Purple tomatoes are the bomb!

My husband works at a farm and home store and earlier this season he brought home several different types of tomato plants for us to plant. I tried to keep all the little tags with each plant so we would know what each kind was when it was ready to harvest. Oh my goodness, we have found our new favorite! In fact, hubby says next year it may be the only kind of tomato we plant. Yes, they are that good!

This is our new fave, Cherokee Purple Heirloom tomatoes. Have you tried them? 

Below is a picture of the purple on the left and a celebrity tomato on the right. Look at the difference in color. 

The celebrity was fully ripe and a nice red color, it just looks pale in comparison to the purple. Tonight was the first night I actually did a side by side comparison, sight and taste. I took a bite of the one and then the other, the best way I can explain it is this: the purple tastes like a yummy home grown tomato and  celebrity tasted like a store bought in comparison. Yes, that much difference. I can't even imagine what a store bought tomato would taste like next to a purple, ICK!

Here are the plants growing side by side in containers next to my house. They are on the east side, which means they only get morning sun. They are both growing well and producing well, I just wanted to show the difference in the plants.

Here is a close up of a purple growing, it is almost ripe. They are darker than I can get to show up in a picture.

Here is a close up of the celebrity. It's still a good plant and giving us lots of tomatoes.

I have no idea how a purple would do with canning though. Has anyone ever tried that? 

Do you have a favorite kind of tomato?  I would love to know what it is.

Blessings,

Rashel

Revisited on 2/15/14 and linked to Simple Saturday blog hop.

Drying my herbs - more pictures

If you have followed me through the summer, you may remember when I got some really good deals on herbs; if not, you can read it here and another one here. Well, I have to admit I haven't done much with them since they have been growing but I decided I need to harvest and dry them before frost hit; which could be tonight. So, I took some more pictures to share with you.

This is most of it: fennel, spearmint, apple mint, curry, cinnamon basil, sweet basil, lemon basil, purple basil and some of my aloe vera starts off my big plant.

This is a better view of my spearmint and cinnamon basil in the baskets, I have more in paper bags that wouldn't fit in the baskets.

Here is the aloe vera plant I originally paid $5 for. It has grown and given me several starts for new plants. I need to split these two but was running out of time today.

I plan to just hang all the herbs up to dry. Do you have any suggestions? I figured I should cut any blooms off first, but if I'm wrong or if you have better ideas, PLEASE let me know. I am just starting with herbs, so I have alot to learn. Thank you for taking the time to read this far :)

Blessings,
Rashel

Pictures of my garden

Here are a few pictures of my little garden. I know the quality isn't the best but I took them with my cell phone. I hope you enjoy!

On the left with the panel arched over is the canteloupe. The panel that is just standing up is lined with tomatoes and basil plants. To the right of those are more herbs.

The big patch to the right is watermelon. The patch in the back is spaghetti squash mixed with cucumbers and canteloupe. Same as below.

I hope to plant some broccoli, cabbage and a few other fall crops soon.

*On a side note, just wanted to let you know as of tomorrow I'll be offline for a few days. This will be a good time for me to focus on my keeping my home. Please leave me comments anyway and I'll read them when I'm back online.  What do you like to plant in your fall garden? 

Blessings,
Rashel