
Reduced pest pressure
Creating conditions suited to exotic crops
Growing Under Cover, by Niki Jabbour
6 Ways to Boost Insulation of Cold Frames
In Growing Under Cover, she talks about six ways to boost the insulation of cold frames.
Line with foam
Add thermal collectors such as water-filled bottles
Surround with straw or boughs
Bury the cold frame in soil or mulch
Seal the cold frame with weatherstripping
Cover it on cold nights with carpet, old blankets, or some sort of insulating material
Types of Garden Bed Covers
Jabbour points out that not everyone has the space or money for a glass greenhouse. But there are many other options to provide cover for crops. These include:
Row covers
Cloches
Cold frames
Plastic-covered greenhouses
Mini hoop tunnels
Emma’s Tomato-Talk Segment
DO YOU EVER FEEL overwhelmed when trying to choose tomato varieties for your garden? In Emma’s tomato segment, she talks about choosing tomato varieties suited to your garden. She talks about:
Thinking about your own preferences
Days to maturity
Plant size
Disease resistance
Shipping costs
Biggs-on-Figs Segment
Melinda Myers talks about growing figs and artichokes in Wisconsin.
In the Biggs-on-Figs segment, we head to Wisconsin to chat with gardening expert Melinda Myers, who grows figs and artichokes in her USDA zone 4b garden.
A fig grower for over a decade, Myers says she also likes to include figs in her presentations because it gets people’s attention. “It always gets a second glace from anybody in the North or Midwest,” she says.
Find Myers online at melindamyers.com, where she is currently offering a number of free webinars.
Cultivate a Taste for Bitter Foods...and Cardoon Plants
Toronto chef and author Jennifer McLagan talks about how to cook bitter foods such as cardoon plants. Photo by Shane Reid.
Chef and author Jennifer McLagan joins us to talk about bitter foods, explaining what bitterness is, and how to effectively use bitter in the kitchen.
McLagan is the author of the book, Bitter: A Taste of the World’s most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes.
The Loss of Bitter
McLagan recalls the grapefruit that her mother served her as a child. They had a slight bitterness—an “edge.” Her mother balanced that bitterness with a sprinkle of sugar on top.
McLagan says bitterness has been bred out of modern grapefruit. Now they’re sweet and pink…with no bitterness.
That loss inspired her book. “They don’t taste like grapefruit any more,” she says.
What is Bitter?
McLagan says that many people confuse bitter with sour. It is different from sour—one of the four basic tastes, along with sour, sweet, and salty.
“It adds a complexity and depth to the food,” says McLagan, explaining that using bitterness—like salt—makes food more interesting and less flat.
Cardoon plants are one of the bitter foods in Jennifer McLagan’s book, Bitter
She gives the example of crème brulée: The caramel topping has a bitter edge, which plays well with the sweet, rich pudding below.
Cooking with Bitter Foods
McLagan says that bitter is not as popular in North American cuisine as it is in other parts of the world. “The American palate is very geared towards sweet,” she explains.
Bitter pairs well with fat and with sweetness. “Bitter and fat are the two perfect things; one rounds out the other,” she says.
Here are ideas for using bitter in the kitchen:
McLagan talks about making turnip ice cream. She also suggests caramelizing turnips, which go well with baked apple or apple pie.
McLagan suggests cooking Belgian endive in butter (because fat and bitterness work well together) and then using that juice to make béchamel sauce, with added emmenthal cheese, to serve over top of the Belgian endives.
She has surprises in her book! There is a pannacotta with tobacco. McLagan says that small pieces of cigar give it a complex taste. A pannacotta is rich and creamy, and the bitterness from the tobacco comes through very gently at the back of the throat, making it a much more complex dish.
How to Cook Cardoon
For those who have never seen cardoon, McLagan describes it as “celery on steroids.” It has big, wide ribs. And it’s in the cover photo of her book.
The part of the plant that is eaten is the leaf rib. The rest of the leaf is discarded.
She describes it as having an artichoke-and-mushroom flavour—one that will seduce you once you appreciate the bitterness.
Here are McLagan’s tips for preparing and cooking cardoon:
Cut the cardoon stalks from the base.
Remove the spikes along the edge of the rib using a knife.
Next, remove the strings from the stalk (it’s like pulling the strings from a celery stalk).
McLagan finds a sharp knife works better than a vegetable peeler because there are a lot of strings and a peeler plugs up.
