Eating my own tomatoes

Have been eating tomatoes from my own plants as they slowly trickle in. Holy Cow - I did it!

Cell phones? And, yes, I am alive

Things have been getting hectic here in my real life, which leaves me less time to blog, or to pursue new and fun blog-y type things.

First, I have a question for all of you out there in reader-land. What do you do for phones/cell phones? I'm about 95% sure that we could be paying less for our phone service. And, really, that 5% is probably just wishful thinking because I don't want to research it. (Remember, I am a bit lazy.)

We've been with the same company for about five years, and momentum is pretty much what has kept us with them. When my brother-in-law was visiting this past weekend (see, I really did have stuff going on!), his phone got better reception than ours. He has a newer phone (newer than mine by about a year, newer than my husband's by about three) and a different provider. Hmmm.... maybe we should switch. But the thought of fees paralyzes me.

Should we switch providers? We only have cell phones, but don't talk on them much, so we rarely, if ever come close to using up all of our minutes. Most plans I have seen have way more minutes than we need. What about pre-paid? When confronting that option, I'm paranoid that I'll always be running out of minutes/data, or will keep using it us, causing it to cost more in the long run.

Enough complaining? What do you all do, and how did you arrive at your solution.

Also, the tomato plant I thought was down for the count seems to be coming back! Looks like a few days of heavy rain and me leaving it alone were good for the tomato-soul!

Tomatoes. I may be obsessed with them.

My posts seem to be revolving around the little orbs.

Recently, a few of the tomato fruits had actually started to redden (or turn orange or yellow). Since I couldn't remember which plants were which, and I didn't really know what color they were supposed to be, I just let them be.

I also had several fruits with cracked skin, and couldn't remember if I needed to prune them off as soon as possible, or just let them alone. I chose the latter option. A few of these ended up being sacrificed under a nearby bush as I didn't want to chance biting into a bug, and they looked like they had bore holes in them. (that being said, I don't really know a bore hole from an infected one... so... my husband was talking about taking out that particular bush anyway...)

I took the rest of my bounty inside, rinsed them off, and cut around the split skins and bruises. (yeah, left them on a bit long) All in all, quite tasty. And I'm quite proud of myself, even if they only amounted to a snack so far.

Any gardening successes to report?

Shampoo, Tomatoes, and me

Just an update on the JR Liggett bar. I still like it. It still is doing a great job. And my shower time has been greatly reduced. So reduced that I don't really have a time to turn off the water whilst I do something else and then turn it back on.

My tomato plants are hanging in there. One that appears to have been the victim of a varmint attack (as several branches are leafless) has a few fruits on it, and as of a day ago, maybe one flower. I feel as though I'll be saying goodbye to that plant shortly.

In happier tomato news, some of the tomatoes are ripening and getting color. Since I don't actually remember which plants are which variety, I'm not sure which ones are supposed to be yellow versus red, but guess that'll come...um...naturally.

Here's a question for you veteran tomato gardeners: If the skin has split on a tomato, should I clip it off now, or let it ripen and just eat it?

How are your summers (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyhow) going? Any garden experiments?

Anyone else having water heater issues this year? (was just looking back - in February, the one in our apartment had issues, then recently the one in our new house did, too! Am I destined to take sponge baths or cold showers?)

Holiday Catch-up*

I'm alive, promise.

Belated Happy fourth to you. Hope you had a fun and safe holiday weekend! (If it was a holiday for you. If not, well, still hope it was relaxing and safe!)

We were away this weekend, visiting family, so my poor tomatoes didn't get watered. On the way back, we noticed that the river by town is lower than it was. This means that not only did I not water the plants, but neither did the sky. The poor branches were a little droopy, and some of the leaves looked burned up. I hope that they will have perked back up after being watered yesterday. Killing a total of 6 tomato plants would neither be green, nor frugal.

You know what is pretty awesome, though? Leftovers for lunch. I brought in leftover spaghetti today, and as always, it didn't disappoint. Last night, I didn't do anything fancy, just browned meat, added sauce and boiled noodles (whole wheat ones, thank you very much). I could have made may own sauce, but didn't. (Maybe I'll have enough tomatoes to try my hand at it!) Could have doctored up the sauce, but didn't.

We spent a good portion of the afternoon getting home from work, via the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Sounds daunting, huh? Well, aside from finding the necessary documentation amid our boxes, the process here is relatively painless, especially when compared with previous states where we've lived. The efficiency of this state's motor vehicle/licensing division must save them money. We have been to a few different locations, and when I switched my license over to this state, I braved the branch location on a Saturday morning. I had to wait, but (a) it was Saturday, and I was ready to wait and (b) the line still moved. I don't think that this state is employing significantly fewer people (based solely on what I've seen on the front-end, customer service side of things), but they still move people through efficiently (and politely).

What was fun about it? Since we moved to a different county, our vehicle taxes were lower. It was only $10-20, but, hey, we'll take it!

* I titled this after writing. Please tell me you chuckled a little bit at a "catch-up" post about tomatoes....

Things I've learned about tomatoes and farmer's markets

As you may recall, last Thursday, I mentioned I had been severely under-watering my tomatoes. Once we got back home from our trip, I started giving my tomato plants the gallon of water a day my step-mom suggested, except when we had significant storms and rainfall (like we did last night, after I had watered!).

