Ripeness Report for 7/20 and 7/21

Summer time has been super busy for us at Yummy Tummy Farms with bountiful harvests of lettuce, arugula, shallots, and garlic; moreover, new crops are ripening and ready to be harvested.

Yummy Tummy Farms is located at 5611 Doorn Lane in San Jose, CA and is open from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm; earlier or later by special prearranged appointment. If you have a need to come by earlier or later, please email yummytummyfarms@gmail.com

We still have lots of beautiful butter leaf lettuce and peppery arugula to cool you down in the summer heat with a refreshing salad. The honeybees have been healthy and have made plenty of extra honey to share, so come and get it!

Delicious Local Honey

Produce Prognosticator:

Organic Heirloom Tomatoes– full crop (over 30 varieties) within two weeks and some limited availability this weekend 7/20-7/21

Ghost Cherry

Basil– within two weeks (Genovese, Lime, Royal Thai)

Tomatillos– within two weeks (Green and Purple)

Peppers – within two weeks (multiple varieties sweet to spicy)

Purple Beauty-Bell Pepper

Crop Focus: Cucumbers

Our latest crops to ripen are sassy pickling and delicious Marketmore cucumbers. Marketmore cucumbers are the perfect snack for hot weather with a simple sprinkle of pink salt or you can dress them up a bit by adding a squeeze of lemon and a drop of hot sauce as well.

Marketmore Cucumbers

Our pickling cucumbers are also ripe and ready to harvest. We are planning on making several batches of pickles this season: dill, semi-dill, bread-n-butter, sweet, hot-n-spicy, and all variations in between. We will be preserving our pickles via the pressure canning method so as to have some shelf-stable jars for winter. We will also do several small batches of refrigerator pickles that we will consume regularly with lunches and dinners over the summer and throughout the fall.

Pickling Cucumbers

So I ask you my dear readers:

1. What is your favorite type of pickle or types of pickles?

2. What are your favorite recipes for preparing pickles?

3. How do you serve your fresh homemade pickles or what do your serve fresh homemade pickles with?

Free Publicity and Free Art Farms

Yummy Tummy Farms has three primary core values and those are to spread suburban farming, increase self sustainability, and to reclaim domesticity. I (Farmer Donald) do a lot of public outreach spreading the messages, learning, and benefits of suburban farming; moreover, as part of those efforts, I also founded San Jose Urban Farming on Meetup.com http://www.meetup.com/urbanfarming/ San Jose Urban Farming Meetup events will reoccur about every two weeks and focuses on all things farming, gardening, and sustainability; moreover, if you live in the Santa Clara Valley, please attend a San Jose Urban Farming Meetup soon. We are always looking for fun interesting hosts, so if you have an interesting idea for hosting a future San Jose Urban Farming Meetup, please email Farmer Donald at yummytummyfarms@gmail.com

As part of my outreach, I teach classes on farming, gardening, and self sustainability all over the SF Bay Area and as an outgrowth of a class I taught, I had the good fortune of meeting Tracy, proprietor of Free Art Farms in Santa Clara, CA. Tracy attended my Starting Heirloom Tomato Seeds class in early 2013 then joined San Jose Urban Farming. Tracy is super ambitious, full of energy, and an impressive urban farmer that did more than just talk the talk, she really took action and started her farm with conviction and purpose. Tracy took it upon herself to proactively reach out to the San Jose Mercury News and invited the newspaper to do a feature on her farm, Free Art Farms. The San Jose Mercury News did a full page story on her farm that was very flattering and inspiring. We at Yummy Tummy Farms, thank Tracy for the kind mentions in the San Jose Mercury News.

Here is a link to the San Jose Mercury News article and some pictures from the San Jose Urban Farming Meetup which occurred yesterday 7/13/13:

http://www.mercurynews.com/home-garden/ci_23628112/professional-couple-discovers-joys-suburban-farming

Here are some pictures from the San Jose Urban Farming Meetup

Tracy Free Art Farm 2013

Yellow Peach Free Art Farm 2013

Vining Strawberry Border Free Art Farm 2013

Tomato Privacy Wall Free Art Farm 2013

Squash Wildflower Blend Free Art Farm 2013

Squash Wildflower Blend Free Art Farm 2013 #2

Free Art Farm Corn Privacy Wall 2013

What’s Ripe?

