Cupcakes from last year’s bake-off. Photo courtesy The Advancement Foundation.

In this blog post you’ll find details about the Cupcakes at the Cottage Bake-Off in Vinton, the 2013 Earth Day Celebration in Grandin Village, local seedlings for sale, a custom tea blending workshop and a schedule of food demonstrations at Blacksburg Fork and Cork.

* It’s time for the Second Annual Cupcakes at the Cottage Bake-Off, which takes place at the Charity Cottage Thrift Store in Vinton on April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the same day as the Vinton Dogwood Festival Parade.

The thrift store is operated by The Advancement Foundation, a non-profit aid organization that works to eliminate poverty. Proceeds from the bake-off will go to various charities. In addition to cupcakes, the event will offer refreshments and special deals at the store.

Interested parties should register to bring at least one dozen cupcakes to the bake-off. The cupcakes will be judged at 2 p.m., just before the parade begins at 2:30 p.m. The cupcakes not tasted by the judges will be for sale to the general public at a cost of a $1 donation for each cupcake. The buyer gets to choose the charity to which he or she wants to donate the dollar.

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Getty Images/IStock Photo

Herbs are the ultimate edible plants for beginner gardeners. If you don’t put any other culinary plants in the dirt, I would highly recommend at least growing a few herbs. They are easy and they elevate the quality of your cooking immensely.

Need help learning how to grow or cook with fresh herbs? Check out The Second Annual Salem Museum “Herb Faire” on April 20. The fair, with is sponsored by the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Master Food Volunteers and the Roanoke Master Gardener’s Association, will include a number of workshops, as well as an herb plant sale and an herb potting station.

If you want to attend any workshops, the fee is $5 per person for the entire fair. That includes tastings and demonstrations. If you just want to go to the herb sale and don’t plan to go to workshops, there is no admission fee. The museum will be open that day, as well, and there is no admission fee for the galleries.

I will post a list of workshops below. Click “Read more” to see them. To register for workshops, email herbfaire@gmail.com.  For more information about the fair, contact your local extension office at 540 -772-7524.

Class schedule:

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The Lewisburg Chocolate Festival will offer fun for the entire family on April 13. Photo courtesy Lewisburg Downtown Business Association.

It doesn’t feel much like spring out there today, but it’s coming! With it comes a long list of food-related activities. Here’s a rundown of some of those opportunities over the next couple of months:

Virginia Cooperative Extension Food Safety Training

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
VA Dept. of Health, 1502 Williamson Rd. Roanoke, 24012
Virginia Department of Health and Virginia Cooperative Extension present this 4-hour training geared to food service workers.  Participants will receive training and updates on hygiene, time/temperature, preventing cross contamination, cleaning and sanitizing, food storage, and more.  $15 class fees include a booklet, handouts, resources and refreshments.  Must pre-register. http://www.offices.ext.vt.edu/roanoke  For questions contact Deb Chappell at (540)772-7524, Dchappel@vt.edu.

VCE Gardening – Organic Methods

Presented by Master Gardeners. Thursday, March 21, 2013, 6 to 7 p.m. Roanoke Community Garden Association, Main City Library corner of Jefferson and Elm. Free of charge.

Earth Day at Hotel Roanoke

On Saturday, March 23, Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center will observe Earth Day by turning off the lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. According to a press release, the goal is to “come together with the world to celebrate a global sustainability movement by doing something very simple.”

During the dark hour, the hotel will serve dinner and drinks by candle light in the newly remodeled Regency Room and in the Pine Room Pub. The lobby and Palm Court will be lit by candles, as well. The hotel staff will turn off any non-essential lights and other equipment throughout the facility and will encourage guests to limit their use of electricity in their rooms if they care to participate.

VCE Gardening – Companion Planting

Presented by Master Gardeners. Tuesday, April 2, 2013, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Hollins Branch Library, 6624 Peters Creek Rd. Free of Charge.

