Risa, impatient as ever, has put in the tomatoes in very coolish ground. The good news is they show no sign of shock, because the continuing rainy weather has been kind to transplants. She hopes it's also because she watered-in using about a tablespoon full of milk powder and sugar per plant, which seems to have been enjoyed by other tomato starts in days gone by. These starts are from a small organic business just getting going about five miles away, owned by a family friend. They are Sungold, Stupice, Black Prince, and Amish Paste, spaced four feet on a diagonal zigzag pattern, with kale starts on the opposite dogleg.
Here we have a bushel of mint beginning to solar dry. Even with the cloud cover, the heat in the box has steamed up the window in ten minutes.
A second bushel. There's lots more mint; Risa needs to make more of these dryers. If there's ever another bumper crop of tomatoes, like in 2007 or 2008, she'll need them all.
When you're done with outside chores, "Chicken soup with rice/Is very nice." Shown here with homegrown zukes, onions, veg-flake spices, and, umm, homegrown chicken ...
Thank you for the link back to how you made them! I was going to mount up a search.
ReplyDeleteDo you think I could do the same thing with some free Craigslist sliding doors?
Goodness but you've been busy. Me too, hence very little blog visiting! I've never heard of sugar and milk powder for tomato starts. I often think of Almanzo's prize winning milk fed pumpkin in Farmer Boy though. I will be interested in what you think of the Amish Paste. I've always grown Romas, but would be willing to try something new. Really, overcast days are the best for transplanting, aren't they?
ReplyDelete@t, of curse, but they are usually awfully heavy. The design would benefit from having hinges, but I was a) out of hinges and b) lazy.
ReplyDelete@l, milk provides calcium, which tomatoes love. A little sugar in the water seems to be relished by transplants. I might go back to Romas, this is my second year on the A.P.s but they don't seem prolific here to me.