They are Sprouting

Well not to long ago I wrote about constructing the seed rack. I installed the shop lights put in plant florescent lights, planted the seeds, and then nothing. Unfortunately the basement was too cold and the lights, just not enough heat. So Naomi ordered some seedling heat mats from Horticulture Source. Then in almost no time at all we had some of our first sprouts, tiny basil sprouts.

Then came the onions and the gourds. The gourds seemed to explode out of the ground. In the morning there was not even a hint of action and then by the afternoon they towered above the dirt.

Next our tomato seeds sprouted which gave me a bit of relief. I had seed saved a couple of varieties from last year. One variety happened to be an heirloom of Naomi's aunt Nancy and the others were some heirloom tomatoes that I picked up at a farmers market in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Questions?

Okay as I stated in my last post I have received a seed catalog and to be honest I can't help but look at it with my mind on next year's growing season. Well while reading I found an interesting tomato plant called the silvery fir tree. I was wondering if any of my readers have had any experience with this plant and could give me any advice concerning it.

I'm Back! With Quite a Bit to Say

Well I could say that I have been out of contact due to work, but that wouldn't be exactly true. I could say that I haven't written anything because there is nothing to say, but that would be an out right lie. All I can say is that I had writers block and just became a bit gun shy. Well I am going to bite the proverbial bullet and go for it.

Well there is quite a bit to write about and one of my favorite events that has happened, since my last blog, was the student made marinara sauce. Each spring my classroom plants wheat that will be harvested by the next classroom the following year. The wheat is used to make bisquits for the rest of the school as part of a luncheon called farm to table. Well last spring I decided to add one more crop to our farm plot, tomatoes. Tomatoes are a great all around crop that you can make many different products from. One of those products is marinara sauce, which is a favorite of almost all kids.

Over the summer students took time out of their own summer to come out to the farm and help weed their wheat and tomato crops. Both were harvested within our second week of school (Side note my classroom were filmed on a WGN news story while they were harvesting the wheat). Unfortunately, many of our tomatoes were lost due to the blight. Luckily, what we were missing was made up by parents donating their own backyard tomatoes and from parents donating money so that we could buy more the following day at the farmer's market. I also bought many of the other ingredients at the Grayslake Farmer's Market from money that was donated by the students themselves.

The day after the market my classroom with several parent volunteers worked together to make marinara sauce. The students were immersed into the process with many of my brave boys running from the kitchen crying from the overpowering onions. Others learned how best to "gut" a tomato. Students worked hard in a hot kitchen peeling, gutting, dicing, mincing the tomatoes and the other ingredients. For lunch we all had pasta and sauce. That day the students learned that a sauce you make on your own with fresh ingredients will always be better than anything you can buy.

I believe that each student left that day full of pride and desire to make their own marinara at home.

The Recipe We Used:

24 pounds of Tomatoes

6 pounds of Onions

6 bulbs of Garlic

Salt and Red Pepper to taste

12 bunches of Basil

6 bunches of Oregano

4 bunches of Thyme

4 sprigs of Rosemary

and 10 leaves of Sage (my students chose this one because they liked the sound of it)

In a large pot Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil until onions are opaque

Add Tomatoes

Stir and mash tomatoes periodically as needed

The End of Blossom End Rot

Well in the last three days Naomi and I have harvested about a half dozen of her aunt's family heirloom tomatoes. Their flirtation with blossom end rot has ended hopefully due to our application of bone meal and some calcium water solution. There are several more tomatoes with that promising orangish hue. It appears that my worries of no tomatoes were just a bit over blown. I will take some of the bigger ones and harvest it for its seeds so that we can plant more next year. This variety appears to be a bit like a roma but much larger.

Unfortunately not all tomato stories are end so well. Our local CSA's tomato plants developed late blight. For any who do not know this is the same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine, which ended with approximately 1.5 million people dieing of starvation. Many other farms have had this disease attack their crops as well. In the New England states many farms have had to destroy entire fields of tomatoes. Luckily our CSA has only had to get rid of 600 of their 4000 tomato plants. This cool wet summer has not been beneficial to the tomato crops and I can only hope for hot weather for the rest of August.

Washington Post Article on Late Blight and Tomatoes

Back From England and Quite a Bit of Work to Do

Well Naomi and I got home yesterday around 4:00 and found out that it was a bit warm here in Chicago. We had constant 20 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Farenhiet) weather in England and arrived in Chicago where it is now finally Summer 90 degrees. The garden has been producing and many plants are ready to harvest. Today I will harvest some of my potatoes and the onions. The melons have started to claim the bed the onions are in. They have also claimed the adjoining area around the raised beds outside of the garden plot. I will have to check to see if any melons are starting to form.

In bad news the heirloom tomatoes that we recieved from Naomi's aunt have blossom end rot. I came home and found 7 tomatoes afflicted by this serious disorder. I found this fact sheet at the OSU Extension website, http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/pdf/3117.pdf , and will try to adjust the soil. The wierd thing is that both of these are my container garden tomatoes. The ones in the raised beds are doing well so far (crossing my fingers). If you have any suggestions or advice with this please let me know. Would greatly appreciate all the help.

These are a family heirloom that have been passed down. I do not want to lose all of the tomatoes and therefore all of the seeds.

