You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto - No Calling Anything Off

The last time I seriously tried to grow tomatoes was at the shack, quite a long time ago, as in years and years. They grew. They flourished. The few I got were divine. The iguanas discovered them soon enough and six foot tall, laden plants were stumps in the morning. I didn't wail and shriek but I did curse a few of the baby dragons soundly. 

From 2010, not long before the Masters of Red got the rest

From 2012, a volunteer cherry tomato...just when you think it's over, it's not!

After that, I started coming out West during tomato planting time. Lots of delicious, organic 'maters, everywhere. Why bother growing them at home? Because, should have been the answer.

This year, knowing eventually that I'd be here awhile, I bought some very inexpensive starts from the plant lady. She shows up at a couple of weekly farmers markets we go to and I usually cannot resist buying something freshly grown or growing from her. 

Like this onion. It was so damn beautiful and delicious too.
Hard to tell from the photo but it was about a foot and a half of beauty.

Especially heirloom tomatoes, with names like Cherokee Purple, Black Crim, Japanese Trifele (a triangular tomato; that what she says) and Golden Nugget. 

This was a couple of weeks after I bought them
(they were only about eight or ten inches tall then)

The Black Crim was the last one we got, a sad little plant that actually had two tomatoes on it but that branch was dead. I cut it off, fed and watered and while it lags behind the rest, two blooms have appeared among growth that was barely leaves at the bottom of the main stem. Well done, little plant! p.s. well done organic chicken manure STINKS BAD but works well. Make sure you have something to seal this in if you use it. Really.

The tomatoes in back are from another plant, these are Black Crim blossoms.
Hooray!

Golden Nugget cherry tomatoes are going crazy!

I think I might even get to eat one before I go

No, these aren't weird tomatoes, they are a type of bell pepper

And every garden should have some rosemary
(around here it grows in bushes as big as a house, but this little plant contents me)

A wall of tomatoes!

All of these are container raised inside a 5 x 8 eventual raised bed site that my son built. I figured it might stymie the deer a bit if they had to reach over metal and wood to get to the tomatoes and so far, so good. The deer are around and there is no back fence to dissuade them from what might seem a plenteous all you can eat banquet. Fingers crossed here, because while I won't be around to share the bounty, love will be in each tomato eaten by family and shared with friends. Is there a better bread and butter note? I think not.

Have a tomatoey Tuesday. Do something tending, tenderly.

Free Range Friday ~ Culebra

What is more luscious than a ripe tomato in the heat of summer? A real tomato, one you or someone with more than they know what to do with, has grown? I'd say, not much. A tomato you've grown, either from a seedling or a seed itself, is so much bigger than the sum of its parts, and all of that is there, the moment that first bite touches your tongue. Sun and rain, tending and watching. The moment that it starts to redden on the vine, trying your patience for the exact second that a gentle twist of your wrist lets it fall into your hand; all of that and more is in the taste. It's a beautiful thing.

Because I didn't know for sure that I'd be here all of summer, there weren't a lot of tomatoes planted, just a few seeds randomly thrown here and there. If I'm around all summer next year, I'll do more, I'll do better. I'll get some heirloom varities, specifically for hot climates. I'll...well. But the few tomatoes I've reaped are even more precious because of their scarcity. Rubies in the mouth.

When I ordered my first garden seeds close to, very close to, 40 years ago, I found Nichols Garden Nursery, still in business. The catalog was a treasure trove and I was the miner - all sorts of vegetables and tomatoes of course. I was also literally led down the garden path to try Jerusalem artichokes (neither from Jerusalem or artichokes), kohlrabi, peanuts, rhubarb, broccoli, hot peppers, sweet peppers and much more.

Garden bonus

The new to me tastes of the Jerusalem artichokes, the kohlrabi, the rhubarb, nutty, crunchy, tart mixed with the familiar but not so at all because they were grown in our garden! made for huge discoveries; not just of my own abilities in gardening, but in the whole process and then onto the cooking part. I was a beach girl, a traveler, this was a whole new world. I was told a garden wouldn't grow where we planted but indeed it did. I've been told you can't grow a garden on Culebra. A whole lot of people know that too, isn't true.

Unless you live in a cave you can most likely grow at least one tomato plant. Even here. Yes, it's late in many places to start growing tomatoes (unless you live down under, where you'd better get started!), but you can start planning for next year. Catalogs are fun! Here are a few, some you may know, some may be new. Enjoy. Oh, and by the way? sound smart. Remember, a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable!

