First Day of School, and the greenhouse is untouched :)

Well we survived the first day of school. I have this blog linked to my facebook and got several comments telling me that I’m a good mom and that I should wait to cry until after I leave the building, upon dropping him off this morning.

I didn’t cry at all.

But I saw several who were teared up. And so many brought their kids and picked them up. It was sweet.

When I picked him up this afternoon, his first words were: “Mom, it rocked. But it was too long. I’m really tired.”

Later, during peanut butter cookies & milk, we were asking him for the details of his day. Apparently, his teacher gave him some computer time on ben10.com, which I thought was strange. Do they let kids play on the internet at school? But after he was playing for awhile, another aide or teacher or someone, came over, took his headphones off his head, unplugged them, and said, “If you do that again, you’ll get a flip-card.”

What the heck is a flip card?

He said to me, “Mom, I said in my head, not out loud, ‘what did I do?’ “

That’s what I’m wondering. So I’ll stop in in the morning. Hopefully it was just a misunderstanding. But it seems to me, you should at least tell a kid what they did wrong. Find out if they indeed did it or someone gave them permission. That this woman, (it wasn’t his teacher, someone else-) just assumed he was being sneaky or naughty- is annoying to me as a parent. Communicate, hello.

So he decided, apparently by lunch time, that he hated school and wanted to come back home. But then, he told me, this conversation took place in his head: “No, Eli, you can’t say that. You are always asking Mom for friends, and you want to learn about science and computers, and Mom can’t get you friends all the time. So if you want that, you can’t say you hate school. So I’m staying here.”

I love this child. He has conversations with himself. Wonder where he got that inclination?

It’s cold here. I haven’t even been to the greenhouse today. It’s all shut up, keeping the heat in, ripening all those tomatoes. But when I look out my window towards my garden, I am really happy I ripped everything out yesterday.

It’s fall. It’s time.

So the girls and I did their schoolwork, and we listened to The History of US on cd while we cleaned and picked chicken for chicken soup and made peanut butter cookies, waiting for our boy to come home.  All the laundry is finished, the ironing is done, and I’m ready for our chi alpha meeting tonight.

I love home schooling. And if at some point it meet’s Eli’s needs better than public school, I will not hesitate to pull him out again. But for now, it seems to “rock.”

Thank God for choices.

Public School and Ripping up Tomato Plants

My daughter likes to quote Lewis Carroll, I can’t think of the exact quote, but something about “we’re all a little mad here.”

You know what I did today? Ripped out a couple hundred tomato plants.

Yep, yep yep.

I am finished. The greenhouse is still stocked, and the carrots, onions, and cantelope are still happily ensconsed, but everything else has been eliminated. I have mountains of green tomatoes, and if they ripen, I’ll make use of them. Temps are in the 60′s. I really don’t think much else is going to happen out there. So I went for it. My hands hurt.

I even ripped out the marigolds. And they did absolutely nothing wrong.

I just can’t do it anymore :)

Then I ran my daughters to Target to buy them phy-ed stuff they need. Then I had a mini panic attack about sending my son to school. So I called our friends, Joel & Kathy, and they both get on a phone so it’s like talking to Mom and Dad. Although they are way too young to be my Mom and Dad.  They’re just great friends. But having them both on the line like that is just comforting that way.

They told me I’m not crazy, and I’m not a bad mom. In fact, most people I’ve told about the ripping tomato plants out thing have cheered. Believe me, I felt no guilt about that. It’s the greenhouse tomatoes that are stocking our restaurants and grocery stores, and they are doing great. But I do feel guilty about sending my kid to public school.

I’ve been indoctrinated. And I’m just about as sick of that as being indoctrinated in any way shape or form. Home school is a wonderful thing, really. But when you feel guilty for not doing it, for truly trying to find what is best for your child, that stinks.  When you feel like you have to look and act like all other homeschoolers, that’s wrong. When you feel guilty that your kid doesn’t know latin, it’s time to run. This is America. I have options.

Thank God.

And if the public school option doesn’t work, I can pull him out.

But I’m afraid the denim-dress part of me says I’m being a terrible mother, sending him. The other side says, “get a life.” The denim side says, “they’ll teach him about condoms in first grade.” The other side says, “you know what, my God is bigger than that, even.”

Sheesh.

So I am feeling a little mad today, I’m afraid. But the good news is, our daughter, who quotes Carroll and who is currently working five hours away, is coming home.  One less different thing. As my friend Pam says, “all the cubs will be home.”

