Spaghetti squash is too often overlooked by the home gardener as too plain or common. This is unfortunate because it is a marvel for very tasty dinners which just happen to be quick and easy to prepare. In 30 minutes – from start to finish – you can have a hot and delicious fresh meal with a spaghetti squash and just a couple of other ingredients.

The flavor is very slightly sweet, more so than real pasta, making it an ideal base to pair a tomato or pesto sauce with. If you’ve made some sauce ahead of time, then you’ve got a fully home-made meal that will satisfy three to four people in a half hour from start to sit-down, with only about ten minutes of hands-on time. Another option is to use a quality store-bought sauce and dress it up with seasonings or balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make it a bit more special.

Here’s what you could grow in your garden for this recipe –

4 from 1 vote
Spaghetti Squash with Pasta
Steamed Spaghetti Squash with Pasta Sauce
Steaming the spaghetti squash whole keeps more of its delicate flavors intact and makes less work for you! Adding some salt after shredding the squash keeps it from being too mild and becoming lost in the pasta sauce.
Author: Stephen
Ingredients
  • 3 - 4 pound spaghetti squash whole
  • 3 - 4 cloves roasted garlic optional
  • Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste optional
  • Freshly grated Parmesan Pecorino, Asiago or other hard grating cheese (optional)
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Place whole squash in a covered steamer basket.
  2. Cook for 25 minutes or until a knife easily cuts through flesh. Often the rind will pop right around the 25 minute mark.
  3. Remove steamer basket and rinse under running cold water until squash is just cool enough to handle, but not cold.
  4. Slice squash in half, remove seeds and smaller pulp in center cavity, and then remove rind.
  5. Shred flesh into long strands with fork or fingers.
  6. Add salt to taste to bring flavor of squash up.
  7. Serve hot with pasta or pesto sauce, add diced garlic cloves, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and/or grated cheese if desired.

Let’s take a look at just how easy this is!

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Starting off with Spaghetti Squash and friends…

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

It is steamed whole for about 25 minutes. The rind popped at about this time, letting me know it was close. The spaghetti squash was removed from the steamer basket and rinsed under cold running water so it could be handled.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

The seeds are removed with a spoon or scraper, then the shell or rind is removed.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Using tongs, forks or your fingers, shred the squash into its namesake spaghetti strand appearance.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

A couple of minutes later, this is what you’ll have! Ready for sauce.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

A generous serving of home-made pasta sauce that was previously made, some grated Italian cheese and you’ve got an easy and delicious meal!

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

The next night we used a pesto sauce with Feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes and it was also exceptional.

 

Heirloom tomatoes are available in a dizzying array of choices – colors, sizes, shapes, flavors and how they produce. Is a determinate variety best for your garden, or would an indeterminate be better for you? How to tell, and what do the terms mean, exactly?

While it may seem confusing, the terms are easy to remember and are pretty explanatory once you understand what they mean.

In a nutshell, the terms describe the growth and production habit of the plants. Determinate tend to be shorter and bushier, while indeterminate are taller and lankier. They also set or produce tomatoes completely differently!

What to choose and which type is best suited for your particular garden depends on a few things – how much space you have to devote to tomatoes, if you need or want to grow in pots or planters, how many tomatoes you can or want to handle at once and if you want most of your tomatoes in one harvest or prefer to get a few at a time.

Let’s look at the details.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.Determinate tomatoes are often called “bush” tomatoes, usually growing only about 3 to 4 feet high. These will grow to their full height, then start putting on tons of flowers – often covering the foliage with tiny bright yellow blossoms.

When they start setting blossoms at the very top of the plant, growth stops and all of the energy is put into producing lots of tomatoes at once. Usually the entire crop will ripen within one to two weeks, with the plant either dying or sometimes going dormant for a period before producing a second, smaller flush of flowers for a smaller follow-up crop. The second crop only happens in areas with a long growing season.

