Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and More Tomatoes

OMG is not the best way to start out a blog, but it fits perfectly at this time. I have ripening tomatoes on the top of both of my servers in the dining room,

on my south and west facing windowsills,

in the basement under a natural daylight grow lamp, and we still have a big bin of green Romas and Oxhearts sitting in the kitchen.  To date, we've either eaten or canned 75 lbs of tomatoes and have shared at least 20 lbs more with friends and visitors.  We still have approximately 25-40 lbs more to process as they ripen...or stay green. 

Remember how I told you about our "test garden" this year?  Well, I planted ten tomato plants, two of each of five varieties - Roma, Oxheart, Slicing, Yellow Giants, and Cherry Tomatoes. Up here, tomatoes are very hard to grow because of the short growing season and/or cool summers.  Because of that, I guessed that I would lose 1/3 to 1/2 of the plants...but I didn't lose any.  I didn't do anything but plant them, feed them once with rabbit manure, and weed the bed. I didn't even pinch off any of the suckers to increases the production of tomatoes. At the beginning, our plants were way too leafy so I didn't expect much produce. In late August we had a heat wave (for the UP) with the temps reaching almost 90 degrees and the plants exploded with tomatoes - they were so heavy that the tomato cages were stressed to hold the weight of the plant and produce! ...but it was late for ripening.

As we discussed the weather and the garden, Mark decided to build us a small hoop house to put over one row of five plants and I took a light weight sheet of plastic and a Planket (plant blanket) and covered the other row of five plants.  We thought we'd try two different methods to see if one worked better than the other to keep heat in so that the green tomatoes would ripen.  Well they both worked...to a point.  We'd remove the hoop house and planket/plastic during the days and cover them at night until it got cold enough that we had to pick all the produce in the garden.

Those of you who know me well know I hate waste, so I am bound and determined to process them. I've canned stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes for sauces, and I'm now experimenting on canning things like tomato juice and green tomato mincemeat.

I learned about green tomato mincemeat from my mother-in-law Dolores Bloomfield years ago.  She also experienced non ripening tomatoes in cool Michigan summers and would turn those green unappetizing bulbs into the best tasting holiday pies.

Original mincemeat was commonly thought of as a traditional Thanksgiving dish--actually traces its roots back to Medieval times, when preparing meat with fruit and spices was one form of preservation. Early New Englanders would make large batches of mincemeat and store it in crocks sealed with a layer of lard for use over the winter months.  Green tomato mincemeat is a very rich veggie/fruit mixture (no beef) that is baked into pies and tarts during the holidays. Since it is so rich, people either love or hate it.  Mark and I love it and have fond memories of Dolores' mincemeat pies - you knew it was Christmas when you had that pie!  I'd like to share it with you now - Old Fashion Green Tomato Mincement

If any of my sisters and/or brothers-in-law would like a home-canned jar of green tomato mincemeat, just let me know and I'll wrap one up and ship it off to you as our way of sharing family memories that are cherished by us.

I'm ending this with a note to self - use small hoop houses early in the spring to get the plants out earlier so that the produce will have time to ripen on the vine..and remember 6-8 plants will do!

P.S. We met with our Italian lawyer today on farm business - he wants whatever ripe tomatoes we have left to make tomato sauce to go with his holiday ravoli. We are now trading tomatoes for ravoli!  He stopped by and picked up about 20 lbs from us.  Now all I have to do is make and can the mincemeat!! Hurrah!

Cold Comfort Farm's Holiday Farmers Market Opens Tomorrow

Well, we are doing it!  Tomorrow we open our first Holiday Farmer's Market!!! Below are some photos of the "Market."

Keva's Christmas Corner

Diane's embroidered tote bags

Rory's, Keva's, and Diane's products

Part of my lavender and tea products display

Now I need to explain what this market is all about.  During the time I was not posting to our blog, I decided to take my homemade lavender and herbal products to Algomah Acres Honey House Meadery in Greenland, MI and their fall craft festival.  I added some of Keva's crafts from Acorn Grove and Diane's embroidery items from her Etsy business, which I had brought back with me from my late summer visit to St. Louis.  We all did pretty well that day and it sparked my past desire to have a shop here at the farm.