A garden of a different sort. The painters were busy yesterday.

 Have a frolicsome Friday! Do something favorably flavorful.

Obsessed with 'maters

One of the good things about being single is finding yourself wide awake at 4 a.m. and being able to get up and start doing things without disturbing someone who most likely would enjoy sleeping a couple or few more hours (if I've mentioned this before, oops, but I do think about it often). So it was this morning. Of course, the CWIM is always ready for me to get out of bed as it signals meal time. Sometimes I insist on some personal ablutions first but keeping things simple often wins, which means feeding her and getting her face in a bowl, rather than butting my arms or feet.

And there they were on the counter, just as beautiful as yesterday, but a day older. What to do with tomatoes, especially when hunger won't hit for about 8 more hours? What's in the fridge? What's in the garden? Well, of course... tomato and feta salad! With snippets of garlic tops in place of scallions, a bit of finely chopped hot pepper, a few gloriously huge basil leaves, balsamic vinegar and olive oil (if you ever catch me typing EVOO - shoot me - but assume I mean extra virgin), salt and pepper. There could have been a cucumber added but I think I bought the worst cuke ever (1/2 a day and it went south, far far south, to the land of instant compost. Held very gingerly when tossed garden side - yick).

For some reason, Milka's gets feta in every once in awhile and it's cheap! One of life's mysteries. Usually I cut it into cubes and dump it in a jar of seasoned olive oil and vinegar, but I hadn't gotten around to that step yet. It doesn't matter because by the time I get around to eating this, at lunch or in the afternoon when I get home, it will be well marinated in the drizzle of vinegar and oil. Maybe I'll find a perfectly ripe avocado to add to it. Oh, it's good to have goals!



By the time I was done snipping and clipping and chopping and mixing, it was just breaking into pre-dawn, light enough to water the garden and to see if I could take some photos. I did and I could.

Basil looking fine

Mockingbird singing the day in

Bougainvillea bloom high in the genipa tree

Happy Monday!

A home Sunday

Feeling a little buggy today, I stayed home. Not good to start talking to customers and burst into tears at the sight of a grinning, laughing, happy young woman in her 20's. So! I cooked (see earlier post). read and played in the gardens a LOT! I will tell you now, playing in the dirt beats smoking and/or drugs. Not that the thought of both weren't a temptation...but then I'd be digging around, or staking up some tomato laden vine and those urges would go away (the drug urge being gone over 30 years, but the memory lingers sometimes).

The CWIM was especially...um...I hesitate to say affectionate, but attentive might work. A dog would have been all over it and that would be, for me, incredibly annoying, so her offering a strong head butt on and off over the day was just about perfect.

Here are some first harvest tomatoes and peppers. I'm so excited about them and it seems others are as well. I'm hearing all sorts of stories about people growing vegetables. Diane, who started her lovely nursery a few months ago, keeps expanding her herb and veg section. I bought chives from her yesterday, along with fertilizer and bloom food...and a bag of special mango and avocado feed. I figure the trees will either drop dead in shock after 6 years of struggling along, or go crazy with life. I'm hoping for the...yeah, big surprise, never mind.

It's been windy and beautiful all day long, so except for a stretch of reading mid-day, I've been hopping in and out making a wreck inside and outside while making the garden bigger and happier...and it's been good.

I've been getting one wonderful newsletter for so many years, I forgot until today - inundating some friends and family with gardening type mail (I have to keep up a little bit with my brother, who seems to find the best of the best about everything I think is cool) - that maybe it would be great to share. Anything you want to know about hot peppers and tomatoes, this is your guy! So here it is. Pepper Joe is awesome! By the time you are done perusing one of his newsletter, you feel you have a new friend out there, glad to give of his time and knowledge to propagate more gardeners doing things right. How good is that?

Life is good, despite the reality of hateful things that go on in the world every day. Rather than crawl under the covers shuddering, take the stand of a one on one revolutionary. It's not ALL we can do, it's what we can do, and that is huge...if you think about it. Our job is to keep the balance tipped to the side of joy and peace and love and JUSTICE, corny as that may sound. And if one must hop up and down on the scales once in awhile to even out the madness...then that is what one must do.

Hopping a lot today.

