Praise the Lord and Pass the Tomatoes

After our devastating freeze last week in which we lost 80% of the tomatoes planted at the Ruff Patch, our other farming area, we had almost enough tomatoes so we could re-plant. This is why Farmer Jeff starts 1,000 sproutlings... We only bought 12 plants to fill in the hole created by the freeze.

There is so much trial and error along with "acts of God" aka weather that makes farming such a precarious and courageous pursuit. Farmer Jeff kept telling me, "This is why I didn't follow in the family footsteps of being a commercial grower. I can't stand this kind of loss or gamble!". So he is in the restaurant business instead!

In Other News:
While capping off T-tape, an irrigation hose with holes/emitters every 24 inches, I stood up, fell over my feet and fell backwards on my hands, wrenching my back, neck and spraining my wrist. Sigh...My neck is better, my back is still a little sore, but the wrist is taking a while to mend. The hardest things to do with my wrist (thankfully the left wrist and I am right handed) is hooking my bra and giving the girls in the "hospital" their twice daily pills.

They are almost done with the pills, but still have a little bit of a sneeze/cough. I think I have to take one of them back in for a final exam.

Callebaut is fine. He has not had any stomach issues for a couple of weeks, thankfully. India is good, too.

Now the great news: Tasso is the break out star of the group. He has found his calling and you can tell it has done wonders for his self-esteem. He has become the official "Ratter" of Eastside Farm. A nasty business, rats. When you have chickens/aka the 24 hour buffet with water, you will have rats. We have tried just about everything except for poison, which is too dangerous around the dogs and chickens. We have rigged up the food bins on pulleys, we have lined the floor of the enclosure with wire cloth, we have put out traps of all sorts, and we even bought a pellet gun. The best ....TASSO!!!

The cats are all good. Ginger hasn't had any recurrence of her cancer. I keep praying over that one!

The most important being at ESF (Eastside Farm) is Farmer Jeff. He is happy and tired. We are catering like crazy and when not doing that, he is at the restaurant, smoking bacon and sausage, checking on all of the vegetables/plants, mowing the lawn and ...working. We are both happy when we are busy. I am feeling it a bit more than he is...sigh...

It is cool today and for this I am grateful. If it were a prettier, sunnier day I would be tempted to be outside planting flowers and trimming. However, today is cool, breezy and cloudy. Perfect for staying in and catching up on paperwork. I think I will sneak in a nap today!!!

Happy Tuesday!

All in a day's Work!

Today we planted the first of the tomato babies. What does that entail?

• Creating rows/furrows (6 rows, each 60 feet long)
• Setting up the irrigation system
• Spreading 4 bags of powdered oyster shells carefully over the rows
• Turning the dirt over the irrigation tape and oyster shell

Going to the nursery (Harmony Farm) to buy more stuff for the irrigation

• Putting green plastic over the tops of the rows
• Fixing us/the workers lunch
• Cutting through the plastic to make holes for the tomatoes
• Adding mushroom mulch to the holes
• Planting the tomatoes, all the while making a very detailed list of exactly what was planted where. WHY? We did “library rows” at the Ruff Patch (the name of the farm where we are planting) with 2 plants of each variety of tomato and needed to keep track what was where.
• Planted the tomatoes – 192!!!
• Added more mushroom mulch
  

What are we doing now, you might ask? I am writing the "load/packing list" for an event tomorrow at Stryker Sonoma Vineyard. Farmer Jeff is supposed to be writing recipes for the cookbook. I think he is wandering around the internet while I write my blog! We are both playing hooky!

All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy. Right?
(Who remembers what movie that was in? It featured someone named Jack. Coincidence? We think not!)

I am leaving with you a hint to the question above. A hatchet actually had a part in that movie.

The guys found this hatchet head while cultivating the soil. Will someone please explain to me how in the world folks believed that burning glass and metal with their trash would get rid of it?