7th Annual Lewisburg Chocolate Festival

This downtown Lewisburg, W.Va. festival seems to get bigger and more popular every year. It’s a bit of a drive from Roanoke, but it’s a pretty drive and maybe spring colors will be out. The event includes chocolate tastings, chocolate-themed dinners, kids’ activities, live music, a chocolate bake-off, chef demonstrations, a chocolate mousse-eating contest and the HospiceCare 10K Chocolate Chase.

Tickets go on sale March 15. To learn more about the event and how to buy tickets, go to www.lewisburgchocolatefestival.com.

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It’s time to share some more tomato photos from readers. And I’ll even throw in a picture of my own tomatoes, which are doing quite well this summer, I must say. These are Golden Boys, Better Boys and Black Cherry tomatoes:

My tomatoes / Lindsey Nair

Next up, we have some lovely tomatoes (below) grown by Dorothy Farmer of Roanoke, with help from her friend Otis Howell. Two of the tomatoes Dorothy and Otis grew weighed in at almost two pounds each. I don’t know what kind of tomatoes these are, but they kind of look like Brandywines:

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Photo courtesy David and Michele Routt.

Another funny vegetable grown by a green-thumbed reader. David and Michele Routt submitted this picture of a cucumber grown by Lee Robinson. I’m not sure if this is Mr. Routt or Mr. Robinson. I’m just looking at the cucumber.

Photo by Lindsey Nair / The Roanoke Times

Connie Jenkins of Northeast Roanoke stopped by the newspaper office today to show me this Mortgage Lifter tomato she grew.

She thinks it looks like twin fetuses facing one another, but I told her I think it looks like a heart from the side opposite the stem. Either way, she said she didn’t think she could bring herself to eat it.

I’ve gotten several nice Golden Boys from my vines so far this summer, but nothing oddly shaped. There is still time this season, though.

Got a funny veggie or fruit? Send me a picture at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.

Happy Friday!

Lindsey Nair / The Roanoke Times

We finally got our first ripe tomato — this little Black Cherry. It may be small, but it packed a ton of flavor! And I guess it’s healthier to have a salad with a cherry on top than a sundae with a cherry on top.

Poor Karen Hager, our gardening columnist, lost most of her garden when a big tree fell on it during the hell-storm of June 29. I was so sorry to hear that, knowing how much hard work she put into it. A lot of people (myself included, probably), would throw in the towel for the year, but not Karen. She’s putting in new plants and hoping to get some good produce out of them before the season ends.

I am eager to see if my Better Boys and Lemon Boys ripen soon. It seems if I don’t get blossom-end rot, then I wait forever to see the first blush of pink or yellow on my fruits. But I shall be patient!

I’d love to hear about how your gardens are doing. If you’ve been getting ripe veggies already, have you discovered any new ways to prepare them or are you enjoying them in your old favorite ways? Reading Crooked Road’s comment about tomato sandwiches on Karen’s blog made my mouth water. I’m ready for one of those for sure!

Send me any produce pictures you want at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com, especially if they are particularly lovely specimens or particularly funny deformed specimens (such as this tomato baby submitted by reader Deborah Combs, click “read more”). I’d love to share some more on the blog.

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If you have not already, check out Karen Hager’s new gardening blog, “Down to Earth.”

Karen writes a column of the same name which appears in The Roanoke Times Extra section every other Saturday, so you may already be familiar with her writing voice and the deep level of gardening knowledge she possesses. Karen launched this blog a couple of weeks ago but it is really starting to ramp up now as we head into PRIME gardening season in Virginia.

I am personally very excited about this new blog because I’m a gardener-in-training. I was raised by two parents with very green thumbs but my thumbs so far are more of a yellow shade. Gardening is one of those hobbies that really takes practice, but when you have success it is so gratifying (plus, very few things feel as good to me as a hard day of work in the garden followed by a refreshing shower and a cold beer or glass of lemonade). I’ve learned and implemented something new every year.

