Are your tomato plants refusing to set fruit?
Lindsay, owner of North End Organic Nursery in Garden City Idaho, explains the pollination process required for tomato flowers to produce fruit. She also offers tips for getting the most fruit possible from your tomato plants.
It’s so easy!
Celebrate pollinators of all kinds with us at NEON! This interactive event is designed to be a fun way to both educate ourselves about our critical role in pollinator health, as well as celebrate all the cool things we can do to make a difference daily!
All ages scavenger hunt with prizes, as well as educational booths.
Build your own Mason bee house with The ReUse Market, then create your own native flower seed “bomb” to spread pollinator fodder throughout our urbanscapes.
Free event, grab your friends and family and head on down to enjoy all the activities!
If you planted garlic this fall, I am sure it’s up and looking great right now!
Lindsay, owner of North End Organic Nursery in Garden City Idaho, explains some of the things that can be done to make sure you produce large fragrant heads of garlic for all of your fall meals.
Garlic should likely be ready to harvest in July!!
Get to know tomatoes!!
Today’s featured variety: Hill Marmande
Certified organic plants available at NEON, grown from seed from Snake River Seed Cooperative!
Meaty French heirloom tomato with excellent eating qualities. Superb slicer.
This is a selection of the famous French heirloom market variety done by discerning grower Kristi Appelhans. Fruits produce heavy yields of hearty, meaty fruits excellent for slicing. On the earlier side for a medium-large slicer, and mighty pretty to boot!
Get to know tomatoes!
Today’s featured variety: Aunt Ruby’s German Green
No, I know many people have an aversion to green tomatoes because they look unripe, and they fear they will not know when to harvest them… But don’t worry, it’s not that tricky. Most green tomatoes don’t stay completely green, they will turn hues of Golden and pink.
“The biggest surprise I’ve ever experienced in tomatoes,” said the late Chuck Wyatt, vintage tomato collector. Until you try it, you won’t believe a green tomato could be this good. I rate it second only to Brandywine for flavor and it is on just about everyone’s top-ten list. Oblate 12–16 oz fruits blush lightly yellow and develop an amber-pink tinge on the blossom end when ripe. Don’t allow them to get too soft before picking. The green flesh of this beefsteak is faintly marbled with pink. Flavor sweet and tart, rich and spicy.
(85 days) Open-pollinated. Indeterminate.
Get to know tomatoes!
Today’s featured tomato is: Mortgage Lifter
Also known as radiator Charlie’s mortgage lifter, the tomato has a fun backstory of it being developed by the owner of a radiator shop located at the bottom of a steep hill in West Virginia. Over six years, he bred and developed this tomato, and sold them to customers and passersby for one dollar per plant back in the 1930s. Legend has it that he paid off his repair shops mortgage through the sale of the plants, not by fixing radiators!
Mortgage Lifter is an abundant and dependable producer of dark pink beefsteak tomatoes weighing around a pound each. We’ve been impressed at the variety’s ability to produce beautiful tomatoes under a myriad of challenging conditions. The flavor is exceptional and the large size makes them perfect for sandwiches—one slice more than covers a slice of bread!
80-90 days from transplant.
Lindsay Schramm, owner of North End Organic Nursery in Garden City Idaho, describes the process required to properly condition your garden soil in order to have a successful season.
Unless it’s already been premoistened, brand new garden soil needs to be slowly wetted in order to convert its nature from being hydrophobic (water repelling), into being hydrophilic (water retaining). Failure to do this can cause new plants to become instantly dehydrated and die. Once done initially, the soil will have a tendency to retain moisture and unless it is allowed to become bone dry again, re-conditioning should not be needed.
Get to know tomatoes!
Today’s featured variety: Pruden’s Purple
Spoiler alert! It’s not purple!
72 days. Vigorous indeterminate vines with potato leaf foliage produce 1 pound fruits with excellent sweet, balanced classic tomato flavor. This dark pink beefsteak tomato dates to the 19th century when “purple” was used to describe pink tomato color, long before the more recent proliferation of black and purple tomato varieties. Sometimes incorrectly listed in catalogs as being related to Brandywine, it is a comparable beefsteak type but ripens a week or two earlier and is much less finicky about growing conditions, especially less susceptible to cracking. Has some resistance to late blight.
A great choice for new gardeners looking for a dependable heirloom beefsteak tomato.
In stock now at NEON!
Get to know, Tomatoes!
Today’s featured variety: Holy Myrrhbearer
Grown from seed through Snake River Seed Cooperative!
I freaking LOVE this tomato! Truly heart-shaped, with velvety texture–SO GOOD!
These seeds reportedly came from Russia in the 1800s and passed down from a monk to one of the Sisters of the Holy Myrrhbearers, who shared them with grower Kristi Appelhans. They make beautiful, heart-shaped tomatoes, mostly 3″ with a few honkers. Excellent for sauces, canning, and fresh eating.
Tomatoes are native to northwestern South America and by at least 500 BC they had been domesticated and were being cultivated as far north as modern-day Mexico, enjoyed by Aztec and other civilizations. They spread to Europe and the Caribbean through the Spanish colonizers, where they became staple parts of the food culture in many European countries as well. Their circuitous journey brought them from the Western hemisphere to the Eastern and back again!
Indeterminate. Open-pollinated.
Get to know tomatoes! Tomatoes come in so many amazing colors, sizes and complex flavors… We are going to feature a different tomato every day for the rest of May!
Today we feature: Malakitovaya Shkatulka
A Russian Jewel
It really is a gem, as its name suggests: Malakhitovaya Shkatulka means “malachite box” in Russian.
Malachite is a gem used for jewelry and at one time was also used to make jewelry boxes. The tomatoes are large: my bigger ones reached 3/4 lb each, and have a beautiful green skin that is blushed with an apricot hue as they ripen.
This tomato has a very satisfying tomatoey flavor in line with other low acid varieties, such as Brandywine. I think another of its outstanding features is the gorgeous color, especially in a simple sliced tomato salad with red onion, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
