Meet the Tomatoes!

With such funny, mild weather this summer, it has taken until just the past few weeks for us to finally meet this season's tomatoes. 

the extended family

Back in April, when I planted the majority of the summer garden, I sowed seeds for nine tomato varieties directly into the upper bed.  Though I had planned to start seedlings and transplant, time lapsed (as it tends to do) and I skipped some steps and put the seeds straight into the ground.  The cotyledons sprouted quickly, and lovely strong plants followed.  We had huge, bushy plants for months with no fruit to speak of.  Slowly, at the end of August, the tomatoes finally started appearing.

  

Ox Hearts

Our only crop to get bloom end rot - not on all of them, but on enough.  I'd say good for saucing, but not the best eating tomato.  A little mealy.

 

Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge

The catalog described these as more beautiful than tasty.  Ours taste pretty good, but the beautiful swipe of  purple that's supposed to grace the top of the fruit has yet to show itself.

 

White Queen 

So delicious!  Firm, but fairly seedy.  Fruity, a nice touch of citrus, and really tasty.

 

Galo de Table

Yummy cherry.  A multi-colored variety.  They are ready to eat when they are yellow (firm and tangy), great at orange (sweet with good bite), and at orangey-red (very sweet and very juicy).

 

Emerald Green

This has been our most prolific thus far.  Really tasty and really large.  Sweet, but still nice and tangy.  The catalog mentions that they grow with ease and with relatively little heat - which has been true for us.

 

Black Cherries

So pretty and dusky colored.  Big producer with firm, rich-flavored fruit.  And delicious oven-dried.  (Thanks for the inspiration Livi and Steve!)

 

Amish Paste

I waited several years to finally get this variety.  I'd looked for seedlings at local nurseries and online, but they were always unavailable - at least when I was looking.  Part of settling on seed this year  was the impetus to finally have some Amish pastes. Totally worth it!  Not a great looking specimen, and not a great eating variety, but when it comes to making sauce this is holding up to the hype.  Big tomatoes, almost no seeds, great consistency and amazing, zingy flavor.

Of the nine different tomatoes that I planted, we are still waiting on two of them - they have plenty of fruit, but it's all still green.  Our giant German Red Strawberry was the first to ripen, but after that one ready fruit, the rest have stayed green.  Pink Ponderosa is also slow going. All of the seeds came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - which is one of the most fun, inviting, inspiring seed catalogs to peruse.  I definitely recommend indulging in a paper copy.

Lawn Part 1

I have been making steady progress over the last few weeks on getting our lawn in.  This marks one of the last remaining big projects for the back yard.  We had planned for a lawn area when we first started laying out our backyard a number of years ago.  Over the last few years, I have researched different grass varieties and began to think that it wasn't such a good idea given our water shortages in Los Angeles.  Yet, at the same time, we both love a good lawn game with friends and we love entertaining.  About 6 months ago, I found a grass that had a lot of promise.  Called UC Verde, it is a buffalo grass developed by UC Davis specifically for Southern California and arid regions.  It requires a quarter of the water that typical grasses require, and it needs little or no mowing.  Some people have not mowed their lawn in 2 years.

After reading a few blogs about people's experiences installing this grass variety, we decided to go ahead.  One thing though, the grass is only available in plugs.  When I first researched pricing in the Spring, there were only a couple of sources to purchase through, now the sources have multiplied and it appears you can even order it through Armstrong.  I ordered mine through Florasource.  Using their recommendations, I determined that about 800 sf of lawn and plugs spaced at 15" intervals would yield roughly 500 plugs.  Four 128 plug trays are arriving tomorrow.

For the installation, I first laid out the sprinkler system: 3/4" sprinkler valve, 3/4" lines, and 6 pop-ups. For the nozzles, I am using these Rainbird brand high efficiency rotary nozzles.  They put out less water per hour, this reduces runoff, allowing the water to soak in properly.  They are also elgible for rebates from the state (25 head min.) and are readily available from Home Depot or your local sprinkler supply house.  I use J. Harold Mitchell in Pasadena.  They are not the cheapest, but they will answer all your sprinkler related questions as well as having lots of hard to find parts.  I have used them extensively for our drip system in our vegetable garden.

 

Valves for the lower half of our yard.  The lawn sprinkler valve has the
3/4" pvc running down.

Trenching was the hardest part but a pick axe, trench shovel and full day's work will do.  Next, I layed  the pipe in the trenches and glued it up.  This is a pretty easy process.  Cut with the PVC cutter, coat the pipe and fitting with glue, hold together until set.

