From Russia

I am working in Russia this week and a coworker here was telling me about the summer at his dacha. Here in Russia as well as the other former soviet republics and even in other countries of the world, many people who live in the city have dachas in countryside. Here, city is for city folk and country is for farmers. There is no suburbia. When you live in the city you live in an apartment, town house or condo. You have no yard.
But those who can afford it rent or buy a small plot of land, usually less than 15,000 square feet (1/4 acre) in the country near the city. They will usually build a small dwelling called a dacha that is about 250 square feet. The rest of the space is used for gardening. They are very productive gardens. They grow fruit trees, bush berries, vegetables, and flowers. Their dacha is next to dozens of other dachas that also have fruit, vegetable and flower gardens. It is a Garden of Eden. The city folk spend the week in the city working. On weekends, they go to their dachas to tend the gardens.
It is a different mentality than we have in the U.S. They don’t want to commute. They want to live in the city. But they also want to have a little space in the country for gardening. Many of them would think our suburban lifestyle is silly. Why live so far from work and WHY MOW A LAWN!? Why not use that land for growing a productive garden!? Their dachas are usually very cute but most impressive is their gardens. It is not just a hobby. They want to grow their own food for health and economic reasons. It is a way of life.
Americans certainly would not want to give up our suburban life style. But think how we could improve our lives if we could give up our checkerboard mowed lawns and have our own little Garden of Eden around our home. The Mormon Prophet Brigham Young said to his followers who were pioneering a whole new ecosystem in the Great Basin of western North America “The soil, the air, the water are all pure and healthy. Do not suffer them to become polluted. Strive to preserve the elements from being contaminated. Keep your valleys pure, keep your towns pure, keep your hearts pure, and labor as hard as you can. Adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations.” I don’t think he had in mind checkerboard lawns. I love this quote and it is part of the vision for my life.
Dale Maurice Johnson

Green Eggs and Ham?

No, we are not getting ready for Easter in October, these is how my chickens lay them. My neighbor didn't believe me that the girls can actually lay green eggs. I had to have my son convince her that we bought chicks that would lay colored eggs.

I was beginning to think that the girls would never lay their colored eggs. They should have started laying by the end of August, it is now mid October. It is so frustrating when they are "over due". After I gave 3 of my chickens to my friend Holly, my Americaunas started plumping up and got considerably larger. Michael and I think it is because they were on the bottom of the pecking order, they were last to eat and didn't ever get their fair share. Now that they only have to compete with 2 other ladies, they get more time to eat and have plumped up, and have begun to start laying. It is so exciting!

~marisa

Our Last Great Tomato Harvest

This time of year is always so sad for me. The weather gets colder and I have to watch my garden wither and die. We had one last tomato harvest this last week, I will miss seeing all the beautiful colors and different varieties of tomatoes we planted this year. It was fun to bring our purple tomatoes to friends homes and parties (pictured on the right), people would inform us that our tomatoes have spoiled or gone bad. Then we had the chance to educate them on heirloom tomatoes. They would taste the tomatoes and be so surprised at the amazing flavor. I will be collecting the seeds and sharing them with my friends in hopes that we will increase the diversity of produce being planted, and take some power away from Monsanto.

~marisa

So many (green) tomatoes, so little time

New tomato blossoms dangle beneath darkened, frost-nipped leaves.

So what’s it going to be, Mr. Tomato Head? Are you coming or going?

This sight in my yard, the utter juxtaposition of the garden’s life cycles, amused me. Within hours it’s supposed to snow here. (Psst . . . don’t tell this guy. He’s banking on many more sunny days ahead.)

It’s not a bad philosophy really, to be filled with so much optimism that we never shut down. But I know the cold, hard truth. Emphasis on cold.

Unless you’re fortunate to live in a temperate climate, cold will come, and your tomatoes will not like it. It can break a gardener’s heart to see a plant not reach its potential! Yet don’t despair when forecast frosts come up against plants still full of fruit.

Squeeze more out of your plants by covering them with blankets at night, or by harvesting green tomatoes to ripen indoors. Covering your plants at night is helpful when you know that an early freeze will be followed by warmer temps again, in which tomatoes can still develop. In preparation for a hard frost (the sure sign of winter), an early harvest is the only way to go.

The best candidates for ripening off the vines are those tomatoes that already show a slight blush. Teeny green tomatoes most likely will not turn red; they have to be full-size to ripen. If you’re picking tomatoes to avoid a hard frost and aren’t sure if one is full-grown, go ahead and harvest it anyway; you have nothing to lose.

