Phase II for tomatoes

Project Supervisor

May means that tomatoes move from their 2 inch plug trays to roomier accommodations.   A few years ago we discovered that plastic beer cups with a hole drilled in the bottom make an excellent second pot.  It is just the right size, they are cheaper than plastic  pots (about $0.05 a piece) AND you can write on them.  Since we grow 50 odd varieties of heirloom tomatoes, plus a bunch of other stuff, we don’t have to do up a plant tag per variety and as they will be in these pots until they go into the ground, the chances of mixing up plants are minimized.  The disadvantage of course is that all of  sudden the glasshouse starts to fill up.  Hopefully the weather will stay above 2C for the next week so we can safely move them down to the lower greenhouse.

We have re-potted about 300 tomatoes so far (all the urgent over-sized plants or undersized plug trays).  There are about 200 more to go.  1 person seems to be able to re-pot 50 or 60 plants an hour.  so we have another full evening of potting ahead of us.  Oliver of course is helping.  He finds the combination of pots and dirt to be great fun.

The transplants are a good size and healthy.  The Red Striped Roman paste tomato seedlings look horrible, but they always do.  Come August however, they will be taking over the tomato patch.

These tomatoes will find their way to the Truro Farmers Market, Club SBG bags, Local Source Market in Halifax and hopefully other backyards and gardens as we will be selling transplants this year.

The purpose of this blog is to provide an honest look behind the scenes of a small farm.   Hopefully it won’t just be Oliver’s adventures, but the (wonderful) reality is that it all connects back to him.  An 8 month old is a primary consideration and influence when trying to balance off farm careers, vegetable farming, being a good parent and trying to have a life.  Time Management can be a challenge as tasks that used to take 1 hour, might now take 2 hours, and there might be a few breaks.

Oliver will make frequent appearances on the blog  as a) he is quite involved in the farm and b) he is just so darn cute.

...double checking the inventory, "Mamma, I think you are out of space!"

See, a hole in the bottom!

Cup has passed the chew test

Club SBG is SOLD OUT!

Just a few of the 54 heirloom tomatoes sprouting in the glasshouse…

Wow!!! We have had an overwhelming response to our box/CSA program (Club SBG) and have sold out of the 20 shares for the 2009 season. There are even a few people on the waiting list… just in case. If you would like to be on the waiting list, do let us know.

Our advertising for this program was done by word of mouth, emailing our market customers and posting flyers in our favourite places to shop and eat here in Truro. Thank you to all our great customers! It gives me a happy warm feeling and makes me even more excited about getting into the field to get those veggies planted.

Club SBG member Barb interviewed us about the CSA concept and our program for her CBC Information Morning Truro report – listen if you can on Tuesday at 6:15 am. Oliver has agreed to make sure we’re awake!

We did our first outdoor planting tonight – 2 days later than we planted last year. The weather looks warm and wet for this week… perfect for germinating seeds! They’re saying +17C, which is hard to believe after such a long winter. Our tomatoes can’t wait to get outside.

Heirloom tomatoes come on strong!

Well, we came back to market for a few weeks – the last 2 weeks in August. Partly, we just can’t stay away and we also have had a bumper crop of blackberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and basil that we couldn’t eat all ourselves. In terms of tomatoes, we have had good yields off Limmony (beefsteak yellow), Stupice (Czech red), Wonderlight (yellow), Red Striped Roman, and several cherries – white cherry, galina and sungold (not an heirloom but oh so yummy and sweet). We added some of the roma that we were growing for canning and made some beautiful mixed boxes. 

 

Heirloom boxes

Jamey has come up with an innovative way to keep basil crisp and fresh. He harvests the root ball and bags it up with some water. This avoids the late-market wilting that you see so often with fresh basil. We tested it out and I found that by Thursday of the following week, the basil looked a little sad – but that’s 5 days of freshness. Amazing, no?

 

Basil

I’m now one week from D-Day and eagerly anticipating having one less tenant in my belly. Not that this pregnancy hasn’t been fun and rewarding – we’re just anxious to meet the new wee gardener. In the meantime, we’ve been picking apples, canning tomatoes and jelly and generally trying to put the garden to bed a little early this year. 

R.