Except those tomatoes are gone forever, I’m afraid. Unless my compost pile doesn’t get hot enough and they reappear next spring.

See the beautiful thing about this? Now you know you’re not crazy. You read these rants and think, “oh thank God I’m not as crazy as the tomato lady who is sending her kid to school.” 

OH. I have to tell you what inspired all this. Remember Louise, my garden-guru sister in law who does all this farming stuff for a living? I was talking to her on the phone last night, and she just sort of dropped this piece of information. Her garden is a weed patch. Full. She gave up on it. All she has are peppers, she says.

Just like you are feeling good right now ’cause you’re not as mad as I am at this minute, I felt like the queen of organic gardening because my guru sister in law has a weed patch for a garden.

And this all just made me think of my mother. She always says, rather sarcastically, but still: “isn’t it nice we’re all different, we have so much to share.”  Quite frankly, I got on to blog ’cause I don’t have anyone to talk to right now. So writing is my release. You’re getting it all, baby. Fresh from the fried brain of the gardener/mother/teacher/pastor/musician/writer/terrible housekeeper/chef/small business runner/quilter you happen to know as the down to earth gardener. Our friend Jeff always says, “you don’t know what you think until you write it down.”

I feel like David in the psalms. “life sucks, this hurts, dang it, can you just kill so and so for me?” And then he says, “but in the end, I love God, and I know he’ll figure it all out, and I trust him.” That’s a paraphrase of my own. So he’s got all this covered.

I guess I just need to go mad once in awhile.  Everything always looks better in the morning. That’s my mother speaking again. You know, tomorrow morning when I drive my little man to school.

sigh. :)

Tomato Rant

I have tomatoes coming out of my – what. If I say “ears” then it’s a cliche. If I say “nostrils” it’s grose. Anything else is unthinkable.

You understand what I’m saying.

Yesterday I processed, with the help of my handy-dandy-squeezo-strainer, 40 pounds of tomatoes. No, 40. Not 4. 40.

There are at least that many more out there as I write.

I called all my restaurants and grocery stores and nobody wanted them. The grocery store guy tried to tell me that I was cheating the restaurants ’cause they are paying me what they’re paying me and he isn’t.

He just doesn’t get it.

These are not just any tomato. These are locally grown- ie- you can come over (like two ladies just did) and tour my gardens with me and I can tell you exactly where I got my seeds and exactly what I planted them in and exactly what I have put on them to kill bugs. They have not been tampered with genetically. They have not been sprayed with poisons. They have not been picked green and sprayed with junk to preserve them and exposed to gases to help them ripen. They have not sat in a warehouse in who knows where getting handled by who knows how many people with who knows what motives. They have not travelled in a hot truck stacked in crates to reach your grocery store. Or a refridgerated one, for that matter. They have not left a big ‘ol fat carbon footprint on our american highways.

So that you can buy them and put their tasteless masses on your salad.

THESE tomatoes are perfect. Sorry, they just are.

They are old heirloom breeds. No alterations. Actually, however, I am wondering if they wandered a little within my greenhouse. I’m getting yellow romas, and yellow “mortgage busters” – seeds which I am pretty sure I did not plant. Methinks they are sampling, if you get my drift.

They are planted in good rich soil that has been built up with good old fashioned horse poo and goat poo and organic stuff like sea kelp and bloodmeal. They spent their babyhood in my kitchen getting misted and watered and talked to. They moved to the greenhouse when they were old enough to be on their own, and they have been working hard ever since, making their own personal contribution to society.

And they taste amazing. Our friend Mo thought I put sugar in the sauce yesterday. I didn’t. It’s the tomatoes.

So personally, I think they’re worth 2.50 a pound. The farmers markets get at least 3.50. I’m cheap. And the restaurants are getting top quality, fresh, local, naturally grown food using organic practices. They will make NO ONE sick.

And I even deliver, for pete’s sake.

Ok, that’s my tomato rant for the day. I’m happy my restaurants love them, and appreciate them. I haven’t told the tomatoes what the grocery store guy said. Think I’ll keep it to myself.

:)

Favorite Kind of Summer

I finally admitted it. My garden is too big.

I have been following this blog written by a lady who’s  funny and down to earth and tells it like it is. Like she’s not too worried that someone is peeking over her shoulder with a pad and pen.

I worry about that sometimes.

So I bared my soul on her comments. My garden is too big. I said a few other things too, but never mind.