Yummy Tummy Farms is the neighborhood’s local suburban farm and we are selling farm fresh produce every weekend 10:00am to 4:00pm. This weekend 6/29 & 6/30, we are featuring four varieties of garlic, French red shallots, arugula, butter head lettuce, organic raw honey, local-made jam, BBQ Sauce, large heirloom tomato plants, exotic eggplants, relish, bread & butter pickles, fruit leather, and farm-grown blue popcorn. Over 30 varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes ripening soon; forecasted ripening date is July 28th! FREE vegetable plant with any purchase, just mention Nextdoor. If you have fruit trees that need harvesting, we’ll come by and harvest them and return some of the fruit back to you in the form of delicious fruit jam. Come by 5611 Doorn Lane San Jose, CA near Blossom Hill and Meridian or call 408-320-5365 for more info. Please support your local suburban farm and buy your fresh neighborhood grown produce from us. Prices vary and cash only.

Orange Flower with Honeybee

Even the Smallest Pollinators are Important

Here is a close up image of a local wild bee that was foraging for pollen of the French Red Shallot flowers that we have growing.  We purposely allowed the French Red Shallots to go to flower to create a habitat for these tiny pollinators. You will have to look very carefully to see these tiny bees.

Local Wild Bee on French Red Shallot Flower

My camera is almost touching the bees, so I hope you can see them.

Local Wild Bee on French Red Shallot Flower 2

In the background, you can see all our delicious farm made goodies for sale: honey, jam, BBQ sauce, and relish.

We hope to see you and your family the farm soon!

Squeeezo: The Incredible Tomato Processing Machine

There were so many great experiences that my family and me had at the National Heirloom Expo that picking one thing to write is very difficult, our new Squeezo grinds its way to prominence.

If you are really into growing sauce tomatoes, no matter the variety, and you have never heard about a Squeezo then you are really in for a treat. I was introduced to the wondrous time saving tool that is the Squeezo from my co-worker and this tool has literally changed my life meaning it gave me time back. We grew a variety of sauce/paste tomato called San Marzano 3, an indeterminate variety, and every plant grew to a very large size meaning between seven and nine feet tall; moreover, they averaged eight feet tall.

We grew eight plants, averaging eight feet in height, most of the San Marzano 3 fruit was quite extraordinarily large meaning one pound averaged out at about eight tomatoes. Each San Marzano 3 plant easily produced over one hundred tomatoes, but if we choose conservatively and stay at one hundred tomatoes per plant then each plant produced over 50 pounds of tomatoes. In summary, eight plants at fifty pounds of tomatoes per plant, means Team Yummy Tummy Farms processed over four hundred pounds of sauce/paste tomatoes!

Now that I have made a “needs” based case for a Squeezo, let me describe the Squeezo to you and a little bit about how it works. Squeezo, as you may be able to determine from the pictures, is essentially a tomato grinder. You feed your freshly picked paste tomatoes into the hopper, turn the crank clockwise while using the provided wooden tomato club to push the tomatoes down, a super strong worm drive bit forces ground tomato skin and seeds down the shaft and out the end into a waiting bowl, while simultaneously filtering through well-made stainless steel screens, your heavenly tomato pulp and juice which gently slides down a tomato slide into another waiting bowl- Genius!

Minor drawbacks: First, it takes practice to successfully attach the stainless steel screen to the base unit so that the worm drive will not scrape against the stainless steel screen or the housing; moreover, it’s not difficult, but it does take some practice. Second, the small tomato seeds and some tomato fiber clogs up the stainless steel screen which requires the use to frequently disassemble and clean the Squeezo.

