GFF Veg Varieties 2023

Now is a great time to be thinking about the veggies that are going into gardens.  Which makes it a good time for us to share some of our favorite veggie varieties for the Genuine Faux Farm.  This actually has meant a bit more to us over the past few years because we have been simplifying the operation.  From the perspective of veggie varieties, that means we find ourselves asking the question - "which varieties do we keep growing and which ones do we let go?"

There are enough vegetables that this is going to be a multi-post thing.  So, stay tuned for the next week or so as I sprinkle blog entries amidst the other normal silliness that happens here on a daily basis (yeah, have you noticed?  I haven't missed a day in 2023 yet.).

Tomatoes

Ok, it feels like most gardeners love to talk about tomatoes.  We've all got our favorites.  And those that grow heirloom varieties, just as we do, often grow more than one variety simply because it is so hard to limit yourself!  So many taste and texture options.  So many different characteristics.  And a wide range of production factors to consider.

One of the considerations at the farm is that we grow all of our tomatoes, with maybe the exception of a single cherry tomato plant closer to the house, inside of our high tunnels.  A reality on the farm is that we have seen consistent damage from dicamba (a story for another day) and crops in the nightshade family, like tomatoes, are especially vulnerable.  That means we pick varieties that do well for us in that environment.

Italian Heirloom

Picture of this variety is shown above.

These are smaller than average plants and their leaves are a bit wispy, so they can sometimes look a bit like they are an unhappy plant - like some of the Roma types.  But the production levels are excellent and the tomatoes are a nice nine-tenths of a pound on average.  They are meaty, not too juicy, and have a good taste that works in sauces or fresh.  They start production early and can run into October and sometimes November in the high tunnels.  The only issue is that you can see sunscald on the tomatoes due to less leaf cover.  We have sometimes planted zinnias or basil or other taller plants to the south of these tomatoes to provide a little extra coverage.

Black Krim

We selected Black Krim as our "purple" or "black" variety many years ago.  For several years, we combined Paul Robeson with Black Krim in our high tunnels and found that was a good combination.  Krim started earlier and then the flushes seemed to alternate between the two varieties.

Black Krim is one of those varieties that we've learned how to grow over time.  A cool, wet season is not their friend, which is why they like to be in our high tunnels.  It also helps that we can regulate how much and when the plants get water.  The tomatoes always taste better if we can reduce water intake prior to a harvest peak.

This is not to say that people can't successfully grow Black Krim in their gardens.  You have to remember, there are fundamental differences between commercial growing and home gardening.  The amount of time and attention a commercial grower (as we have been) can spend per plant is far less than the time a gardener can provide.  That means a gardener might be able to make some adjustments that we can't in order to get their couple of plants to produce well enough.

Black Krim are smaller plants that like warmer and drier weather.  They also require that you climb a learning curve to figure out when to pick them.  To teach yourself, go by feel rather than what they look like!  

As to why we grow them - it's all about the taste and texture combination.  They're just that good.

Speckled Roman

Our choice for paste tomato is still the Speckled Roman.  However, when we make sauces, we usually use a wide range of tomatoes to get the best tasting sauce we can possibly have.  And, remember, the Italian Heirlooms have some Roma heritage and can fill this slot capably too.

Speckled Romans are the biggest LIARS in the garden.  Oh... poor me... it is sooooo hot and I feel that I might SWOON!  Then, evening comes and they stand up beautifully.  Harvest comes, and they have a very nice flush of red and yellow striped paste tomatoes.  We prefer the taste of these as a base for our sauces (a bit sweeter than many paste tomatoes).  But, I have to admit that we've also grown many other paste varieties that have been just as productive (and some more productive) in the past.

None of the heirloom paste tomatoes we have tried have particularly loved being in the high tunnel.  But, then again, paste tomatoes have not been a big focus of ours for the past several years.  When we did farmers' markets, it was more important to have them.  But, we still grow a batch for ourselves every year.

Nebraska Wedding

This is the heirloom variety that we are growing for our yellow/orange slicer-sized tomatoes.  We used to grow Moonglow and another variety that seems to have gone extinct (Golden Sunray).  Once again, Nebraska Wedding plants tend toward the smaller side.  You just have to remember that "small" is a relative term here.  We tend to prefer smaller plants so we don't have to do excessive trellising work in our high tunnels.  A nice cage is usually good enough to keep them in check.   

The average fruit size is around a half pound.  But we have noted that perfect growing conditions and nice fertile (but not overly fertile) soil can push that size up to 2/3 pound.  First fruits are typically bigger than later fruits.  That's not a big deal because these were originally introduced to me as being determinant (the plants die after producing fruit).

The skin is a bit tougher on these tomatoes and they often are a uniform size with no splitting, which is great for marketing.  We like that the taste balances some of the more acidic tomatoes in our sauces.

That's enough on tomatoes for now.  I'm sure I'll come back to them in a future post.

Peppers

Napoleon Sweet

We've always liked Napoleon Sweet as a green/red bell pepper.  They have a better than average green bell taste and a good red bell taste.  But we hold a bit more fondness for these in our hearts after we grew them out for Seed Savers (to produce seed) during the 2021 season.  

Like our tomatoes, we now grow all of our peppers inside the high tunnels to protect them from the effects of dicamba (an herbicide) and they do very well there.  These plants tend to be taller than many pepper varieties, so they might require staking in the field.  I will admit that we rarely staked them when they were outside.  But, when we grow them inside, the plants get a bit bigger and they do require staking or trellising of some sort. 

You can opt not to trellis Napoleon Sweet if you like walking around plants that have fallen into the row.  But when that happens, it exposes fruit to the sun and you get sunscald issues.

These plants have been consistent producers for years at the Genuine Faux Farm.  The main inconsistency, if it is a problem for you, is that they don't produce a whole bunch of uniform fruit (see the photo).  They produce consistent taste and texture - but don't expect consistent shape.

Golden Treasure

When ripe, Golden Treasure fruit are about 8 inches long and maintain a carrot shape.  Like many heirloom peppers, there can be some variability in shape, but the form you see at the bottom left of the image is mostly true to form.  There are a couple of green peppers at the right that might be another variety - the picture is old enough that I don't recall for certain, but I think they are Marconi Reds that have not yet turned red.

You can pick these when they start to show a little yellow and they'll turn the rest of the way in two to three days on your kitchen counter.  This pepper is Tammy's favorite fresh eating pepper.  Even I will occasionally take a nibble out of one.  I prefer my peppers as part of a sandwich or in combination with other things because peppers like to talk back to me (if you know what I mean).  But, I do like the taste of a Golden Treasure.

Once again, these plants tend to be on the taller side.  They don't seem to grow any differently for us in the field or the high tunnel - except that now we grow all of our peppers in the tunnels (see above).  They do like a bit more water, so if we want top production, we have to run their lines more often than other varieties.  The good news is that they pair up pretty well with Napoleon Sweet for cultivation techniques.

We'll stop with these five for today's blog.  More to come - and possibly more tomatoes and peppers among the varieties we choose to highlight.  

Have a great day everyone!