Finally!!! Red tomatoes in the garden.

[Spookwriter]

I would never call you "dumb as a rock", dear Queen.

You're not from the city. (Glen Mississippis ain't no bigger that Bugtussel.

You KNOW you can't trust me.


Spook...smiling sweetly

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Anybody know what kills tomato plants? No reason...Just curious...

Spook, you're right...I'd never ever trust you...not without fact checking EVERYTHING...

 

[Spookwriter]

Just curious...How many tomato plants did you
people plant this year? Are you thinking maybe
you planted too many?

...and he's planning on a bigger garden next year.

 

[Spookwriter]

Em...Have I EVER actually lied to you? Have you
ever heard me actually lie to anybody?


Spook...boyscout material

 

[Spookwriter]

Today weren't any better than yesterday. The
tomatos still aren't quite red enough...

Thinking I may have to get out my wifes big red
Christmas bulbs and hang on the plants. At least
the neighbors would think I've got ripe tomatos.


Spook....always thinking ahead

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Oh sure Spook...since you're so trustworthy, I'll send over the file.

 

[Spookwriter]

...and in the South, women do all the work while the
man thinks about what she needs to do next?

I live to far North...My wife sat in a lawnchair and watched
me plant her flowers. Never been to the garden in her life.

(She's a city-girl)


Spook...who admires Terry's plan.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Just curious...How many tomato plants did you
people plant this year? Are you thinking maybe
you planted too many?

...and he's planning on a bigger garden next year.

The garden is always the same size silly Spook... about 200' by 125' or so. Been there for around 50 years now, I think it would be too much trouble to move it. Quite a tiny garden for our area of the country.

We planted around 100 tomato plants, but only the first 25 or so in the lowest, dampest part of the garden done very well. The second set planted a month later we will get just a few buckets from. The last batch planted a month after the second batch isn't going to do anything. It will just get plowed under for the fall crops. I try to plant most things in batches. That way if the weather goes nuts maybe something will make anyway.



On a serious note; MFB has been hungry. I know what it feels like to go days without eating. Being poor, uneducated, unskilled and too proud to ask for help tends to be a bad thing sometimes. When I moved back to the family farm I promised myself I'd never, EVER be in that place again. I do plant too much. I admit it, but I'd rather have too much as too little. If we have a good year like this year, we preserve all we can, sell some and give away some to friends, family and people we hear of that are in need. Some years I've gave away as much as half the produce we raised, other years we don't make enough to get through the winter ourselves. Farming is a crap shoot, but it's the only life I know.

But if you can get your golf cart outta the mud, you are welcome to take all the tomatoes you want. Em's not the only one getting sick of them.

I'll even help you pick them.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

"Just a few buckets..."



Oh how excited I am...




Em, waiting impatiently.

 

[Spookwriter]

We did have a big garden. Turned it into this real cool thing
called ...grass. Looks just like a yard.

I plant it for fun. Just to watch it grow. I love to stand in it, the
smells. Play in the dirt.

We eat what we want and give the rest away.

One of the things we own is a trucking company. We actually
haul "fresh" tomatos from Florida and Georgia to Ohio. 45,000
pounds at a time. That's a lot of tomatos. But I dont' like them.
Not the same as ones you grow yourself.

Tomatos, corn, melons, taters, bananas...pretty much any fruit
or vegetable coming north. And it's much cheaper for us to buy
it from direct from the grower than it is to grow it ourself.

"Overages" that we end up mostly go the a local foodbank. We've
given many, many skids of food products away.