Farming in the city

The Black Cherry tomato plant has been cut back and pulled out. Now I have an empty milk crate waiting for kale. When will I plant? I don't know. I need a few more weeks in a day.

They were wonderful tomatoes, more dark green than black and pretty resilient.

The Yellow Pears are still going, but very blighted, and I'll take them out soon. They made more than we could eat. I left some at our neighbour's door in a bowl, and a few days later I found a pound of very good coffee at our door, with a nice note and the clean bowl.

The Mexican Heirloom's leaves are still fresh and healthy, with no blight or disease at all. The plants I have are all volunteers, offspring of the first tomato I grew several years ago on the terrace itself. The seedlings still pop up in the gravel.

There are a few more San Marzano plum tomatoes to come - their flesh has been quite dry. They are pretty, but I don't think I'll plant them again. And still about a dozen Green Zebras on those plants.Their leaves have been stripped by the tobacco hornworm caterpillars. They are delicious. Quite tart.

The Physalis - ground cherries (below) - are driving me a little demented. They won't stop. Every day more of their pale husks litter the roof. They taste very different from my mom's cape gooseberries - Physalis pervuviana - in Cape Town, which is the same as the fruit grown commercially in South Africa. The cape gooseberries are deep yellow with sweet with a tart finish. Wonderful for baking.

My ground cherries are "Aunt Molly's", and native to the eastern and central US, apparently:  Physalis pruinosa. Other sources say they are Physalis pubescens var. integrifolia. They are small and a muddy yellow, very sweet (too sweet for me) with a lightly strange aftertaste of Solanaceae. The bushes are different, too. Mine are distinctly horizontal and squat, with the fruit crowding the rigid branches. The ones grown in South Africa have longer, more upright branches, and the fruit dangles freely from the stem.

I enjoyed growing these - they are very easy and rewarding, but I'd like to find the other species, whose taste I prefer.

Not pictured are the Striped Germans and Brandywines - still a few more to come, or else I'll give up and cook them green. The eggplants must be removed, and there are few peppers still peppering. Seeds are waiting.

Photo: Hudson Clove

And in other news, Frank has gone commercial! If you'd like to order genuine, local garlic online, in a bouquet of varieties, visit his new site: Hudson Clove. Congratulations, Farmer Frank. He had a dream.