Tomato Dreams on a Winter's Night~

To those of us who dream of our crops to come, this time of year allows dedicated time for pondering which of the zillion varieties of delicious Heirloom Tomatoes will be in our gardens come the warm spring days. With far too many choices available, it is a fun game each year! I try to plant ONLY between 25-35 varieties - a hard task when many of these become our standard favorites along the way!

I go for great variety in color and always those that folks have found to be of fantastic taste. Also, i prefer to plant open-pollinated varieties, and save seed from each type. Open pollinated or OP plants are varieties that grow true from seed. This means they are capable of producing seeds from this seasons plants, which will produce seedlings that will be just like the parent plant. Each season, one will find many containers of fermenting seed and pulp in my home, followed by carefully marked paper plates on which the pre-fermented seeds are drying. These plates, marked with the name of the fruit, are carefully placed all over two rooms - in areas where kitty-cats will not explore!

Last year, i grew out some 20 flats of plants for gifting and to try out selling mature, healthy young plants for local variety. I concentrated on Kentucky Heirlooms, generously shared by a gentleman that is beloved by many of us, Gary Millwood. He is a true garden pal, and has passionately saved and shared seed from many, many varieties that could easily disappear into 'Mater Extinction. Bless Gary, known by some as Papa Gary! He has made seed saving and sharing great fun for we gardeners and foodies (and does he ever have great recipes, too!). Thank you, Friend :) These Kentucky heirlooms were received with great enthusiasm, and regularly people tell me how wonderful these plants were in their gardens.

I grow paste tomatoes, beefsteak types, oxhearts, cherry (fondly called
TommyToes, where i live), grape tomatoes, stuffing tomatoes, and tomatoes wild with color : Black (mahogany in reality), green ripes, yellows, oranges, pinks, reds, and wild bi-colors.We love a riot of color on the serving plate!

This year, i hope to go into the tomato plant business in a bigger way, as last year's experiment went so very well! While it is very difficult to sell produce in our neck of the woods, plants were well-received......and it is fun to do! Stay tuned for this year's choices - soon to be announced and shared around :)

Pay It Forward...from our gardens, too!

Tonight is Inaugural Eve, a time of hope, encouragement, and joy - with new possibilities for healing ~ not just for our nation, but for the world that the United States has imposed themselves on for so long. I am driven to divert from the physical act of gardening after only 2 blog posts. What i have seen and heard this past two weeks warms my heart deeply.... and is applicable to all of us. Once again, in a time when government's assistance to individuals and municipalities can no longer keep pace with individual needs and increased national debt, our new President has called for the individual to pitch in and help!! As this was a premise in my child-rearing ways, (now finished this past year!) - my heart sings at the possibilities and benefits of people again taking care of people, eye to eye - with great consequence! Too long, it has been about _Me_, with nary an eye toward assisting fellow humans in close proximity to us. This is NOT how it started in our great land.......and it is my hope that we can find, again, an ethic that has become uncommon.

How does this apply to the humble gardener? There have been programs fantastic : Plant a Row for the Hungry, save our seed germplasm from extinction, and more....most programs being available only in large metro areas and not for those of us who moved out into the boondocks (seeking a more sane and healthy atmosphere). Each time i applied or inquired about these wonderful ideas someone else had to benefit others via gardening - i found that most are not in place in rural areas. So, we set out to see what can be done here or anywhere.

"Ask and it shall be given", said a Good Book - and so i inquired toward the Great-What-It-Is how it was that we could make a difference, without access to The Program, whichever :)
Opportunites to assist, via my garden medium immediately began to present themselves....YAY!
Some ideas:

• My surplus, naturally-grown produce will show up this next season in front of pre-schoolers at Head Start if i have my way. These little ones will revel in biting into tiny, multi-colored kid-sized cherry tomatoes! They will explode in their little mouths, in place of canned, low-nutrition fruits at snacktime. Perhaps they will munch on my Sno-peas - and learn that Green and Fresh are sweet and fun, too! Too many of our little ones have been raised on "Pop" and Lil Debbie Cakes here in the mountains......and you can see it in their being and in their lack of youthful vitality. We can change some of that!
  
• My Kentucky Heirloom Tomatoes might wind up in flats for the taking at the great Senior Center we have, or perhaps the one nursing home - last stop for many that grew up here and remember the tasty delights of old fashioned heirloom vegetables.
• Our wonderful Franciscan friends, Sister Amy and Sister Ann gather the women in our community together monthly - often women less fortunate than some of us - for fellowship, nutritional fun via lesson on cooking whole foods together. We laugh together, learn of a different topic from a speaker, prep and cook a lunch using local foods as we can, sit down and pray and eat together. Afterward, each woman receives a bag of groceries and the recipes we made to do the same for their own families. It is SO cool, as many gals have never eaten or prepared these dishes dedicated to their health and deliciousness! For the last 5 or 6 years, i was privileged to share with them a gardening talk and seed that each could take home and try out. A show of hands last year said that 23 of 26 women present, were now growing either small or large gardens - as their ancestors did around here ( many never stopped from the olden days). These are a people of the earth, here in Appalachia - and there is an underlying culture of sustainability that was almost lost and being found again by other newer generations. People taking care of people - that is what is beautiful about "country". Very exciting!! People here WILL know what to do when the markets close or food becomes too costly for the common woman or man....tho we are not there again, quite yet.
• Plant something with a young child - something that is their very own. Teach them to nurture that green life and enJOY what harvest brings - just for them. Magic, that's what that is!!
  