Once the stalks are prepared and you begin to chop them, you might find additional strings. If so, remove them.
Once chopped, place them immediately into water with lemon juice to prevent them from browning.
Cook in salted water until tender (the salt is important because salt helps pull out bitterness).
Drain.
Remove any remaining strings.
She says a great way to serve cardoon is with a cheese sauce. “When you put cheese on something, people love it,” she says.
MgLagan notes that the inner stalks are milder, with a better texture. They are less stringy, with a delicate silver-green colour and feathery leaves. She advises using stringy outside stalks for soup; and the more tender inside ones for a gratin or salad.
Here are the cardoon recipes she includes in the book:
Cardoon gratin
Cardoon soup
Warm cardoon and potato salad
Cardoon beef tagine
Cardoon cheese
Cardoon and bitter-leaf salad
Cardoon with braised bitter greens,
My daughter Emma with a cardoon flower. The plants have great ornamental value too.
Bitter in the Garden
One of the challenges—and delights—of growing new food crops in the garden is figuring out how to use them in the kitchen. Looking to add bitter to your garden? Here are ideas:
Arugula
Belgian endive
Cardoon
Citrus rind
Olives
Radicchio
Turnip
Tasty Tomatoes for Small Spaces: The Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project
Craig LeHoullier, author of the book Epic Tomatoes and one of the founders of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project
We’re joined by tomato expert Craig LeHoullier to talk about the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, preserving seed varieties, and to find out what’s new in his garden.
LeHoullier, an avid seed saver with a passion for saving and sharing heirloom tomato varieties, says that his seed collection contains somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 seed packets.
Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project
The project began in 2004. LeHoullier was getting a lot of questions about compact varieties at his annual tomato-plant sale.
He explains that dwarf tomato varieties, which grow vertically at approximately half the rate of other indeterminate tomato varieties, already existed at the time. But these dwarf varieties were obscure and hard to find.
He teamed up with a friend in Australia to start breeding new dwarf tomato varieties. That initiative soon grew into an open source, volunteer-run, worldwide breeding project. The goal was to breed stable, open-pollinated, dwarf tomato varieties from which gardeners could save their own seed.
The project began releasing dwarf tomato varieties to seed companies in 2010.
By 2020, 135 varieties had been released. And the project continues!
More on Tomatoes
Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting
Jessica Walliser, author of Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden
We’re joined by Pittsburgh-based horticulturist and author Jessica Walliser to talk about her new book Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden.
There is a lot of folklore that finds its way into discussions about companion planting. Walliser explains that her hope is to reboot the term “companion planting” by looking at it through a scientific lens.
What is Companion Planting?
Walliser says that companion planting is purposely planting two or more plants close together to get some sort of benefit.
Companion planting does not have to mean putting two plants together at the same time, however; it can also mean growing plants in succession.
Common terms used in science that overlap with the idea of companion planting are:
Intercropping
Plant partners
Interplanting
Polyculture
Benefits of Plant Partners
In her book, Walliser has chapters on seven different benefits of using plant partners in the vegetable garden.
Soil preparation and conditioning
Weed management
Support and structure
Pest management
Disease management
Biological Control
Pollination
An example of pest management is using “trap crops” to lure pests away from other crops. Squash bugs prefer blue hubbard squash to other squash varieties—meaning it can be used as a “trap crop.”
A plant partnership that helps to control aphid problems on lettuce is to grow sweet alyssum as a partner. The alyssum flowers are a favourite of both predatory and parasitic insects that help to control aphids.
For weed management, there are cover crops that suppress growth of weed seeds the following season. Those same cover crops also build soil structure as they decompose.
Living trellises are functional and can be aesthetically pleasing. A good example is using corn with beans.
Ever Heard of “Biodrilling”
An example of a plant partnership to help prepare the soil is the use of deep-rooted forage radishes as “biodrills” on heavy clay soil.
These plants have long tap roots that penetrate heavy soil. The roots are left in the soil to decompose instead of harvesting them. Walliser explains that it’s like using a living drill instead of tilling the soil!
From Market Farming to Italian Seeds
Will Nagengast and Lynn Byczynski, talk about their family business Seeds from Italy, food, and market farming
We head to Kansas to speak with Lynn Byczynski and Will Nagengast about market farming, cut flowers, farm journalism, Italian culinary traditions, and seeds. Their family business is Seeds from Italy.