So far this year, I’ve expanded my herb garden and my vegetable garden. Boy, cutting out grass by hand with an edging shovel is really back-breaking work, but now I have more space for my plants to grow. I have planted two zucchini plants which are so far taking off, but I plan to keep a close eye on the weather. Next up: tomatoes!

Karen welcomes gardening questions on her blog and also encourages experienced gardeners to share their observations and insights with the rest of her readers. So head on over and have fun! And don’t forget, when you are out there in the yard, to wear a hat and sunscreen!

The Roanoke Times’ gardening columnist, Karen Hager, recently wrote a column about growing herbs. It was timely and informative, so I would highly encourage you to check it out if you have not already.

I agree wholeheartedly with Karen when she says herbs are the best way to branch out from growing flowers to gardening for food or medicinal purposes. Before I started growing vegetables, I created a small herb garden just outside my side door, so anytime I need fresh herbs I can dart down the steps from the kitchen and pick some.

I currently have rosemary, thyme, oregano, and garlic chives. Although Karen suggests treating rosemary as an annual or bringing it indoors, my rosemary has done so well outdoors that it’s about to devour the house. In fact, I’d still have sage if that doggone rosemary bush had not choked it out. Of course, this lazy gardener probably could have cut it back and prevented that from happening, but I’d also suggest leaving plenty of room around your rosemary in case it goes crazy.

All of the herbs I grow have been extremely easy to care for, and I plan to add more this year. I will replace my sage, plus add annuals in the form of basil, cilantro and mint. I think I’m the only person in the world who managed to accidentally kill a mint plant. It generally grows like a weed, but mine was not happy with a transplanting.

So as you can see, I’m no gardening expert. But Karen’s column includes information and growing advice for the herbs I mentioned, as well as several others. I have not decided exactly what I will grow in terms of vegetables this year, but I need to get on it. My other project this year will be to create a long overdue compost pile. I’m going to blog about that when I get going.

If you have an herb garden, what advice can you share with aspiring gardeners?

If you plan to grow herbs for the first time this year, what will you plant and how do you plan to use them?

New photo: This is the “Gonzo” tomato grown by my colleague, Amanda Codispoti. Weird-lookin’, huh?

Courtesy photo

Two readers have sent in pictures of crazy-looking veggies they’ve picked from their gardens. The first comes from reader Alan Downie, who titled his email “Pair of cucumber clogs.” He added, “For your consideration, please accept my freaky vegetable photos.  That’s the last time I order cucumber seeds direct from Holland.” Ha!

Photo courtesy Alan Downie

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Photos courtesy of Patrick Old.

Farmers Sam and Donna Old of Craig County have obviously figured out how to grow eggplant. They had a bumper crop this year, and had so much on their hands this week that they donated a massive quantity of the stuff to the Roanoke Rescue Mission.

The Olds estimate the donation at about 2,500 pounds of eggplant. That’s a lot of ratatouille!

I spoke to Joy Sylvester-Johnson at the Rescue Mission, and she said they received the eggplant Wednesday and it was on the menu that night. The cooks planned to batter and fry it for supper that night, but they’re pretty adept at coming up with a variety of delicious uses for donated food.

“They’re really good about thinking on their feet,” she said.

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A past winner of the Cherry Tomato Baby title at the Eastmont Tomato Festival. Photo courtesy www.eastmonttomatofestival.com.

I know tomato season is in full swing when I’ve got some kind of raw tomato on the menu for lunch or dinner (or both) every single day. This week, I’ve been noshing on BLTs, tomato sandwiches, tomatoes with cottage cheese and plain old sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper, which might be the best way to enjoy that pure summer tomato flavor.

I also know tomato season is in full swing when I get a press release about the annual Eastmont Tomato Festival at the Meadowbrook Center in Shawsville, which this year takes place Saturday, Aug. 13. Folks, if you have never been to this fun, quirky event, you should consider attending this year.

The Eastmont Tomato Festival started four years ago as a little community festival organized by a core group of involved citizens, but it has grown ever since. When I went last year to judge the food contests, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were vendor’s booths, where folks sold tomato-related products as well as stuff like honey and eggs. There was a big food booth with pizza, tomato sandwiches, fried green tomatoes and much more. And there was live music.

