Heirloom Tomatoes

Spring has barely sprung. There is still a late snow on the ground from last night - now nearly melted. Lettuce, Spinach, potatoes, leeks, snowpea's all planted. The beds for early crops have all been sheet mulched and new beds laid out and worked - thanks to the uncommonly warm spring.

The Windows Sills are overflowing with Tomato's. I have cut back on my addiction and have only 120 transplants this year. Potato leaf, fir leaf, determinate, indeterminate, all open pollinated heirloom seeds I have hoarded since last summer, along with others passed along by friends and even some strangers who know me as the "Tomato Lady" and send me anything odd. The huddle under the grow light's 12 to a flat - their leaves arching. They have seemed to especially thrive this year with the addition of Worm Castings to the seed starting mix. With only a few exceptions (and since they were hybrids I do not think they count) I have never met a tomato I did not like. I have been practicing smiling and nodding gently when people say "Early Girl" so as not to offend.

All winter I dream of fresh tomatoes fresh off the vine. Though we can, freeze and dry hundreds of quarts of tomatoes in various forms (diced, whole, sauce, chutney, jelly, crushed, salsa) usually, no matter how many we have "put up", we are out by Mid-March. Luckily this is when the Seed Catalogs arrive.

All of those packets people have passed on to me with only names scrawled across the top now have descriptions - some even have photos - some of the mystery is lifted as I read in Seed Savers that the strange Juanne Flamme seed passed to me by a friend is actually an apricot shaped French Heirloom known for retaining its color and flavor when dried. The Tomato fest website comments on the Red Zebras "HUGE" amounts of 2inch red and Yellow striped fruits. Double Rich has as twice as much vitamin C as an orange.

Turns out that odd envelope made of an old girly magazine and marked "Deep Sea Diver" given to me by a Harley Rider last fall is most likely "Black Sea Man" . Offered by Seed Savers Exchange this small determinate Russian Heirloom is a Mahogany colored with olive green shoulders. The 12 - 16 oz tomatos are said to turn oddly skeletal when blanched. When offered an envelope marked "persimmon" last year I was thought it contained seeds for a tree - when opened however it obviously contained tomato seeds. A short jog on the internet reveals that Persimmon is one of the most flavorful orange tomatoes with fruits up to 2#'s.

Also on the window sills: Sweetgold, sungold, sweetness - 4 varieties of romas, Silver Fir, Amish Paste, Green Zebra, Marvel Stripe, Black Krim, Grandma Olivers Green, Cherokee Purple, Suddeths Brandwine, Arkansas Traveler, Hillbilly, Box Car Willie.

Lovingly tending to 30 plants (to share with others) from seed which I found in an envelope taped to the front door several years ago. The envelope was marked in a shakey victorianesque script from before the days of ball and stick writing.

"My grandfathers girlfriend "Consuletta" an Italian Heirloom. - grown by my family since the begining of time. my great grandfather smuggled in his shoe into the states. Deep red and lobed - great for stuffing and freezing whole. Unbeatable for flavor in canned or fresh sauces. Mom said they called her his girlfriend because he spent so much time in the garden. Enjoy and Share."

Somehow it seems the varieties with stories taste sweeter.

Goats in the barn, Sheep and Chicks in the kitchen.

Michael is becoming very concerned over his goats pregnancy status. "Do you think they are pregnant" he inquires several times a day. It is making me batty. He has tested there nipple elasticity, felt their uterus height and done everything short of chasing them around with an EPT test trying to catch them in the act of urinating. (FYI over the counter pregnancy tests humans are not accurate indicators of pregnancy in ruminant's.) He is still has no idea if they are carrying or not. I would think that that the # of "date's" that he took them on, at a neighboring goat farm, in the fall would have insured us of kids this spring - yet he is somehow convinced that "they did not take". The ladies (Nettles and Lassie) are very patient with his attentions - but now run to me whenever he approaches them. Personally I think they are pregnant - they have that mothering aura about them and their hips are spreading.

The baby lambs we received from our neighbor Larry are now 8 weeks old and in the barn - having outgrown their accommodation's in the house. Their bottle feedings every 4 hours - over and done with - Moonbeam (aka Fatso - aka Easter) is approaching eating weight. Their spot in the kitchen has been filled by 25 chicks - all female - for Johnna's endangered chicken egg business. her motto - "save an endangered species by putting them on the plate where they belong". Her price $5.00 for 18 - why - not because they are organic free range endangered species but because " they are rainbow (colored) and I'm cute". I am begining to regret telling her she could have a horse if she bought one herself.