Byczynski founded Growing for Market, a magazine for market farmers. She is the author of Market Farming Success, The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers, The Hoophouse Handbook.
The Journey into the Seed Business
Byczynski says that when the farm wasn’t enough to support the family, she branched out into producing Growing for Market using her background in journalism and newspaper reporting.
She found that the writing and farming fed off of each other: While interviewing people for articles, she heard ideas that they could try on their farm; and things they were doing on their own farm could be shared with other farmers in Growing for Market.
Seeds from Italy
She says the hair on the back of her neck stood up when an advertiser for her Growing for Market newsletter told her that the sale of his Italian seed distribution business had fallen through. “I could just feel this was the next thing we were going to do,” she says.
The first thing that the family did after taking over Seeds from Italy was to take a trip to Italy to meet the owners of Franchi Seeds, the company whose seed they would be distributing in the United States.
Nagengast and Byczynski say that once home, they immersed themselves in the varieties they were selling by having weekly Italian-themed meals cooked with the Italian varieties they distribute.
Italian Seeds in North America
Italy has a varied climate, with many regional vegetable varieties. They list 23 varieties of zucchini! Most of these different varieties, they explain, are regional varieties.
For North American gardeners thinking about what Italian varieties are best suited to their gardens, they recommend looking to areas of Italy with a similar latitude.
Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project
Joseph Lofthouse
We speak with farmer and plant breeder Joseph Lofthouse in northern Utah about breeding tomatoes, and his work with The Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project.
Lofthouse focuses on breeding landrace crop varieties that are are locally adapted and genetically diverse.
Living in a mountain valley with cold nights and only gets 100 frost-free days, his work breeding tomatoes started out with the simple goal of breeding varieties suited to his growing conditions. “If I wanted to grow tomatoes, I basically had to breed my own tomatoes,” he explains.
He has found much more than cold tolerance.
The Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project
Lofthouse explains that when tomatoes were domesticated, most of the genetic diversity was lost. So his breeding work has focused on reintroducing wild tomato genetics, with the hope of finding desirable traits not found in domesticated tomatoes.
Along with cold tolerance, the his tomato breeding has produced tomatoes with novel flavours. He says that tropical flavours such as citrus, guava, and mango are appearing. So, too, are other flavours, including smokiness and umami. One chef described the taste of one of the tomatoes as resembling sea-urchin.
While domesticated tomatoes mainly self-pollinate, wild tomatoes, he explains outcross. They readily cross with each other. Hence the use of the word promiscuous in the project name.
Other traits he has encountered in the trials include:
Shrubby growth — something he thinks could offer interesting harvest opportunities
Dense foliage, which could be useful in shading the ground below to minimize week competition
Sprawling growth like a squash plant
More on Tomatoes
Growing Perennial Vegetables
Ben Caesar from Fiddlehead Nursery
We chat with Ben Caesar about perennial vegetables and salad greens. Caesar, who runs Fiddlehead Nursery, specializes in perennial edibles.
He says that in Western cultures, annual vegetable crops are the norm. But with a shift in thinking, it’s easy to incorporate perennial vegetables into the diet.
That shift to perennial vegetables is good because not only can they be easier for gardeners to manage—they require less soil tilling, which means less release of carbon that’s locked up in the soil.
Top Perennial Edibles from Caesar’s Garden in 2020
Seedless sorrel is his all-time favourite this year, a very productive green that he recommends as a “bombproof groundcover”
Caucasian spinach is a little-known vine with excellent ornamental properties
Cutleaf coneflower is a native perennial that produces edible greens in the spring, and 6’ tall flowers in summer
Oxeye daisy, a common roadside weed in Ontario, is a European perennial that has naturalized, with leaves that he says are delicious
Patience dock has leaves that can grow up to 2’ long, but he says to use them when about 1’ long, fresh, cooked—or as a wrap as is often done with grape leaves
Garlic chives are often grown as ornamentals…and he suggests eating leaves and flowers
Bronze fennel has greens with a sweet, anise flavour, and seeds that can be eaten as a palate cleanser and used in pickles
Honewort is a shade-loving native perennial with leaves that Caesar says are delicious
Tips to get Started with Perennial Vegetables
Caesar says that if you already have a perennial garden, chances are that you might already be growing edible plants. Here are common edible plants that he says many people already have in their gardens:
Hosta
Solomon’s seal
Daylily
Stonecrop sedum
Creating New Tomato Varieties
Tomato expert Linda Crago with Emma at a seed exchange.
