GIFTS FROM THE GARDEN

 

Whether a basket of cherry tomatoes, fresh bouquet of herbs, or home canned pickles, gifts from your garden are personal and most often lovingly appreciated. As you plan for the growing season consider adding plants for some homemade gifts.

From zucchini bread or mixed dried herb seasonings with a few recipes to an annual flower in a lovely container, our Sat., May 18 (9 AM - 1 PM) Annual Plant sale will have a wide selection of plants with gift possibilities.

Visit the herb table for lavender, chamomile, sweet marjoram, and lemon balm for sachets and sleep pillows - plus catnip to please feline friends. Look for Osin basil (delicious purple color), Greek oregano, and chives to create vinegars for use in marinades and salads.

There is always a wide variety of peppers super-hot to cayenne including the heirlooms of Hinklehatz and fish peppers. We plan on sweet stuffing and lunch box sized ones, too.

For the tomato tables we plan to have a variety of heirlooms and some of the standard hybrids plus several dwarf and container plants. There will also be two varieties of beefsteak tomatoes, bush and one indeterminate. There will be a variety of salad, slicers, and paste tomatoes of different colors, too.

Look for some unique vegetables such as the attractive 2” to 4” Fairytail eggplant sized for containers or vertical growing. We are trying the open-pollinated heirloom Poona Kheera cucumber—super crisp, fresh, and tasty was recommended by those who grew it on a trellis last year. For small spaces or large containers, there is Cocozelle zucchini—dark green with light green stripes. Listed as good for freezing and canning.

Whether an occasion calls for a present or you are just sharing with friends, gifts from your garden are sure to please.

Varieties available depend on seed availability and greenhouse growth.

Please remember it’s important to follow safe food-handling methods when preparing or preserving food.

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                    MOTHERS' DAY IS COMING  

                      HERB SAMPLER Second Edition (my book)

Buy one for yourself and consider getting a few more. They make great hostess gifts, housewarming, and anytime gifts.

The Second Edition Herb Sampler (2019) is available through Amazon. 

Just click this link to find it. 

°Brix- Measuring Sugar in Fruit and Vegetables

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Update: A post asked what is the sweetest cherry tomato. Aha. More poking around on the internet. 

A large tomato may have a Brix reading from 2.3 to 8.2; a small tomato from 4.5 to 11.7. In a tomato challenge one bag of Sungold won out over a different bag of Sungold.   These were the F1 hybrids. What I find is that there are three varieties that show up often: Sungold (9-10), Isis Candy (8-9) and Sakura (8.8) . (‘Rosada’is the sweetest variety tested in the UK - ‘Rosada’ is a baby plum variety with a Brix rating of 10.5.- Hard to find.)

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Many factors influence a tomato crop and the crop’s Brix level. Variety selection and crop maturity are two key factors. Environmental factors, such as moisture, fertility, sunlight, and temperature also have an influence on Brix levels. 

This article has lots of good information. 

I am always amazed at what I learn when checking a fact for a post. In checking if the Black Cherry  tomato is open-pollinated before I posted I discovered a notation of a °Brix rating (note the symbol preceding the B).

And so I begin my "but I digress" internet time. Here's the interesting information I found. It is not a game or misspelling of bricks.

Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is the measure of sugar content in an aqueous solution. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by mass. There is a digital refractometer that takes the measurements.

Drop of juice to measure sugar content

This measurement is used in fruit juice, wine making, carbonated beverage industry, starch and the sugar industry (think produce crops-corn, tomatoes, apples, citrus, melons).

At a Yara North America internet site (which piqued my interest even more to find out about this organization.) I found this explanation.

“Sugar levels in tomatoes:

°Brix is a measure of the Total Soluble Solid (TSS) content in the tomato or tomato product. The TSS in tomatoes is mainly sugars (fructose). A tomato juice, which is assessed as having 20 ° Brix, has 200g/litre of soluble sugars.

"Tomatoes for processing require a minimum °Brix of 4.5. This compares with an acceptable range of 3.5 - 5.5 in fresh tomatoes. The TSS of processed products is measured by refractometry.

"The °Brix content of the finished tomato product is largely controlled by the processor and manufacturing process. However, some processors do pay a higher price for higher dry matter tomatoes. In general, smaller, cherry tomatoes have a higher °Brix ratio and are sweeter than larger round or common tomatoes."

Penn State Video Capture

Ohio State has a more scholarly online article and Penn State has an online video of how to use a Brix refractor.

And this, my friends, is why, as a life-long learner, I find getting on the internet sucks up so much time. (2 hrs, w/photo finds and research)

Since this is research-based information, I am signing this as

~ Carol Kagan, Master Gardener

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Are you interested herbs? Check out the Herb Sampler on this Blog  

The Second Edition Herb Sampler (2019) is available through Amazon.