The highlight of the whole shebang might be the Tomato Pageant, where contestants compete for the coveted titles of “Cherry Tomato Baby,” “Tomato Prince/Princess” and “Heirloom Tomato Queen.” This year’s festival will honor the memory of 2009 Heirloom Tomato Queen Karen Cronin, an active member of the Montgomery County community who died in February. All festival proceeds will be given to endow the Karen Cronin Legacy Fund, which is administered by the Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation.

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Katie Thomas of Roanoke grew these "penguin" Romas

I grew this alien Mr. Stripey

And finally, some normal maters from my garden.

I received an email from reader Katie Thomas the other day, along with her funny pictures of “March of the Penguins” Roma tomatoes from her garden. I had my own bizarro tomato this year – see this funny Mr. Stripey with a bunch of tiny lumps on the bottom? Weird!

But my garden has produced plenty of normal maters, mainly Mr. Stripeys and Golden Boys, which we’ve been enjoying at dinner. For lunch, I eat them with cottage cheese. Today, I’m planning on having a BLT.

What are your tomatoes doing so far this year? If you have a funny produce picture you’d like to share, I would LOVE to see it! Email it to me and I’ll post it on this blog.

I’m not sure why I put myself in the position of having to choose a winner of the latest cookbook based on merit instead of a random drawing. As reader Vickie commented, it seems just about everybody who entered had a compelling reason for wanting a copy of “The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible” by Edward C. Smith.

But I went ahead and chose Mike and Carol Sowder, who wrote that they volunteer for an organization in Floyd County called Plenty! and would donate the book to the non-profit’s library if they won it. I like the idea of a number of people or families sharing and getting some use out of one book. So congrats to Mike and Carol and thank you for thinking to enter this contest so you can share the book with others. E-mail me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com with your shipping address.

Those of you who asked where the book can be found if you don’t win this giveaway can rest assured that it’s easy to locate a copy. The book is on all the major online book sellers’ websites I checked (the title above is a link to just one), and I’d be very surprised if you could not find it at your favorite book store. If they don’t have it, I’m sure they’ll order it for you. Looks like you can get it for about $13, if not less.

Thank you to everyone who entered to win this contest. As you might have noticed, I’ve been giving away a lot of books lately, so stay tuned! It won’t be long before I’m giving away another great food book.

So far, I’ve tidied up my herb bed, planted a new thyme (the old one didn’t last the winter for some reason) and put in mixed lettuce and spinach. Looks like it’s going to be a decent week to put in plants, with temps in the 60s and 70s. Tim Belcher, who sells seedlings on the Roanoke City Market, told me the other day he planned to go ahead and put in his tomatoes.

What gardening have you been doing?

Have you been telling yourself and telling yourself that this year you’re going to plant some squash, or put in an herb garden, or buy one of those upside-down tomato thingamabobs? Do you swear that you really are going to try your best to grow a little bit of food so you can save money at the grocery store and experience the pride of tasting something YOU grew?

If so, I’ll bet you’re a little bit intimidated. I’ll bet you’re wondering exactly where to plant things, and how they should be fertilized, and how often you ought to water them, and whether you should look out for any particular pests or diseases. I know I STILL wonder about such things!

If this is sounding pretty familiar, I think I have some good news for you. The Virginia Cooperative Extension in Roanoke is holding two classes in March for beginner gardeners. And even if you can’t make it all the way over to Roanoke for the classes, you should know that you can always call your local extension office and see if someone there (or the Master Gardeners) can answer your questions. They are an exceptional resource. To find your local office, click here.

Here are details on the classes, “Beginning Vegetable Gardening” and “Home Fruit Gardening”:

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Did I miss something? Did the government declare a specific day in late December or early January when seed companies are all required to mail their catalogs? I mean, I know this is the time of year when they always arrive, but yesterday when I checked my mailbox I had four seed catalogs in it. FOUR!