For the pop-up bodies, I am using a 12" Rainbird 1800 series pop-up.  I decided not to use the cheaper 6" since I thought if I allowed the grass to grow out I may have problems with it the heads adequately clearing the grass.  The pop-up and nozzle assembly is connected to the water line with a swing joint giving lots of flexibilty in adjusting the head as well as raising or lowering the height if need be.

Spinkler assembly: the 12" pop-up body is attach to 2 swing joints, then a

1/2' by 12" pipe, then 1 additional swing joint that is attatched to a threaded

3/4" 'T'.

After all piping and sprinklers are glued up, I removed the sprinkler heads and turned on the valve to flush the line of any dirt or debris.  I let this run for a few minutes before I turned it back off.  I screwed the heads on and turned the valve on again to check for orientation and spray radius.  At this point I just needed to make my final adjustments and fine tune the spray distance with the adjustable screw on top of the nozzle.

The sprinklers installation is complete.  Next up, Part Two: tilling, leveling, and planting.

Tomato!

 

German Red Strawberry. Seeds from Baker Creek.

First one!  WOW.

Main Sewer Line Replacement Part 2

Last Sunday, I finished replacing the main sewer line.  First, I removed the temporary fix and demo-ed the rest of the clay pipe.

Next, I cut out the cast-iron segment back to about its midpoint under the house.  The cast-iron is a bit tough to cut through but can be done with a good carbide blade and a little patience.  I then connected the old 3" cast-iron pipe to the new 3" ABS pipe with a Fernco coupler and extended this out through the hole in the foundation.  Here I added a 3" to 4" ABS coupler and added a new clean-out all glued together with ABS glue.

The new clean-out.  There will be a short length of pipe as well as a cap added.

The rest was easy: I ran the rest of the pipe and re-connected at the street with a 4" coupler.
 

 This was the easy part.

I did buy a torque wrench on ebay to set the proper tension of the Fernco couplers.  These are made to be cinched to 6olbs.  I have guessed in the past but since these will be underground (and hopefully trouble free) for a long time, I thought it best to do it right.

All connected and ready to go.  Just need to fill in the trenches.

Main Sewer Line Replacement

About a year ago, our sewer backed up.  Needless to say, it was a mess and at after-hours roto-router pricing, costly to deal with.  We have a cleanout under the house for this sort of situation, but it being the old style cast iron, was rusted closed.  The plumber had to go through a waste stack in the roof.

I watched the plumber work and thought if it ever backed up again, I would do it myself at reduced cost.  I went under the house, reamed out the lead solder that held the cleanout plug and put in a rubber gasket - something that I could easily remove if need be in the future.  About six months after the original cleanout, our sewer was backing up again and so I went to Home Depot and rented a roto-router.  The process was quite simple, but back breaking, dirty work since the Home Depot routers while electric, do not have a self feeder mechanism.  My sewer backed up 2 more times in the following six months, so I decided the best bet was to open up the main sewer line and take a look.

What I discovered was that our sewer in the front yard was a clay design: composed of 4' sections with a hub and bell style connection, concreted together.  While there were fine roots attached to the hubs, the weak points, the main culprit was a 1" break where the sewer line started to drop down the hill in our front yard.

 

Trenched and ready to go.  The narrow pipe in front is the

1" copper main water line.  The 1" break in the clay sewer is in the

middle of the photograph.

 Here is a close up of the 1" crack just below the hub.  I cleared away the

roots to investigate.

I ran down to Home Depot to gather all the supplies I needed:

• 1 - 8' length of 4" ABS pipe
• 1 - 4" Fernco Flexible Coupling (both sides equal size for the ABS to cast-iron street connection)
• 1 - 4" Fernco Flexible Coupling (one side larger than the other to connect the 4" clay to the 4" ABS)
• 1 - 4" 1/8 bend elbow

The following I already had:

• sawsall with carbide tipped blade (these will cut through cast-iron and clay)
• hammer
• ratchet set (to tighten the hubs)

The first step was to break the clay out with a hammer.  I broke up to the point above the crack where roots where infiltrating.  Next, I removed all the broken pipe down to the point where the clay pipe connected to the cast-iron street connection at the sidewalk.  The clay was originally connected to the cast-iron with a rubber coupling.  I removed this and stuffed the cast-iron end with a towel to prevent dirt and soil from clogging while I worked.

The root mass inside the broken clay pipes.

Next, I used my sawsall to cut a straight, clean cut on the existing clay sewer.  There were too many roots, so I cut again above the next clay hub.

Sawsall with carbide blade.

 

After cutting the clay pipe with the sawsall.

The root mass can be seen.  I ended up cutting above the next hub.