Here is a little history about the Squeezo:

http://www.tomatomilling.com/product_detail_27605.aspx

In summary, Team Yummy Tummy Farms has milled over three hundred pounds of San Marzano 3 tomatoes. The Squeezo will give you back time if you decide to invest in one and I carefully selected the word “invest” because at about $225 for the base model, your purchase will become an investment that yields saved time and an absolutely beautiful tomato product. My co-worker assures me that she knows several people that have inherited their family’s Squeezo from the 1970’s and those older Squeezo’s still function as designed. Furthermore, your Squeezo should, based on other older models, last at least fifteen to twenty years, if it is well taken care of. Lastly, based on my current experience using my new Squeezo, I highly recommend investing in a Squeezo.

Full Disclosure: Yummy Tummy Farms did not and does not expect to receive anything from the manufacturer of Squeezo nor any other retailer; we just really enjoy our Squeezo and wanted to share our experiences.

Squeezo Set Up

Squeezo: Working It!

What’s Ripe at Yummy Tummy Farms 10/13 and 10/14?

Yummy Tummy Farms still has heirloom tomatoes; however, we are in our final few weeks of tomato season.  The sweetest, juiciest, and most deeply colored tomatoes will go first, so if you want local, organic, and biodynamically grown tomatoes then I humbly suggest that you find your way to Yummy Tummy Farms as quickly and safely as possible. I hope to see you and your family at the farm very soon! Our hours will be Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 4:00pm or until we sell out.

Dana’s Dusky Rose: Good acid/sweetness balance

Lemon Boy: Pure yellow & very popular hybrid

Ghost Cherry: Largest cherry we grow & amazing sweet flavor

Green Cherokee: So sweet that you will not believe that this is a green tomato! Beautiful green that blushes yellow and orange.

Mortgage Lifter: The color, size, & sweet flavor are so consistent with this tomato that the original grower sold enough of these tomatoes to pay his mortgage off hence the name…

Hawaiian Pineapple: Luscious, meaty, & lovely with colors that will blow your mind!

Solar Flare: Meaty, mind blowing colors & flavor

White Oxheart: Stunning white tomato that is so beautiful it blushes pink and its heart shaped. We love with this tomato!

Cherry Tomatoes: Sungold, Green Doctors, Riesentraube, Amish Gold, & White Cherry

We still have lots of incredible eggplants, chili peppers and zucchini. Its officially fall and this delicious assortment will NOT last long. Come out and see our fall and winter gardens too. Sorry, but our delicious local, organic, raw honey is sold out for the season, but there will be more early next year.

Farm Car?

Suburban farm, suburban car; next stop CSA…

What’s Ripe at Yummy Tummy Farms? Tomato Bash 2012

Yummy Tummy Farms (YTF) has heirloom tomatoes o plenty! We grow over thirty-six different varieties of tomato, mostly heirloom, but a few hybrids are so delicious that we are compelled every year to plant; for example, Early Girl, Sungold, and Lemon Boy. The sweetest, juiciest, and most deeply colored tomatoes will go first, so if you want local, organic, and biodynamically grown tomatoes then I humbly suggest that you find your way to Yummy Tummy Farms as quickly and safely as possible. I hope to see you and your family at the farm very soon! Our hours will be Sunday ONLY from 10:00am to 4:00pm or until we sell out. Saturday 9/22, YTF will be a guest farm at Tomato Bash 2012 http://events.mercurynews.com/cupertino_ca/events/show/280527105-tomatobash-tomato-tasting-party in Cupertino, CA at Memorial Park from 12 noon to 6 pm or until the tomatoes sell out. We are nearing the end of tomato season, so hurry out to Yummy Tummy Farms!

Dana’s Dusky Rose: Good acid/sweetness balance

Lemon Boy: Pure yellow & very popular hybrid

Ghost Cherry: Largest cherry we grow & amazing sweet flavor

Green Cherokee: So sweet that you will not believe that this is a green tomato! Beautiful green that blushes yellow and orange.

