Skip to main content

Tomato Sauce, Anyone?

I'm really trying to follow through with this whole "growing a farm" thing. This week a dear friend of mine gave me 21 tomato plants to take home. Most of them already have tomatoes growing! I brought them home and planted all of them. Some are in pots, and some are in a not-so-tidy row of land I cleared by hand.

Add these to the two tomato plants I already have, and I have 23 tomato plants. That means a whole lotta canning at some point in my future.

Feeling inspired by my gardening, I bought a small tabletop greenhouse. I still have a stack of seeds ready to sprout. I had some great success with the last set until I move the sprouted plants outside. Only one survived, and I have no earthly idea what kind of plant it is.

I never thought I'd reach the point of my life when gardening is fun. But it is. And the more I learn about commercial farming (especially outside of the U.S.) the more determined I am to grow my own fruits and vegetables. In fact, if we really knew the truth about what we don't know, we'd all storm the grocery stores and demand that ALL our produce come from the U.S.

But my current shopping habits are another post altogether.
Labels:

Comments

Christy said…
I dearly wish I could buy all local and organic foods. There is a bill up right now, though, that may make local farming (and alarmists even say backyard gardening) nearly extinct. How sad.
I'm loving the gardening thing too, as you read. And we definitely have plenty of tomatoes going! I'll have to learn the canning deal too - but maybe next season :)
7:20 PM
frabjouspoet said…
I didn't know about that bill. Why would someone even consider that? We have a LOT of farmers around here (and I work with many farmers' wives) who have told me all sorts of stories about the way produce is treated and grown in other countries. I absolutely REFUSE to buy anything that's not from the US. That limits me, but it's so worth it.
4:35 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tough As Nails

I found "The Chub" last night. This is a small, thick spiral notebook that I had carried around with me for several weeks last winter and spring. Its sole purpose was to be an immediate reservoir for any brilliant ideas I had during the day. The only thing I ever wrote in there (besides grocery lists and bill schedules) was during my family's reunion-birthday-anniversary cruise last January. My words were interesting, and I clearly remembered writing them on the little boat that took my aunt, sister, and cousin to go snorkeling in the Bahamas. The funny part was that I wrote about how the breeze was making the weariness "seep from my bones". I read it yesterday while I was home from work. That is, after I was sent home for nearly fainting during a class. Apparently, the look of my skin was so bad that my students thought I was pulling a Halloween prank. While driving myself home, I was thinking about the recent events that led me to the afternoon and how embarra
1 comment
Read more

The Transformation Begins

Do you ever feel like your life is a movie? I hope so because I certainly do, complete with an occasional out-of-body experience and a soundtrack. Right now, I hear Journey in the background and see myself out running each morning, conquering the evil vacuum cleaner, and throwing away my old flannel shirt. The last few days were interesting. My husband and I had few good fights...and lots of laughs. I can't help but think they were related. I know they are. The fights were about establishing boundaries. We finished our budget for June and updated our to do list. At the end of the day, he was completed something he had to have done, and I was working on final edits for my book. I'm really proud of us. We looked at our situation together, set some goals, and we reached them. I'm really proud of him, too. He's the kind of man who doesn't stop until he's completed what he had in mind. I love that tenacity. I guess that's what makes us a good match. I see the big
4 comments
Read more

Frustrated Readers Make Great Fans

I haven’t felt this betrayed by a story line since Neo learned that not only was he not the first person to challenge the Matrix, but he was part of the plan all along. Even though I was sorely disappointed in what appeared to be a cop-out story line, I can understand the logic in that disappointing plot twist. I can’t say the same for Stephenie Meyer’s conclusion to her wildly popular “Twilight” series. Look, I’ve read each of the first three books at least twice, and my grad school entrance paper was a character analysis of Edward Cullen. I loved these books. I read “New Moon” and “Eclipse” in a single day. I’ve been discussing the plot lines and characters with my students for the last two years. It was a long wait for this final book. And a huge part of me wishes I was still waiting. It was that much of a letdown. I’m still debating just how to tiptoe through my inevitable conversations with students about this part of the “Twilight” saga. My students were embarrassed enough by th
5 comments
Read more