Many of us are still enjoying the vegetables that we’ve grown and harvested this summer, but plant growers and retailers are busy deciding what new varieties to offer in spring 2o17. Stokes Seeds, a 130-year-old Canadian family business, provides the seed for vegetables grown by Martin Farms Ltd. for Loblaw Companies stores and its President's Choice Gigantico lineup of plants. … [Read more...] about Tasting notes from Stokes trial gardens 2016
cherry tomatoes
Searching for sweet cherry tomatoes
The ground isn’t even frozen yet, and already I’m searching the new seed catalogues, looking for sweet cherry tomatoes to grow next year. Seed catalogues and gardeners all seem to agree that cherry tomatoes have greater concentrations of sugar than larger, full-size fruits. Most catalogues will describe a cherry tomato as sweet, or even very sweet, but seldom do they let on … [Read more...] about Searching for sweet cherry tomatoes
Sweet cherry tomatoes
Why is it that every seed catalogue on my desk falls open to the tomato pages? Perhaps the seed companies have recognized my tomato obsession — bred in the bone, so to speak, from a tomato-growing family. My grandfather grew ‘Rutgers’ (developed in 1934 by Rutgers, New Jersey, Agriculture Experiment Station breeder Lyman Schermerhorn) in his garden for 50 years. My current … [Read more...] about Sweet cherry tomatoes