Candy canes and chocolate sprinkles
IN THE GARDEN
Do I eat it or do I continue to gaze at it? I confess, when it comes to the esthetics of plants, I lean toward ornamental, floral displays more so than the edible qualities of fruit and veg. Don’t get me wrong, I do grow fruit and veg, but the sight of carrots and cabbages doesn’t thrill me the way a flowering plant does.
OK, that first ripe tomato certainly gets my attention, and an elegant parterre designed as perfectly as an Italianate garden is something to behold.
My own vegetable garden, disregarding the quality of the edibles, has the visual appeal of an off-ramp triangle which, I learned, is called a gore. Who knew? More than just garden info here, folks.
My position has softened somewhat after seeing a new variety of pepper. It’s one that could easily be featured in a patio planter where it would hold its own against more floriferous plants, and with its variegated foliage a grouping could be the highlight of a parterre.
Its name is Candy Cane, a hybrid sweet pepper that has to be the most decorative one on the market, and I saw my first one last week. Along with other garden writers, I’d been invited to the trial garden of Stokes Seeds in St. Catharines for a taste testing of new varieties of tomatoes and peppers. It’s a bit like a wine tasting but not quite as genteel as it involves tramping up and down rows of field grown plants.
As we went, we were informed by knowledgeable staff from Stokes of the quality and features of each variety. After an hour or two of tasting and tossing (told you it wasn’t quite a wine tasting), we voted on our favourites, providing input into which ones would make it into production for next season. Most are available by seed, and as plants they’ll be showing up in garden centres next season.
The plot had experienced the same challenging conditions faced by home gardeners this year, and had been treated no differently. Ripening, not surprisingly, was a little behind, but there was no shortage of samples to go around.
A popular snacking tomato was Chocolate Sprinkles. It is a unique bicolour — red with dark green stripes. It has some disease resistance and as an indeterminate, it will need to be staked.
Another small fruiting variety, best staked and grown in-ground, was Midnight Snack. An unusual purple, almost black tomato, it turns red as it ripens. We continued, tasting Little Bing, a dwarf determinate that is best for containers, and Tidy Rose, also compact with a rich heirloom flavour.
And then it was on to the peppers. They’re not the top of my list of preferred vegetables unless they’re so sweet, I can eat them as fruit. I left the hot ones to the pepper people. First up was an All American Selections winner, Mad Hatter. I could grow this for fun, with its odd, crumpled appearance, looking as though it had been stepped on at an early stage. It’s a bishop’s crown type, also called joker’s hat. They told me it was sweet and crunchy, expressing a slight heat in the centre — sure. I did learn that the heat of a pepper increases from tip to stalk, so always bite the tip first. And the star of the day: Candy Cane. I was not so much interested in the flavour as the appearance. The green and white foliage produces green and white striped fruit. As the peppers mature the stripes become two rich, distinct, light and dark shades of red, a work of art.
I neither tasted nor tossed this one. Instead I slipped it into my pocket and brought it home for further study — I might even eat it.
On Sept. 22, the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association is holding its annual conference at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information or to register, email conference@chta.ca or see the website at www.chta.ca.
To chat with local gardeners, share tips, pics, or discuss candy canes, see Grand Gardeners on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/Grandgardeners/.