Black Cherry Tomatoes: Part 1

Yesterday, I sowed my first batch of Black Cherry Tomatoes. I first learned of them from Monty Don on Gardener's World last year. They're supposed to be sweet like regular cherry tomatoes, but also a little smokey, which I thought was interesting. I'm eager to try them in bruschetta, cucumber-tomato salad, tomato soup, and marinara sauce.

The cold rain of February has me eager for spring, getting my hands in warm soil again. It's actually quite normal to start sowing seeds this time of year, especially in Eastern North Carolina where it's going to get warmer sooner rather than later. By the time spring arrives here, it will be time to transplant the seedlings out into the garden.

I bought the seeds from Amazon for about $6. The trays are Chewie's baby food containers (thoroughly cleaned and holes poked in the bottom for drainage) in an effort to save money and reuse as much plastic as possible. If you don't have baby food containers on hand, I'm sure you know a mom who would save them for you. I then put the four trays in a tupperware container and filled it with water for the trays to soak up. Once the top of the soil was moist, I drained the rest of it.

As the soil needs to be remoistened (what a strange word), I'll add more water to the tupperware for the trays to soak up. I prefer doing this instead of watering on top of the soil because the tomato seeds are so tiny that I can't see them, so I won't know if they're getting washed out onto the surface of the tray as I'm pouring water on them.

One of the other things I really appreciate about using the baby food containers, is that it's super easy to write the date I sowed them on the containers with a permanent marker. That way, I'm not using even more materials with labels. Because I don't have a greenhouse, I'll leave these in the house either on the windowsill for sunshine (and the heat from the vent right below it) OR on the dryer when it's running. Seeds need heat to germinate, but I don't want to buy a garden heating mat (because diapers are hella expensive y'all.).

In 2-3 weeks, I'll sow more seeds. This is called succession gardening, and it's not something I've ever been very good at. I tend to go crazy and plant all at one time, and then I have a TON of whatever I planted, but only for a short amount of time. By having plants at various stages of life, I'll have exactly how much I need throughout the entire growing season. I'll update y'all as these seedlings grow so you can see the process from seed to full-grown plant to recipe.

Happy sowing! :)

Holly