Wednesday, September 14, 2011

These are the beans I wanted

I've let my pair of Borlotti bean plants die with a load of bean pods hanging on them. Some of the pods are still green but as they turn yellow I've been picking and shelling them. And the beans inside have that nice specked appearance I've been waiting for. I won't get much - maybe 1/2 cup of shelled beans in all. Wonder what I should do with them...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Zapotec Tomato

Finally, a ripe Zapotec. This plant did really well considering it was pushed off into a corner where it struggled for sunlight. There are a couple of clusters of similar sized tomatoes on the single giant plant I have on the balcony. The tomatoes I got were not as large or interesting looking as the ones I've seen in books and around the internet. Inside is looks a little hollow as I expected. A good number of seeds.



This one tasted pretty plain though. I mean, it tasted like a tomato but wasn't special. I expected it to be a little sweeter but it wasn't terribly acidic either. I don't blame the variety for this fault. I blame the plant and where the blame really lies is with the gardener. I crowded my balcony with too many large tomato plants this year.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Gold Medal Tomato

I picked this Gold Medal tomato over the weekend. This one grew without much cover from the sun and had a couple of green streaks on its shoulders. But it was quite ripe overall. A good size. Nice tomato. But the taste of this one didn't impress me. Came across as kind of weak. The plant this tomato came from didn't perform very well and I blame a lack of sunlight. Too crowded on the balcony this year. The rest of the family thought the tomato tasted great though. Thick juicy slices of tomato don't last long around here.