But just because it is too big doesn’t mean I’m going to scrap it or quit or make it smaller. It just slows me down a little, that’s all. It just gets me thinking of better ways to mulch and ways to work smarter, not harder. (I actually automatically typed in “work harder, not smarter”…and then realized what I did and had to backspace and fix it. See how indoctrinated I am?)

So I’m doing the cardboard thing. I read a blog by some people that have raspberries and they said they mulch with cardboard and then leaves or whatever. Last fall I doused everything with straw, but this spring, viola, the weeds came up through the straw. It makes sense to me that the cardboard would block out more sun that the straw would not. So I have been diving dumpsters today, gathering cardboard. And things are starting to look up in my too-big garden.

But seriously, when you think that we are putting in a bunch more asparagus, the garden isn’t that big. We won’t have any more spare space then. Maybe room for a squash patch next year, but otherwise, it will be full of raspberries, peonies, and asparagus. Till between the rows. How hard is that?

Speaking of squash, I have lots. It’s beautiful. Pumpkins are turning orange. Cantelope looks like I could pick it. Green acorn squash everywhere. And I even got some okra! So this is what a good summer looks like?

Then this is my favorite kind of summer :)

change…..again…

Here’s the best shot I got of Kathy’s Garden, after we weeded it.  That’s my red towel on the pea trellis, ’cause I’m a bug-wuss. We just got too involved before I could tear myself away to get a camera. So you get the after before you get the before.

You can’t really see it…but there’s a lovely rock wall right past the gate to your left. Definitely a secret garden.  I need a rock wall.

We’re home now. My own garden is in dire need of attention. 90 and humid is a big wall for me. I know, fearless northern gardener, hiding in her air conditioning.

But, wait! I have plans. Tuesday (which is good ’cause Monday is full to the brim with other stuff) the temps drop back in the happy 60′s. This is autumn in the northwoods. So on that day…I am gonna mulch.

The weeds have gotten the better of me again. But at least this year, I kept up on them WAY longer than last year. And I did some reading about people with raspberry patches. They said that they mulch their patch with broken down cardboard boxes. This makes a lot of sense to me- better than straw (cheaper) and better than black landscape fabric (cheaper AND more practical). And it seems that cardboard will not blow away so easily, like newspaper. I have endless supplies of broken down boxes available to me. They will squelch my remaining weeds.

But on a happier note, the squash patch looks lovely. Full, green, and full of squash, pumpkins, zucchini, and a few cucumbers. I think I planted the cucumbers too close to the rest and they’re getting shaded out, ’cause there aren’t many.

BUT, my neighbor Sara’s garden is full, full, full. Overrun. So we have plenty, and much to sell too.

Good news- the kitties are back. Jin and Sun just seemed to disappear for a few days and reappear. But we lost a chicken. She drowned in the horse water tank. :(

Yesterday, we were pulling some weeds and picking beans & tomatoes, and I grabbed a big weed that had seed heads. I thought “shoot, this baby is gonna seed all over the place” and I pulled it without thinking. Immediately, my hands started to burn, and scratches on my arms started to swell up and sting.

DANG. Stinging nettle. Never pulled stinging nettle before.

A quick check online told me to dump lemon juice on it, then honey. Which I did. It helped, but after that I put calamine on it and it was fine. So if you ever find yourself in that position, if you’ve thoughtlessly grabbed something pretty and caustic and find yourself in pain, do that. :)

I’m missing my daughter. It makes me not want to make salsa. And i have a lot of tomatoes just waiting, wondering, shrivelling….hello? salsa lady? where arrrrreeee yoouuuuuuu?

But tomorrow is another day, and this too will pass. At least she’s happy where she is, working up north, making friends, making money. As long as she’s happy, I can deal. But we met a couple in church this morning who were leaving their oldest daughter here for school today….and they started to cry, and I started to cry, and needless to say, church didn’t last long for us after that. But I feel for them. I told them we’d take care of her.

We take care of a lot of people’s kids. And we miss them when they go and don’t return. It’s like living in a constant “sending kids off” stage. Sometimes I wonder how long I can do this.

But then, I get a good night sleep and move on and make gallons of salsa and get the garden weeded and visit the north shore and, sometimes, I just don’t think about stuff.

Our friends, Sudhir and Bina, are separated. Not like, separated from each other emotionally, but he is staying in Pittsburgh, and she is returning here. Phil spent time on the phone with him many times today, and he was in tears. It just worked for him to attend the U of Pittsburgh, and her to come here….and separation sucks. So everyone has been crying today.