Because they are smaller and bushier plants, determinate tomatoes can be grown in containers, pots or buckets in small spaces where a taller tomato which needs staking won’t work. They don’t need pruning, as that only removes flowers and reduces production. Determinate tomatoes are great for gardeners who want or need a large harvest all at once or over a short time frame, such as for canning or making large batches of sauce or salsa. An added benefit is most determinate varieties are early producers. Some gardeners like determinate varieties as the early harvest allows them to get a good crop of tasty tomatoes and still enjoy a long summer vacation!

Some determinate tomatoes will benefit from staking or caging, but it isn’t as necessary as with indeterminate varieties. Those that need support don’t need much, just enough to keep them from toppling over if grown in a pot or container or from wind or rain.

Some of the determinate heirloom tomatoes we offer:

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.Indeterminate tomatoes are sometimes called “vining tomatoes”, as they will continue to grow throughout the season until frost kills them. These are what you’ve seen photos of showing tomato plants 10 or even 15 feet tall in a home garden. The greenhouse industry uses indeterminate tomatoes and will sometimes have tomato plants of 40 feet or more! The average height is about 6 to 8 feet for a home garden.

This type of tomato plant will grow some, set some flowers, produce fruit and continue to grow and repeat the process all season long. The amount of flowers and fruit set each time depends on the variety of tomato; some will only set a few flowers each time while others will easily put on 20 to 50 flowers for the smaller, cherry or currant size tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes really remind us these are tropical plants which are perennial in their native habitat. It isn’t unusual to find three year old tomato “trees” in Central America!

Indeterminate tomatoes are perfect for the home gardener who wants a smaller harvest several times during the season instead of one large batch at once. The amount of fresh tomatoes on your kitchen counter is easily controlled by how many plants are in the garden. Be warned, however, even indeterminate tomatoes can easily overwhelm the average home gardener’s kitchen with just a few too many plants in production!

Support for these tomatoes is essential for good harvests and to keep the plants healthy. Indeterminates can be allowed to sprawl – we have done it many times – but it becomes a lot of work to lift and move hundreds of pounds of vines to pick the tomatoes, and lots are lost to not being able to see them and they rot on the ground. Support systems like cages, staking, trellising and such will go a long way to keeping these monsters manageable. Heirloom tomatoes can easily have stems 1 ½ inches in diameter at ground level, so make sure the support structure is solid and able to hold a hundred pounds or more of tomato plant weight.

Pruning is optional, with some swearing by it while others don’t find it helps tomato output very much. Your climate has a lot to do with it, as those in humid climates will see benefits from pruning the bottom 10 – 12 inches to improve airflow and prevent the lowest fruit and leaves from touching the ground, inviting pests and disease into the fruit and plant. We have experimented with pruning and found for us in our climate early pruning prior to transplanting is beneficial, but we don’t see any improvement in production in pruning after transplanting and have actually seen a decrease in the size and amount of tomatoes on pruned plants.

One technique that helps end of season fruit ripen better is to prune late flowers that don’t have a chance of producing fruit before frost. This re-directs the plant’s energy into the ripening fruit and not into flowers that won’t bear anything.

Some of the indeterminate heirloom tomatoes we offer:

Many gardeners will grow both types, with an emphasis on one or the other depending on their needs. Some will do a few indeterminates for fresh slicing and salad tomatoes all season, with the majority of the plant being determinate for their well-known spaghetti sauce or signature salsa that is canned or frozen for the upcoming year. Others want to do smaller batches of different sauces or salsas or have a smaller kitchen and just can’t can a couple of hundred pounds of tomatoes at once.

Now you’ve seen how both types can be beneficial, you can choose what works best for your garden!


Terroir Seeds Wishlist – Keep Track Easier

Our new store platform has an upgraded Wishlist feature giving you a place to keep items like seeds, tools, or books in one place for future reference. Whether you are looking for a unique and thoughtful gift for the avid (or beginning) gardener in your life, or want to see what might be nice to try for next season the Wishlist keeps it safe for you.

When you find something you like, simply add it to the Wishlist and keep on browsing or reading. It’s that simple.

We’ll show you exactly how to use it, step by step!

 

A picture of various plants and flowers on the page.

