Lindsey here at the Urban Farm and I am joined by Jayson, who is our new in-house chef. In this video, we’re going to be talking about the different varieties of seeds and what we look for, and a few key ingredients that we use. We’re gonna be talking about cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as just some things that we look forward to growing. Spring always feels like this new rebirth of the garden. It’s a great time to start your garden!
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Introducing Chef Jayson
2:41 Cucumbers
4:17 Tomatoes
6:19 What to Look Forward To!
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Lindsey (00:00):
Hi, I’m Lindsey and I’m here at the Urban Farm and I am joined today by Jayson, who is our new in-house chef. So Jayson, you wanna tell us a little bit about yourself?
Jayson (00:11):
Sure. Hi, I’m Jayson and I am excited to join the team here. I’m looking forward to planting a lot of plants and a lot of vegetables, a lot of herbs experimenting with some different things and bringing all of that into the kitchen. I like to cook clean. I don’t try to muddle a lot of things with sauces and tons of layers. I try to let the ingredients speak for themselves. You don’t have to do a lot to it if it’s good food. So I’m really excited to, to jump in here and especially at this time because we’ve got spring coming up and spring is the best season. so we’re looking forward to planting some more tomatoes and cucumbers and herbs and a lot of different things that we use in the kitchen every day.
Lindsey (00:56):
Yeah. And in this video we’re actually going to be talking about the different varieties and what we look for and a few key ingredients that we use. We’re gonna be talking about cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as just some things that we look forward to growing. Spring always feels like this new rebirth of the garden. It’s a great time to start your garden before it gets too hot in the summer here. Our spring starts a little bit earlier, but it’s always just a great time to start planning. Getting what you want, knowing what varieties you want to grow, and also ordering your seeds cause it can get a little competitive if you wait.
Jayson (01:33):
It can, yeah make your wishlist like what would be your ideal garden. And order the seeds and try it out. See what happens. Try different locations, different you know, shades. It’ll really help and give you knowledge for the next year.
Lindsey (01:47):
Definitely. And always pick what plants you wanna grow based on what you love to eat. Yes. That will inspire you. It will give you so much more motivation to take what you grow and put it into your kitchen like Jayson does here.
Jayson (02:03):
Well there’s, there’s nothing worse than growing too much and not knowing what to do with it, you know, or God forbid it goes to waste. Yeah. You know, you put a lot of energy into your garden and into your food, so you want to get the most out of it
Lindsey (02:15):
Definitely. So we’re gonna start off by talking about cucumbers. Yeah.
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Jayson (02:41):
Cucumbers are one of my favorites because there’s quite a few varieties and there’s so many different ways to use them. Pickling of course get an old pickling cucumber like Boston’s, I think that’s an old school variety. They’re shorter, so they fit in the jars. They’ve got a little bit thicker skin so they can stand up to the canning. And a little bit firmer flesh so it lasts a little longer, it stays a little crunchier. But if you want something to just toss into a salad, we were talking about Armenian cucumbers earlier
Lindsey (03:13):
So Armenian cucumbers, they’re a longer ridged cucumber. They have a slightly, I’d say a middle thickness in their skin, but they are super dependable. You will get so much fruit from a single plant and especially here in Phoenix. They really stand up to our hot summers. They’re one of the most dependable varieties throughout. We get a lot of good cucumber production in the early spring and then again in the beginning of fall. But during the summer it can be a little bit tedious for some of these varieties. So Armenian is one that we have a lot of luck with. And also lemon cucumbers. I think those stand up pretty well. And they’re They’re adorable. Delicious.
Jayson (03:55):
They’re the cutest things. They’re like these little yellow baseballs with stripes. They look like reverse watermelons almost. And, and they’re really cute. You cut ’em open, it’s got a nice soft flesh. It has a little hint to citrus to it. It’s not like a lemon cucumber, but it’s got more of a kind of a floral vibe to it and they’re really good Cut up tossed into salads. Yeah.