So there you go. :) We feel this way sometimes, but we chalk it up as emotions and hang in there til they pass. So maybe we’ll miss a batch of salsa or a bag of beans, whatever. Do your best. Cry if you need to; Phil keeps telling me it’s good. Get good sleep.

‘night. :)

Change and the consistency of Salsa

I am happily ensconced in Hovland MN.  North of Grand Marais. On Lake Superior. Super way north.

I love it here.

Our friends have this garden- a weency tiny one. It’s not really weency tiny, but compared to mine, it is. It’s lovely. But it was overrun with weeds, and once Phil and I set foot in it, we couldn’t help ourselves. I told him it felt like I was working on a Secret Garden. It’s so quiet. No traffic noise, just wind in the trees. And the stallion, Titan, screaming once in awhile.

And it only took about three hours total for several of us to completely clear it. Now you can see the squash and the beans and the trellises and the beets, raspberries, potatoes. I have a picture but I forgot my thingie to attach to the computer. So I’ll have to add pictures when I get home.

We have brought our daughter to work at a lodge here. Not entirely sure how I feel about this. Phil and I actually met at this particular lodge, and working there for my college summers was one of the highlights of my life. So fun. We figure, it’s a great way for her to get out of dodge and get her feet wet in being away from home in a safe atmosphere. Plus our great friends are here and will take care of her. So I guess I feel ok about it, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have a meltdown at some point.

Change kind of sucks.

And being in campus ministry, it happens all the time. You get attached to students, they become your kids, and then they graduate and leave. Some stay, and that’s great. But you sort of have to detach yourself sometimes. I’m not a super good de-tacher.

I kind of feel like Julie in the movie Julie & Julia. One thing I know, if I go out into the garden, pick tomatoes and green pepper and jalepenos and onions, mix them with garlic and lemon juice, I know- it will make the best salsa ever and it always will. It won’t change, ever.

So we did that today. And now we’re going to a picnic on Lake Superior. I don’t have to think about leaving my daughter here for another two days, so I won’t.

:)

More Tomatoes, Less Cats

I think these are the last tomato  pictures I’m going to take. I’m starting to feel like a cat lady. Only with tomatoes. We’re getting about this much every day now- and I’m thinking of putting a sign up at the end of the road, because I am barely keeping up selling them and making salsa.  It’s been interesting seeing what comes out of those random seeds I bought at that farmer’s market last summer. See the yellow one on the far right? They literally look like lemons. They’re like a yellow roma. Amazing.

And these-

These are like tomato eggplants! They’re small- shaped like an eggplant, and tomatoes.

I have to admit that, as I was chopping these up for salsa and saving their seeds again, that the thought of creating my own strain of tomato crossed my mind. But that’s where it stayed. What am I crazy?

So I saved seed from the lemon romas and these eggplant tomatoes and these:

They’re little chubby purple tomatoes. They’re hard to see amongst all the green foliage- because they’re so dark. I almost missed one yesterday that was completely ready to pick. And I saved the seeds from the black russians. They’re so sweet! No, I mean sweet, like as in sugary! The big yellows are that way t0o – the salsa almost tastes like we added sugar but we didn’t.

These heirlooms, wow.

But truthfully, although I am saving seeds from select ones, next year I am going to look for a strain that someone has developed from an heirloom and some hardier stock. These split really easy, at no provocation whatsoever. So far they have avoided disease, but I’ve heard horror stories about blight wiping out entire crops. So I’ll do some research this winter on resistant varieties, yet not too far removed from the heirlooms.

The peppers are gorgeous- I am trying not to pick them as I want them to turn red. But we have had white moths in the greenhouse, so I don’t want them to get eaten before they have that chance. So I’m keeping my eye on them!

I might even get some okra this year! I ignorantly planted some thinking it would do ok in our area- and found that no, it is a HOT veggie. So I transplanted them in the greenhouse, and they’re flowering. Huh, who knew!

Actually, I have to head out there now. The squash is in and the cantelopes are looking lovely and tomatoes outside are starting to ripen, so I have to check them every day. And the chickens need to be fed.

And we lost two kitties. Sad. They just disappeared. Remember Jin? Who crawled up on my back every morning? Unless he’s just on a walkabout somewhere, he’s gone. And his sister, Sun, too.

We’re choosing to believe that they were picked up by a family with lots of kids and gardens, where they are happily ensconced in family life. One can hope.

:)

Summer Slums & Salsa Recipe

So, I’ve decided something.

August is the Summer Slums.