Add item to wishlist

For example, you see the Aromatherapy Garden Seed Collection and think it would make the perfect gift for your friend. Just click the “Add to wishlist” link and you’ll see the login page. 

 

Logging Into Your Account

A screenshot of the new customer page.

Log In to your account

If you’ve purchased on the new store platform, simply log in with your email and password. 

If you’ve bought from us in the past but not in the new store (since August 2017), you’ll see the screen below – which means you just need to reset your password and you’re all set. This takes about 10 seconds! 

If you are a completely new customer who has never purchased from us, use the “Create account” link on the right. You’ll spend about 30 seconds registering. 

 

A screenshot of the new customer page.

Log in warning

If you see this warning in red appear – you just need to reset your password. Click the “Forgot password” link…

A screenshot of the forgot password page.

Forgot password

…and you’ll see this screen. Enter your email address, click the reset button and check your email. You’ll see a link to reset your password and you’re ready to go!

If you don’t see the email within a minute or two – check your junk or spam folder to see if it was caught there. 

 

Creating Your Wishlist

A green and white wishlist page with the words " wishlists ".

Wishlist screen

Once you’ve signed in, click the ‘Wishlists” link on the left and you’ll see the screen above. 

It’s time to create your wishlist! Click the “New wishlist” button…

A screenshot of the new wishlist page.

Create a new wishlist

…and name your wishlist. We’ve named this one the Christmas Wishlist as an example.

See the checkbox for making your wishlist public? That allows you to share it with your friends, family, spouse for gift suggestions, or gardening club. You can change it from public to private at any time, so you don’t have to decide now. 

 

A picture of the christmas wishlist page.

Share your wishlist

When you make your list public, this is what the shareable link looks like. Copy the link and share it through email or social media with everyone you want to see it. Your wishlist looks like this inside. 

 

A christmas wishlist is shown with two arrows pointing to the right.

Updating your wishlist

Adjusting the contents of your wishlist is also simple – clicking the “x” on each photo removes that item from your list. This way you can add variations of something you are interested in and go back later to review and choose which one looks best for your garden, then delete the ones you don’t need. 

Items stay in your wishlist until you remove them – they won’t disappear! 

When you are ready to buy – go to your wishlist and click on the item, then add it to your cart and finish your shopping the usual way. 

 

A screenshot of the wishlist page.

Wishlist menu

Your wishlist overview looks like this – showing you how many items are in it, whether it can be shared, and buttons to edit, share or delete the wishlist. For example, you could delete the Christmas Wishlist and create a Spring Garden one for next season! 

That is all there is to it – pretty simple and easy to use. Now you don’t have to worry about writing that unique tomato down that you want to show your neighbor or friend for growing next season – just add it to the Wishlist and bring it back up when you get together.


Heirloom tomato leaves have two main different and distinct types of leaves – potato leaf and regular leaf. Plants with regular tomato leaves are what we are all familiar with; multi-lobed, serrated and sometimes almost toothed branching off of the stem. Potato leaved plants have broader, smoother single leaves branching off of the stem, missing the multiple lobes and serrations.

 

Regular Leaf Tomatoes

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

These are by far the most common and well-known type of tomato leaves – they are what we think of when we think of “tomato plants”. The shape and color of the leaves can vary – from slightly serrated to extremely and from a light pale green to a deep dark green and almost a bluish leaf. The width and length of the leaf can vary a lot as well from small narrow leaves which almost always curl to long and wide leaves that droop.

 

Potato Leaf Tomatoes

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

As mentioned above, these leaves are almost always much bigger and smoother on the edges than regular leaves, with more heft. They look much more like potato leaves than tomato leaves, thus the name. Potato leaves tend to give more shade to a plant than regular leaves, due to the larger area that the leaves have and more shade from each leaf.

Examples of potato leaf tomatoes are:

There doesn’t seem to be much difference in growing the two different types of tomato leaves; one is not more productive, flavorful or pest and disease resistant than the other, or tolerant of heat or cold. They just have different leaves.

