Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. There’s been quite a lot happening, and this sadly neglected blog has been put on the shelf.
The high tunnel tomatoes are rocking and rolling, although I’ve run into more problems than I’d care to reflect on. Worms, aphids, blossom-end rot, severe catfacing from cold weather, etc. We had the coldest and longest lasting winter since I’ve lived up here, so it wasn’t the best year to put tomatoes in extra-early, but they did survive- perhaps not in the best of shape but I’ve been picking fruit for nearly two weeks now, so life is good. The heirlooms, especially the oxhearts, got hit the hardest, the hybrids didn’t skip a beat.
We ate the first Charantais melon today, by the by, and it was delicious! It was cracked though, everytime I try Charantais melons they end up cracking. Personally I could’t care in the least, since they are still sweet, but it makes them unmarketable, and we can only eat so many. The three muskmelons I’m growing are Charantais, Prescott Fond Blanc (it’s as ugly as sin…in a good way), and Golden Beauty Casaba.
I’ve found a new favorite cucumber, btw- Japanese Long from rareseeds.com…go get yourself some.
Outdoors, bush beans are ready to be picked, although I’m letting the first sowing of beans go to seed. The three varieties I’ve got in the ground thus far are Tavera (a supremely delicious french filet bean), Hutterite Soup (a dry bean which I’ve never tried before), and Dragon’s Tongue. Lettuce is currently bolting, so I’ve got my isolation cages up so I can save seed from the four different varieties. I seriously overplanted lettuce this year. Winter squash, okra, and malabar spinach are going in the ground tomorrow.
…and of course, blueberry season is fast approaching! Some of the Southern Highbush are already ripe. I’m looking forward to another 2 months of doing little else besides picking berries all day in the heat!
Chickens are about the same as ever. Right now they’re having the time of their life pecking out ryegrass seed from the stalks in the pasture.
Other than that, the mushroom enterprise is moving along. We built a laminar flow hood, and I made a little clean room out of PVC and leftover plastic from the high tunnel. I got a bunch of test tube cultures, and have been making my own mushroom spawn, so far very successfully. I’ll post later about the specifics of what I’m doing.
Anyhoo…I better wrap this up. Enjoy the pictures in the above slideshow, unfortunately new cell phone camera is not taking very good pictures lately, it seems a bunch of dirt and stuff got in behind the lens.
