Sweet Local Farm

We have 14 different varieties of tomatoes growing this year, which is turning out to be a great year for tomatoes.
I never cease to be amazed by the vast differences in shape, color, size and taste among tomatoes. None of ours have ripened up yet, but here is a gallery of the interesting shapes of the fruit to come:

A beautiful Medford tomato that looks like Cinderella’s carriage:

Even the leaves of the Medford are unusual:

The greenhouse is working out really well for growing tomatoes. The Cherry Sweeties are taller than me already and just covered in fruit. Check out the greenhouse:

The plants are trained up string that is tied to the metal supports in the greenhouse:

Also planted in the greenhouse are jalapenos, habaneros, eggplant, and muskmelon.

The greenhouse got some major TLC today. It was thoroughly weeded, weed wacked, and vented. Right now it is planted with 10 different varieties of tomatoes, jalapeno and habanero peppers. Everything seems to be flourishing in the heat, but as the season progresses, the heat will be too much for the plants. So, we rolled up the plastic walls to let in the breeze and let out the heat. The plants are already flowering so we hope to be eating our homegrown tomatoes soon!

Luke ties the tomatoes to string supports with strips of t-shirt material.

A Cold House is a greenhouse that relies only on solar energy to create heat. We built our Cold House last summer with four season gardening in mind. In the fall we planted arugula and spinach. We ate that through December and then it stopped growing for the bitter cold months of January and February. Today, we noticed it has begun to grow again and is doing quite well.

Luke and I weeded out the spinach and arugula:

We decided to experiment with early plantings of more spinach, arugula, and radish. So we went to work and prepped the bed:

We saved the seeds from our summer arugula last year. Here is Luke planting those seeds:

I am “tucking in the seeds” or pressing the soil around them:

Watering in our new seeds:

The temperature in the Cold House on this early March day is approximately 53 F. It was about 20 degrees cooler outside, and much more windy.

We had fun getting our hands dirty!

It is about 28 degrees out right now and there is snow on the ground. It is really sunny out and our greenhouse has heated to almost 60 degrees. No electricity or fossil fuels required, just free solar power.

I picked this salad for lunch from the greenhouse today:

Last year I ordered many of our seeds from High Mowing Organic Seeds. Based out of Vermont, High Mowing offers 100% Certified Organic, Non-GMO Seeds and over 450 Heirloom, Open-Pollinated and Hybrid Seeds. Their new seed catalog for 2010 is online now. I’m already starting to plan for next year!

But, this growing season is still in full swing. The days have been warm and the nights have not been getting a hard frost. Our greenhouse greens are doing really well.

The temp outside was around 50 degrees, but inside it was about 74 degrees.

Our greenhouse has been a summer long project. We just finished one of the two 32 ft long raised beds. We lined it with a layer of cardboard to kill the grass and weeds and topped it off with a layer of leaves and clippings. Then we brought in wheel barrel loads of black gold compost and loam. The end result is a rich blend of fertile soil.

We eagerly planted carrots, spinach, and arugula in hopes of enjoying these crops all winter. I know the greenhouse is working because it was so hot in there while we were planting!

Luke building the frame:

Filling the bed with food for the worms:

Filling the beds with soil:

Watering the seeds:

Here I am fooling around on my birthday!

For almost 2 months now, we’ve been gradually building a greenhouse in our free time. Well, it’s actually more of a cold frame than a greenhouse. The final product will have no heat besides the sun, no ventilation besides the wind, and no power besides our hard working bodies.

Here’s a glimpse through the evolution so far.

We hope to finish it up by mid-Fall so we’ll be ready to enjoy some nice hearty-greens throughout the cold season.