One thing of note is that as far as we can tell, all potato-leaved varieties are heirloom or older varieties. We haven’t been able to find a hybrid that is potato-leaved.

Have some fun in your garden this season and try one (or more) of these unusual but delicious heirloom tomatoes!

This Sicilian eggplant and tomato sauce is wonderful and surprising with its richness and depth of flavors, both fresh and roasted. Easy and delicious!


September in northern Arizona means a few things – the weather starts to cool off and the nights become very enjoyable, the garden seems to find another gear as the energy-sapping heat begins dropping off and we harvest some of the most amazing colors and flavors of vegetables.

We’ve taken some glamour shots of the garden’s bounty and wanted to share them with you, along with tips on how we’ve enjoyed preparing them in different dishes.

Remember as you look at these vegetables to not worry if you can’t plant and taste these this year or season; see what appeals to you and either buy them now or add them to your Wishlist. Seeds are good for more than one year, so buying them a few months before planting will not have any impact on their germination next season. Just store them in a cool and dry place, then you can plant and experience all of these colors and flavors for yourself, straight from your garden!

Click on the links in the descriptions to visit them in our online seed store!

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Fresh Rosa Bianca eggplant – beautiful, firm and tasty without any trace of bitterness. Eggplant can be quite delicious when grown in your own garden, harvested fresh and cooked soon after. We peeled and sliced this, slowly sautéed it in olive oil and added it into a fresh roasted tomato sauce. It easily stood with the intense roasted tomato flavors without getting lost or overwhelmed.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Flamme or Jaune Flamme Tomato – apricot size and color, French heirloom tomato that came on early and is still producing strong late into the season. Really a wonderfully delicious tomato with an immediate, intensely sweet flavor that is soon balanced by a smooth tartness and fruit overtones. The complex flavors last on the tongue, making a second and third bite inevitable.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

A different angle on the Flamme tomatoes.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Jubilee tomato – Absolutely delicious golden tomato with very little gel, lots of meat and long lasting flavor. Flavor is immediate with a balanced tart and sweet profile and very full. Many yellow tomatoes have a milder or blander taste, as if the flavors were diluted – not the Jubilee! Excellent fresh as a slicer and as a unique flavor in a fresh roasted pasta sauce – doesn’t get lost in rich red paste tomatoes and adds a brightness to the sauce.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Box Car Willie tomato – Most “old-fashioned” heirloom tomatoes have a strong to very strong acid content that contributes a tartness that sometimes becomes quite a bite. Not Box Car Willie – it has an immediate, forward flavor that starts off with a moderate tartness quickly followed by a mild sweetness, balancing the flavors out. Overall the impression is a slightly tart, yet mildly sweet smaller beefsteak tomato that is really enjoyable sliced fresh or juiced. When sliced it retained most of the juiciness inside the fruit and didn’t leak all over the cutting board.

 

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Box Car Willie Tomatos sliced open.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Speckled Roman tomato – Meaty and moderately sweet with little juice or seed cavity, these are great on salads or as an appetizer dish where their unique and eye-catching colors can be shown off. Their flavors back up the show, making this all the more valuable in the garden. One of the all-purpose tomatoes that we turn to – it is excellent freshly sliced, in salsas and adds a fruit note to sauces or soups as well.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Another view of the Speckled Roman, showing the interior.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Pepperoncini Pepper – These are pretty common peppers, but the taste and flavors when grown at home are unlike anything you’ll find in the store. This probably explains why these continue to be a popular variety that continues to find new fans each year. Mild yet flavorful, these work well in many dishes that need a bit of pepper flavor without overbearing heat.

 

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper – The wilder, spicier relative of the Sweet Wax pepper! Moderately warm without being overly hot with a tangy but slightly sweet flavor. Watered well, the heat is moderate but can be cranked up by restricting water. Excellent when de-seeded and dry-fried with garlic and onions on a hot cast iron pan, then added as a topping to a pizza.

A plant growing in the dirt on a sunny day.

Long revered in Oriental cultures as a symbol of mindfulness, calm and patience, the preying mantis is also a good sign in the garden as a pest patrol.