By Reggie Solomon

• Our Tomato Casual writing team is growing! This week, we welcome Kira Hamman who is helping our readers start tomato plants from seed.

• The Bag Lady asks the question if planting eight varieties of tomatoes is too much. We think not

• Ray White (a.k.a, “Dad”), America’s Oldest blogger at Dad’s Tomato Garden Journal, shares photos from his tomato photo album.

• Our Friend Ben at Poor Richard’s Almanac feasts on bacon and tomato sandwiches and notes his Top 10 Southern Comfort Food picks.

By Michael Nolan

Mother Nature just doesn’t seem to want to agree with my timetable for planting tomatoes this year.

Severe thunderstorms and sporadic tornado warnings notwithstanding, the temperatures will go from a balmy and beautiful 75 for several days and then plummet rather suddenly to the 30s overnight.

As any true tomato gardener knows, these conditions are just not helping me start this year’s crop.

It was just last week that I finally started the first of my tomato seeds indoors. Yes, I realize I’m late, but you seriously wouldn’t believe the weather.

Thus far this year I hope to enjoy: Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Nolan

Some might say that I have an extreme interest in frugality and simple living, largely because I feel a spiritual connection with the Earth.

There is no more profound experience for me than to spend time with my hands in the dirt, nurturing seeds into seedlings and seedlings into plants that then return the favor by nourishing me.

You probably have a mental image of me with long stringy hair and a tie-dyed t-shirt, but I assure you that I’m not the stereotypical hippie who might normally talk this way.

The bottom line is Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

If you’re thinking about gardening this year but don’t think you have enough open green space or even time, you’re not alone—and nurseries are working hard to help you out by developing more and more plants and vegetables suitable for container gardening.

Container gardens are the latest trend according to Bruce Butterfield, research director for the National Gardening Association in South Burlington, Vermont as “’[p]eople are using their patios and balconies rather than get their hands dirty in the ground.”

Moreover, as lifetime gardeners age, Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

In Part I of our Holiday Book Recommendations, we talked about books with tomato gardening tips and in Part II, about tomato memoirs—now it’s time to get cooking. Here are some tomato cookbooks you or your tomato lover might enjoy:

• The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook by Mimi Luebbermann

In this cookbook, Luebbermann, who has written nearly 20 books on gardening and cooking, offers not only delicious recipes and great photographs by Robert Holmes, she also includes information on the top 25 heirloom varieties, including growing tips and seed-purchasing information. Among the 50 recipes are Gazpacho with Cucumber Salsa Verde, Cheese and Pesto Fondue with Tomato-Focaccia Skewers, and Grilled Sea Bass with Lemon-Oregano and Tomato Relish.

• The Tomato Festival Cookbook: 150 Recipes that Make the Most of Your Crop of Lush, Vine-Ripened, Sun-Warmed, Fat, Juicy, Ready-to-Burst Heirloom Tomatoes by Lawrence Davis-Hollander

Publishers Weekly says “Davis-Hollander’s first book brings together familiar preparations, like tomato sauce and ratatouille, with contemporary restaurant innovations like Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

As the holiday season creeps up on us, you may be looking for the perfect gift for the tomato gardener in your life. There are plenty of books out there on how to garden and we told you about them in Part I, but here are three books written for gardeners by gardeners with firsthand tales of their tomato trials and tribulations:

• The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander

Lauded by Publishers Weekly as a “hilarious horticultural memoir,” The $64 Tomato recounts Alexander’s experience with growing a vegetable garden and orchard in the Hudson Valley. As a telling example of how things went for Alexander, he begins his journey organically-obsessed but ends up covering his entire property in pesticides when he finds himself in a battle against just about everything he comes across.

Your favorite tomato gardener may just find solace in Alexander’s own troubles—and humor dealing with them.

• Blithe Tomato by Mike Madison

Madison is a subsistence farmer in California with more than 20 years experience in the local farmers’ market scene. Blithe Tomato is a collection of essays on Madison’s Read the rest of this entry »