Stars of the Garden 2025 – Part 2

I hope you enjoyed reading the first part of my annual garden review, and I’m back again today with the second part. I’d like to start with tomatoes, which are a favorite crop of mine and with many other gardeners too. The early rains this year seemed to favor the growth of the vines after planting, and a dry spell in summer helped prevent rotting when the tomatoes began ripening. I got just over 50 pounds of them in total, which was about half of what I got last year. We had plenty for fresh eating, though not a whole lot for processing into sauces and such.

tomato harvest

I always like to trial new varieties of tomatoes and other vegetables as well. This year I had great results with two new ones (Queen Bee and Honey Bee) bred by Johnny’s Selected Seeds in collaboration with the late Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds) . Both are pink and yellow striped and late-blight resistant, and quite tasty. Queen Bee is the larger of the two, though only slightly bigger, and both were good for fresh eating on salads and as a side dish.  I got excellent yields of both of these, and I plan on growing them again in 2026.

Queen Bee(top) and Honey Bee(bottom) tomatoes

Black Angel is another one I trialed. It’s a medium sized slicing type with a dark reddish/black interior that grows on determinate vines. The ones I got this year were quite flavorful, though not as productive as other varieties were. I plan to give it another try next year when hopefully conditions are more favorable for all the tomatoes.

Black Angel tomato

I got modest amounts of the paste tomato varieties, but enough to make a few batches of sauce for the freezer. They were all tried and true varieties for me, including Granadero, Zenzei, Andiamo and my all-time favorite Juliet.

paste tomatoes

It was a better than usual year for the sweet peppers here. I harvested over 10 pounds of them, and had good luck with the Cornito varieties as well as the Sweet Pie mini-bell. The hot peppers generally do well for me, and that was true this year as well. Many of the hot ones wound up in fermented hot sauces, and I should be well-supplied for the coming year.

eggplant and sweet peppers

hot peppers and eggplant

fermented hot sauces

Eggplant did well also, and we enjoyed the large ones like Dancer, Nadia and Annina as well as the smaller fruited Fairy Tale, Gretel and Icicle.

container eggplant harvest

We enjoy eating the eggplant in a number of ways. I made baked eggplant ‘fries’ with one batch, dipping the eggplant in an egg wash and rolling in breadcrumbs before baking in the oven. We also roast eggplant quite often, tossing it with a little olive oil and salt before baking. We sometimes use the slices to make eggplant sandwiches, which makes for a light and tasty lunch.

Crispy Baked Eggplant Fries

roasted eggplant sandwich on naan bread

It was another below average year for the sweet potatoes here. I got 37 pounds of them in all, with the orange-fleshed Beauregard being the best performer. We will have plenty to eat though, and some to save for next year’s slips.

Beauregard sweet potato

It was an outstanding year for cucumbers, which I only grow in the summer greenhouse. I trialed three new ones from Johnny’s Selected Seeds with lime green skin: Gimlet, Mojito and Margarita. They had a mild flavor and tender skin and I got enough I was giving them away! All three did well, but the small Gimlet and medium sized Mojito did the best for me and are in my plans for 2026. All told I hauled in over 30 pounds of cucumbers this tear.

early July harvest

I hope you have enjoyed this review of some of the things we grew here in 2025. I’ll be back soon with more adventures from HA, including my plans for the garden in 2026.