You say tomato... (QUIZ answer)

...I say mitochondria!

photo by Louisa Howard, via Wikipedia's extensive mitochondrion entry

Am I right?

Dead ringer.

=)

And that makes Olivia, of Beasts in a Populous City fame,

the WINNER!!! Woo-hoo!!! Nice work, chica!

ALL of your guesses were most delightful

and imaginative and made my day. THANKS!!

So, if you don't know, mitochondria are cellular organelles in eukaryotes,

and are frequently called the power house of the cell.

It's where most ATP molecules in your body are made,

and ATP is your body's ultimate energy currency.

And the reason dark meat is dark,

is because they are muscles the animal uses a lot,

so they need more energy (mitochondria) there.

Example:

Turkeys walk and scratch the ground a lot,

but fly seldom and briefly,

so their legs are dark meat,

& the flight muscles (breast meat) are white.

The wiki entry on re: mitochondrion is extensive, if you want more.

So, do you ever see things in certain ways

because of what you do for a living or as a hobby?

If you recall, do tell.

xobb

you know you're a biologist when... (QUIZ!)

this tomato (etc.) sandwich makes you IMMEDIATELY think of what?

Specifically, the tomato slices....

So much so that you have to take a photo,
despite tremendous hunger and bad lighting. =)

And, of course, the indefensible power nerdery of it.

Feel free to guess wildly if you have no idea.

'Cause you know I love that.

xobb

gardening block overcome, rewards subsequently reaped

 

Everyone, including beans I'm stripping
to get bean plant to resume production.

Mostly cherry toms + 2 ancho peppers.

Tomatillos 'n' little peppers (some sweet, some hot).

A few of the tomatillos are as big as regular tomatoes.
Apparently these pups thrive on neglect.
That and an accidentally deep planting bed,
probably 'cause it catches & keeps more water.

Some of the tomatillos w/husks look like
little green jack o' lanterns to me, so it's kinda seasonally apt.

Anyhow, I'm loving all this color.

Happy Halloween, everyone! =)

xoxobb

Phriday photo quiz, what do I weigh? + Garden panic

Me being the beans pictured below, harvested this a.m.

They're sitting on a large platter (well, larger than our normal plates),

and there's a quarter visible for scale.

Poor camera: bright sunshine on plastic

and BLACK ninja-kitty in same frame.

Didn't harvest for 2 or 3 days.

oops.

 

So, what does this pile of beans weigh?

 Closest guess by 8 a.m. Monday wins.

 And none of this "closest without being over" 

silliness--that's such an arbitrary cut off.

Statistically, it makes no sense to me,

and as a former stats nerd, I'm not gonna stand for it.

The prize, as usual, is GLORY.

And, if you have a blog, we'll link to it

so my 3+ blog readers will FLOOD your site

with traffic and you'll become rich.

(Maybe.)

Garden Panic

It's finally hit that time of year

where the yield is starting to freak me out.

 (peppers from SF farmer's market)

 

The pepper plants have all swooned from the burden of bounty,

languishing on the ground for want of extra support 

(or a better caretaker).

I'm now afraid of the tomatoes.

 (also from SF f.m.)

  Don't even want to check them.

Just walk by, averting my gaze,

trying to concentrate on other things.

The gardening equivalent of plugging your ears and humming

to not hear what you don't want to hear.

Traaa la la, la la.

So, Bear is dealing with the park fire,

and his wife is intimidated by tomatoes.

Go figure.

=)

xobb

if I eat all of this, I may become a human bean... and tiny earthquake note

Today's harvest

Here you mostly see tomatoes,

but there are so many green beans 'neath,

my arm was getting tired from cradling it all.

Harvest plated. Note green bean spillover.

Reminds me of my favorite book,

Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner.

Above, we see the angle of repose for pole beans.

=)

Also, a FEW cherry peppers are on the left, 1st pick.

And one cherry tomato got smushed a bit on my shirt.

Had to eat that one right away.

I am no slacker when it comes to cherry tomato clean up. 

=)

Record keeping

So, do you weigh your harvest?

I have, but I'm super not consistent,

and the only place I record it is here.

How much of your gardening do you track?

How do you think you've benefitted from it?

Is there anything useful you would not have learned had you not?

Please share in the comments.

I mostly just track what I planted so I rotate my crops properly.

