All of the tomatoes and peppers we are growing this year are . . . → Read More: Tomato Plants For Sale (and peppers, too)!]]> We will be selling tomato and pepper plants again this year. We wanted to give everyone an early heads up on which varieties we will be seeding out so you can make your gardening decisions now. It won’t be long before we are planting lettuce!

All of the tomatoes and peppers we are growing this year are heirlooms. Almost all of them were ordered from Seed Savers Exchange. This is a group whose sole purpose is to “save North America’s diverse, but endangered, garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, while educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity.”

Plants are $1.50 each. Orders of 10+ plants are $1.00 each.

Tomatoes Available

Opalka (125+ plants available)

(Solanum lycopersicum) (aka Polish Torpedo) Given to Carolyn Male by coworker Carl Swidorski, who said the seed originated in Poland circa 1900. Part of SSE’s 1997 Polish Collection. Phenomenal set of 3″ by 6″ red paste tomatoes on vigorous wispy vines. Excellent flavor and very few seeds make this a perfect processing tomato. Fruits hold well on the vine. Indeterminate, 85 days from transplant.

German Pink (125+ plants available)

(Solanum lycopersicum) One of the two original Bavarian heirlooms from Diane Ott Whealy’s family that started SSE. Potato leaf plants produce large 1-2 pound fruits. Meaty flesh with few seeds, very little cracking or blossom scars. Full sweet flavor. Excellent for canning, freezing and slicing. Indeterminate, 85 days from transplant.

John Baer (20 plants available)

(Solanum lycopersicum) (aka Bonny Best) From the Bonny group of tomatoes that includes Chalk’s Early Jewel. Introduced in 1914 by J. Bolgiano and Son of Baltimore. Bright red, meaty, smooth fruits with very good flavor. Once a leading canning variety, also great for fresh eating. Heavy producer. Indeterminate, 60-80 days from transplant.

Matt’s Wild Cherry (20 plants available)

Genetically linked to wild Mexican tomatoes from the state of Hidago. A TomatoFest “favorite” tomato. Our organic tomato seeds produce a tall, vigorous, rangy, indeterminate, regular-leaf tomato plant with thousands of 1/2 -inch red cherry tomatoes, borne in clusters. Fruits have a very sweet, delicious taste. Like snacking on candy. This tomato variety that should do well in cooler growing regions as it appears to have some frost resistance. Great for sprinkling these “jewels” into a salad.

Black Krim (20 plants available)

(aka Black Crimson and Black Crim) Originally from the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea in the former Soviet Union. This rare, and outstanding tomato yields 3-4″ slightly flattened dark-red (mahogany-colored) slightly maroon, beefsteak tomatoes with deep green shoulders. Green gel around seeds. Fantastic, intense, slightly salty taste (which is great for those not wanting to add salt to their tomatoes).

Black Krim is one of my best black tomatoes. Also suitable for container/patio garden. Perfect choice for slicing, salads and cooking.

Peppers

Orange Bell (15+ plants available)

(Capsicum annuum) The best tasting orange bell pepper we have grown. Given to SSE by member Alex Heklar in 1989. Blocky 4″ bell peppers have thick walls and excellent flavor. Heavy yielding. Can also be eaten green. 90 days from transplant. Sweet.

Tollies Sweet Pepper (15+ plants available)

(Capsicum annuum) Sweet Italian heirloom named for Phil Tolli. Large, dependable yields of 5″ long scarlet-red peppers. This is one of our all-around favorites for fresh eating, frying, and canning recipes. Great added to tomato sauces. 75-85 days from transplant.

It’s the end of the first year for my asparagus bed and time to prepare it for winter. This first year I did not harvest any of the shoots and let them all grow into tall ferns. The first order of business is to let the asparagus grow until the frost starts knocking it back and . . . → Read More: Asparagus – Preparing the bed for winter]]>

It’s the end of the first year for my asparagus bed and time to prepare it for winter. This first year I did not harvest any of the shoots and let them all grow into tall ferns. The first order of business is to let the asparagus grow until the frost starts knocking it back and it turns yellow.

