Free Heirloom Open Pollinated Tomato Seeds from WinterSown.Org

The awesome folks over at WinterSown.org will send you free tomato seeds in exchange for your Self Addressed Stamped Envelope.  This is possibly a USA-only offer, I’m not sure.  They strongly encourage you to learn the technique of Winter Sowing your seeds.

If you give them a small donation, you’ll get about twice as many seed packets and you’ll also have assurance of receiving your top choices.

I now have to make room for an entire extra bed of tomatoes.  :)  It’s not such a bad thing. 

I plan to save open-pollinated heirloom tomato seeds this year from several of my favorites, and to return some of the love to WinterSown.Org by sending them back some of the seeds I save.

Potting up Tomatoes (first seedling transplant)

Tomatoes have big long roots and grow very quickly from seed indoors.  A few weeks after planting tomato seeds, while it’s still way too cold outside for tomato plants, they need more room.  I like to pot mine up into half-gallon milk cartons because they are so deep.  Here are some photos and notes of my process:

 

When seedlings have a couple sets of true leaves, I pot them up into something bigger.

 

My container of choice is a tall waxed paper half gallon milk carton.

 

Carefully remove the seedling from it's planting cell and then . . .

Pinch off the seed leaves. This part of the stem ends up under the dirt.

 

Pot the seedling as deep as possible. Tomatoes will grow new roots along the buried portion of stem.

I probably could have gone even deeper when repotting this tomato seedling.

 

Firm up the dirt a bit.

 

Over half the height of the seedling is buried now.

 

This container will be enough growing room for 3 to 4 more weeks. Hopefully the next transplant will be to the garden.

Any questions?  I’d love to get your comments.

Haulin’ Glass

It’s hard to see, but there are 11 trays of glass canning jars here!

A view from one side

And a view from the other

We scored about 200 canning jars last night. A friend of my wife’s is cleaning out his mother’s house after her passing and he wants this stuff gone.  We were happy to oblige.  This might be all we will need to can the vegetables and fruit we’re going to eat for the next year.

The dishwasher has been running non-stop and now they are finally all clean. It doesn’t help anything that I have walking pneumonia and zero energy.  

I also got two old (untested) pressure cookers, a rusty (salvageable) food mill and an old beat up collander with a handle. They even threw in about 3 dozen of each type of canning lid.

The price was right…they didn’t ask for anything. I ended up paying him about $50.

It sure is a lot of quarts. It’s over half quart jars, the rest are pints. I prefer pints.  Want to trade?

It sure was fun to see all these different jars.  Based on the newspaper packing material in the boxes, these were put away around 1985.  There were lots of 1976 US bicentennial celebratory jars, and a set of “harvest time” jars that have an interesting design.  There are some tall jars that will be good for uncut asparagus, a handful of jars bigger than quarts, and a whole box that aren’t canning jars at all.  Oh well!

There were a dozen or so that I passed on and did NOT take home. These still had food in them. :O Yep! One jar still had recognizable red tomatoes or sauce.  The others had unsealed over the years and dried down to a little tomato cake that has since turned into something like ash or dirt.

Now let me tell you the worst part!  I told my wife that asking around for jars wouldn’t work.  I said, “Too many people are going to be canning this year.  Jars will be hard to find even at the store this summer.  It won’t help to ask around.”  Then she finds me this haul.  Thank you hon!!

Back yard veggie garden now has a cold frame

 

Cold frame sitting in a garden bed.

I made a cold frame Sunday from a 2ft x 3ft window section that I saved when a replacement was installed.

 

Inside, a 72 peat pellet mini greenhouse, thermometer and prop stick

It’s a small, low cold frame, but very sufficient in size to hold big seedling tray.  It’s about 12 inches high at the rear and about 9 inches high at the front.  I set it facing the south on one of my garden beds.

 

 

Here it is propped open. Aren't I the clever photographer?

