Summer Vegetable Gardening 2014 

Did You Know? - CORVALLIS, Ore. – The "Indigo Rose" tomato steps out this year as the first "really" purple variety to come from a program at Oregon State University that is seeking to breed tomatoes with high levels of antioxidants.

The new variety is a novelty type intended for home gardens and the fresh market, and it is now available in seed catalogs

Did You Know? - Kyoho grapes (巨峰ぶどう Kyohō budō?, literally "giant mountain grapes") are a Concord-like cross (Vitis vinifera x Vitis labrusca) between Ishiharawase and Centennial grape varieties. Like Concord, Kyoho is a slip-skin variety, meaning that the skin is easily separated from the fruit. Kyoho grapes are blackish-purple, or almost black, with large seeds. While the seeds are bitter and the skin is not traditionally eaten, the flesh is juicy with high sugar content and mild acidity.

Kyoho grapes were first produced in 1937 in Shizuoka Prefecture, but were not so named until 1946. They are popular in Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea for their size and very sweet flesh. They are traditionally served peeled as a dessert, and the juice is used in making chūhai cocktails. Areas of production include Nagano Prefecture, Yamanashi Prefecture, California's Central Valley, Changhua County in Taiwan, and Chile.

Did You Know? - The sultana is a "white" (pale green), oval seedless grape variety also called the sultanina, Thompson Seedless (United States), Lady de Coverly (England), and oval-fruited Kishmish (Turkey, Palestine). It is assumed to originate from the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire

In some countries, especially Commonwealth countries, it is also the name given to the raisin made from it or from larger seedless grapes; such sultana raisins are often called simply sultanas or sultanis.

These are typically larger than Zante currants (which are actually a kind of dried grape, not currants in the botanical sense), and the Thompson variety is smaller than many seeded raisins.

Did You Know? - When the kumquats are divided into multiple species, the name Fortunella margarita (or Citrus margarita) is used for this group. The oval kumquat is also called the Nagami kumquat.

The unusual feature of the Nagami cumquat is in the eating of the fruit. The fruit is eaten whole, skin and all. The inside is still quite sour, but the skin has the sweeter flavour, when eaten together it produces an unusual refreshing flavour.

Fruit ripens mid to late winter and always crops very heavily, making a spectacular display against the dark green foliage. The tree is smaller growing and dwarf in nature, making it ideal for pots and has even been used in bonsai.

Did You Know? - Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high liquid content, very soft flesh which breaks down easily, and the right composition to thicken into a sauce when they are cooked (without the need of thickeners such as roux). All of these qualities make them ideal for simple and appealing sauces. The simplest tomato sauces consist just of chopped tomato flesh cooked in a little olive oil and simmered until it loses its raw flavor, and seasoned with salt.

Optionally tomato skins may be scalded and peeled according to texture (especially thicker pelati paste varieties) and tomato seeds may be removed to avoid their bitterness.

Did You Know? - Over 130 varieties of green bean are known.[6] Varieties specialized for use as green beans, selected for the succulence and flavor of their pods, are the ones usually grown in the home vegetable garden, and many varieties exist. Pod color can be green, purple, red, or streaked. Shapes range from thin "fillet" types to wide "romano" types and more common types in between.

The first "stringless" bean was bred in 1894 by Calvin Keeney, called the "father of the stringless bean", while working in Le Roy, New York.

Did You Know? - Citrus × meyeri, the Meyer lemon, is a citrus fruit native to China thought to be a cross between a true lemon and either a mandarin or common orange.

It was introduced to the United States in 1908 as S.P.I. #23028 by the agricultural explorer Frank Nicholas Meyer, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture who collected a sample of the plant on a trip to China.

Did You Know?

The scientific name of sunflowers is Helianthus, Helia for sun and Anthus for flower.

Sunflowers are a great choice for planting to attract birds to your yard.

Sunflowers are one of the fastest growing plants. They can grow 8 to 12 feet tall in rich soil within six months.

Do you know what country grew the tallest sunflower? The Netherlands (25' 5.5" tall) grown in 1986 by M. Heijmf.

It require only 90 to 100 days from planting to maturity.

The former Soviet Union grows the most sunflowers. The sunflower is the national flower of Russia.

The sunflower is native to North America and was used by the Indians for food and oil. Some farmers use it to feed their livestock.

We use sunflower seeds to make oil, bird seed and for snacking. They have lots of calcium and 11 other important minerals. They do have 50% fat, BUT it is mostly polyunsaturated linoleic acid.

Wild sunflower is highly branched with small heads and small seeds, in contrast to the single-stem and large seed head of domesticated sunflower.

Sunflower heads consist of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. The large petals around the edge of a sunflower head are individual ray flowers which do not develop into seed.

A well-known sunflower characteristic is that the flowering heads track the sun's movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism.

The daily orientation of the flower to the sun is a direct result of differential growth of the stem. A plant-growth regulator, or auxin, accumulates on the shaded side of a plant when conditions of unequal light prevail. Because of this accumulation, the darker side grows faster than the sunlit side. Thus, the stem bends toward the sun.

Sunflower seeds are rich in oil, which they store as a source of energy and food. Sunflower seeds are crushed to give us oil. We can use sunflower oil for cooking.

Sunflower plants can be from 3 to 18 feet tall.

One sunflower can have up to 2000 seeds.

There are more than sixty different kinds of sunflowers in the U.S.