Radishrain

I hope you all like the black background. I do, anyhow.

Edit: It's been a standard white for a while now (with now being 23 Jan 2020).

Here's Wednesday's tomato harvest (most of it):

My beloved Aunt Gertie's Gold fruit got blossom end rot.  It got it heavily; so, I didn't taste the fruit. However, I was determined not to let it stop me (so, I saved seeds from it, just in case). There are other fruits forming. Hopefully they make it.

I often wonder if seeds from BER fruits will be any more or less likely to get BER than seeds from other fruits on the same plant.

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Here are some Black Vernissage fruits. I saved seeds from them. The plant was stunted until other plants had already been big for a good while. However, it was the first tomato to sprout, I believe. I think a disease stunted it. I zapped the seeds (so, I'm curious to see how they perform next time).

The fruits were firmer than I expected, and pleasantly so. The taste was a bit sweet. It was good. It wasn't all that different from Noire de Crimee' (but it was different). The fruits weren't much smaller, either.




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Here are a couple Big Boy F1 tomatoes. I saved F2 seeds from them. The taste wasn't anything out of the norm, but the fruits were shaded by the plant itself and surrounding caged tomato plants. The taste wasn't bad, though. I think it would taste better with more sun.




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I tasted some Noire de Crimée tomatoes with BER, on 3 Aug 2019. They were good, but the taste was a lot milder and more normal than I would have expected from what others say about it and Black Krim. Maybe the shade from the neighboring plants lesseed the flavor.

There are ripe ones without BER.

Fruit size is about that of Matina and Moravsky Div. Edit: Because they were golfball-sized and round instead of large beefsteaks; they were probably a cross.

I prefer the stronger, smokier taste of the Paul Robeson tomato.

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Here are some Black Beauty fruits, this year. I'm not sure if this is a cross or not, since it has different growing conditions, this year. The definite cross showed no anthocyanin; so, that has me thinking this might be true-to-type.

I grew it in 2017 where it waited until the end of the season to put out a whole bunch of large (much larger than these in 2019), fine fruit (most didn't ripen on the plant), with much blacker skin. They were a smooth beefsteak shape, or oblate perhaps.

This year, the fruits have less anthocyanin and are significantly smaller, and rounder. They taste about the same (maybe sweeter), but have softer texture. I used black plastic, this year, but not in 2017.

Here are some of this year's fruits:



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I'm growing two Mustard Bhutlah plants. One of them has black on its leaves and fruits. It started out having a lot of black, but soon a lot of the black dissipated. The stems and branches are black, except on the lower half of the plant. One of the fruits appears to be all black. I discovered that it had set five fruits by 13 Aug 2019. It seems to have fewer flowers per node than the other Mustard Bhutlah, but it does have multiple flowers on some nodes.

The anthocyanin plant is producing before the other plant. I'm pretty excited that it has fruits. I should be able to grow it again next year (without taking cuttings). My Mustard Bhutlah's are the only C. chinense peppers to have flowered. I have some Habaneros growing, but they've been stunted.

Anyway, of this species, I only plan to grow Mustard Bhutlahs next year.

Make popcorn with oil and put Tajin seasoning on it. It's awesome.

Tajin seasoning is made from salt, cayenne pepper, and limes, I believe.

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Ingredients:

* 1 long Kikinda Competition Strain edible gourd (at least a couple inches in diameter), sliced
* The equivalent of about five medium-sized tomatoes, cut up
* Lots of summer savory, both leaves and stalks (if you don't think it's too much, it's probably not enough)
* Parsley
* Cayenne pepper
* 3 Aji Habanero peppers, cut up, including the calyxes
* Onion powder
* Black pepper
* A fair amount of Tajin seasoning
* Avocado oil
* Cheddar cheese

Oil the pan with avocado oil.

Other than the cheese, mix the rest of the contents into a 15" cast-iron skillet. Bake it uncovered at 500° F. for about 40 minutes. Yes, that is not too hot for the gourd.

When the time is nearly complete, add cheddar cheese to melt on top.

Let sit for a little while before eating.

The result tastes much like lasagna. There's a lot of umami flavor in it.

Warning: The lack of garlic is purposeful. It is not needed. If you use garlic you didn't use my recipe. Just for the record, I like garlic, and it may or may not go well with gourds, but in my opinion, it does not go well with squash unless it is cooked separately and mingled in after cooking. Yes, I know that the gourds in this recipe are not squash, but I also know they're related to squash.

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