You know what that means: If you are a gardener, it’s time to start planning and dreaming of all the delicious fruits and vegetables, not to mention beautiful flowers, you would like to plant in your garden this year.

The Burpee company is celebrating 135 years in business this year, and they’ve revamped their website and plan to send free seeds for marigolds and “White Wonder” cucumbers with any order of $30 and up. I also received catalogs from Heronswood, The Cook’s Garden and John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds.

Flipping through the photo-saturated Burpee catalog made my eyes light up and my heart thaw out (just a little). Midnight black Triple Crown blackberries! Pinot Noir hybrid sweet peppers! Purple Passion asparagus! Gold Mine yellow beans! Big Rainbow heirloom tomatoes! Sigh.

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Robert Sandel (far right) and Chris Morrill with their families at Field to Fork. Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis/Roanoke Times.

Monday’s local food networking event on Henry Street in Roanoke was like a Who’s Who of the slow food movement in Southwest Virginia. As someone who has been covering the movement for several years and is very interested in watching the progression, it pained me to have only 25 inches (about 700 words) worth of space to write for today’s paper. Unfortunately, I had to leave some of the best quotes and most interesting details out of my story.

But that’s why blogs were invented, isn’t it? In any case, I’d like to share some extra info with those of you who care. If you just want to read about the food served at the dinner, I certainly don’t blame you — skip to the end.

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I see signs of summer’s impending departure all around — hurricanes wheeling up the coast, pumpkins piled in front of the grocery store, and rusty leaves peppering the canopy of green. I cannot say I’m sorry, because even though summer brings us the very best of local fruit and produce, we are lucky to live in a state where every season brings something beautiful.

Soon it will be autumn, and then it will be time to think about using up the last of our garden bounty and stocking up for winter. This time of year, I always think about my childhood affinity for the “Little House on the Prairie” books, which I read over and over again. Pa and Ma Ingalls would salt cure hams in their hollow tree chimney and store potatoes in the cellar for winter. It was an absolute necessity for them borne out of a need to survive the long, harsh winter. They had no grocery store on the corner; no farmers market in town.

My mother and I spoke over the phone last night, and she mentioned something about my Grandmother Nair I had never heard. She said Grandma used to strip her tomato plants of all the green fruit at the end of the season, then store them between sheets of newspaper in a basket, which was kept in a cool, dry place. And they ripened there! Supposedly, Grandma once enjoyed her own ripe, garden tomatoes at Christmas. But this was the same woman who could keep a poinsettia alive and blooming for years.

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After sharing my own garden pictures earlier this week, I asked readers to send pictures of their own gardening efforts. Two readers, Michelle and Kenn, came through with some images I want to show off here. In their own words…

Kenn: Just sent a pic of (most) of my garden, couldn’t get the potatoes or onions in the pic. So far have been harvesting squash, zucchini, new red potatoes, onions, and one cucumber, one green pepper, and one grape tomato.

Michelle: I live in a townhouse and we have a tiny backyard, so I have crammed everything I can in. The first picture has my tomatoes and Brussels sprouts. I keep my tomatoes pretty thin, otherwise they’ll take over the whole space. My Brussels are looking scraggily after an attack by some big fat green caterpillars, that I ended up picking off by hand. In the other picture is my strawberries (in the front on the ground), corn, and a rosemary bush. My garden is so small that I obviously don’t live off of it, but I like to learn things about different plants when I grow them. I have a reference book, “The New Self Sufficient Gardener” by John Seymour that I check about every five minutes in the summer.

Anyone else want to show off their garden? E-mail those pics to lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.

Kenn's garden

Michelle's tomatoes and Brussels sprouts

Michelle's corn, strawberries and rosemary

When I looked outside my window this morning and saw this patch of purple in my flower bed, I swear my heart itself felt like a flower unfurling.