Tomato expert Linda Crago joins us to talk about how to create a new tomato variety.
At her Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm in the Niagara Region of Ontario, she raises hundreds of varieties of tomatoes.
This past summer, Emma grew a couple of tomato varieties that Crago released. She tells us what she did to get them—and shares tips on creating new tomato varieties.
Accidental Crosses
“One was an accidental cross and I was delighted to see it,” says Crago as she talks about ‘TT Baby Blue.’
‘TT Baby Blue’ appeared on its own, from a tomato plant that self-seeded in one of her fields. She thinks that it’s a cross between a blue tomato and one of the currant-type tomatoes.
Crago says that she saved seeds from it and grew the seeds the following year, keeping seeds only from tomatoes that resembled the parent. She did this for six years, which she says is often how long it will take before a new variety becomes “stable.”
De-hybridizing a Hybrid Tomato
Crago says that a lot of people don’t save seeds from hybrid tomatoes because there is no knowing what those seeds will grow into. “You might get somethign you like,” she says.
A few years ago she saw a very interesting tomato at her local grocery store. She bought is so that she could save seeds from it. Those seeds gave her quite a great variety of plants. “I got multiple varieties; not many looked like the original tomato,” she says.
But one of those plants had tomatoes with a peanut-like shape that caught her eye. She grew and selected for that peanut shape for a number of years. Once it was stable, she named the variety ‘Zemoltt.’
More on Tomatoes
Downtown Rooftop Edible Garden Gives a Breath of Fresh Air
Saskia Vegter, Urban Agricultural Co-ordinator at 401 Richmond
We’re joined by Saskia Vegter, the Urban Agricultural Co-Ordinator at 401 Richmond, a former industrial building that has been transformed into a cultural hub in a dense downtown Toronto neighbourhood.
Vegter, who previously worked in event management, felt drawn to work in horticulture.
"I just remembered the feeling of connection when my hands were in the soil.”
401 Richmond
401 Richmond is a former industrial building, built in 1899. Vegter explains that the currant owner restored the building to transform it into a cultural hub for artists and creative entrepreneurs.
Tenants currently include art galleries, a book publisher, a film festival, artists with studios, and a daycare.
The Rooftop Gardens
401 Richmond rooftop garden
The rooftop has three garden areas:
A deck-patio area, which includes trees and shrubs in containers
An extensive sedum green roof
The “mini farm,” which has fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers for cutting growing in containers
Tenants use the rooftop for meetings, lunches, to meditate—or just to get a breath of fresh air, says Vegter.
Children from the daycare often spend time on the rooftop, which provides the opportunity for activities such as herb tasting.
Rooftop Crops
Ultra-dwarf apple trees grow in the same containers as the chums (cherry-plums), with strawberry plants at the base
Luffa grows up the pergola
Planters with edibles are planned for edibility AND colour, using plants with ornamental properties
New to the garden this year is a fig tree
Wildlife on the Rooftop
Despite being on a rooftop in a downtown neighbourhood, Vegter says that there are lots of visitors. She laughs as she talks about the squirrel that left her gifts of half-eaten tomatoes during the summer.
She says that other wildlife includes swallowtail caterpillars, hummingbirds, honeybees, and ladybugs.
Getting Ready to Shop for Seeds
Heirloom vegetable grower and tomato expert Linda Crago joins us to talk about seed lingo, saving seeds—and sharing seeds.
An avid seed-saver, she concedes that she has a whole freezer dedicated to seeds alone.
Crago operates Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm in the Niagara Region of Ontario. She also organizes an annual Seedy Saturday seed swap and event in her community.
Linda Crago with Emma at a Seedy Saturday
Crazy for Tomatoes
Every spring gardeners from far and wide trek to her farm for her annual Tomato Days sale—where she has transplants for over 500 tomato varieties.
Crago says there’s lots happening in the world of tomatoes—and that in the past 10 years there has been more change since people started growing them to eat.
Seed Lingo
Hybrid: Crago explains that hybrids can occur naturally. While some hybrids are known for disease resistance, hybrid varieties are not the best choice for home gardeners who want to save seed. That’s because seeds from hybrids won’t be like the plant they came from.
