Summertime and the living is crazy

There's been a lot of this:

Inside the boundaries -- a hayfield -- there is a garden. Things are growing. I am scared.

I'm mostly scared of these:

and these:

and these:

and these:

and the other many varieties of tomatoes plants -- planned and unexpected -- that are growing (with a low rumbling sound) in my garden. Besides those that I planted (20), those that I bought (6, because I wasn't sure those 20 were going to make it), those volunteers that I replanted in a better location (10 or 15) and those that grew up in the beans and the basil and the squash and that grew so fast I didn't have the heart to rip them out (and I did rip out literally over 100), I have a lot of tomato plants. I conducted a census this afternoon. The result: 45. 

Forty-five tomato plants.

Yup, I'm screwed.

I picked the first two last night, below, along with a good amount of basil. (During the pesto-making process last night I remembered I don't have a blender or mortar and pestle, my food processor died, and the fabulous Magic Bullet wouldn't do the job. I chopped until my arms gave out.)

See, last year I grew many tomatoes and canned many tomatoes and still ran out in January. I didn't want that to happen this year. But I'm in over my head.

Besides tomatoes, I have several varieties of beans, mostly to be dried for shelling. I like my winter soups, after all. I tried a new trellis system for beans this year: just hang strings from a wood frame (the extent of my husband's help in the garden so far). The string beans and shell beans really took to it:

The snap peas, I now realize, are a bit too dainty. They need horizontal support as well. Those diagonal strings below are (barely) holding up snap peas swooning in between trellises.

But they're growing nicely.

I have a tomato-centric garden this year, but not exclusively. I've got a few varieties of peppers (still in flower, this is Vermont, after all). Squashes (butternut, acorn, Thelma Sanders):

October beans (as well as kidney, navy pea, and Good Mother Stallard):

Carrots, which I planted sparsely and thinned ruthlessly for once:

Onions:

Garlic (I just picked 64 bulbs, which are curing in my so-rarely-used-these-days dye studio):

Corn:

And apples:

The snap peas are coming every day.

Here's about a third of our first blueberry harvest. It made a few smoothies, at least.

The raised beds need some updating. The raspberries and strawberries and asparagus are gone by. The shallots are hanging out. The rhubarb and chives are still growing. The weeds are hanging in there as well.

I have some lettuce, but the spinach never came up. Neither did our 70 pounds (!) of potatoes; the spring was just too wet. We had great intentions of replanting, but we honestly could not carve out two hours of time or energy to go for it in the past six weeks. We have been unpleasantly stressed-out busy for several weeks. At least it reminds me of the only thing I don't despise about February: there's down time.

I ran into my friend Shelagh (knitter/spinner/designer extraordinaire) yesterday morning at the market and she admonished me for not updating the blog lately. I assured her I've been running out and snapping pics whenever I get the chance but I feel like I never get the chance. Between my daughter's summer softball games and two not-to-be-missed social engagements, we were booked five straight nights last week. Add a day job to that and there's not a lot of leftover time for weeding, cleaning, blogging or anything else. Certainly not spinning, knitting or dyeing.

But I'm whining. So:

Remember these little chicks, shown here back on June 25?

This was them on July 24:

 

Yikes.

Sad news to report: As of Monday, we are down to two cows (the third is headed to the freezer) and NO pigs. For the first time in four years, the pig pen is empty. Jerry wasn't having any luck breeding Lucy (or Red before her) and the prospect of keeping two many-hundred-pound pigs as pets wasn't feasible. RIP to two great piggies. We'll have a quiet winter and start up with piglets in the spring. 

(The remaining two cows bellowed for a day and a half after Polly's departure. As if we didn't feel bad enough already.)

In other news, a now-12-year-old does some summer reading on the round bales:

For a brief time, we had two turkey poults. One lived a week. The other disappeared last night. What's new.

Lily:

Milo:

Mark and Trooper:

Tomorrow afternoon we pick our daughter up at Camp Downer (not nearly as depressing as it sounds!) on the other side of the state. I'm making it a personal day, so hello three-day weekend. I need it.

Comments

[Abby]

Good thing you have that tomato sauce maker! Your garden edibles look great. I am having a discouraging year - too hot, too humid, too weedy, no rain. Ugh. Even my tomato plants are being uncooperative. And the other day I had to *buy* zucchini - unheard of! Enjoy your three-day weekend!

