The Tomato Jungle

And it starts.......
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This is the first year we have had such success with the garden - specifically the tomatoes. Truly food for the soul- so good that you can take an ice cold tomato out of the refrigerator and bite right into it. Be careful now, and don't scare that delicious, ripe and juicy fruit! Make sure that the liquid goodness runs down your chin and all over your fingers. This is the taste I remember from my childhood!
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These are Cherokee Purple tomatoes, which as an 'open pollenated' variety, which is to say that you can save the seeds fom year to year with no fear of some tomato-like swamp thing growing in your garden with dubious taste and form.


We have been gathering these beauties for a few weeks now, with no end in sight yet.

The squash was planted rather late, but seems to be doing well nonetheless. Zuc's and Yellow Crookneck are worth waiting for. The potatoes are also in full bloom and I'll do a piece on them soon.....

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If you look at the photos from our Field Day, you will note that we make the raised beds from roofing tin and concrete blocks, with old tent poles to hold them together- all recycled from objects that can no longer be used for their intended purpose, but will last for many years in their current job.

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To that we add a foot or so of deep, dark composted goat manure, which has been cold for several years. The worms are almost as big around as my little finger. The compost is so rich because we use a very good mineral mix for the goats- high %'s of many minerals that are sorely lacking in these mountains. Copper and Selenium for heart health, Calcium and Magneseum, etc.

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Yes, that is an old toilet in the background there with a fern in it- I plan to do interesting things with it and make trellis' all around it next season- along with old bath tubs full of mint and herbs on each side.

This is the jungle of Cherokee Purples- We have not had to spray or dust for any pests- there are none here. The chickens and guineas take care of those early on. And the goats have left the area alone- which is strange. I had expected to keep running them out of the area when they are out foraging.

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We still have beds of Amish White tomatoes to work with- these are one of the open pollenated white varieties of tomatoes and I believe that these are a paste tomato, which I am looking forward to working with in the kitchen. And the egg plant and other nameless squashes that volunteered, along with one HoneyDew melon, are due later on. The onions, well, they are hiding their heads until later this fall, and we should have a bumper crop of them to go with the potaotes.

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As we get closer to fall, I'm looking at building more beds for more crops on the spring- the other side of the garden has not even been developed yet, so we have so much work ahead of us in the coming months. It's a marathon, not a sprint.