God's Secret Weapon: Attack of the Christian Tomatoes

As if things couldn't get sadder and scarier in Egypt, now agriculture has been demonized.  The Popular Egyptian Islamic Association has condemned eating tomatoes because they are supposedly Christian.

The group posted a photo on its page of a tomato - which appears to reveal the shape of a cross after being cut in half – along with the message: “Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah is three (a reference to the Trinity). [God help us]. I implore you to spread this photo because there is a sister from Palestine who saw the prophet of Allah [Mohammad] in a vision and he was crying, warning his nation against eating them [tomatoes]. If you don’t spread this [message], know that it is the devil who stopped you.”

After posting their diatribe on Facebook and receiving uproar over the insane directive, the group was forced to clarify that "We didn’t say you can’t eat tomatoes. We said don’t cut it in [such a way that reveals] the cross shape.”

I hope no one tells the Salafist organization about Jerusalem artichokes.

Starting Seeds

A great way to enjoy your favorite vegetables and flowers is to save the seeds to plant again. The process is easy and economical.  Tomatoes are ideal for learning how to save seeds. 

You will need:

• Your favorite ripe tomato
• Glass jars or container to soak seeds in
• Paper towel or coffee maker liner
• Seed packets or plain paper envelopes (great way to recycle old opened envelopes)

Always allow the tomato to fully ripen before trying to harvest seeds.

• Cut the tomatoes in half at the equator (widthways).

• Carefully scoop out the jelly and seeds out of the pulp center and place in jar.  If done gently, you can still eat the tomato.

• Add water to the jar.

• Cover jar with plastic and make a slit in the top of the plastic to allow for transpiration of the seeds. This will enable the seeds to ferment which will help the seeds separate from the jelly and also help destroy any diseases that the seeds may have.

• Now place jar in sunny window (60 to 75 degrees) for three to four days. 

Come back in three days and let's see how the tomato seeds are doing!

Vegetable Gardening Planted!

This Saturday was our family vegetable gardening project. Our grandchildren helped us prepared raised containers with some new vegetable seeds from the international Sakata Seed.   It's going to be a learning project for Jaxon and Mackenah to see how fast the vegetables grow and mark their progress on a calendar and graph.

Because of all the shade from old oaks in our backyard, we planted the vegetables in  full sun in our long driveway and border garden. We planted:

• 'Touchstone Gold' beets 
• 'Red Bull' bell peppers
• 'Tasty Green' burpless cucumbers
• 'Vulcan' lettuce
• 'Da Vinci' melons
• 'Jalafuego' peppers
• 'Hijinks' pumpkins - 2011 All American Selection
• 'Tyee' spinach
• 'Solid Gold' cherry tomatoes
• 'Sweet Hearts' grape tomatoes
• 'Sweet Million' cherry  tomatoes
• 'Sweet Treat' tomatoes

We also planted onions, garlic, strawberries, and nasturtiums.  Jaxon and Mackenah wrote the names of each plant on the label tags, along with Saturday's date and the approximate date of harvesting.

We'll let you know how they progress, but I was very impressed with the seed quality. I am anticipating a great harvest with enough vegetables and fruit to share with the whole neighborhood. 

You can see more of Sakata's Vegetable Seeds online - click here.  But if you would like to get these wonderful vegetable seeds, you have to order from their distributors here.  Check them out!

Free Park Seed Wholesale Catalog

How Many Tomatoes Does It Take?

Courtesy of the Peterson Farm in Georgia, I found this handy tomato conversion chart for recipes grown from your garden:

2 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes equals 3 cups chopped and drained fresh tomatoes.

1 (16-oz) can equals 2 cups drained tomatoes or 1 cup undrained tomatoes.

1 (28-oz) can equals 3 cups undrained or 2 to 2 1/2 cups drained tomatoes.

1 (35-oz) can equals 3 cups undrained or 2 to 2 1/2 cups drained tomatoes.

25 to 30 cherry tomatoes equals 2 cups chopped tomatoes.

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste equals 3/4 cup.

An average bushel of tomatoes weighs about 53 lb (25 kg). When quartered and canned, this quantity of tomatoes will yield 15 to 20 – 1 large jar. You’ll need 2 ½ to 3 lb (1.2 to 1.4 kg) fresh tomatoes per 1 large mason jar.