A week of headaches and heartaches, preceded by the coldest and iciest of Virginia winters, has left me craving the sight of lush greenery, not to mention the feeling of relaxing in the sunshine with a cold beverage and a fat steak sizzling on the grill.

I am eager to clean out my flower beds and lay down fresh mulch, clean up the broken limbs left by heavy snow, spruce up my herb garden and decide which new herbs I will add this year. It’s time to start thinking about what vegetables I will grow this year and whether I want to start any seedlings. According to a cool new book I just received, “Starter Vegetable Gardens” by Barbara Pleasant, I had better hurry. The following growing times are necessary for seedlings:

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By Heather Brush, filling in for Lindsey

Last night I opened a bag of summer to add to my homemade pasta sauce. Chopped homegrown yellow tomatoes from my garden, frozen at the peak of ripeness (read: when I had had my fill of fresh tomatoes and couldn’t give them away)  saved for a cold winter’s day. The sauce also had chopped frozen homegrown green bell pepper, sauteed in olive oil with garlic and onion. (Chopping frozen pepper strips is decidedly satisfying and easy.) The sauce was delicious and all the more better for my self adoration in having produced the produce. And it led me to yearning for spring.

The seed catalogs have been arriving in abundance and I’ve found myself plotting the where, what, and how much of my gardening plans. Tomato and pepper plants are a must. Herbs are a given. But what else? If you have found yourself with the same thoughts in mind, there are a couple of events you might wish to attend.

 Floyd, Naturally!
A presentation by Gloria Gerritz on germination, seeds, time frames, sowing, hardening off and potential problems when seed planting.
When: 7 to 8:30 p.m., Monday, January 18
Where: Jessie Peterman Library, 321 W. Main St., Floyd
Contact: 382-6965

Grower’s Academy
Lecture series focusing on low-input, small scale farming.
When: 6 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, January 19
Where: Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, Roanoke Higher Education Building, 108 North Jefferson St., Roanoke
Cost: $215
Contact: 767-6114

Now, excuse me while I enjoy some leftover pasta and chunky sauce. Happy planning for home grown cooking!

If only every 'mater looked like this!

Today’s Front Burner column focuses on some difficulties with growing tomatoes. Everyone is gung-ho about gardening this year, but the first couple of years of gardening can be quite frustrating, I’ve found. Like many, I’m working to perfect my tomatoes before I really move on to more plants.

I had discussions with several local agents for the Virginia Cooperative Extension and came up with what I think is a handy little guide to some early season tomato disorders. Take a look at the column and see what you think.

One additional tip that I’ve picked up since the column went to press: if you are planting tomatoes in pots, they had better be pretty big pots. I’m beginning to think that the reason two of my lemon boys aren’t doing well is because they’re rootbound, so I am thinking about attempting a late-stage transplant operation in the side yard.

Also, my dad, who is a VERY experienced gardener, read the column and had this to add:

Concerning tomato horn worms in your column, they can be devilishly hard to see, since they’ve adapted to look just like a tomato leaf.  The best way to find them is to look at night with a flashlight.  They show up well that way.  And if you find one with a bunch of little white things on it’s back, leave it alone.  The white things are the eggs of a parasitic wasp which preys on horn worms.  The worm wont last long enough to do much damage, and it will host a whole army of wasps which will provide a fine natural defense.

What other advice would some of you long-time tomato gardeners give us amateurs?

The new raised bed

Remember the sad little patch of red dirt outside my side door that I posted a picture of a few months ago? If not, click here for a reminder of what it looked like then. Now, you can see why I am pleased with the development that has occurred since.

Having never built a raised bed before, this required some book consultation, many trips to Lowe’s, some cursing and one smashed thumbnail. But Voila! Now I have a place for my kitchen herb garden and a few vegetables.

Granted, it’s not a big enough garden to have a corn crop, or even a row of zucchini. But I think it’s often better to start slow and learn as you go along rather than tilling up a whole chunk of the yard and blowing money on a bunch of plants you can’t take care of.  So far, I have two green pepper plants and four yellow tomato plants. For experimental purposes, I’ve planted two tomatoes in this bed (on the very sunniest end) and put two in pots on the other side of the house. I’ll probably round this out with a few bush beans.