Today, I said to my husband, “For the next four days, I am going to do indoor work. Autumn is supposed to start on Sunday, and it will drop to 68 degrees, and THEN I will weed the garden.”  He said, “ok. Maybe I should do that too.”

This is a growing experience for me. This gardening thing. Because normally, and actually right now to tell the truth, I feel sorta guilty about that. About the wanting to work inside in August in the air conditioning that we recently paid $300 to fix. (I told my kids that now that we fixed it, we couldn’t afford to use it, so suck up. Didn’t last long.)

The thoughts that run through my brain are these: why sit out in my bug-infested albeit gorgeous, garden in the sweltering 90 degree heat (if you’re from the south, just ignore that statement and keep reading) and sweat all over my weeds when I can wait four days, still get a ton of stuff done, and enjoy weeding in 68 degrees?

After all, we paid $300 to fix the A/C. I should at least be inside enjoying it. Why bother otherwise?

So I go out there in the early morning and pick my 5-8# of tomatoes and the few zucchini I get each day. Every four days or so I pick the beans. I’ve given up on the peas. Once in awhile I get a ragtag batch of kohlrabi, beets, herbs, and a few broccoli heads. But mostly tomatoes.

I take them inside and sort them. The ones that are blemish free go to Tutto Bene (our local fabuloso Italian restaurant) or the Wild Hare (our local espresso bistro that is too good to describe accurately). The blemished ones, split ones, or ones with bugs get chopped up and thrown into my salsa. (I take out the bugs. Seriously, someone will ask me that)

ooooolala.

My sister in law Louise has the best salsa recipe. I’ll share it in a minute. But I figured out this spring WHY her salsa is so amazing. Actually, she did and told me. I have tried to make it countless times and it is only so-so. Boring. So I tried other recipes: boring. But she brings hers, and WOW!! Crazy amazing! What’s the deal?

It’s the garlic. Pretty sure. Store bought garlic just sucks, pardon my adjective that causes my more straight laced christian friends to shudder. (sorry, but it just works, that word, sometimes. Especially when talking about store-bought garlic.)

Louise uses hard-necked garlic that she grows or has bought at a farmer’s market. Part of me says, “no, it seriously can’t make that much of a difference” but just try it. Then tell me what you think. This year I have my own garlic that I grew myself, and my salsa is amazing.

Here’s her recipe:

Canned

 6-8 jalepenos, chopped, no seeds (hmmm, I’ve been using the seeds)

8c. peeled, cut tomatoes (I don’t peel them)

6 chopped or grated carrots (good if you want mild- I haven’t tried this yet)

3 green or red peppers (louise uses red, I use whatever I have)

3 med. Onions

2 6oz cans tomato paste (haven’t used this, but it might be good for the canned version!)

1/2c. apple cider vinegar (and I’ve been adding 1/2 a fresh lemon, juiced, too)

1 Tbsp pepper

1 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp minced garlic

Bring to boil, simmer for ½ hour -45 minutes, process for 45 minutes in pints, hot water bath.

Fresh

1-2 jalepenos

8c. carrots (again, haven’t used them yet)

3 green or red peppers

1 onion (I still use 3 :)

Squirt lemon (I’ve been using 1/2 of a fresh lemon and a splash of apple cider vinegar)

Same pepper, salt, garlic

So that’s it. Really, I’ve been just using the canned recipe for fresh, without the carrots and tomato paste.

The other night I made a batch and put it in the water canner and went to watch a movie (I set the timer) and didn’t hear the timer and realized after the movie that I had processed my salsa for an hour and a half. Rrrrrghghghghhhhh.  But I kept it- marked it- we’ll see.

So instead of weeding, today I cleaned. I have this on my facebook: I can’t keep my house clean to save my life, but I can make a mean salsa. It’s true. But today, my house is a little cleaner, thanks to the Summer Slums.

And air conditioning. And I have salsa too. Just call me wonder woman. :)

Really really random harvest thoughts

Where have I been, anyway? For pete’s sake. I say I’m gonna blog every day and here I am, once a week again. Well, I have it for you in one word:

Harvest.

Yes- it’s all coming in. You know, we did the greenhouse thing hoping that we could have stuff come in sooner, and grow stuff that won’t grow in our area. I guess we’ve accomplished both, really. When I look outside at my tomatoes, they are just barely starting to ripen, with a few rogue red ones, that are shaking their little green fists at the world and saying, “I WILL RIPEN EARLY! BRING IT ON, NORTHERN MINNESOTA!!”

