Tomatoes in June

As promised, here is the updated shots of the tomato field. Because we lost so many tomatoes initially, there are actually some of my heirloom tomatoes now in this field, as well as all my peppers. I might as well take advantage of the fact there is water here, as the middle field where the rest are, has to be hand watered when mother nature does not provide some. Here is what the plants are looking like, they seem to be doing very well, green and healthy (for the most part - some of the later transplants to replace those first ones that died didn't make it either - most did).

As you can see, all of the stakes are in the ground (a gazillion thanks to Dan Berkshire for finding and getting the stakes, and to Johnathan for delivery), and if you look closely you will see the first lines of tomato twine have been woven in - a Texas Weave - as our so very helpful UK ag extension agent David Hull called it. He came over last Friday to show us all how it should be done. It was really fascinating. The twine comes in a box with just a little twine peeking out one side, and a slit in the other. I had no idea what the slit was for. David had this great method for threading the twine through a tobacco stick ( I just knew there was a 1001 uses for tobacco sticks, other than tobacco), he drilled two holes at each end and pulled the twine through one end then the other. As I was about to ask what he was going to do with that, he started to unbuckle his belt. No modesty in farmers...he had to loosen his belt to slip the box of tomato twine on the belt, that is what that slit was for! He then took the time to show all of us ( I think I have not yet mentioned I have two part time assistants on the farm, Silver and Thomas, thanks to Jonathan Berkshire) how to move along using the tobacco stick and twine, wrapping around the stakes. David finished the first row, and Silver and Thomas took over and finished the field. So, here we are, I sent out the tomato contract today - when the first of the tomatoes are blush (not green, not red), we'll start picking for the processing plant. Here is one of the plants - as you can see, tomatoes on board!

Today I received a "bug alert"! I guess stinkbugs really love tomatoes, and can do some real damage aesthetically, so we need to aggressively start looking out for them. This is where the difference between us, and other farmers becomes glaringly evident. The growers update includes several options for spraying to control the stinkbugs, but none that are organic. I went out to the organic sites, and the best information I could find, was that even synthetic pesticides were not very effective on stinkbugs. The concensus organically was to pick them off into a soap water, or hand vaccumn them off (that seemed a little challenging). The organic sites say Neem oil was not a very effective solution, so I will save that for another day. Instead, I think we will try weed control, and visual evaluation to pick off offenders. By the way, my awesome husband Fran mowed all the fields in the 90 degree heat for me. He's great!.

Little by Little

Well, another weekend under our belts, and once again, I feel like I have been belted! I need to get help...I need to realize I am just not capable of doing this by myself with a full time job already. This is a full time job, too! This weekend I got the remainder of the cabbage in, red and green. I got the asparagus covered with compost, and will wait for it to catch up before adding the next couple of inches. I had a row of mulch cloth left from last season that I am reusing, so I planted the summer squash yesterday in half of the, the rest will soon be zucchini.

I got started on the gazillion heritage tomatoes that I have ready to go in. It sure gets pretty hot in the heat of the day! So I took a break (ha!, took a break to go to the homestead and weed and plant flowers there, the weeds are out of control in my flower beds - I need a gardener too! LOL) and at about 8 went back up to the farm. The chickens are not ready to go to bed until almost 9:30 now, so they keep me up too. I thought I might as well take advantage of the cooler temps, and it would have been enjoyable if I was not in so much pain! I managed to get a few more tomatoes in, and watered everything because they will all be in the sun all day today. Here below is my row of tomatoes, about a quarter of the way completed. The goal is to do a little bit each night until finished. Did I mention I ache??