The best part, so far, is the kitchen herb garden (below). As you can see, I have rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, common sage and Greek oregano. I’d like to eventually add dill, parsley and cilantro. I also put in a clematis just because I wanted one and it seemed like a good place for it. Let the pinching and cooking begin! Who else has planted an herb garden right outside the door closest to their kitchen? If so, how is it going? Below the jump, I’m going to share a recipe that I plan to try very soon with my fresh herbs.

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This is the side of my house. For five years, it has been a bed of dirt. Mainly, we didn’t want to plant anything there until the gutter was fixed because it would only wash out the bed. Well, the gutter is fixed now.

It’s close to the house, which doesn’t bode well for the quality of the dirt there. So it seemed like a great place to build a raised bed for some vegetables this summer. That way I can put in some new soil and organic matter. Doesn’t look too difficult to build such a bed there, right? Well, here’s the problem:

It’s on a slope.

At any rate, we hauled out my Grandfather’s old circular saw and bought a new drill that wasn’t too wimpy to drive 1/2-inch holes in treated landscaping timbers. And now we are only two lengths short of finishing the raised bed. After that, I’ll have to line the inside of the timbers with plastic, since they are treated and I don’t want those chemicals in my vegetable garden.

Once we finish up the bed, I’ll post pictures. And then it will be time to talk about what to plant. I may have some sun issues …

The ground is still white outside my office window, but I’m thinking about all things green.

On the first warm weekend, I’m going to build a raised bed for my vegetable plants. It’s also time to choose what I want to plant so I can start the seedlings indoors, getting them ready for when spring rolls around.

Last year, the task was much easier. I knew I wanted tomatoes and I knew I wasn’t quite ready for a full garden. So I went with two cherry tomato plants and two Better Boy plants in pots on the deck.

This year, I’m dreaming of yellow tomatoes for sure. The rest is a world of possiblities almost too difficult to cull. Gourmet radish blend? Broccoli? Italian or otherwise? Heirloom zucchini? What if the neighbors bring a bunch of zucchini again; do I really need my own? Pole beans or bush beans? Jalapeno peppers or Thai peppers? Do I dare try watermelons or cantaloupes in my first official garden?

The answer to all of these questions can probably be answered by looking at the small size of my garden space. Not everything that I want can be crammed in there, so with a little research I’ll figure out which varieties will fit in the space, what plants compliment each other and what can be preserved for later in the year.

Holly Scoggins, a horticulture professor at Virginia Tech, gave me a list of her favorite seed companies. If you don’t see your fave on this list, let us know. What are you planting this year?

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While it’s cold and cloudy (and preparing to dump some form of nasty precipitation on us), let’s think about summer. Ahhh, summer. Time to grow and harvest big, plump, juicy tomatoes still warm from the sun.

It may not be too early to think this way. Gary Ibson, the founder of TomatoFest.com (a great site for buying heirloom tomato seeds), has already sent out a list of what are expected to be the most popular heirloom tomatoes this summer. If you are planning your garden, take note:

Brandywine (pink)
Paul Robeson (purple/black)
Aussie (red)
Julia Child (pink)
Cherokee Purple (purple/black)
Black Cherry (purple/black)
Kellogg’s Breakfast (orange)
Gold Medal (yellow/red striped)
Aunt Ginny’s Purple (purple/black)
Carmello (red)

The Brandywine and Cherokee Purple were also popular last year, I believe. Black tomatoes like the Cherokee are beautiful in many dishes. If you haven’t grown any, give it a shot.

What are you dreaming of planting in your garden this year?

Loyal blog reader Dennis sent me this picture of his first ripe tomato of the season. Here’s his comment: “I just sent this pic to some of my family, telling them ‘this is being sent to you w/ the sole intent of making you jealous!’ Picked today, June 28, 2008, is this delicious looking tomato, a supersonic this is the first tomato to ripen from any of our 14 plants.”