Heirloom: She says that heirlooms are varieties with a history and a story. They have been around for a long time; 50 years is a common guideline when calling a variety an heirloom.
Open Pollinated: These are stable varieties that give seeds like the parent plant (as long as they have not cross-pollinated with a nearby plant.) While all heirlooms are open pollinated, not all open-pollinated varieties are heirlooms.
Artisan: These are newer open-pollinated varieties with special taste or unique appearance.
Hybrid Heirlooms: This term is used by some seed companies to refer to hybrids that look like an heirloom. Crago explains that heirlooms are always open pollinated, making this a misleading label.
Crago points to newer open-pollinated varieties such as some of the blue tomatoes…they’re not heirlooms now, but who knows, maybe they will be in 50 years.
Saving Seeds
Crago says that it’s not necessary to buy new seed every year. Seeds for some crops, such as parsnip, do have a shorter life, but she says that with proper storage, it’s usually possible to get more than one year from a batch of seed.
If in doubt, she recommends doing a seed viability test. Simply put seeds in damp paper towel within a sealed bag, in a warm location. After a few days, check to see how many of the seeds have germinated.
“One of the ways we keep open-pollinated varieties in existence is by growing and eating them.”
Seed Exchanges and Seed Libraries
Crago says that the first seed library in Canada was in the nearby Grimsby Public Library.
She says it’s not uncommon to hear stories at seed exchanges: seeds often come with the story of how they were brought from another country by a relative—and the people sharing them are hoping that someone will keep the variety going.
“The stories are the best and the varieties you get are the best.”
A Zone-4 Garden in St. Paul, Minnesota
Minnesota gardener Mary Schier
We head to Minnesota to chat with Mary Schier, the editor of Minnesota State Horticultural Society’s magazine, Northern Gardener—a magazine dedicated to gardening in USDA Zones 3 and 4.
Schier is a Minnesota gardener and the author of The Northern Gardener, From Apples to Zinnias, 150 Years of Garden Wisdom.
She gardens in St. Paul, where she crams as many plants as possible into her urban lot. Schier says that St. Paul is an urban heat island, so creative gardeners often try to push zone 4 limits.
Her new podcast, called Grow it, Minnesota, features interviews with northern gardening experts.
Tips for Cold Climates
Schier says that when it comes to growing fruit, it’s very important to take the time to research varieties well suited to cold zones.
For example, the Evans Cherry does very well in Minnesota. Sweet cherries do not. (CLICK HERE to tune into our chat with Dr. Ieuan Evans, in a previous episode, where he talks about finding this cherry.)
Another important tip in cold zones is not to start seeds indoors too early. Schier only plants out her tomato transplants on June 1—so she works back from that date and starts her transplants later than gardeners in warmer zones.
Weaving History into Horticulture
Schier’s book, The Northern Gardener, From Apples to Zinnias, 150 Years of Garden Wisdom weaves together gardening tips and historical snippets for cold-climate gardeners.
The historical tidbits are gleaned from the pages of the journals and magazines of the 150-year-old Minnesota State Horticultural Society.
Schier explains that there is a strong tradition of horticultural research in Minnesota. In the early days, many “trial stations” were set up (often, these stations were home gardens with gardeners who were willing to make observations and record what they saw for the State Horticultural Society.)
Get 5 Harvests by Growing Your Own Garlic
Pittsburgh garden expert Doug Oster joins us to talk about growing garlic, getting 5 harvests—and the recipes from his Garlic is Love presentation
Ever thought you could get five garlic harvests from your garden?
Today on the podcast, garden expert Doug Oster joins us from Pittsburgh, PA to talk about growing and cooking with garlic.
Oster, who loves growing and cooking with garlic, shares his love of garlic by taking seed garlic to friends…earning him the nickname “Dougy Garlic Seed.”
Oster recently gave two presentations about garlic at the Virtual Tomato and Garlic Days hosted by Phipps Conservatory:
How to Get Five Harvests from Growing Your Own Garlic
Garlic is Love
5 Garlic Harvests
Oster explains that there are 5 possible harvests when growing garlic.
