The Westbury Community Garden 6th Annual Tomato Tasting on June 1, 2019, was record-setting in many ways.
Most attendance
Most volunteers
Most fish bowl prize donations
Most funds raised
And most importantly
Most tomatoes (34 different varieties!)
The crowd favorites in three tomato categories were
Cherry tomatoes
1st place – tie – Apero and Matt’s Wild Cherry
2nd place – Sugary
3rd place – Sweet Million
A new variety this year, Apero, tied for top honors in the Cherry category. Yum!The tiny Matt’s Wild is surprisingly full of flavor!Sugary is as sweet as its name. It has about 9% more sugar content than other cherries.Can’t go wrong with Sweet Million. It’s always a great-tasting, prolific producer.
Saladettes
1st place – Verona
2nd place – Bloody Butcher
3rd place – Jaune Flamme
Similar to Juliet in size and shape, Verona has superior flavor.Bloody Butcher is a top producer and has great tomato flavor!Beautiful Jaune Flamme has citrusy, fruity overtones.
Slicers
1st place – JD’s Special C-Tex
2nd place – Rose De Berne
3rd place – Kellogg’s Breakfast
A new variety for us this year – JD’s Special was developed in Conroe, TX. It’s a Brandywine / black tomato cross yielding an earthy, complex flavor.This pink, thin-skinned Swiss tomato has a meaty texture and great acid/sweet balance.Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato produces extra large golden fruit with sweet, tangy flavor.
WCG had a small but hardworking group of individual Volunteers working safely with our garden leaders. This was our last Workday for 2020. The volunteers pictured here helped immensely in preparing our Butterfly Beds both for winter and for 2021 Spring wildflowers to come. And also helped with turning the East Compost bin contents. Pictured…
UPDATE: The Magical Sunflower Maze at Westbury Community Garden is closed for the season. Mother Nature brought an abrupt end to the project when Tropical Storm Nicholas flattened the sunflower field. September 18 and 25 Bouquet Days are also canceled. WCG is already planning improvements for the sunflower field and will bring the maze back…
Six students from Bellaire High School National Honor Society and their advisor, Ms. Jennifer Kuhleman, came out to plant sunflower seeds in the maze on February 26. The students were joined by garden members Debbie Gordon, JaMera Gilbreath, Paul SoRelle, and Betina Wolfowicz. About 400 sunflower seeds were planted of the very tallest and longest…
This seasonal class offers many tips and techniques to insure successful spring and summer vegetable production specifically for our Houston climate. Timing is everything! You don’t want to miss this important class! For those who need to look back at the information presented, the instructors have offered the presentation material here. The March 4th class…
Westbury Civic Club President (and WCG co-founder), Becky Edmondson, presented the story of Westbury Community Garden and won Neighborhood of the Year at the Neighborhoods USA! conference held at the Hyatt Regency Houston downtown last week. The national conference had four finalists in each of three categories 1) Physical Revitalization / Beautification in a Single Neighborhood,…
On November 11, Urban Harvest held their annual Autumn Harvest Celebration on the WCG grounds. It was a time for community gardens across Houston to come together to share a meal and enjoy each other’s company. Urban Harvest Community Gardens Coordinator, Dawn Newcomer, spoke about Urban Harvest’s mission and goals reached through the year. Did you…