But not all. In fact, only a few.  But the greenhouse tomatoes are really starting to pop. I pick five or more pounds every day. The restaurants have been loving them, and we’ve been hearing that comforting pop-pop-pop coming from the kitchen. It’s the sound of the canning jars sealing after their water bath. Sooo fun.

But, alas, this first year of greenhouse-ing it has left me with much to learn and much to do differently next year. It’s STILL all coming at once, hence the lack of blogging. Today I am freezing beans and peas, shredding zucchini and making chocolate zucchini bread, and making more salsa. Yesterday was three batches of pesto for my freezer, and selling tomatoes to restaurants.

OH! And weeding. Yes, weeding, you would think we mortals could keep up with it. It’s like Woman vs. Earth out there! What’s the deal!? I get it all mostly caught up and BAM it’s a weed patch again. Sigh.

But yesterday I conquered a wide swath.  And I had a great idea. You know how we put in the DNR fence and it’s bigger than our original garden? We took down the original fence, which leaves us with a lane of grass approx. 12′ around one side of the garden. A lane of grass that is trying to merge, if you get my drift. So my thought was, let’s solarize it! I have some black landscape fabric, and random black plastic. So I’ve been laying it over this ocean of grass and trying to weight it down with all our fieldstone. But yesterday, as I was yanking weeds out of my cantelope patch, I realized I could pile these weeds on top of the black plastic, thus weighing it down against the winds.  The weeds sit there and starve to death on that plastic.

Man, this gardening thing just makes me violent sometimes. I’m always slaughtering something, or watching something die and laughing. Sheesh.

So anyway, there is a huge pile of weeds on that plastic now. Kind of makes me want to do the whole garden and pile all the weeds on the outer perimeter. Next spring, when we remove the plastic, there will be nice dirt under there and no weeds. Perfect.

It doesn’t look very pretty right now though. Kind of makes me think we’re back to the redneck gardening thing.

Here’s a random thought. My kids and I have been watching movies for the last few days because my hubby is gone on a work thing. We watched Clash of the Titans. Here’s the thought: don’t bother. Wow. My girls rifftracked the whole thing and nicknamed all the bad guys and worried incessantly that the cute guys were going to get killed, which they did. That was what made the movie enjoyable. So unless you have really funny and clever teenagers to get you through it, don’t waste your money.

However, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif was fun. The books are better, but they did a pretty good job with the movie.  There. Michelle’s random movie reviews amidst her garden blog.

Arrrrghghghghg.  Our rooster and a chicken are on my deck again. I’m not sure what they hope to find there….but they leave little gifts. We had a friend out here the other day and suddenly she exclaimed, “Michelle! I have a cat on my lap and a dog at my feet and horses screaming in your pasture and I look out the window and there’s a chicken! Where am I? What else is going to sneak up on me here?!”  I didn’t tell her about the mice.

The mice that my daughter said, “yes yes!!” when someone wanted to give them away. I should have stuck with my first instinct. Which was NO WAY. I didn’t. We now have two very very cute, very very stinky mice in Eli’s room.

Ok, I’m done rambling. Have a lovely, lovely day. Enjoy your weeding. Don’t rent Clash of the Titans. Stick to your guns when your kids want mice. And drink lots of coffee. :)

Corn Earworms, ewww

The worms infesting our greenhouse have been identified, and hopefully, slaughtered.

I know, it’s violent language, but they’re worms.

Corn earworms are their official name. Ewwwww. So we pulled out all the lovely mammoth sweet peas- they were about finished anyway, and stacked them in a pile outside the garden. Then I went to Ace, and couldn’t find any BTK, still not totally sure what that is, but Louise’s organic pest control manual said to use it. They didn’t have it. But they did have Safer’s insect control formula with Neem oil. So $30 later, I had almost a gallon of it poured into my sprayer and it covered all the damaged areas in the greenhouse, but not the entire greenhouse.

Apparently there have been more studies on Neem oil and the stuff is amazing. Kills bad bugs but doens’t kill the good ones, mostly. And if it doesn’t kill the bad bug, it renders it sterile at least. And it doesn’t affect you and I, so we can spray up til the day of harvest.

You can make your own Neem oil with china berries, if you can find china berries. That might be a winter project…

Anyway, the worms have been dealt with and hopefully I won’t see them again.

Today, Brittany and I are going to weed, while it’s cool this morning.

And the tomatoes are finally staggering in. When I pick one called a “mortgage buster” I’ll get a picture. It’s crazy.

So I’ll have more to tell later…. have a lovely day!