Arkansas Traveler Part III-Peaches, Pink Tomatoes, and Seed Saving

On our way back from Arkansas Naomi and I could not leave without stopping at a farmers' market and a roadside market while we were still in Arkansas. So it was that at 7:30 in the midst of a torrential down pour that we went to the Argenta Farmers' Market in downtown North Little Rock. Standing in the rain I got to speak to a couple of the farmers and bought two baskets of peaches and half dozen or so Arkansas heirloom tomatoes, the Arkansas Travelers Tomato.

The Arkansas Traveler is a pink tomato that is supposed to have less acidity than its red relatives. This tomato is beloved in Arkansas due to its natural resistance to cracking and splitting as well as its superb taste. Four of the tomatoes made their way to topping a pesto pizza last night, one was a gift to a good friend, and the last one I harvested its seeds.

Seed saving the tomato was much easier than I expected and to tell you the truth I wasn't expecting much. Here is the process:

Select to save seeds from a tomato that has a flavor that you love....if you're a home gardener and saving seeds from tomatoes that are growing in your garden choose tomatoes from the very healthiest looking plants.

Take your chosen tomato and slice it in half across the middle (it's "equator"). With a spoon or your well-washed fingers scoop out the seeds and their gelatinous "goo" into a clean cup or container. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the seeds. Cover the container with a piece of plastic-wrap and then poke the plastic-wrap with a paring knife or pen point to put a small hole in it...this is to allow for air-transpiration. (A little fresh air needs to get in and out of the cup to help foster fermentation.)

Place the container of seeds in a warm location; a sunny windowsill or the top of the refrigerator are both excellent sites to place the container of seeds. Now Mother Nature will take over and begin to ferment the seed and water mixture. This takes about two or three days. Each night remove the plastic-wrap, stir the seed and water mixture, and then replace the plastic-wrap, if you use a new sheet of plastic-wrap then don't forget to put a small hole in it for air-transpiration. The top of the liquid will look "scummy" when the fermentation process has separated the "goo" from the seeds. It also helps destroy many of the possible tomato diseases that can be harbored by seeds.

Take the container of fermented seeds to the sink and with a spoon carefully remove the scummy surface. Then pour the container's contents into a fine kitchen sieve and rinse the seeds with water several times...stir them while they're in the sieve to assure that all surfaces are thoroughly rinsed. Give a few sharp taps to the sieve to help remove as much loose water as possible from the seeds.

Line an open plate with a piece of waxed paper or a large automatic-drip coffee filter. Place the rinsed seeds onto the wax paper or coffee filter and spread them about so they are in a single layer. Place the plate in a safe location where the seeds can dry for a few days. Stir the seeds a few times during the drying process to assure that all their surfaces are evenly dry. Spread them out again into a single layer after each time you've stirred them. Tomato seeds are thick and can take up to a week to dry thoroughly. If you're having a rainy week that drying time may lengthen by a few days.

These seeds I will save for next year and try to grow some of my own. This variety enjoys hot humid weather and takes approximately 85 days to bear ripen fruit.

We also bought peaches at the farmers' market and a roadside stand that was in the parking lot of a gas station in Brinkley. We bought a total of 48 peaches that Naomi used to make jelly, she canned some, and she froze some of them as well. Of course as luck would have it we got another dozen in our CSA share as well.

Today's Harvest

Today's harvest is three Cucumbers, 5 Tomatoes (2 beefsteak and three romas), and 12 Sugar Snap Peas (can't believe these are still producing). Soon there will be beans and the garlic is almost ready to harvest.

First Tomato

Well today Naomi harvested our first tomato of the year, a Roma. This red fruit is a sight to see. We have been waiting patiently for them to go from green to red and now that time is here. I reckon that for a while we will be just a few here and there, but before long we will be wading in red tomatoes.Naomi also harvested 5 cucumbers (some will be made into pickles and others for a snack) and three broccoli heads. The broccoli this year has been on the small side. Not exactly sure why.

What's happening in the garden?

Well as I have already said there is a lot happening in the garden but in the garden in the summer that's just the way it is. Strawberries of course are a distant memory now. But raspberries are quickly coming and will hopefully be ripe in the near future. Of course we are already getting raspberries in the CSA, but of course I can't wait for these to be ready as well.

I can say that I have started to dream of juicy ripe tomatoes. And these little darlings are helping my dreams come true. Also we have romas that are also quickly maturing and a few other varieties that are on their way. However it is our tomato plants that are in the sub-irrigated planter that are really taking the cake. They are towering over everything else and will probably be the prize plants.

Cucumbers are quickly forming on the vine and are ready to pick. These little darlings have Naomi and Fivecrows formulating pickling ideas. To say that the success of their jam has inspired them would be an understatement. Well I know that with the bumper crop of cucumbers that we have on the way (4 plants). We will need some inventive ways of dealing with all of them.

Now for a relative. Our heirloom melons have quickly taken off since the warm weather has come. For awhile I was a little worried about them. But now I am just trying to coral them and keep them in the raise bed. As you can see they are blooming and hopefully we will have melons to harvest in September.

Finally the sugar snap peas are starting to fade away in the morning harvest. Last couple of weeks we were getting quite a bit, but that's how it is in the gardening world.