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Kraut

My cabbages are doing magnificently, despite the recent heat. With the help of my friend Scott, I coinverted 15 lbs of cabbage into saurkraut. Here is the recipe.
Cabbage was shredded in a food processor. 5 lb batches of shredded cabbage were sprinked with 3 Tbsp. of salt (non-iodized pickling salt), tossed to distribute the salt, and then allowed to stand 5 minutes until wilted. The cabbage was packed tightly into a large glass container, pressing with the bottom of a wine bottle until the released cabbage juices rose to the top and covered the cabbage. This was covered with a dish plate, and the plate was weighted down with two quart zip-lock plastic bags filled with water. This will sit in the corner of our kitchen for 2 weeks, at which point it should be ready to eat. With refrigeration, the finished product will last a year. Alternatively, the kraut can be canned in a boiling water bath processor.
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Summer at last.

Well there always is light at the end of the tunnel. The coldest winter and coldest wettest spring in recent memory was followed by the driest sunniest summer in decades. I ended up with so many healthy tomato seedlings that I sold them, on consignment, to the local farm and garden store. The store sold nearly $1000 at retail price, representing a 50% mark-up. After costs (plastic pots, etc) my profit was about $400.
I planted over 40 varieties of mainly heirloom tomatoes. They are listed below. The first plant to ripen fruit was Koralik. Its tiny ( 1/2″) fruit have intense tomato flavor. Following close behind are Sausage and Besser.

Here is my tomato list.
Alicante
Amish Paste
Anna Russian
Ananas Noir
Beam’s Yellow Pear
Besser
Black Krim
Black Prince
Bonnie Best
Brandywine
Buckbee’s New 50 Day
Cherokee Purple
Costoluto Genovese
Cuostralee
Camp Joy
Delicious
Eva Purple Ball
Green Zebra
First Pick
Fred Limbaugh
Gill’s All Purpose
Ilse’s Yellow Latvian
Italian Tree
Kellog’s Breakfast
Koralik
Long Keeper
Manitoba
Manyel
Martino’s Roma
Marglobe
Mule Team
Money Maker
Napoli
Neve’s Azorean Red
New Hampshire Surecrop
Old Brooks
Picardy
Porter
Purple Russian
Red Siberian
Russian Big Roma
Rutgers
Saint Pierre
San Marzano
Sausage
Slava
Stupice
Tiffen Mennonite
Tigerella
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Sun, finally

Temperature over the last month has been below the seasonal average on 28 out of 31 days. We have had rain (or snow) every day for the last 2 months. We had an inch of snow yesterday morning – the first April snow accumulation I have seen in 22 years here. Today, finally, sunshine and 50 degree temperatures. Time to get the garden cleaned up and a few cabbabes, parsley and onions transplated.

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The calendar says it’s time to plant carrots?

Looks like a good day to work in the green house. Pots seeded with 50 varieties of heirloom tomatos are presently beginning to sprount in my house. I have transferred the first few into the green house. Small pots seeded with 50 seeds each of broccoli, white cabbage, red cabbage and cauliflower several weeks ago grew to have their first true leaves over the last week. Yesterday I finished transplanting these seedlings into 4″ pots in the green house.

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Hot times in the garden

The last month has been warm and rainless. The first tomatoes are ripening. Slava was first, starting July 12. New Hampshire Surecrop was second. However, the Surecrop seeds were saved from last year, and I just learned that the variety is a hybrid. Oviously, theyhave not bred true since the original was a late variety with 5 inch fruits, whereas what I have now is early with 1.5 inch fruit – maybe reverted to wild mexican ancestor.
The dryness has suppressed weed germination, so the garden is nearly weed-free. Aggressive irrigation by flooding the paths between rows has promoted growth of the deeply rooted vegetables without germinating the weed seeds at the surface.
I have harvested about half of the potatoes. They are small because of the drought, but really healthy. The space vacated by harvested potatoes has been planted with root vegetables (carrot, parsnip, salsify, beets).
I have had a bumper crop of shelling peas, starting 2 weeks ago and continuing today.
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Spring at last

Weather is warming at last, and a few days with minimal rainfall has the garden soil dry enough to till. Now have 100 tomatoes in gallon cans under cloches in the garden. 16 tomato plants, 5 cucumber plants and one melon plant are planted, through black plastic, under a cloche. Three days ago (Sat.) finally planted all the potatoes. Usually, this time of year, they all would be badly sprounted. This year, with the extended cold weather, they are just starting to sprout, and in perfect shape for planting.

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Coldest April Ever

April has been one of the coldest on record. The last week has had the coldest temperatures ever recorded for the date, with many inches of snow each of the last 3 days. The “average date of last frost” was yesterday, but we are having freezing temperatures every night. Needless to say the garden is behind schedule. Even in the greenhouse, the pepper seedlinga all croaked. These were reseeded on April 6.