The Windsor Garden Club is trying to solve The Great Tomato Debate: what’s the best backyard tomato to grow in this town? And what’s the worst?
If you’ve got an opinion, and if you’ve got a named tomato variety from your garden, you’re invited to the Town Green Community Garden on the remaining September Sundays (Sept. 17 and Sept. 24) from noon till 2 p.m. to help settle the debate.
Bring your opinions and tomatoes to slice, share and taste with other backyard gardeners. In addition to meeting some WGC members and some other very nice people who grow tomatoes in and around Windsor, you’ll help the club figure out what seeds to buy and start for seedling sales at the Spring Plant Sale 2018. And you’ll also get the recipe for an organic planting mix for your tomatoes (complete with fish heads).
It’s a fun idea that grew out of a bad tomato. Club president Cindy Fenton bought seeds and carefully raised a Pozzano tomato, a variety supposed to be resistant to blossom end rot. Â True to advertising, they didn’t come down with blossom rot, but they also didn’t taste very good.
“They were a real dud. I’m never raising them again,” she said.
On the wow end of the taste range was San Marzano. I planted an heirloom San Marzano seedling raised by friend Jennifer in Santa Rosa. It grew eggplant-sized tomatoes on a long scraggly climbing vine. (San Marzanos usually bring in whopper crops, unlike mine.)
But those San Marzanos were a little bit of tomato heaven: meaty, tender, sweet – and they made the best Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato & Avocado sandwich I’ve ever tasted in my life.
So, score one for the San Marzano, zero for the Pozzano. If you’ve got an heirloom tomato you love this year, and you want to try Jennifer’s trick for saving seeds, here’s what she did:
She put the seeds between two paper towels to dry (San Marzanos don’t make a lot of seeds). After the paper towels dried, she cut the paper into squares, leaving the seeds wrapped in paper. In the spring she planted the paper towel squares in her garden.
She raises her tomatoes in eight-inch high raised beds with good drainage, in full sun. (I grew her seedling in a half-wine barrel in my backyard; it shared space with sunflower stalks and a volunteer basil.)
The commercial San Marzanos have to be grown in the Valle del Sarno near Naples, Italy. They’re the official paste tomato of Neapolitan pizza. You can get heirloom San Marzano seeds all over the US – but if you grow them, can them and sell them commercially, you can’t label them San Marzano. Only a handful of growers in Italy can do that. It’s sort of like Champagne vs. sparkling wine.
If you’re not into San Marzanos, what’s your favorite? Early Girl? Roma? Hillbilly? Brandywine? Mr. Stripey? Java Plum? And what grows best here – in our little corner of the world? And what’s a stinker – one you wouldn’t waste dirty dish water on? Do tell. (If you can’t make the September Sunday tomato tastings, you can email us and let us know at
of******@wi***************.org
.)
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And if you’re more into flowers than vegetables, you’re in for a treat Sept. 19. The featured speakers at the Windsor Garden Club meeting that night are the folks from Aztec Dahlias in Petaluma. Aztec Dahlias has been in the spotlight in local newspapers recently; if you went to the annual Heirloom Food Expo, you saw some of their beautiful blooms on display.
Come learn more about dahlias big and small, and learn what the current owners of the Petaluma flower farm are doing with the business. Meeting starts with refreshments at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19, and the Aztec Dahlia presentation starts at 6:45 in the community room at the Windsor Senior Center, 9231 Foxwood Dr.
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Seeking Succulents: The Windsor Garden Club is looking for donations of succulent cuttings for our popular holiday pumpkin fundraiser. WGC uses the cuttings to create succulent-topped pumpkins for its annual Fall Plant Sale. The pumpkins last several months if cared for properly; the succulents can be planted after it’s time for the pumpkin to go. If you’ve got succulent cuttings to share, email us at
of******@wi***************.org
or leave a message at 707-931-4796.
Teresa Hendrix is one of the members of the Windsor Garden Club. Find out more about the club at www.windsorgardenclub.org.
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