Polish tomatoes, peppers, cherries - take your pick

The famous Polish entertainer Suzanne Nagrocki is known for her quick wit and charm, but she is also a fabulous Polish cook. While some people have themed gardens that are, say, an all-white garden, or a historic garden with only plants grown in Colonial America, it is also fun to have an ethnic garden with just plants from one country, say from Poland.

There are hundreds of Polish vegetable varieties, but one that stands out is the aptly named Polish Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). This is a huge, brick-red heirloom tomato that regularly gets up to a full pound each. The Polish Tomato has outstanding flavor when sliced, and holds up well when canned or cooked. The tomato plants have potato leaves which have a smooth leaf edge rather than the serrated edge of the regular leaf tomatoes. The shape is oval and may feature notches separating large lobes. Polish Tomato sets fruit all season, even in cool weather.

Another Polish tomato is the Polish Linguisa Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) This is a long, seven- to 10-ounce nearly carrot-shaped tomato from Poland going back to the 19th century. It is especially soft textured and sweet rather than tart like some tomatoes.

The Opalka Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)is an extremely productive paste tomato from Poland. The red fruits are three inches by six inches long, with very few seeds for easy processing or cooking sauce. They are far tastier than most paste tomatoes. Even though you will get lots of tomatoes you can space the harvest a bit because Opalka stays fresh on the vine.

Poland also has beautiful peppers. The Ostra-Cyklon (or simply Cyklon Pepper) (Capsicum annuum) is a deep crimson red paprika-type pepper whose four-inch-long, one-and-a-half inch wide fruits have thin walls for easier drying. The flavor of the Cyklon pepper is sweet with just a hint of heat.

The Buran Pepper (Capsicum annuum) is a very sweet Polish heirloom. The peppers are blocky four-inch-long traditional bell-shaped peppers. The three-lobed fruits are sweet whether you pick them green or wait for them to ripen to red.

And what would a Polish meal be without dessert? Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry (Physalis pruinosa) is a popular ground cherry from Poland. The yellow fruits are made into jams, dried much like raisins and especially made into a sweet sauce to top ice cream. The plants put out heavy yields of small fruits enclosed in papery husks that turn brown when the fruit inside is ripe. You can put down a mulch or landscape cloth to keep down weeds, but more important to keep the fruit clean as it drops from the plants.

Seeds for all of these vegetables are available locally or from mail order companies such as Seed Savers Exchange (www.Seedsavers.org) or Baker Creek Seeds (www.Rareseeds.com).

Start your Polish tomatoes, peppers and ground cherries indoors about eight weeks before your last frost.

Plant them outdoors after all danger of frost has passed, and the ground is warm.

Once your crops are up, and the tomatoes and peppers are ripe, you can make Polish style paprika, thick tomato sauce, stuffed peppers and even yellow Ground Cherry sauce over ice cream. Then relax, have a glass of Piwo (beer) or Oranzada (orange soda) and toast Zuzzana!