The Zombie Apocalypse : Yet Another Reason to Garden

I don't really watch a lot of TV.  That isn't to say I'm adverse to television.  In fact, quite the opposite, I really enjoy quality programming - as long as I don't have to watch commercials.  The problem is there isn't enough time in the day to do everything I have to do on top of everything I want to do.  This means I watch most shows on demand or after they come out on Netflix.

So that brings me to my recent case of stomach flu and AMC's The Walking Dead.  Over the course of those two days in bed I watched all of season 2 and part of season 3.  Now, I know a lot - A LOT - of people don't like horror anything - for reasons - but this show is different.  Yes, it's excessively gory.  Yes, it's freaking scary.  But, the story and characters are so well written, so complex, soooo good.  Robert Kirkman is truly a master of his craft.  Plus, it serves as a reminder of why canning tomatoes is so important! 

Keep Calm and Hide Behind Daryl Dixon

I love canning my own tomatoes and sauce.  It's incredibly labor and time intensive but also infinitely rewarding.  My last real canning effort I milled 70 pounds of tomatoes by hand and canned them in a water bath.  It took nearly three days from start to finish.  But the pure satisfaction I received after reaping my red reward was unparalleled.

The harsh reality is that the sauce that resulted from seventy pounds of tomatoes barely lasted a few months - let alone the entire winter.  After giving away jars to friends and family I was left with 3 quarts and about 8 pints if I remember correctly.  It was several years ago so I could be off on the numbers, but it wasn't enough and that much I do remember.

This years varieties - Brandywine OG, Rutgers Heirloom and Roma OG

This year I will be single-stemming all of my tomatoes in hopes of having a good crop in limited space.  I have been struggling to find the right balance between planting big beefy slicing tomatoes - like Brandywine and Rutgers - which are such a treat fresh and the Roma or Paste tomatoes that I will use for canning.  Currently, my garden plan allocates only three squares for Roma and I'm sure that won't even come close to being enough for me.  However, in the interest of having a good variety I decided to supplement my own harvest with tomatoes from the farmers market.  That way I can grow beans and cukes too!  After all it's prime real estate along the trellis - and my love of homemade pickles is almost equal to my love for tomato sauce.

I'm always looking for recommendations if anyone has a favorite sauce or slicing tomato.

The "Lipstick Walker" - She's sexy, dead or alive.

First Day of the Growing Season

Today marked the first day of our 2013 growing season.  I decided to cultivate a 4'x8' plot in my local community garden.  Luckily the garden is only one block from our house making daily tending a much easier task than having to drive somewhere across town every morning to water and weed.

Upon the advice of one of my professors I decided to try the Square Foot Gardening method founded by Mel Bartholomew in the early 80's which does away with traditional row gardening in favor of smaller raised beds filled with a specific soil blend: 1/3 Coco Fiber/Coir (renewable) or Peat Moss (non-renewable), 1/3 compost and 1/3 Vermiculite (or Perlite). 

Since the last garden I had was more than six years ago and of the traditional row variety I decided to seek assistance as I started planning.  I found a lot of helpful links most notably the My Square Foot Garden blog.  I signed up for her newsletter which very helpfully sends emails reminding you when to start seeds, transplant etc based on your hardiness zone which she assigns a color - I'm yellow.

My "To Do" list for the week of Feb. 1st

On February 1st I got the email alerting me to start my cool weather seeds - which included broccoli, cabbage, leeks and parsley.  A quick trip to the local garden store procured cabbage, broccoli and parsley.  Leeks were nowhere to be found - I also checked Lowe's.

The only cabbage I could find was the "Emiko Hybrid" distributed by Burpee Signature.  This was disappointing and I wish now I had ordered something else from Seed Savers - like the Early Jersey Wakefield - oh my!

I bought organic where possible and got a sustainable, organic (OMRI certified) seed starter mix - $3.57 at Lowe's - and set home to start planting the seeds.  Chloe was also excited - having just been told she could play in the dirt when we got home!

 
And now, when my husband comes home I can prove to him that I wasn't actually "hoarding toilet paper rolls" as he first surmised.