Lindsey (04:17):
O`nce you have a little bit of experience growing tomatoes, you can grow almost any variety. That’s another great thing about subscribing to get seed catalogs. We have Baker Creek and Johnny’s in front of us. Getting an actual physical seed catalog is a great way to read all about the different varieties. It’ll tell you like, this one for celebrity plus tells me that it has a uniform ripening and more crack tolerance so it won’t get those splits. But this information can be really helpful on telling you what tomato will do best in your region, what might be an easier tomato versus one that is maybe a little bit more particular. And having this information in front of you. This is definitely like a resource that I rely on really heavily regardless of what seed I’m picking out to grow.
Jayson (05:09):
Yeah. They’ve done the research, you know, these are these people who have done this for years and years and years and so they’re giving you the best pieces of information that they can so you can customize where you live your seasons, how hot it gets. I mean we’re in, we’re here in Arizona and it’s, we have a long growing season. Yeah.
Lindsey (05:28):
Especially going into the spring, you need to kind of know when your last frost state is here. We’re hoping we’ve passed that point, but until you understand the climate that you live in and what kind of plants will do best in that, having a resource like this or even just asking other people in your local area what they grow and what varieties they’ve had left in are really helpful. Cause a lot of times the seeds at the store at like big box stores are not custom tailored to what should actually be growing in your region. So they just send out seeds and they’re not the varieties necessarily that align best with where you live. So that’s just something to keep in mind is to do your research and you’ll have so much better luck with whatever varieties you choose because you’ll know more going in.
Jayson (06:17):
Yeah. Awesome.
Lindsey (06:19):
Anything else? Like any wild cards that you’re looking forward to growing here in the spring?
Jayson (06:24):
A few things I want to do some tomatillos for sure. Just like kind of a standard green tomatillo. We were looking at some different colors earlier, but I think green is best. You know, it’s awesome for any kind of salsa verde or sauce or you want to flesh out a soup. They’re amazing. Tons of herbs we want to definitely put in a lot of you know, we want thyme, but we also want lemon thyme. Yeah. You know, we want a few different varieties of herbs, basil, globe basil. You know, having a different style just for a different look. That’s gonna be a lot of fun. And if you don’t have a lot of space that you can’t grow cucumbers or tomatoes or you know, large batch, get some herbs, plant some onions. Take the end of the green onions that you bought at the store, stick ’em in the ground and you’ll have green onions in a few weeks. It’s awesome. And there’s nothing better than to add a little bit of freshness and color to a dish. And you, it doesn’t take much effort. It really doesn’t.
Lindsey (07:23):
Definitely. I really want to experiment this spring with growing some more plants that will, we can use to make teas. So right now we grow chamomile that’s just starting to come up. I love chamomile tea, but I’d really love to experiment with some other plants. And a lot of those plants also have medicinal properties. Yeah, they do. So kind of starting to get into that is something that I’m looking forward to this spring, but this is our, the basic things we look for and we just wanna kind of reiterate like super important to just do your research and just have a good idea of what varieties will grow best, how much space you have and what you can actually fit. You’ll be amazed if you’re strategic, how much you can fit into a planting. When you really think about how to best use your space.
Jayson (08:08):
Yeah. I’ve seen, I’ve seen pots of, with 12 different kinds of herbs and a tomato plant growing out the middle of it. And then somehow out the back there’s like a vine of something. So if, if you keep your dirt healthy, your soil healthy, you can grow whatever you like really.
Lindsey (08:26):
Definitely. Yeah. And I’m glad that you all got to meet Jayson. He will definitely be appearing a lot more and we’re really excited to have him on the team to help us improve the garden and to keep on growing forward. Yeah. And making beautiful, delicious, healthy meals from what we grow here at the farm.
Jayson (08:45):
Well thank, thank you for having me. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to it.
Lindsey (08:49):
Yeah. So good luck with your spring planting and we hope that you can be inspired to turn what you grow into Beautiful, delicious meals too. Too!
