The peach is a semi-hardy deciduous woody perennial tree. A standard-sized peach tree will grow to 25 feet tall and just as wide if not pruned. A dwarf peach will grow to 6 feet tall and wide. For the best productivity, keep standard peaches pruned to about 15 feet tall. Most available peach varieties are grafted, meaning the root system and the fruiting section of the tree is different.
Peaches usually come to harvest from mid- to late summer. Peach fruit requires 3 to 5 months to reach harvest from the time flowers are pollinated. Peach trees have fruit producing lives of about 12 years.
Half a peach poached in syrup served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with raspberry purée: peach Melba.
Barely chilled peach slices served with sugar and cream: peach Mom.
Auguste Escoffier–the most famous chef of his time–created peach Melba in 1892 in honor of the Australian opera singer Nellie Melba.
Peach Mom has been served much longer. It remains a favorite.
The success of any peach dish is a tender and sweet peach. The key to finding a tender and sweet peach is a gentle squeeze. A soft-fleshed peach is ready for the table or eating out of hand. It will be sweet and juicy and melt in your mouth.
Description. The apple is a hardy, deciduous woody perennial tree that grows in all temperate zones. Apples grow best where there is cold in winter, moderate summer temperatures, and medium to high humidity. Apples can grow from 10 to 30 feet tall and nearly as wide. Apples are moderately fast growing, but growth slows with age. Apple trees can live for 100 years or more. Apple trees bloom in the spring, set fruit, and take from 100 to 200 days to reach harvest depending upon the variety.
Yield. An apple tree can yield from 75 to more than 130 pounds of fruit each year.
Sierra Beauty, Rhode Island Greening, Arkansas Black, Gala from New Zealand, Fuji from Japan: if you really want to appreciate fresh apples, get to know the apples that grow in your region.
Apples for eating out of hand, apples for baking and cooking, apples for sauce and juice, apples to serve with savory dishes and apples for dessert: there is an apple for every use. Apples that ripen early, apples that ripen mid-season, and apples that ripen late for eating right into winter: there is an apple for every season.
Tomato fruits crack when the soil moisture level fluctuates–a dry spell followed by rain, or the soil drying out followed by heavy irrigation. Cracks start at the stem end and radiate out from the shoulder of the fruit.
To avoid tomato cracking keep the soil evenly moist all growing season. Do not allow the soil to completely dry out. To check soil moisture, insert your finger into the soil 3 or 4 inches–your finger should come away just moist, not wet or dry. For mature tomato plants it is acceptable for the top inch of soil to dry–but the soil below should remain moist allowing plants to draw up soil moisture consistently.
Blossom end rot is a black, sunken area at the blossom end of tomatoes or peppers. The blossom end is the end of the fruit opposite the stem. Blossom end rot is most often seen on green fruits, usually the first fruits to appear on the plant.
Blossom end rot is caused by calcium deficiency in the fruit. That deficiency can be caused by a lack of calcium in the soil or the plant’s inability to draw up calcium from the soil–most often caused by a lack of water. Blossom end rot is aggravated by drought or uneven soil moisture. Soil moisture taken up by plant roots delivers calcium to plant cells or by the excessive application of fertilizer, usually nitrogen or potassium.
If you live where water is scarce, choose vegetables that do not demand a lot of water. Here are drought tolerant vegetable varieties that are very good performers. One note, even plants that do not require a lot of water, do require water to germinate and begin growing. Once these plants are well established, they will not need regular water.
• Amaranth: green leaves used as vegetables; use thinnings raw in salad, steam like spinach.
• Moth bean: nutty flavor, popular in India.
• Garbanzo bean, also called chickpea: bean for making humus and use in salads.
Lentils are a cool-season legume. Sow lentils in spring as early as 2 weeks before the average last frost date. Lentils can be started indoors before transplanting to the garden; lentil seeds will germinate in 10 days at 68°F. Lentils require 80 to 110 days to come to harvest.
To grow and learn about other legumes: click here.
Description. Lentils are a hardy annual; they are a member of the pea family. Lentils grow on sparsely branched vines from 18 to 24 inches tall. The lentil has small whitish to light purple pea-like flowers. Pods are small, broad, flat and contain one or two flat, lens-shaped seed that are green or yellow to orange, red or brown.