Garlic greens in the spring (he says that his family is alerted to their arrival because they can smell it on his breath when he comes in from the garden)
Garlic scapes, which grow on hardneck garlic varieties (these are removed so that the plant directs energy to the bulb—and make a great pesto)
The small bulbils, which grow at the end of the scapes (Oster doesn’t leave the scapes on the plant; he explains that scapes that are picked and left continue to grow the bulbils…so he leaves a few in the garden and snacks on bulbils while working in the garden)
Uncured fresh garlic, which he harvests before the papery husk is fully developed
The main garlic harvest
Garlic is Love
In his Garlic is Love presentation, Oster prepared two recipes—in which he used 100 cloves of garlic!
Garlic Elixir, which has 50 cloves of garlic, lemon juice, and chopped olives
Ultimate Garlic Linguine, which has 25 roasted garlic cloves, 25 sauteed garlic cloves, olive oil, and herbs
Doug Oster’s Tips for Growing Garlic
Start with the right garlic: either seed garlic or garlic from a local farm (not store-bought garlic, which might be a variety better suited to another area—or might be treated with something to inhibit growth)
Plant at the right time for your area (if planted too soon, it might sprout too early)
Amend soil with a generous amount of compost
Cover with a thick layer of straw in the fall to prevent sprouting
Grow a Food Forest
Ryan Cullen, field supervisor at Durham College, talks about the new food forest at Durham College.
Make a Food Forest
We chat with Ryan Cullen, the field supervisor at Durham College, about the newly planted food-forest garden at the college’s Whitby campus.
Cullen oversees a diverse market garden that includes tree fruit, small fruit, cut flowers, field vegetables, greenhouse vegetables, and microgreens. He previously joined us on the show in Aug 2019. Click here to tune in to that episode.
Food-Forest Garden
Cullen explains that the idea behind the food forest is to grow a mix of food-producing species, layered in the same way that a forest is. There’s a herbaceous layer at ground level, a shrub layer, and a canopy layer of trees above.
With time, the food forest becomes self-maintaining and, with the appropriate mix of plant species, can have self-renewing fertility.
The top layer of the food-forest garden is the “canopy” layer. Cullen says that they planted this layer with fruiting tree species including cherries, plums, persimmon—and even a hawthorn.
The lower herbaceous and shrub layers, which are still being developed, will be a polyculture—a mix of different plants. Along with edible properties, plants in the lower layers might make available soil nutrients (deep-rooted plants bring up nutrients,) supply nutrients (pea shrubs capture nitrogen from the air,) and attract pollinator species.
Lower-layer plants include bee balm, chamomile, rosa rugosa (for rose hips), strawberreis, and blueberries. Cullen says that this list will grow, as there is still a lot of planting to do in this layer.
Food and Farming Program
The on-campus market garden is part of Durham College’s Food and Farming program, which focuses on urban and small-scale agriculture.
The program has a field-to-fork philosophy. Located on a former industrial site, the market garden produces a variety of vegetables and fruits to supply the on-campus restaurant, Bistro 67.
In addition to supplying the restaurant, the harvest also goes into a community-shared agriculture program (CSA) and farmers market.
Grow Melons, Grow Heirloom Tomatoes: An Interview with Amy Goldman
Amy Goldman, author of The Melon
In a broadcast that originally aired on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with author Amy Goldman about growing melons, growing tomatoes, her passion for seed-saving, and about her research when writing her books The Melon and The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table. Recipes, portraits, and history of the world's most beautiful fruit.
The Melon
Goldman took nine years to write this tribute to melons that is filled with mouth-watering pictures and information about selecting varieties, growing, seed-saving, and melon recipes.
She explains that when writing the book, she would set aside the best specimens for photographs—and she and photographer Victor Schrager would then enjoy eating them after the photo shoot.
“When we were doing the melon book we would photograph the specimens and then have a feast afterwards.”
Did you know that charentais melons are the true cantaloupes; and that they’re different from the American muskmelons that we mistakenly call cantaloupes?
Goldman says that she babies her melon plants by starting the seedlings indoors, using a black plastic mulch over the soil, covers young melon plants with row covers, and waters judiciously.
Her advice on eating melons? “They’re meant to be shared.”
Images from The Melon
Heirloom Tomatoes
Was the original Brandywine tomato pink-fleshed with a potato-like leaf or red-fleshed with regular leaves? “This is something that only a gardening nerd would care about,” says Goldman. (Incidentally, it’s the latter.)
“Doing the detective work was half the fun of that book!”
“There’s nothing in the world like a homegrown tomato ripened in the full sun. There’s nothing like it,” she says.