Once it’s turning yellow and starting to die back it’s time to cut it down. I had my lovely assistant cut these off from 1-3 inches above the ground. It’s very important to discard the ferns. If you have an asparagus beetle infection they will leave their eggs behind. We put the ferns into a wheelbarrow, took them to the burn pile and burned them up. This is the best way to take care of next years asparagus beetles.

The final treatment consists of mulching the bed. This will help keep the soil warm and is the first defense against weeds. I just used newly fallen leaves for this application. They are free and plentiful in my area and should do fine.

First off, we have a new addition around here. Moses the cat. He is the family cat but Abi got to pick him out and name him. We hope he becomes a heroic mouser. That’s the role we hired him to fill.

I . . . → Read More: Farming Update – 05/03/09]]> Thought I’d supply a little farming update. Lot’s of good things going on this week.

First off, we have a new addition around here. Moses the cat. He is the family cat but Abi got to pick him out and name him. We hope he becomes a heroic mouser. That’s the role we hired him to fill.

I was able to plant my asparagus bed. The crowns came in the mail and I didn’t even realize what they were. They looked like really long squid. Quite a root system. Anyway, the bed has been planted and we should see our first growth in the next couple of weeks. Here’s a link to a pictorial on how to plant asparagus and here’s a link to my other posting with just a few technical details.

We are experimenting with growing potatoes vertically. The ‘box’ is made out of cypress so it won’t rot. The potatoes are planted in the very bottom. As they grow you put dirt around them and keep adding sides to increase the height of the box. One gentleman in  Washington has grown 100 pounds of potatoes in one 2×2 spot. Here’s a picture of where we are right now. It’s almost time to add to the sides and put in more dirt. We have filled in about 6 inches so far on these. At the end of the season these should be totally full of potatoes. Might be a really good solution for people in the city with limited space.

Mandi has reestablished the strawberry beds. She really enjoys fresh strawberries. Right next to these is the herb bed. Fresh herbs are fun.

The blueberries are doing really well. I studied up on pruning at the end of winter and tried my best to prune them well. They seem to have established themselves very well. The bees were all over them pollinating and now the berries are forming. It’s really neat to see fruit growing that was pollinated by your own bees. I put out some chicken manure around them yesterday and it rained later. Will help the manure slowly work it’s way through the mulch into the soil.

Speaking of bees, this is what they look like on a damp morning. They don’t like coming out to go to work either.

The grapes are coming on as well. It always seems they are way behind everything else as far as putting out leaves. Then they just take off. You can see the little clusters here. Each spot will be a bloom and once pollinated will make a grape. I also put out some chicken manure around them and then some lime. Grapes don’t like acidic soil so it’s important to keep it more neutral. This variety is a seedless Concord.

This grape variety is my favorite. It taste good but that’s not why it’s my favorite. The land I live on is old family land. My great grandfather, grandfather, and father all grew up here and farmed it. I got this grape from my dad. When he was a kid he said the house these grapes were at was already gone. When I was little he went to the old home place out in the woods and got some of the vines and took them to his home. This year we transplanted this vine here so the grapes are back close to where they came from. He’s not sure what family lived at the old home where the grapes were and now that whole spot has been turned into a cow pasture.  We have the only vines that we know of. We’re not sure of the variety but they are a pink grape.

This is part of our tomatoes. I think we are going to have around 40 plants. These are growing on part of our terraces. We have several heirloom varieties and also lots of Romas for making sauce and canning.

This last picture is of our Bloodgood Maple. This was given to us by some good friends of ours and represents the covenant we have with them.  God is a covenant maker and keeper. Jesus came to be our representative with the Father and to make a covenant with God on our behalf. Marriage is also a covenant. David and Jonathan were in a covenant of friendship. Every covenant had a sign to remind the makers of it. This tree represents our covenant friendship.

