It's a New Year in the garden and I was thinking about the successes in our kitchen garden at the restaurant this past year, so here's my "Top Ten for 2009".
#1 Lemon cucumbers...terrific producers & yummy taste, a big hit with customers visiting our biointensive garden. My niece Corrina likes to eat them like apples!
#2 Big Boy tomatoes...Farmer Dave gave me my first seedlings for this type of tomato and they were the best I ever tasted. Our below the soil tape watering system proved to be great for these, and we yielded a huge crop.
#3 Little Finger eggplant...crazy producer, I picked this variety up at the bi-annual Pepper & Tomato show at UC Fullerton's' Arboretum Sale last spring, and it's still giving us delicious eggplants about 4-5" and very tender.
#4 Fino Verde Basil...this was a type of basil I planted in our 14' basil bed. Beautiful mounds of small delicate and very fragrant basil, makes great pesto!
#5,6,& 7...Arugula, Mizuna, and Ruby Straw greens. These great "cut and come again" greens are wonderful for salads and side dishes. You can trim these down, and in a few weeks they'll re-grow. Also terrific when seeds are successively planted every two weeks for harvesting throughout the season.
#8 Pineapple heirloom tomatoes...big beautiful, reddish-yellow color and the flesh is like eating a peach!
#9 Poblano Chili...great roasted on hamburgers and long harvest season.
#10...De cicco broccoli...tender tasting and the leaves can be used in risotto and pasta.
So there you have it, my favorites for 2009. I'm very fortunate to have a community of fellow gardeners and friends to make this year one of growth (both in the garden and personally), and I am grateful for all of them.
I look forward to another successful year playing in the dirt!!
