One Tomato, Two Tomato, Three Tomato, Four

This past week we had a good amount of rain and many of the tomatoes were not doing well. All of the cages are 3-4 foot tall and most of the plants are starting to top 6 feet tall. Their weight and the small cages meant I had to make a trip to Home Depot to get stakes and spend an hour taming all of the bent and broken branches. There are still a few places I need to re-stake. I did however manage to get the seasons first four cherry tomatoes. 2 Black Cherry and 2 Yellow Cherry. Jen ate all 4 and the yellows seem to be her preference to this point. In the next week or so, there will be easily close to 50 tomatoes ready. For next year, I will definitely need more space and taller, more sturdy cages. Specifically, Mortgage Lifter, Black Cherry, Yellow Cherry, Black Krim, Italian Market Wonder, Marglobe and Violet Miclado all will need 6 foot cages.

The cukes are really starting to produce, I am getting about 3 or 4 picking cukes every other day now and the lemon cukes are just starting to take off. My only problem is that there are slicing varieties in there that are growing but not producing. I guess time will tell. As for the watermelons, I now officially have 4 small ones. One about the size of a quarter, one a golf ball, one a baseball and one a softball. I guess I need to figure out how long to let them grow, when will the be ripe, how to pick them.....I guess I have a few weeks yet to figure this all out.


Planting will start again this week. I need to clear much of the grass from the rows that are no longer producing and I am going to take a different approach for fall planting. I will try to no-till and use a version of the square foot planting method. I have not really decided on anything as of yet so all is subject to change. I am going to replant some more beets, carrots and radishes for the fall. The grass continues to be a problem and although I may be only keeping it at bay and not solving the issue, I am fine with that at this point. Most of the suggestions given have involved chemicals and pretty aggressive containment methods none of which I am comfortable with.

Last Wed was the talk at the library for Slow Food. Margret Noon was the speaker and although the format and presentation was not that great, the topic was intoxicating. I never thought I would call myself someone who cared where his food came from. To me as a kid, a garden was fun and the food it produced was no more than a bonus to what you get from a store. The more and more we read about eating local, being conscious of where your food is from and the benefits of local eating to your local farms, community and more so yourself, I think we we sold ourselves before we got there and decided that will end up becoming members of the North New Jersey Chapter.

Blueberry Picking

Well, yesterday was blueberry picking. We tried a new place much closer to home, Hillview Farms in Gillette. With Jen still feeling the same, I was hoping being so close to home would make it easier. Didn't start out too well as Jen felt pretty bad but by the time we got there, her medicine kicked in.

We picked up our baskets and walk across the street to the "bobbing heads". Sounded a little funny. We walked through some planted rows (about an acre's worth) and I was completely amazed, 6'-7' tall blueberry bushes, rows and rows....each row probably 500' long.

Although there was complete excitement on Jack and Charlotte's part, there was a calm that sort of came over us, a distinct mission at hand. Charlotte ate every berry that she picked over the hour or so of picking, Jack needed to fill up his pail entirely by taking mine, Jen had the determination and patience to pick only the very ripest, roundest and largest of the millions of berries around us and I was just plain happy, something about being outside picking right from the bush has had more and more of a draw for me than ever before.

I am probably going to register for Margret Noon's library talk on Slow Food.org. I did quite a bit of research and is seems to be focused on local, sustainability, etc... concepts that I am feeling more and more strongly about. There is so much to know, so much out there, and even with what Jen and I already know, I feel like we are in the dark.

The garden overall is going well. the Sultan Beans are now ripe and I picked the first few, the picking cukes are now starting as well, 3-4 every other day. No Slicing or lemon cukes though. Zuc's and Squash have take off and I now need to figure out how to freeze, store, cook more than I care to admit. Knowing that there would be a lot per plant, I only planted two of each but it seems these 4 plants are producing more than any other plant I have ever had or seen.

Tomatoes are growing well. As are the beets. I picked my first beet and I now think I can pick all of them as I wish. Since these are root crops, I will leave them in the ground until I am ready to use them. I am thinking about a recipe that Cheryl mentioned, Roasted Fennel and Beets. Sounds good.....need to try that. There are many more green tomatoes but none turning. My only problem is one of the Black cherry plants next to the house is skyrocketing in size to almost 7', wilting and I had to stake it today.