Images from The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table
Seed Saving
Goldman is passionate about seed-saving and sharing and perpetuating heirloom varieties. For gardeners new to seed saving, she recommends a book called The Seed Garden, from The Seed Savers Exchange.
“It’s the bible of seed saving.”
Biggs-on Figs Segment
Pennsylvania fig grower Ross Raddi joins us in the Biggs-on-Figs segment to talk about three fig varieties he recommends for gardeners who are growing figs for the first time.
Celeste
Violette de Bordeaux
Hardy Chicago
More on Tomatoes
REWIND: Growing Giant Pumpkins and Giant Tomatoes
Phil and Jane Hunt
In this interview that first broadcast live on the radio show in 2018, we chat with Phil Hunt from the Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario (GVGO) about growing giant pumpkins and giant tomatoes.
Hunt and his wife, Jane, grow giant vegetables near Lindsay, Ontario.
We first spoke with them when they shared giant-pumpkin-growing tips for our book Gardening with Emma. After seeing them on the news in 2018—for growing a record-breaking giant pumpkin—we invited them onto the show to share tips.
After showing their giant pumpkins at competitions, they collect seeds from them, and then put them on display on their front lawn when neighbours can see them. Hunt says they carve the pumpkins for Halloween—and there are local children who have come years after year to see their carved giant pumpkins.
Grow Giant Pumpkins and Tomatoes
Hunt says that the first thing to think about is getting the right seeds. He recommends joining a club.
The Hunts’ pumpkin plants start off outdoors in tunnels, with ground heated by heating cables.
In the heat of summer, plants can require 75-100 gallons of water per day!
They hand-pollinate the flowers, covering flowers to prevent insects from pollinating.
“Every pumpkin we do is hand pollinated.”
Phil Hunt’s Top 2 Tips for New Giant Vegetable Growers
Get seeds with good genetics
Speak with giant vegetable growers who can give you guidance
“There’s no stupid questions.”
More on Tomatoes
A Passion for Growing Food in Philadelphia
We chat with Millennial gardener Ross Raddi in Philadelphia. He balances a very intensive approach to food gardening with the need to share the yard with his family—who want grass.
Raddi has previously joined us on the Food Garden Life Show to talk about his passion for growing fruit, and about his passion for growing figs. He goes by the nickname “Fig Boss.”
Intensive Suburban Food Garden
Raddi finds that vertical gardening is an important part of maximizing his use of space. “Grow everything vertically if you can,” he advises new gardeners.
He grows one tomato plant per square foot—and trains them upwards, pinching back to a single main stem.
“I think there’s a big misconception out there that you need a big yard to have a lot of food.”
He believes that a food garden can be attractive too. His favourite ornamental-edible combination is blueberries, persimmon, and strawberries. He says that together they creates a bed that is “stunning.”
“Those are some of the most ornamental plants that fruit!”
The Garden in 2020
Raddi says his garden got off to a slow start in 2020, but it caught up and is now ahead of where it would normally be.
This year he’s growing patty pan summer squash as a substitute for bell peppers. He would normally use bell peppers in the kitchen for stuffing—but the summer squash work well for stuffing—and give a much larger yield.
“They gave me so much more food than a pepper would.”
He is trying lots of new crops in the his fall garden, which he has now started to plant.
“When I first started, it [a garden to harvest in the fall] was a foreign concept.”
Tomato Patch
Raddi and Emma trade tomato recommendations.
Looking Ahead
Next year Raddi plants to grow at a local community garden as well as his own yard.
He will be one of the younger gardeners: The mothers of two close friends garden at the community garden. He says his friends laugh when he tells them, “Guys, I’m going to garden with your moms.”
Luay's Urban Farm and Kitchen
Luay loves cooking. A food garden was a natural next step to his passion for cooking.
We talk with Luay, from Urban Farm and Kitchen in Toronto, about how he started growing food, his gardens, some favourite recipes, failure, and tips for new gardeners.
His day job in the engineering industry is hectic and includes lots of travel. Gardening and cooking are his way of unwinding.
Getting into Food Gardening
Luay currently grows in his backyard and at a municipal allotment garden.
But he didn’t grow up gardening. His interest in gardening was piqued by unusual vegetables he got through a CSA subscription.
Once his interest had been piqued, he started small—with a tomato plant on his balcony.
“Gardening is a hobby that turned into a passion.”
His interest in gardening grew into a passion. He now shares that passion on social media and his website.