Mortgage Lifter: The color, size, & sweet flavor are so consistent with this tomato that the original grower sold enough of these tomatoes to pay his mortgage off hence the name…

Hawaiian Pineapple: Luscious, meaty, & lovely with colors that will blow your mind!

Solar Flare: Meaty, mind blowing colors & flavor

White Oxheart: Stunning white tomato that is so beautiful it blushes pink and its heart shaped. We love with this tomato!

Cherry Tomatoes: Sungold, Green Doctors, Riesentraube, Amish Gold, & White Cherry

I hope you have enjoyed looking at less than 25% of what is ripe and ready and Yummy Tummy Farms, just imagine all the one’s that are still there and waiting for you to find them? We still have lots of incredible eggplants, chili peppers, zucchini, and local, raw honey straight from the hives to remind you it’s summertime. Its summertime and this delicious assortment will NOT last long.

The National Heirloom Expo 2012

I will be blogging and posting pictures from the The National Heirloom Expo 2012 all week as well as related topics. For example, yesterday, as a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers, I had the pleasure of touring Phil Pieri’s rare fruit farm in Cotati, CA. It was a great time and a real honor to be around so many of California’s great rare fruit growers; needless to say, I was asking questions, taking notes, and learning a whole lot. Here are some great pictures of rare Apples and Pears:

Hudson’s Golden Gem Apple

Katherine Apple

Mutsu Apple

Royal Empire Apple

Rubinette Apple

Sierra Beauty Apple

Waltana Apple

Warren Pear

Rescue Pear

Phil Pieri’s Farm

I hope you enjoyed checking out some rare apples and pears live as it happened from Phil Pieri’s Farm. I also took several pictures of a Dragon Fruit demonstration and tasting that was wonderful. I might have saved a few Dragon Fruit seeds so Yummy Tummy Farms can grow it’s own Dragon, but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Keep checking back over the next three days as I post all day every day live from the National Heirloom Expo 2012. Lastly, please share the pictures across your social networks and like them on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and follow the blog on WordPress.

What’s Ripe at Yummy Tummy Farms 9/8 and 9/9?

Yummy Tummy Farms has heirloom tomatoes o plenty! We grow over thirty-six different varieties of tomato, mostly heirloom, but a few hybrids are so delicious that we are compelled every year to plant; for example, Early Girl, Sungold, and Lemon Boy. The sweetest, juiciest, and most deeply colored tomatoes will go first, so if you want local, organic, and biodynamically grown tomatoes then I humbly suggest that you find your way to Yummy Tummy Farms as quickly and safely as possible. I hope to see you and your family at the farm very soon! Our hours will be Saturday and Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm or until we sell out. 

Dana’s Dusky Rose: Good acid/sweetness balance

Lemon Boy: Pure yellow & very popular hybrid

Ghost Cherry: Largest cherry we grow & amazing sweet flavor

Green Cherokee: So sweet that you will not believe that this is a green tomato! Beautiful green that blushes yellow and orange.

Mortgage Lifter: The color, size, & sweet flavor are so consistent with this tomato that the original grower sold enough of these tomatoes to pay his mortgage off hence the name…

Hawaiian Pineapple: Luscious, meaty, & lovely with colors that will blow your mind!

Solar Flare: Meaty, mind blowing colors & flavor

White Oxheart: Stunning white tomato that is so beautiful it blushes pink and its heart shaped. We love with this tomato!

Cherry Tomatoes: Sungold, Green Doctors, Riesentraube, Amish Gold, & White Cherry

I hope you have enjoyed looking at less than 25% of what is ripe and ready and Yummy Tummy Farms, just imagine all the one’s that are still there and waiting for you to find them? This will be the last weekend for some of our early tomato varieties due to their  extreme popularity such as: Sungold Cherry Tomato, Yellow Brandywine, Amish Gold, and White Cherry Tomatoes. We still have lots of incredible eggplants, chili peppers, zucchini, and local, raw honey straight from the hives to remind you it’s summertime. Its summertime and this delicious assortment will NOT last long.