In the last 24 hours (and a lot of my life) I've been heavily pondering justice, and today, looking at images depicting justice. Almost, but not always, a woman holds the scales of justice. There is a lot of historical information about this, mythology, religion, folk lore all combine to tell a common story. But I keep thinking...of course it's a woman. Not in some feminist sort of way, just that...woman are not men, we don't think like men, we don't respond like men - we are not men.

Woman are the balance of men, but even more, of life. It makes a lot of sense to me, knowing some amazingly strong and brilliant women, along with some fantastic men, just how that should work. One website had a lot of incredible images and explanations. I am not into tarot but I am into history. If you are as well, check this out.

Here are some images of Justice I found interesting. I was originally going to credit each one, but I skipped the modern images, I think, and decided to let the image tell the story, rather than ramble on about the history. See what you think. I believe this...we can't just stand around holding scales...we must get out there and tip the balance. And we're already on home plate...let's go!

How 'bout that Bruce?

Following a long held tradition, my friend Linda and I went to Dinghy Dock for Super Bowl this past Sunday. We don't really care at all about football, but we do love the commercials and usually whoever is doing half-time (usually). Plus, Neil just makes it a very fun party, with raffles and good food and his own pretty spectacular personality. In six years, I've never had less than a great time and this year was the same. AND, I won a Dinghy Dock tee shirt!
I didn't bring my camera, on purpose, which of course I now semi-regret. But as I am usually taking photos, it is easy to become a bit more of an observer than I want to be. So next year I'll bring you all with me to Super Bowl at Dinghy Dock visually.

Today is/will be about my yard, which I never get tired of playing in (though I could use a swing set). Hint photo above. Right now there is a horse tied in my yard. I have no idea who it belongs to, but I re-filled its knocked over bucket of water and he seemed glad, slurping away as the hose blasted in water. I wonder if he'll still be here when I get home?

But, because my brother is my best friend and he keeps on about me doing something on my tiny spaces, I'll start with this and finish up later today with the yard. This is what a tiny kitchen looks like after bottling hot sauce, waxing bottle tops and baking muffins, all at the same time, which I usually don't do but this just sort of happened...as things do around here. Is this what you had in mind, bro?



Part Dos

I'm so excited!!! Our resident computer guru came by and figured out how to make me wireless. I had the fast bit but not wireless (or I didn't know I had it) and so now I'm typing this from out in the gazebo, my real living room. Very thrilling. I could actually watch a movie laying in the hammock...(oh, it's the little things).

So it seems quite appropriate that the finish of today's post would be about the yard. The yard, as mentioned, is usually my living room. It can also be my dining room and occasionally my sleeping porch. All of this takes place under the rather more grandly named than it looks gazebo. It's yet another of the projects not quite into the complete gel stage, but it works fine for all of that.



Of course, it will also soon be my barnyard, as sort of kind of maybe promised today. Finishing things on Culebra is sort of like chasing after the Golden Fleece. Lots of interesting events happen along the way, but to actually get to the end of the course is quite another thing. Rather like the other gazebo structure that I decided today would become a greenhouse and outdoor kitchen in due time, rather than the living area/guest space I was originally going for. After checking out a friend's plants I'm anxious to spread out and why not do it there where the sun is brightly shining? There is nothing like seeing your own and others gardens producing crops to make a gardener's fingers itch for more. Like gambling, raising children or farming, it's all a risk, but oh when it turns out well, what good fun! And if it doesn't you can just try again...well, not especially advised with children, though I've wished for a possible re-do more than once or twice.

I think tomorrow the cart will be closed while very noisy big machines work too close by for my aural sanity. I can be home making hot sauce, which I need to do desperately (along with an experimental baking session trying out a recipe for guava bars), so everything works out. I can also be playing in the yard...and blogging at the same time...or not. If there is a man in my yard with semi-noisy machines finishing the chicken coop, I'll be inside. Oh please!!! Come make a joyful noise!

A hummingbird quivers a foot away from me while water sounds slip and slap gently against dock and boats. No doubt if I left this computer on the table for long, a lizard would come and baptize it, as the horse, who is still tied in the front yard, so helpfully did. While the front yard (which is really, to me, the back yard) isn't a place I spend much time, the horse seems happy. Now, if I could just get him to move the fertilizer...


Last minute addition, because I never know what I'm going to find in my yard (these two showed up with the daughter of the guy who owns the horse) ...but I think you ought to know some of my fertilizer options...aren't they pretty? I want some!