His backyard includes raised beds, fruit trees, and an area to eat and entertain…but he admits that potted edible plants make their way into all parts of the yard.
“I’m trying to maximize every square inch possible.”
In the Kitchen
Luay loves to cook with what’s in season. As we talk, it’s fresh tomatoes.
The kitchen is his place to unwind.
“It’s also kind of cathartic, because it’s relaxing when you’re in the kitchen and you’re just spending time on cooking and everything else fades away.”
Failure in the Garden
Luay tells new gardeners that failure is part of being a gardener.
He aims to have backup options in case something doesn’t grow in his garden. One way to do that is to keep a few extra seedlings on hand in case things don’t go as planned.
“Failure is part of being a gardener.”
Having a succession of crops to plant throughout the year is another way that he rolls with the season, the growing conditions, and the challenges of a particular year.
“Every year is different; you roll with the punches.”
Tips for New Gardeners
He tells new gardeners to start small. He finds that herbs are a great way to start small.
“It’s important to pace yourself.”
Many new gardeners, he says, feel the need to grow everything from seed. He suggests buying transplants to start.
Growing Food and Urban Gardening with Kevin Espiritu
Kevin Espiritu, author of Field Guide to Urban Gardening and founder of Epic Gardening
In this episode that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we talk with urban gardener, author, podcaster, and YouTuber Kevin Espiritu from California.
Espiritu, who did not grow up gardening, explains how, after studying business, he discovered gardening.
He made the garden—and teaching people to garden—his vocation. Espiritu is the founder of Epic Gardening.
Front Yard Garden
Espiritu converted his San Diego front yard into a garden. The 15 x 30 foot space is the only sunny location he has to garden. He thinks that the garden, with its 14 raised beds, has inspired neighbours to grow.
He’s in the process of moving…and is building a garden at his new, 1/3-acre property.
Gardening and Failure
Espiritu, who considers gardening to be an ongoing learning process, says failure is normal.
But he says that with gardening, it’s often necessary to wait for a year before trying again after a failure—so he documents his failures so that he can remember them and learn from them.
Field Guide to Urban Gardening: How to Grow Plants, No Matter Where You Live, by Kevin Espiritu
Field Guide to Urban Gardening
He says that he wrote his book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, in a way to help people who have never gardened before.
Rather than telling people how to garden, he guides them through what to consider as they create a garden.
Tomato Talk Segment
In the Tomato-Talk segment, Emma talks about the harvest at Zawadi Farm, along with challenges and top varieties in her own test garden.
Jeff Quattrone grew up in South Philly where he says most yards had a fig tree.
Biggs-on-Figs Segment
Jeff Quattrone from New Jersey tells us about growing up in a family with a fig tree in south Philadelphia, where he says about 90% of the yards had a fig tree.
“My family tree is literally a fig tree.”
Jeff previously joined us on the podcast in June, 2020 to talk about his work in seed saving. Click here to hear that episode.
In Quattrone’s own family, his cousin Gregorio grew a fig tree that was brought from the family’s home town in Calabria.
“We always had figs.”
Summer Vegetable-Garden Check-in with Niki Jabbour
Niki Jabbour, author of The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, Groundbreaking Food Gardens, Veggie Garden Remix—and her latest book, Growing Under Cover (available for pre-order now)
We chat with garden expert and author Niki Jabbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia to find out what’s new in her vegetable garden this summer, how things are growing, and for tips for new gardeners.
Her top advice for people who want to start growing food but haven’t started this year:
“There’s lots of things you can still plant, even in the coming weeks—so don’t think that you’ve missed the boat!”
Greenhouse versus Garden
Her greenhouse tomato plants are a good two weeks ahead—and far bigger than those growing in the garden
Straw-Bale Update
Niki grows in straw bales every year. They are doing well this year…the challenge in this hot summer is keeping them well watered
Fun Crops
Ever heard of ‘Itachi’ cucumber or ‘Black Kat’ pumpkin?
Succession Planting
Niki has lots of ideas for succession planting from this point onwards, including carrots, beets, and winter radishes
Growing Under Cover by Niki Jabbour
New Book
Niki’s new book, Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden, comes out in December 2020—and is available for pre-order now!
Hi, We’re Steve and Emma!
We help people grow food on balconies, in backyards, and beyond—whether it’s edible landscaping, a vegetable garden, container gardens, or a home orchard.