• Do you have a neighbor - one of few means? How wonderful to find a box of goodies discreetly left on a porch. An elder who no longer cooks healthy foods - tho they do remember that time of life. Perhaps a few portions of snapped, pre-cooked beans to aid in their better health. Some people here take lots of green beans into the nursing home, as many of them remember the hours of camaraderie as the women sat together and snapped beans for suppertimes. A light comes on in the eyes and a glow in the heart, as they prepare again what was once common to everyday life, before processed, less-than-healthy foods. Our seniors and young children ought to always receive the honor of good food and caring.....what should be a measure of a healthy society ( along with the ARTS, but don't get me started on THAT one now, heehe).

Again the time has come when we need to step out and help all those around us - and not rely on a goverment to take care of our own.....we are our brother and sister's keepers!

Please, as our new President Obama beseeches each of us to reach out, volunteer, and help each other once again. A time to Pay it forward. The benefits of selflessness are astonishing, and Joy is so underated.
What small thing will you do in 2009? Your garden can be a good, small start, and there is always more than one needs :)

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Ahhh the wonder of discovering yet more season extension in our vegetable gardens in frigid
growing zone 6a! In previous years, i had grown salad in the basement under lights, and sometimes with a heat device below the flats or pots. Now, this is more like it!

The last few nights have seen temps falling to -3*F., and i wondered if my cold frame experiment would be done for the season. Today, a balmy 38*F, had me investigating with camera in hand.
YEEEHAW! We still have several looseleaf lettuces and cilantros looking very good in there, AND there are even some Parsley and Nigella (Love in a Mist) that have germinated from the compost therein!! This calls for more of the same, and i will be extending the coldframe/salad bed by 3X after seeing it work so well. Here in Kentucky, it rarely gets much colder than this - so success is assured barring unforeseen coldness ( such as the oldtimes tell about this area - it HAS warmed up 'round here!).

To have salad in YOUR winter garden, here is a list of materials needed, and some options to use your coldframe with more controls over what Mom Nature throws at us all (Bless her heart!).
btw - did you know that in these mountains, you can say anything about anyone - as long as you follow it with "Bless His/Her heart"?? I love the blessing of it!).

Materials Used:

1. 6 bales of STRAW (not hay - this holds up better, and contains few-to-no weed seedheads)
2. 6 mil Black Plastic sheeting
3. a coil of 9 guage galvanized wire - to make garden staples, or buy some ready made
4. a bale of soiless seed starting mix
5. a small pile of either your precious homemade compost, or some bought in bags
6. a couple of old glass storm doors or window
7. an old comforter or blanket for insulation on very cold nights.

Lay your bales in a rectangle, where you want this to remain. I chose a very slightly sloping spot, so my bed would be lower on the south side, and receive a bit more light and good drainage. I do not think this matters too much!
Next, i covered the bales with the plastic sheeting for two reasons: heat absorption with black plastic AND to preserve my straw bales longer in our sometimes rainforest climate. When we are done with these, there is always a great used for composting straw, as mulch or even to grow a summer salad bed on ( more on this in another blog, so keep coming back!). The plastic goes all the way to the ground, and is just attached with your pins ( around 6"-9"long, U-shape).
i put newsprint very thick in the bottom, but not necessary. Follow this with most of the bale of soiles mix, well-moistened. Top with your compost and remainder of soiless mix, and stir around to mix. Top with your storm doors or windows. The comforter or blanket is just for very cold nights.

As seasons change, one must be vigilant as to the temps heating up too much under the glass (or plexiglass). You can have an optional thermometer in there, or even a remote one from your house! Also, there are automatic openers for when it becomes too hot.

One can also buy a soil heating cable to snake around underground about 4-6" deep, allowing for germination of many plants that require bottom heat. You can grow alot of transplants in small spaces for the home garden.... and this would pay for itself quite rapidly in plants you no longer must buy from others.

Baby, It's COLD Outside~

On this frigid morning, of 1 degree Fahrenheit, this ex California gardener can only revel in seed-starting and garden planning in the month ahead! As there is no hope for growth in the frozen ground outdoors - it's a fine time to actually get this Blog going :) We are in zone 6a, in Kentucky Appalachia........a place of abundant water and what we fondly call, "The 200 Shades of Green" zone (tho all is white right now)! Tucked safely indoors until last frost date, are our tropicals - the Lemon Grass, Turmeric,Fig Trees, and the family Rubber Tree ( passed on from Grammaw Welch, and now 47 years old!). The seed boxes lay waiting - hundreds of different open-pollinated promises for the future. The list of online friends expecting seed from me in the mail is growing, and soon will be packaged and sent out all over the country - and some across the Big Pond to European garden pals.