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.
On March 22, at the Compassionate Houston Annual Fundraiser luncheon, Dr. Bob Randall, co-founder of Urban Harvest and his wife Nancy, were honored for lives dedicated to increasing food security in Houston. The program featured video interviews of Dr. Bob and several other community garden representatives, including WCG President, Debbie Gordon. Janna Roberson, Executive Director…
The both orchards received some much needed TLC at the May Community Service Day at the garden. Fifteen members came out to join the crew and earn some volunteer hours. Some worked in the Butterfly Gardens while another group focused on the citrus trees that haven’t been adopted yet.
This will be the debut of our QR-code enabled signs project. We’ll have a sort of scavenger hunt game where folks look for the veggie ID signs and then scan the QR code with their phone or iPad to get to expanded info about the veggie, how to grow it, how to cook it, etc….
The goal: plants that can thrive and produce in the heat without constant attention. Urban Harvest guides Spring planting (PDF) https://bit.ly/2INIYjm Summer planting http://urbanharvest.org/summer-planting-guide. Best choices Sweet potatoes When: May, when it’s warm but not blazing. How: Mound up the soil in the center your bed into a nice tall ridge. Plant rooted “slips” 12…
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…
March 22, 2025 will mark an important milestone at Westbury Community Garden. WCG will celebrate 15 years as an urban agriculture green space in Westbury. As a testament to our success, among our 77 garden members, 12 are founding members who joined and built the community garden in 2010! Three others aren’t currently gardening but…
