Meet the farmer: Heather

You ever really REALLY want something to happen for someone else because you know it will send them over the moon with happiness?

This is just regular happiness. Imagine what over-the-moon happiness would look like.

Then you know how I felt about getting Heather to successfully grow tomatoes.

Secretly, just between you and me, I knew she could do it.

She wanted it SO MUCH that it was just a matter of connecting her hands (albeit from within the confines of gardening gloves) with the soil in her own custom designed kitchen garden.

Custom designing doesn't always mean HUGE. Obviously.

So we plotted and we planned and we carefully chose a tomato plant and then we picked out a few more plants just because once you get started it's hard to stop at just one plant and then...well, I won't ruin the surprise.

Tell us, Heather - how'd you do? Did you get to pick a ripe sun-warmed tomato right off of your own homegrown plant?
I did, indeed, and it was amazing. A true story - I grew up in the Midwest and had never had a fresh-from-the garden tomato until I moved to California. I used to think that all tomatoes were pinkish and mealy and now I know better. I’m such a fan.

No pinkish mealiness here.

And how was it?
Amazing. I thought I had died and gone to tomato heaven. They were huge and so flavorful.

Huge indeed.

What variety did you grow?
Top Sirloin - a big beefsteak variety.

An Indie Farms Top Sirloin, to boot.

What was your favorite way to eat your beautiful tomatoes?
Caprese salad - tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil (also from the garden), balsamic vinegar & olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. Perfection. 

Looks like perfection to me.

What else did you grow?
2 types of basil (Thai and Genovese) and a wee yellow pepper plant.

Was growing your own vegetables and herbs as hard as you thought it was going to be?
Yes and no. It was amazingly easy to set up with Jessica’s help and her emails/project list made buying the supplies a snap. I was just very nervous about doing right by my plants - I was a bit timid in the beginning to prune or pick or touch them too much. Fortunately, Jessica was there for all my crazy questions and moral support so now I can prune like a pro. 

So profesh.

Did you get a lot out of your garden?
What, like spiritually? I kid. Yes, we got loads of basil and more tomatoes than any two people could eat. I gave some away, tearfully, to friends and family to share the love. The yellow pepper plant made three proud peppers and one less proud one but they were all equally tasty.

Small but mighty.

What will you do now that the summer gardening season is over?
Plant my cover crop because I do what I’m told. 

Pacific Gold Mustard cover crop

Do you think you'll grow tomatoes (and maybe a few other things, too) next year?
Yes! Yes! Yes! I want to try more varieties of tomatoes and who knows, maybe some more basil. The sky’s the limit!

And they know what they're talking about with that whole "sky's the limit" thing...

What was your favorite part about growing your own food for the first time?
Pointing it out to all my friends and family and saying “Look what I did!” Oh, and eating the benefits of my labors, of course. It was also great to know that it was completely organic. Wait, that’s three favorite things...

Nothing nasty here

What did you find to be the most helpful tool to keep your garden growing well this first time around? 
It’s a toss up between the helpful emails with the photos and the face to face time with Jessica, the expert. It’s so great to have someone looking at what you are looking at and telling you that you’re doing the right thing. She was always available and never made me feel like an idiot for not knowing how to pick a tomato or other simple things. 

Girlfriend knows how to pick a tomato now, that's for sure.

Any words of wisdom for other newbie urban farmers out there?
I can’t recommend enough the importance of working with someone with knowledge the first time around. I’m the type of person that prefers to learn by doing, so I’m sure there are resources out there that you can weed through (pun intended), but having someone so knowledgeable available for in-person demonstrations and one-off questions made a good experience GREAT! I think I am much more confident as a farmer after the in-person sessions than any amount of internet scrounging would have yielded. 

No weeding around in this garden.