Ode to Tomatoes

The street

filled with tomatoes

midday,

summer,

light is halved

like a tomato,

its juice runs through the streets.

In December,

unabated,

the tomato invades the kitchen,

it enters at lunchtime,

takes its ease on countertops,

among glasses,

butter dishes,

blue saltcellars.

It sheds its own light,

benign majesty.

Unfortunately,

we must murder it:

the knife sinks into living flesh,

red viscera,

a cool sun,

profound,

inexhausible,

populates the salads of Chile,

happily, it is wed to the clear onion,

and to celebrate the union

we pour oil,

essential child of the olive,

onto its halved hemispheres,

pepper adds its fragrance,

salt, its magnetism;

it is the wedding of the day,

parsley hoists its flag,

potatoes bubble vigorously,

the aroma of the roast knocks at the door,

it's time!

come on!

and, on the table,

at the midpoint of summer,

the tomato,

star of earth,

recurrent and fertile star,

displays its convolutions,

its canals,

its remarkable amplitude and abundance,

no pit,

no husk,

no leaves or thorns,

the tomato offers its gift of fiery color and cool completeness.

--Pablo Neruda

First Potatoes!

First potatoes from my @SecretFarm! They are French Fingerlings
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

These are the first potatoes I have ever grown. Such cute little guys. They are French Fingerlings- pink inside and out. Basically they are recycled potatoes I got from the co-op that had started growing in the dark cupboard inside their plastic bag. So, I planted them. Highly recommend it. Barely any effort and now I hopefully have a whole new bag o' taters!

I can't wait to harvest the rest!

All about the berries!

All about the berries
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

Hey! Two posts in one day?! What the...!

Yes, the berries. That is what it is all about right now at the secret farm. First, it was the strawberries by the bucket all June long (and still a few stragglers now) And right on their heels (or whatever berries have) the raspberries! They are crazy this year! Which makes me wonder, do berries like drought? I did not water the raspberries AT ALL, and they are just nutso! BTW, the pic shows about a 1/4 of the raspberries picked yesterday!

The strawberries were pretty gangbusters too, with very little attention from me. In fact, watering them just seems to encourage slug damage, so I am refraining.

I just don't know how they make themselves so juicy and delicious without rain!? I know raspberries have very deep roots - ever try to dig some up? But strawberries have very shallow roots. Pretty amazing.

What are all your berries up to? What are your favs?

Monarchs released!

Released Monarch
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

This is one of the 3 Monarchs we had that made cocoons on the same day, and came out on the same day! Unfortunately, they came out early in the morning on July 4th and when we got up and saw them we didn't have time to get more than a few iPhone shots of them before we had to run off to a parade. Oh well. We've got another one getting close to making a cocoon now, perhaps it will come out when we have more time to spend with it!

Twittering from the Garden

Hey! You've probably been wondering where the heck I am lately. Well, the 3 of you that are left, anyway. ; )

I've been in the garden a lot lately, big surpirse! But, I've also been twittering more as a consequence, because it is much easier to do from the garden! It also just takes a couple of minutes, which means you don't even have to stop working. Which stops the panic of not getting everything done in the garden, which is a good thing.

There's also a lot of other great gardeners on twitter, and I may even blog about them too.

So, follow me on twitter eh? I'm @secretfarm

I will still blog here though, so don't worry! I will probably blog just about as much as before during the growing season, but now there's twitter too. Yay!

Protect your babies!

Just a quick warning to all MN gardeners - we may get a frost or FREEZE tonight! Ack! Just when I thought it was safe to plant those zone 9 plants I bought last weekend. Here's what Paul Douglas over at Minnpost.com has to say. So, cover up them buggers or take your chances - but don't say I didn't warn you!

Spring Cleaning

Just a quick post - I know it's been awhile! But, as my fellow secret farmers know, Spring is a busy time. So many seeds to plant and so much mulch to remove. It's clean up time!

And the weeds! Every year I am surprised at how much the weeds have grown already. I swear they grow under the snow! I've got Creeping Charlie in the strawberries and Crab Grass in the raised garden. Then there's the invasive species that you have foolishly decided to grow anyway. Now is a good time to quite literally, nip them in the bud! I've been pulling strawberries out of the brick patio, and Cup and Saucer out of the side garden. I'm sure once I get back out there. I'll see I've got a bunch more stuff to pry out of the dirt that I hadn't noticed yet.

As much as Spring is a time for tidying up, it is also a time for planting outside, and that's the fun part right? I've got three kinds of peas in the ground do far, and with no rain have been watering them. I planted about 35 each of Cascadia, Super Sugar Snap and Carouby De Maussane (a snow pea). So far not a single shoot has shown it's face-? But, I'm trying not to panic and be patient. Which I don't know about you, but is very hard for me. I've also planted a bunch of re-seeded radishes in little patches, and some of them have come up. I'm pretty sure I've also got some volunteer lettuce coming up, unless it's some kinda tricky weed, in which case I am watching new developments closely.

I've also made some mini greenhouses to start my tomato seedlings in this year. It's super easy, and super green!

Well, I better get out there again - there's rain in the forecast, and I'd like to get perhaps a few cold weather things in the ground first. Of course, if I do it's sure not to rain. ; )

What do you have in the ground so far? Did you lose anything over the winter?