Earthquake

And, for those of you on the east coast,

who experienced the 5.9 earthquake today,

I hope you and yours are well.

Personally, I think earthquakes would be MUCH more fun

if you could know ahead of time all will be well,

so just have fun with it.

I do remember when I was 14, running outside during an earthquake

so I could feel our sidewalk move.

Thought it'd be cool.

It was.

=) 

xoxobb

Overdue quiz answer...

 
This is the tomato pic/quiz I posted a few weeks ago:

I got precisely ONE guess, a VERY good one, from Kyna of the always amusing Crystal Coast Gardener blog. Her guess was Black Krim, a variety from eastern Europe/Ukraine that's very similar. In FACT, among the tomato plants I bought yesterday WAS a Black Krim, which I'm very excited about.

For being the sole brave soul re: guessing, we say:

Yay, Kyna!!! Woo-hoo!

However, yesterday I did NOT find the variety pictured above, which I hope I can remedy as they are the MOST exquisitely tasty tomato I've EVER had.

And I am NOT a tomato person.

It's the Cherokee purple tomato, allegedly originally from a Cherokee Indian who shared the seeds that eventually were developed commercially.

I posted it 'cause tho' one seed catalog described its yield as "somewhat stingy," and I agree, and it seems prone to cracking (tho' I'm NOT good at even watering), it produces the most richly flavored tomato I've ever had.

And the inside is SO BEAUTIFUL! CRAZY colors.

So, beauty and taste.

Who could resist?

Not bb.

xoxo

P.S. Photos of goodies I bought for the garden yesterday coming soon-ish, including a list of what lovelies I picked and crammed into the little red wagon the nursery provided. In the mean time, I REALLY need to get digging!!!

P.P.S. Allowing a little more time before I post the answer to yesterday's random, botanical quiz, so feel free! =)

Phriday photo quiz: Since it's getting to be planting time...

What variety of tomato is this?

I realize it could be a few things, so don't be shy about out and out guessing. Getting it right will be part luck, but I'm looking forward to learning from YOU other varieties that look like this.

=)

bb

when ya just don't feel like writing...

 

Cook those tomatoes!

7 lbs of home grown tomatoes

I'm doubling Lynn Rosetto Casper's recipe for tomato sauce (tho' darn it I can't find it on the web--got it second hand...) to use more tomatoes.

And about 10 cloves of garlic.

Funny it should take writing procrastination to get me past procrastinating re: cooking the tomatoes.

Either way, I can now see more counter space that I have in a while. I still have a LONG ways to go, but most, yes, most of the really red ones are now destined for sauce. TODAY. =)

biobabbler

P.S.

Here is the sauce, gettin' saucy...

Lunch. Yum.

Monday's harvest

 

Guess how many pounds that is....

biobabbler

eek! 9.2 lbs of tomatoes? On November 4th?

 
Decided that since I am a) totally sore everywhere and b) hoping to stem a produce panic (no pun intended) and c) SO not at my word count for the day, I will NOT go to the gym today (after 3 days in a row).

Laundry, dishes, maybe some pasta sauce, but def. lots of WRITING!!

Anyhow, harvested these pups today:

Aren't they adorable?

And weighed them. On the people scale, as it maxed out the cooking scale. 9.2 lbs.

And that's not counting the dozen on our counter, the dozens MORE in the garden, the 4 pumpkins I bought, and the 7 winter squash we grew.

Take a long, slow, deep breath...

... and there's the dried blue corn I have to figure out how to mill...

=) Everyone should have this problem. Too much fresh food.

So, here's a shot from the outside of the garden looking in.

You can see a) tomatoes looking like prisoners in a line up, and b) some of the tomato plants still green and happy, c) my chrysanthemums blooming (the purple and pink 'neath the middle of the railing).

The flowers tipped over 'cause I got them, the straggly creatures, at the $1 sale at the nursery. And I probably SHOULD cut the flowers and bring them inside, but the bees are so happy they're there, and the cats would probably just eat them, so they just lay out there, looking beautiful and forlorn.

So: the tomato sauce recipe in Joy of Cooking calls for 2.5 lbs of tomatoes. Guess I'm trippling that puppy. AFTER I figure out how in the world I'll fit everything into the already stuffed fridge.

Maybe tomorrow is tomato sauce day. I'm tired just thinking about it.