Store your tomatoes in a single layer in a dark place with a steady temperature (best on the cool side). Garages or unheated basement rooms are ideal. I like to use black plastic planting flats or the shallow cardboard boxes from cases of canned goods to store my tomatoes.



With large quantities, sort tomatoes by degree of ripeness, or shades of the rainbow, into your trays. It makes sense that all tomatoes of similar colors should ripen about the same time.

If you are bursting with green tomatoes, wrap them individually in a sheet of newspaper before placing in your storage tray. Open a few every week to assess level of ripeness. You may also bring some into your warmer kitchen to ripen when you’re ready to use them soon. Although I can’t explain why, I know this method works to preserve your tomatoes well past Christmas! Sure, these tomatoes may pale compare to those at the peak of summer, but it still beats grocery store fare. They are particularly good in cooked dishes.

Another option, if space allows, is to rip up your entire plant and hang it upside down inside, like in your furnace room. Hanging provides good air circulation, and another bonus is that this step may appeal to you as a faster way to harvest.

Rather than waiting for tomatoes to ripen you may also want to try recipes using green tomatoes. I haven’t done this yet, but would love to hear any of your tried and true favorites.

I have had great success with my end-of-season tomato harvests, often times exceeding the amount of tomatoes I gleaned during the summer. What a great way to extend the joy of gardening.

Jennifer

Lemonade from Lemons

This year my garden did not perform well. It looked healthy and grew unremitting, but did not yield. I did not harvest ONE squash, zucchini, or heirloom tomato. I would check my plants, they were green and thriving and producing dozens of blossoms. Then the next day my blossoms would be on the ground, as if they were perfectly snipped from the stem. Even my hibiscus were doing the same thing. There must have been a thief in the night (but I'm not sure who the culprit was).

Lemonade from lemons,

check out this lovely recipe that utilizes all my bonny blossoms. God bless Jamie Oliver:

Zucchini Flowers
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/crispy-zucchini-flowers-stuffed-with-ricotta-and-mint-recipe/index.html

And a little side note:

There is a patch behind my garage that would be perfect for a garden. It's a nice open rectangle, and when we bought this house that was what I envisioned for the space. The reality, however, was quickly revealed, after moving in, that this space does NOT get enough sun. I know you've heard me whine about this before, but I couldn't seem to let it go. I had no available space for a garden, and no good gardening sun. How could I live with out a garden? I had just discoursed myself to the idea that this space would never be a garden and I needed to work with what Mother Nature had provided. I decided to be content, and utilize my main flowerbed in the middle of the yard as my organic shaped vegetable garden. It bothered me a little, but I surrendered. I surrendered control, I surrendered having to have everything go my way, and I surrendered the idea of everything being "perfect" or "just so". Enter Hurricane Ike...knocked down an enormous tree in my neighbors yard. While I'm sad my neighbors had to use their hard earned cash to have the tree completely removed, I'm ecstatic because it cleared the shade and now my patch behind the garage is a SUNNY PATCH! Hello, garden! It just goes to show you once again good things can come out of less than ideal situations: lemonade from lemons. We don't know what awaits around the next corner. There are forces unseen and unbeknown to us that can change the course of our life, and sometimes all it requires is surrender.

I think I got my seeds mixed up with Jack's magic beans

It seems as if I'm growing a magic beanstalk rather than basil.

This picture was taken back in June

I had heard that basil was so easy to grow, so I thought I would try it, it sure didn't look the way I thought it should. I started asking around about it and jumped on a gardening forum. They probably thought I was an idiot. It is obvious from the picture that the pot was too small. They told me to transfer it to a larger pot and chop the top 4 inches of it off.

I wish I could show you a picture of it healthy and bushy, but I never did take a picture of it, and in our moving effort, the herbs got neglected. It did get nice and lush and provided us with lots of flavor for our meals. So, the moral of the story is, don't be and idiot and plant your basil in an itty bitty tiny container.

~marisa

The Brandywine

My daughter Maya came running in the house at full speed yelling, "Mom, look at this cherry tomato!!!" Her job all summer has been to collect the tomatoes. So far, we have only really had success with the cherry tomatoes, the yellow pear tomatoes, and our purple tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are right next to the Brandywine Tomatoes, and somehow she mistook this large Brandywine tomato for an itty bitty cherry tomato.

The flavor on this baby was AMAZING!!! I went out there to look at the Brandywine plants and we have a ton of green ones. If the cold weather holds off for a week or two longer, we will have a whole bunch of them. Pray for good weather for me! These tomatoes are heavenly!

We will be saving the seeds from these heirloom tomatoes to plant for next year, I think I'm going to have to plant a week or two earlier to ensure we get all the fruit before it freezes.