Urban Ecoist

If you are a good little Urban Ecoist, you should be starting to harvest some pretty nice tomatoes right about now. Remember, even if you don’t have a yard in your urban environment, tomatoes are easy to grow in pots outside your door, on a balcony, or you can find a community garden to rent a plot. So you have no excuse to not grow your own tomatoes. And of course, I know you are growing them organically, because you are a smart, attractive, sexy gardener that eschews chemicals.

When I chose the tomatoes I am growing, I experimented with a few different hybrids. One is an “ultra early,” one is a extra-early, and then I tried a “determinate” and an “indeterminate.” What does all that mean? The “earlies” refer to when the tomatoes will be ready for picking, and the determinate versus indeterminate refers to how the tomatoes will come in, all at once or little by little. If you plant a good variety, as well as some fun heirlooms, you will have yourself a nice little harvest for the end of July and into September.

Of course, there is always that week or two when you feel like you are literally swimming in tomatoes, but if you don’t mind doing a little prep work, you can convert all of that lycopene-y goodness to salsas, marinara sauces, or you can “can” those puppies for those long winter months. Personally, I give tomatoes away to my neighbours, but as I now live in Portland, Oregon, where everybody seems to have a vegetable garden, I will try my hand at canning for the first time this year. If anyone has any advice, by all means, please let me know, and I will pass it on to my awesome, kickass readers!

Anyhoo, I did have another idea for all my little urban ecoists. Use your tomatoes to clean your face. Click on that last sentence to see how to do it. It’s simple. Tomatoes have really good acidic qualities, and can act as a toner for your skin. They are also great at clearing up blackheads. I have great skin (thanks to some good genetics that run through the Mcgrew and Neile Families), but heck, even I get blackheads on my nose. I tried those stupid Biore strips, I tried all kinds of mud and peel-off masks, and frankly, I have never had better results than from tomatoes. Crazy, I know, but effective.

garden, gardening, urban, community garden, tomatoes, salsas, Portland, Oregon, toner, skin care, DIY, blackheads