All that was left to do was to tie in the new pipe.  I first cut two pieces of ABS to the proper length.  Next, I tied in one piece to the clay with the Fernco rubber coupling.  Then, I added the elbow and the second piece to the elbow. Finally, I connected the ABS to the street with the second Fernco rubber coupling.  Since this was a temporary fix, I did not glue the elbow.  To ensure that everything was leak tight, I took my hose and ran water at the cleanout and checked for leaks (in the process of digging out the line, I discovered a buried clean-out where the sewer came out from under the house) 

The roots are on the left.  Once the pipe was broken

they came out in one mass.

New connection, tested and with some wood stakes to stabilize.

The copper line above the pipe is the 1" main water service to the house.

The process was surprisingly easier that I expected and orders of magnitude cheaper than hiring a plumber.  Within the next week or so, I hope to rip out all the rest of the clay sewer pipe and permanently tie in the brand new sewer line.

For Fernco couplings see here.  If you live in the area, for additional plumbing supplies, help and advice, I would highly recommend Red Supply.  They are only open during the week.

Turnip Pickles

Jamie Oliver is a favorite of mine.  I have loved his rough, unfussy style in the kitchen for some time and was so happy when he combined his cooking ethos with product out of his own (outrageous) garden.  On "Jamie at Home" each episode is themed around a particular ingredient grown (mainly) on his own property - "tomatoes", "peppers", "eggs" - you get the idea.  Last year we started DVRing the series and, though I don't actually know how many episodes there are in all, we now have 22 of them recorded.  There is also a book.  "At Home" has a really messy, get-your-hands-dirty kind of vibe and Jeremy also immediately became a big fan.

One of our favorite episodes is titled "Pickles" and we have used a sort of all-purpose recipe from it with great results.  Over the summer we used it to preserve an abundance of eggplants from the garden.  Unsure how they would turn out or what we might use them for, it turns out that pickled eggplant is both tasty and versatile.  It is great used as a spread on the toast of a fried egg sandwich. Adds a kick to turkey sandwiches.  It has also starred as an option in one of our Mediterranean mini-feasts with warm flat bread, hummus, olives, feta, etc., In any case, last month I set out to try the recipe on this season's first harvest of turnips.  The recipe is meant to be good for use on any vegetable that will stay firm after 2-3 minutes of blanching - mushrooms, zucchini, onions...  This is my take on Jamie's suggestion for a flavory, quick pickle:

I stuck a bit of beet into the mix as well, for a little shot of color.

ingredients

• turnips (in this case), 2 pounds - cut into sticks about 1/2 inch thick

       pickling liquid

• cider or white vinegar, 4 cups
• water, 4 cups
• kosher or sea salt, 2 tablespoons

       pickling marinade

• olive oil, 2 cups
• garlic, 5 cloves roughly chopped
• fresh red chili, chopped
• dried oregano or other favorite herb, 2 tablespoons

method

1. Have some sterilized jars ready to go.
2. Bring vinegar, water and salt to a rapid boil in a large pot.
3. In a large bowl, add all marinade ingredients and mix/mash together well.
4. Add turnips to the boiling liquid and cook for about 3 minutes.
5. Lift the veg out of the liquid with a strainer or slotted spoon and add directly to the bowl of marinade.  Toss very well.
6. Straight away, add the hot turnips to the clean jars, filling to the top and covering with the marinade.  Seal the jars tight and let cool.
7. Store in a cool, dry spot and wait at least two weeks for the flavors to meld before you get eating. 

I know that everyone has their own comfort level with canning/preserving techniques.  Jamie Oliver just sealed the hot pickle in the jars and left them unprocessed and in the pantry.  That's what I did as well, refrigerating only after I opened the jars, with great results.  He says that they can be kept that way for up to 3 months.  I suppose they could be easily processed in boiling water or just stuck directly into the refrigerator after making them if one had any worries about food safety.  Whatever your preference, the recipe is really simple and very tasty.  I think I'll try it with some of our fennel next!

Mulch!!

Last Friday morning (while I was laying poolside in Hawaii) Jeremy accepted an enormous delivery of mulch back at the Rancho.  Instead of taking it to the dump, Finch's Tree Service brought a dump truck full of chipped branches and leaves and unloaded it right in front of the house.

 

As you can see in the picture, my car is parked just feet behind the huge mound and is about half the size of it.  Our plan is to lay a thick layer of mulch over as much of the unplanted areas of the backyard as possible - both to (fingers crossed) keep the weeds at bay and add organic material to the dusty, clay soil.

 

Jeremy made amazing progress on the pile over the weekend.  And, with a few loads between the two of us after work last night, the monster in the driveway is now about 1/3 of its original size.  After we finish getting it moved entirely we'll post pics of how it's really helped transform the weedy spring yard!