After much thought and discussions with Mark, we decided that I would open a small shop (now legally a farmers market) in our summer kitchen. This market would be open for about 2 months in the fall and again in the spring. Our summer is WAY too busy for me to take the time to stock and operate it...and it will NOT be an honor shop as some of our veggie farms run. We will be open three days a week from 10 am to 4 pm; one of those days being Saturday so we give working people an opportunity to come shop.

With the decision made, I moved all the non-essential kitchen stuff out of the summer kitchen, cleaned, and painted three walls. 

Then I brought the metal shelves back in and used anything we had on hand to build the product displays you saw above - I can't believe how everything fell into place.  Now we can experiment with this small market stand - Wish Us Luck!!!  I'll keep you posted on our progress.

I'm BAAACK!!

After a year of telling you all about our life here at Cold Comfort Farm, I thought you all would be tired of hearing about our life here so I dropped out for while.  But after talking to two of my sister-in-laws and a few close friends, they suggested that I keep going, so I hope to give you a little of us about twice a week.

Summer on the farm took over our lives.  We spent all our time gardening, working on the barn, and on anything else that kept us outside so we could enjoy the exquisite Michigan weather, all the time knowing that the season of snow would return soon enough.
I did write some blog posts, but decided not to post them for one reason or another.  I wrote one about our experimental vegetable garden and some observations I had about how much plants are not only a part of us but mirror us in many ways.  After re-reading it just now, I still think it is relevant so I'll share it now.

With all the gardening I'm doing these days I have LOTS of time to think.  After spending years in an office reacting to others needs and demands, I feel very blessed to have the time to think and reflect.  I don't mean to sound philosophical, but I'm having small awakenings, so I thought I'd share some of them with you.

As I'm on my knees or butt, planting, weeding, or harvesting, I have time to examine the plants and I'm amazed all the time.  Most of us don't realize it but we all NEED plants, they are a part of us. If it were not for plants, we would not be here.  They provide food, work, and beauty.  And plants are more like us than we know - here are some of my observations, some of them are "duh," but keep reading, the observations have a purpose.

Weather has a huge affect on plants as it does us.  Like us, each plant has its own schedule -it takes the time it needs to grow and mature. I can add fertilizer or grow it in a greenhouse; however, I can only affect it slightly.

• Some plants are light, airy, with lots of blooms and flowers for us to look at.  its purpose is to give us beauty.  It doesn't produce anything but beauty...and that's a great thing! We all know some folks like this - they give us beauty!
  
  
• There are some that are large, strong, and naturally bug/disease resistance, just like some of us!
  
  
• Some are very showy, REALLY big, and leafy but don't produce much fruit or vegetables - I'm sure we all know someone that is just like that.
  
• Some are small, hardy, and create more produce/work than similar types of plant twice their size
  
• A few start out small but once they catch up to others, they exceed the fast starters - they just need a little more time

  

  Notice the larger plants in the front of the photo and the smaller ones in the back - the smaller ones caught up and ended up larger and produced just as many butternut squash as the early bloomers

  
  
  
• Some are naturally weak - they get attacked by bugs. Once bugs see weakness, they attack in numbers

 But this bean one plant just amazed me!  I transplanted this plant to a new location because it was too close to another plant.  I moved several plants that day, thinning out so all the plants had room to develop to their potential.  It was doing fine until I affected it.  It obviously did not do well in its new location - either the soil, heat, less water, maybe all of those things was not what this plant needed.  However, it was strong and didn't die.  In fact, even though it was planted in adversity, it has grown (it's not a pretty plant, in fact not it doesn't have many leaves at all).  BUT what surprised me was that it has developed produce, providing as many green beans as a leafy plant twice its size.  I wondered, what makes this plant produce in adversity - inner strength??  We could all learn something from this little plant.


I know, you're probably thinking that these are some odd thoughts, but this subject brought me back to memories of my father.  As a child, any time I was in a place I didn't like or I was out of my comfort zone, he used to say to me that life does that to you and that you need to bloom where you are planted...then I married a Bloomfield.

So, gardening has reinforced that lesson and plants have been my instructor!  I encourage you to add a plant to you life to remind you to "Bloom where you are planted!"