I planted 72 peat pellets today at lunch time.  60 were more broccoli, plus 6 arugula and 6 “green ice” lettuce.  I put the tray out in the cold frame to see if they’ll grow for me outdoors.

 

 

Only 4 degrees warmer than outside. Maybe better tomorrow.

We’re currently having a warm spell, but our average last frost date is April 21.  We’ll see what the next 5 weeks bring for these seeds.

A Yearly Growing/Canning Plan For Our Family of Four

This post marks my first post by a guest contributor on WordPress. My marvelous wife Cinturon (who is GIDDY with happiness as she sees me write that) has decided to post here from time to time now that she knows I’m not crazy. Last year was just an experiment in her eyes, you see, but she has now decided that this “canning thing” and this “garden thing” just might both be worth doing.

Actually she just expected me to hobby-hop after one year, as usual. I think I’ll stick with it a while longer. Without further ado:

---

(Featuring guest poster-Cinturon…my wife)

 

As the food “organizer/shopper” of the family, I have been appointed as manager of our family’s yearly consumption.

Jimmy and I have decided to take the gardening/canning hobby one step further.  Our summer 2009 goal is to can/freeze enough produce to last us through to next summer without buying from stores.  We will use as much from our own garden as possible, and then supplement from local farmer’s markets.   We are doing this for several reasons.

First, the quality of the produce compared to store bought produce is so much better it is hardly comparable.  We want to eliminate as much HFCS from our family’s diet as possible.  Second, we are both firm believers in supporting our local economy. We want the local small farmers to thrive!  Third, we are hoping this will free up enough money in our monthly budget to buy non-hormone injected meats throughout the winter.  Fourth, we want to teach our children to be good caretakers of God’s Earth.

Here is an estimate of what we plan to can/freeze.  The numbers are the amount we think we will need to squirrel away for the year.  This does not include the amount we will eat while it is in season.

APRIL   Asparagus (canned 12 lbs)  Peas (frozen 12 lbs)

MAY       Strawberries for jam and syrup  (canned 3 quarts)  Beets  (canned  5 lbs)  

JUNE     Carrots (frozen 12 lbs)  Peaches  (canned 36 lbs)  Potatoes  (canned  30 lbs)  Broccoli  (frozen  30 lbs)  Zucchini for bread and soups  (frozen 3 lbs)

JULY     Tomatoes for sauce/paste/whole/catsup/salsa  (canned 80 lbs)  cabbage for sourkraut  (canned?????)  Blueberries for syrup and frozen for baking  (canned/frozen  4 quarts)  Blackberries for syrup  (canned 2 quarts)  Rapsberries for jam  (canned 2 quarts)

AUGUST  Green Beans  (frozen  30 lbs)  Cauliflower (frozen 20 lbs)  Corn  (Canned  48 lbs or 60 ears of corn)  Pears (canned  25 lbs)  Cucumbers for pickles/relish  (canned 27 Pints…not sure how many cucumbers this is)

SEPTEMBER  Apples for applesauce, jelly, filling/side dishes/apple butter  (canned  at least 2 bushels)

 
This plan will obviously need to be reviewed and modified as the year goes on and we see how much we have used.

Search terms and canning tomatoes

I have had this blog for almost a year now.  The graphic below shows a screen shot of the search engine phrases that have brought visitors to my site, along with the frequency of their use:

Well…I know what I need to write more about this year.  Expect a July or August series on putting up every tomato product known to man.  

Or at least one nice informative post.

View from the seedling chair 2009

I start my seeds in my crawl space.  The ceiling is about 4 feet high and several obstacles on the way are only about 3 feet high.  It does, however, have a nice cement floor and a drain handy.  Here is what I can see from this chair:

Seedling chair

 

Behind the chair, on the wall

Sink still needs to be hooked up. It holds pots now.

Timer and light cords in the "ceiling"

One table's lights

 

Broccoli flat

 

Table #2...currently dark

 

My seed collection

Half gallon Milk cartons. Perfect for potting up tomatoes.

My current water source...a line meant for a fridge ice maker.