We have been adding to our food production as time, space, and money allow. We have been interested in apple trees but had not pursued it. On the property there is an area that is almost 1/2 an acre of pine beetle destruction. Pine trees laying everywhere and in some pretty dangerous angles. I have never . . . → Read More: Creating An Orchard]]>

We have been adding to our food production as time, space, and money allow. We have been interested in apple trees but had not pursued it. On the property there is an area that is almost 1/2 an acre of pine beetle destruction. Pine trees laying everywhere and in some pretty dangerous angles. I have never thought much of the spot.

Michael checked it out and recommended we put our orchard there. He said it was a great location for fruit trees and with a little cleaning up we could get right to planting this spring. Needless to say, I felt like it would be way too much work to have a suitable spot this spring but since he is a forester by trade I went along with it.

You can see from the first pictures that this was anything but an easy job. We cut and piled, cut and piled and then cut and piled some more. If running a chainsaw makes you feel manly then this was the place to be. After we got everything piled up we got a burn permit and let it rip. There were three large piles for our Phase 1. They burned away to nothing. You can see how cleaned out it is in this area.

The trees are finally in the ground. I started with one red delicious and one golden delicious. Apple trees will self-polinate but you always do better with cross-pollination. These are good pollinators for each other and will also pollinate other varieties well as we add them. These two are semi-dwarfs and will average around 15′ in height. They will produce 12 to 15 bushels per tree on average when mature. I wanted dwarf trees but did not have access to any. That’s probably what my new ones will be. Dwarfs will top out at 10′ at the most and still produce around 6-8 bushels. Either way, these two trees will be good additions to what we are doing. These are also right behind my beehives so it will be an easy flight. I like efficiency.

I wanted to plant several but at $20.00 each I don’t have the money for many. Michael reminded me that overseas they do things when they can knowing it will still be good and that they are helping their kids and other future generations as well. I decided to drop the American attitude about getting it all done now and practicing some patience. Jesus continues to teach me and it was extra nice to learn something through farming since so many of His parables used the same subject.

Phase 2 will consist of continued cutting, piling, and burning. We’ll plant more apple trees in this area and most likely some peaches and pears on up the hill. If you want to run your chainsaw and feel manly then come join us!

My friend Michael had a chicken coup he built at a place he was renting. Since he had moved he wasn’t using it and he took it down and reconstructed it here at the house. It’s a great coup with four built in laying boxes, plenty of roosting space, and enough headroom . . . → Read More: Chickens – New Coup]]>

My friend Michael had a chicken coup he built at a place he was renting. Since he had moved he wasn’t using it and he took it down and reconstructed it here at the house. It’s a great coup with four built in laying boxes, plenty of roosting space, and enough headroom where I can stand up inside. We hope to have 8-12 laying hens when we are at full speed.

Another friend gave me the 10′x10′ dog lot. We took apart one corner and then attached the sides to the chicken coup. Michael put in a lot of sweat equity and buried some fencing a foot deep all the way around. I put up some netting across the top to keep predators out from that direction.

It’s right next to our shed where we’ll have feed storage and a rain barrel. Should make it much easier to take care of them.

Have been very excited the past few months about building a new shed. I’ve been very blessed to have my dad help me out a lot with it and my friend Michael pitched in some free labor as well. Phase 1 has turned out very nice. Stall width is 12 feet and . . . → Read More: New Shed]]>

Have been very excited the past few months about building a new shed. I’ve been very blessed to have my dad help me out a lot with it and my friend Michael pitched in some free labor as well. Phase 1 has turned out very nice. Stall width is 12 feet and depth is 14 feet. This gives a shed size of 36 feet wide by 28 feet deep. We left enough room on the left to add another 12 feet of width if we need it.

The current plan is to build a workshop in the back right and back middle stalls. It will include workbench space, table saw, band saw, and a radial arm saw. I’ll also have an area setup for woodcarving, both hand and power carving. The rest of the shed will be used for shelves, hanging tools, and keeping things dry.

Since the shed is higher than most of our property we plan to catch the rain water and use gravity to water the yard and other plants. I found a gentleman on Craigslist who was selling 275 gallon rain barrels pretty cheaply and was able to pick one up yesterday. I like the fact that the shed can be very multi-purpose including catching the rain off the top.