1stop Organic Gardening » Heirloom

Heirloom Cucumber From My Organic Garden.

Julie — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:52:11 +0000

OK, I talked about this Armenian cucumber (heirloom variety) I grew this season in a recent post and how I would give it a taste test review.

Well as you can see this one is almost gone ’cause it’s absolutely delicious. It has quite a few seeds, but they don’t bother me – like any other cucumber really. You can eat the skin, so there’s no wastage. I absolutely love them.

They are much crisper than any other type of cucumber I’ve ever tried. So they really crunch when you bite into them. They are sweet, unlike apple cucumbers, which can turn quite bitter if they don’t get enough water at the right time.

All in all, I give it the big thumbs up – 10 out of 10. So if you want to try something different, that’s easy to grow and tastes delicious, grow the Armenian Cucumber.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

warmly,

Julie

Heirloom cucumber in my organic garden.

Julie — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:27:36 +0000

I like surprises, so I always include a few things I’ve never grown before in my planting plan for the summer season. This year I’ve grown some heirloom tomatoes (my favourite is the Tigerella) and an heirloom cucumber that I grew from seed called “Armenian”.

The packet says the cucumbers can grow 60 – 90cm (2 – 3ft), with unusual pale green colour – stores well. Well, I reckon any cucumber that gets to that size is worth having a go! I sowed my seeds directly in the soil. Unfortunately there was no room left in my highly prepared and nourished main plot, so I included them where I’m growing my sauce tomatoes, capsicum (peppers) and basil – always companion planting. The soil is impoverished, sandy, not-wetting soil. Not really ideal, but the addition of monthly organic fertilizers and some layers of thick pea straw mulch helps.

They were slow starters, but now they’ve really started to take off. This cue above is about 30cm (12inches) long. I only noticed it about a week ago, so it’s really quite impressive. There are others coming on now. Can’t wait to taste it. And at this rate it won’t be long.

So I’ll give the flavour taste test thumbs up or down in a later post.

My thoughts in the garden (and all aspects of life): Try new things!

Happy Organic Gardening,

Julie

So many tomatoes!

Julie — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:24:45 +0000

Wow, it always thrills me when I see how much produce can come from such a small area! If you’re thinking about organic gardening and don’t know where to start, check out my e-book “Organic Food Gardening for Beginners“.

I picked a heap of my small tomatoes yesterday. Mostly they are “Tommy Toe”, but some are an heirloom variety, red with lighter coloured stripes on them. I think the heirloom variety is “Tigerella”, but I’m not positive as I grew them from a mixed heirloom seedling punnet – I like surprises!

I was debating what to do with all these tomatoes and decided to make home-made sauce from the tommy toes. My recipe calls for 4.5kgs of tomatoes, so I was thinking I didn’t have enough. So I weighed them on my bathroom scales and I have 5.9kgs. So most will go in the sauce, I’ll save the best for the table and a few for seed-saving so that I can raise my own next season.

I’ll be making soup with the Tigerella’s (saving some for the table and seed-saving too) as they have such a sweet, rich flavour. I highly recommend them if you want a delicious, easy to grow, long, prolific fruiting tomato.

I’ll be posting photos in the next few days.

Happy Organic Gardening ,

Julie