I like the way Dennis notes the month, day and year almost with the precision of a new father reporting the birth of his first child. I’m surprised that Dennis didn’t include a weight in there somewhere. Ha!

I have to tease him, but I’m quite familiar with that sense of pride. It was with much excitement this weekend that I discovered tiny green fruits on all four of my tomato plants, which are the first ones I’ve ever grown on my own. Until I saw those tiny gems hidden in the foliage, I wasn’t quite sure that I could make it work. I guess I’d better not count my tomatoes before they’re ripe, though.

All of this reminds me of my grandfather’s rivalry with my dad over who would produce the first ripe tomato of the season. One time, Paw-paw bought a fire-engine red plastic tomato and wired it onto one of his plants just to tease my Dad. Until Dad realized it was fake, he was practically crippled with jealousy.

Ahhh, good times in the country.

I got an e-mail this morning from the folks at Riverside Nursery in Salem, who are fully stocked for the summer gardening season.

Apparently, owner Bruce Feldberg noticed the rising popularity if heirloom and specialty tomato varieties in gardening magazines and on food shows and local plates. As a result, he has not 10 or 20 varieties for sale at his store, but 90!!

Feldberg also has 40 different kinds of peppers, so head over and check those out, too.

So far, my vegetable garden consist of two cherry tomato seedlings in paper cups that I got from a co-worker. I’d also like to get a few Better Boy plants, but my plot isn’t quite ready for anything yet. I’ve also purchased some seeds for rainbow chard, yellow squash and zucchini.

I guess I’ve got some work to do!

Thanks to everyone for their great garden tips following yesterday’s blog entry!
Here’s a quick-hit list of the advice for first-time gardeners:

– Don’t plant too early.
– Try watering with used dishwater.
– Don’t overwater your plants.
– Mix in top soil and/or manure if your soil isn’t already rich and dark. (This is a particularly helpful tip for me because my soil is almost straight red clay. Yuck!)
– Hot peppers are a great beginner’s plant because they are quite easy to grow.
– Grow what is expensive in the grocery store in order to maximize the benefits to your grocery bill.
– Try Liquid Fence to ward off deer. Hopefully, I won’t have a big deer problem in the heart of Northwest Roanoke, but those little buggers will find a garden if there is one, I know.
– Prepare well. Don’t rush into the garden because if your soil and fertilizers aren’t great, you’ll have a big weed problem.

My next question has to do with controlling pests of the smaller variety. I know bugs can be a big problem with a home garden, but I don’t want to use any harsh chemicals. If possible, I’d love to be able to use organic methods. Does anyone have any suggestions on that front?

Conveniently, I just received a big, beautiful cookbook in my mailbox called “Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden” by Jeanne Kelley. I’ll attach a recipe after the jump.

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It’s been four years since we bought our first house over in Northwest Roanoke, and it may finally be time for me to start my first garden.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long.

As tempted as I am to go whole hog, planting row after row of tomatoes, green beans, squash and peppers, I think I had better start small this year. So I plan to spend this weekend tilling up a small square in the corner of my yard — a patch just big enough for a beginner.

After my family relocated to Virginia from Colorado in the early 1980s, my parents always had a garden in the back yard. It was barely half the size of my grandparents’ garden, but it still turned out all of the veggies I mentioned above, along with spring onions, asparagus, corn, lettuce greens and much more.

My father has a green thumb. When he ran out of space in his own backyard garden, he borrowed a big plot on a friend’s farm and planted enough green beans to feed five families for a year.

I doubt if I’ll ever get to that point of infatuation, but I know I have it in my blood to at least grow a few Better Boys. In light of the tanking economy and the burgeoning slow food movement, I figure it’ll save money and help the environment if I can do at least a portion of my produce shopping in my own backyard.

How many of my faithful blog readers out there are gardeners as well as foodies? What are your favorite vegetables to grow?

If you’ve got any tips to share with a beginner, bring them on.