And I've still got to get the words out.

Happily, today I thought of something that will be a fun device. I think someone in the story will be a blogger. Then I can have blog posts within the book! OMG, HOW FUN!

Anyhow.

=) yes, bowl of cereal, brush teeth, then back at the keyboard.

xobb

self-serving "equivalents"

 
So, making my favorite spaghetti sauce, among the ingredients I am slated to add are:

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce

2 cups water

Well, given:

and

my interpretation of those ingredients is:

chopped, fresh tomatoes

more chopped, fresh tomatoes

freshly squished tomatoes

and, a couple more, just in case
(and to get my counter cleared off)

Next up:

3 teaspoons basil

Which, to me means:

Last, but not least:

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

I'm sure they meant:

A gardener's perspective on recipe plasticity.

We'll see how it goes!

bb

tomato stitches, you know you're a hick when, and harvest shots

  
1. Here are pictures of one of the self-suturing tomatoes. Still amazes me. And, btw, how RED is that? =)

Perfect, tiny stitches. Honestly, biology NEVER ceases to amaze me.

2. You know you're a hayseed when...

... you are cleaning out the chicken coop, and to prop the door open, you use a corn cob.

All I need now is to knock out a front tooth to complete the picture. =)

3. Outdoor-oven-baked veggies

It will be well over 100 degrees today. Happy fall (-down-dead-from-the-heat)! Chicken pool day, for sure.

Poor garden is getting cooked:

3 days ago I DEEP watered it and yesterday dying leaves appeared on the tomato plants.

Yay.

Watered again yesterday (some) and will water again today (the rest and maybe start again). 100 dF yesterday plus single digit humidity = water magically disappears.

Here's the 3 sisters plot (corn, squash, beans) this a.m. with (sun-beaten) tomatoes in the foreground:

Clearly the squash is making a break for it, crawling up the fence. Once it gets out of the fence, though, thirsty deer snarf it right up, so it's never gonna happen.

SOME day the corn will be ready... the (few) beans are already drying.

Here's the watermelons with my (not so) dainty sneaker for scale.

Still not ready (tap tap tap go my toes), but a good number of the little guys. And they're so cute!

4. Aphidphreakout

Yesterday I had a kind of uncool moment in the corn plot.

I saw an ear that had all this black on it, so looked closer, expecting a pigment or soot issue, and it was aphids. LOTS of black aphids. EEK! Gross.

Well, see, there WAS a ladybug there, so I should have just left and let him/her stuff his/her face, but was sufficiently freaked that I grabbed the ear, the ladybug flew away, and I hosed it down to get them all off NOW.

Should have waited. oop.

5. Today's harvest:

my favorite shot

mmm... leaves....(snarf, snarf)

I also could have harvested a bunch of jalapeno peppers and some basil, but don't know what to do with them, yet (including the pile of peppers in the fridge), so I'll wait.

6. Fall/winter garden happenings


So far have only planted broccoli--tiny cotyledons have poked their heads up, lately being brutally beaten by the crazy hot sun. Poor things.

I just hope they survive today (the hottest predicted day) and make it through to this weekend, when it should be less oven-like.

I really need to Today I pledge to go through my seeds and select 1-3 things to plant in the very near future. I have one very small plot prepped and ready to go, and I may yank a few squash soon to stuff that plot with root-plants.

The rotation order I follow is PLMR. P is potatoes (which I don't grow, but also is for tomatoes, peppers, any nightshades), L is legumes/brassica, M is miscellaneous (which includes squash and melons), and R is roots.


In the mean time, I just want to keep my chickens and plants alive through this last BLAST of summer.

How's your summer/fall transition going?

=) xobiobabbler

flashes of summer color, while I wait....

    
The wire that connects my camera to my computer is...
     in the camera case
          which is in the car
               which is miles away
                    and will not be here till 6:30 p.m. or so...

Y'all (and I) have to wait. Meanwhile my camera is RIGHT HERE, filled with images I'm DYING to take a look at (on Mac) and I CANNOT.

arf.

Soon!

In the meantime, here's a few to add color on a gray day. Remember farmer's markets in August (no. hemisphere folks)?

pretty peppers in the port (of San Francisco)

sunny tomatoes beaming

who couldn't love that face??

=) xoxo the biobabbler