A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

I cannot imagine that I ever would have tried Bloody Butcher tomatoes under any other circumstance than that I was gifted the seed. The person thought they were very special and, with a similar climate, I decided what the heck. They are indeed a very special heirloom tomato for full flavor and very quick maturing.

When I was a kid, when we took a steer to the packing house, I would hang around the screened open door of the processing room while arrangements were made for cutting up our beef. One day, the butchers stopped working with their steaks and roasts, grinding meat on their machines, and they began sharpening some long knives. They opened another door and about 10-12 sheep scrambled in on the concrete floor. In a matter of a few minutes, they were dead and laying all over the place! I never stood at that door and watched the workers again.

DW and I call the BB tomatoes –– Jolly Ranchers .

Steve

Ghastly!

 

[heirloomgal]

After today, I'm ready for a back transplant! Twisted the wrong way a week ago and boy it bizarrely reduced my capacities. I didn't even exert when it happened which is odd. I was feeling great today for the first time since, and then we cut down 3 more trees; all the clean up and bending and carrying, over the course of the day eroded my progress. But progress was made nonetheless!

Dug up 5 out of 6 sunchoke varieties as well, pics to come. 2 are red skinned! Lots of really nice diversity between them. That was a ton of fun! DD & I had a great time rooting around for buried treasure (Ironically the one we did that most with was called 'Ruby Treasure'! lol) The ones planted up against the house really seemed to like the wall, and so some of the tubers grew directly on the side of the house underground. They're totally flat on one side, we had to kind of scrape them off. That was surprising.

Tomorrow is the day to plant the new big 'sunchoke garden'. Exciting!

The more of these delicious little tubers you eat, the more addicted you are. I ate my 3rd or 4th serving today. I've graduated to 'I like these more than potatoes'. Which is saying a lot because I love potatoes!

>

 

[flowerbug]

hmm, when i read about plants doing that sort of thing it sounds like they may exploit any cracks in that wall and cause potential problems, so i hope it is sealed up well!

and while it is ok to rest a bit for a few days after a back strain it is also still important to keep moving because so much of the back is nourished by movement. my normal routine after injury is a few days of ibuprofen before bed and gentle movement and then gradually back to normal (whatever that means ) and trying not to reinjure. i sure don't need any more chronic pains or injuries lingering as i have enough of those already. it sounds like you're managing ok.

 

[Alasgun]

Aches and pains both muscular and structural are where Comfrey really shines! Known to our forefathers as “knitbone” i find it Very Useful for far more than Rabbit fodder!

Your a smart girl, and it’s super easy to grow AND use!

 

[heirloomgal]

Aches and pains both muscular and structural are where Comfrey really shines! Known to our forefathers as “knitbone” i find it Very Useful for far more than Rabbit fodder!

Your a smart girl, and it’s super easy to grow AND use!

What a coincidence, an Italian neighbour a few streets over sent DH home with a big chunk of comfrey plant last week. It has black roots, and she tells me that it's 'the real thing'? I have no experience with this herb, but it's waiting in a pot right now to be planted somewhere! I should look into it's usage, since I really prefer walking upright.

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, I pooped out on getting the sunchokes in. My body just would not cooperate. So I compromised with it and finished digging out the last sunchoke variety instead, which allowed me to sit in one spot more or less. DD helped. Only in the last bit do I take the shovel to the area and dig around for travelling tubers, which worked.

One of my huge faults in gardening is chronically underestimating everything, and I'm not sure why I do that. Wishful thinking maybe, 'oh this only take an hour, only take up so much space, only be a few pots, only get this big....etc etc...'. DH tilled the last of the gardens today and I underestimated how much time it would require to pull up spent plants (he doesn't like bean vines in the tiller tines), remove tags and walking boards, and levelling the soil as needed since the sunchoke spots looked like bombs had been detonated. I also didn't realize how much time (and effort) it would take to dig out all the various tubers.

By the time all that was done, I went around shoveling soil onto my buckets of sunchokes because a frost is scheduled for tonight and I wanted them protected as possible while out of the ground. It's the silliest thing really, but sunchokes make you feel like such a champion, lol. I did literally nothing for them aside from watering (sparingly at that) and yet the size of that tuber harvest is just so deeply satisfying, as though I've somehow played a role in it's success.

Some pics from today of the 'Nakhodka' dig. Sheesh, it is a marvel of food production. This is from 4 small tubers I planted in June. Remarkable how much it looks like ginger root with whiskers.

Laundry basket size approx. tote.

The ;Corlis Bolton Haynes' yielded some seriously huge tubers. That's a full size dinner plate!