[Cyndi]

Don't be ascared of those 'maters! What you can't get canned, just freeze them until you can get to them.

Good thing about freezing is when you bring them to room temp, the skins just fall off! Really, it is so much easier to freeze the tomatoes and concentrate on canning the beans and other produce and leave the tomatoes in the freezer until the garden slows down!!

[gayle]

I'll chime in with the freezing of tomatoes - I'd never tried it, but AnnaMarie gave me a bunch that she'd frozen last year, and I'm a true fan now. She'd just dropped them into ziplock bags and thrown them into the freezer -easy and fast. And I can pull out a few or a lot to add to whatever I'm cooking. If any of my tomatoes actually ripen (our garden is soooo far behind yours...) I'll be freezing some for myself, in addition to the canning.
As usual, love all your photos!

[jessie]

I find it hard to believe your garden is behind ours, but I suppose that makes geographic sense. Yes, I have heard about freezing tomatoes and I probably will; but we have a cow and a pig going into the freezer in a week or two, so it's not going to be easy!

Jessie

[BeckyinVT]

Wow, your tomatoes must be two weeks ahead of mine! Acutally your whole garden may be that far ahead, it looks wonderful!

[Hanna]

Oh, such gorgeousness in the garden. Makes me miss living in Vermont SO so much!

[jody]

love love LOVE your beautifull plentiful vermont garden!

[donna lee]

You have been busy! The chickens look like they're wearing yellow boots. They grow so fast.

The garden looks so fertile. We had a really wet spring too but as soon as we planted the flowers out front, no rain and blistering sun. So, no flowers this year and we didn't even get one tomato plant in. I'll miss them come winter.

[Jill Hennessey]

you never told me she was going to downer, erins great friend julia blatchford is and has been working there forever!well the rest of it is beautiful and if we don't hear from you for a while we will know to look under some vine in the garden...

[Shelagh]

Good seeing you on the run at Greg's!!

DH lost quite a few plantings this spring too, but 70lbs of potatoes? Ouch. We have been eating new taters for a while, and the blueberries have been astonishing this year. I am putting 4lbs a day in the barn freezer. He is going to be making jam and pies all winter, pancakes too, yum. He says tomatoes will be overwhelming (if they ever ripen - I am hovering, afraid the basil will be gone by if they don't hurry up). Squash & cukes so plentiful I have to set them out for free by the road. Even with DS inhaling them daily as Quickie Pickles. Cheers, Shelagh.

[Leah]

I wish we lived closer - I'd love to take some tomatoes off your hands. We planted 5 plants, my engineer husband built a wooden cage covered in bird netting to keep the squirrels out (the last 2 years they've eaten all our tomatoes) and yet and still critters got into the enclosure and chewed or absconded with all but our little sungolds (which are delicious if you've never tried them). So, I think we're giving up on tomatoes next summer. We also planted a zucchini this year - first time for us - lots of flowers, then the flowers fall off and we have no fruit as of yet. I thought they were pretty foolproof. Oh well, just have to budget for the farmers' market this year and figure out what to grow next year. Enjoy your produce and your meat. Everything looks beautiful. Also, enjoy your three day weekend!

[Ashley DeMazza]

My name is Ashley DeMazza. I am a kindergarten teacher at North Canaan Elementary School. I live in Falls Village CT with Mr. DeMazza, also a teacher and the two DeMazza daughters. I am so glad I found your blog and plan to check it often.

[Caroline]

Oh! Your garden is amazing. I'm kind of jealous of the 45 tomato plants, but only kind of because I know how much work they mean. I have four plants in my garden, and they're keeping me busy!

[elizabeth]

Girl, you ARE in trouble if you're considering using your Magic Bullet for making pesto!!!

Oh, wait a second. There's a BLENDER called "Magic Bullet!" Now it all makes sense! ;o)

[Norma]

I, too, love February ;)! I feel your pain around the tomato avalanche that's a-comin'. Good luck.

[Laura]

Vermont looks like such a lovely place to live. Just love all your great pictures!

The baby chicks, now grown are adorable, and your garden makes me tired just thinking about all the work involved. When in the world do you find time to work at a job outside the home?