Well, wow! What a difference an appropriate amount of water makes! On three of the surviving five plants, it is a little difficult to notice, because of just how bushy they were before, but there are a few more tomatoes starting. On the other two, though, it is very noticeable. These two were initially planted in the backyard, not the front box, next to a rose bush and a privacy fence, so they only get morning sun. They are, and have been, so much smaller than the others, that I sort of thought I and planted them all wrong, but kept watering. Since I've increased the amount of water, I can see that they've shot up! And, yesterday, one of them even started a tomato! I am way too giddy about that one tomato.

Also, I went to my farmer's market this weekend, and one of the local organic farms had a native plants give-away. Thinking it was some sort of a raffle, I approached the table. When I told them what drew me to the table, they just smiled and asked which ones I would like. Talk about being giddy! Felt like I hit the jackpot! They had info sheets on the many different variety of seedlings they had, and helped me pick out two that should work well in my yard. Green because they are native plants. Frugal since they were free.

So, take the time to wander around your local farmer's market, if you can. And, make sure you are giving your plants the right amount of water! These are things I learned last week!

Recipe Thursday: Courtesy of my husband

I admit it: sometimes, I forget that my husband was a fully functioning adult before we met, and that he continues to be a fully functioning adult, who chooses to be with me and doesn't need me take care of things.

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the general idea holds. I don't always give him the credit he deserves.

Anyway, the other night we had a thrown together meal of rice and beans (an indian style soybean mix in a microwavable pouch). To make an appetizer, he got fish sauce and cilantro, too.

1) He taught me a trick for cleaning cilantro: remove stems from needed amount; rinse under water in your hands, and squeeze off excess moisture. Place on the edge of a paper towel, and then roll the towel, squeezing out the remaining water. Voila!

2) He then finely chopped it, salted it and peppered it
3) He made rice balls as best he could from our rice, and rolled them in the cilantro.
4) Some fish sauce was placed in a dish.
5) Rice balls dipped in said dish.
6) Pop in mouth and enjoy!

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this. Usually, I am not a huge cilantro fan. I like it, but find that it can easily overpower a dish, or that too much has been added to something. The combination of rice, cilantro and fish sauce, though, was wonderful (if not a bit salty, though, this can be easily altered, and I do like salt).

And because I know you are on the edge of your seats, wondering about my tomatoes:
There are about 6 tomatoes in various stages of growing right now. I have plenty of blooms that I hope will develop fruit.

I did learn this weekend, though, that I have been severely under-watering the tomatoes. Luckily, it had been a rainy spring, so the plants didn't die of thirst out-right, but I suspect that the water deprivation affected the fruit development.

New Design, Mattress Plastic, and more on tomatoes

1) What do you think? I just played around with Blogger's new template design area.

2) Do you know what the plastic that wraps new mattresses is good for? Aside from protecting mattresses from random debris in the store/truck? We've figured out a thing or two. Bought new mattress, but didn't throw away the thick plastic "bag." Instead, we threw it into the as yet unfinished room with the cans of polyurethane and the shop-vac. A very lonely and forgotten room, indeed. We intended to use it as a drop cloth for when we painted next (which hasn't happened yet, as pretty walls are pretty low on the "Needs to get done, now!" scale). Still plan to use it as such.

In the mean time, we had to return something pretty large to a store. Wouldn't fit in our car. (Curses! Small-car-power fail!) Borrowed my uncle's truck. (Woo-hoo!) It had just rained - uh-oh. But wait! We could still preserve the integrity of the box, and ensure we get all of our money back! Mattress plastic to the rescue!

A smaller piece was torn off, and laid in the bed of the truck. Items to be returned slid right on top, and remained nice and dry. The return went swimmingly. Trying to find a replacement? Still in progress.

3) Tomatoes. Still not 100%, but that isn't surprising. Upon inspection yesterday, I found a few more stalks that could probably be trimmed off. What is your favorite frugal/natural way to fertilize tomatoes?

4) Fireflies. We no longer live in a city. We live in a small town. Last night, we drove to the local small city/uni town to make the previously mentioned return. Driving back, it was dusk. Dusk + farmland = the most fireflies I have ever seen in one place at one time. Swarms of the little things, blinking beautifully. It was wonderful.

Clear! Tomato Resuscitation?

I have cautious hope for the transplanted tomato plants. They were so very sad and droopy from transplant shock for a couple of days, but I dutifully watered them every afternoon when I got home. Mother Nature decided to give me a hand, and has alternated between sun and rain somewhat frequently the past 4 days.

Yesterday, I was beginning to lose hope. Flowers had dried out and wilted. Branches and leaves were limp and dark.

On Tuesday, one plant showed a few signs of returning vigor. A few of the branches/leaves seemed to be coming back to life. I found it funny that this had been the smallest plant before, seemingly restrained by the wild abandon of the other three plants around it. The plants that had been the most robust were now the saddest. I cursed myself for moving plants that had been doing so well. So what if  they were too close together and unsupported. They were growing!

On Wednesday, my underdog plant was doing even better. Still a few wilty branches, but they were far outnumbered by the re-vitalized ones! The other plants seem to be making a come back, too. Flowers are colorful; leaves are open; branches are sturdy.

Until Wednesday, I held off on pruning because I didn't want to cut off a potentially strong branch. Yesterday, though, I took the clippers to the plants, and got rid of yellowed branches/leaves and the ones that were crispy-dry, not just wilty.  I'm pretty sure that I did most everything wrong when I transplanted them, and will be lucky if they survive, much less produce actual edible tomatoes.

What this has taught me is that next year I want to use tomato cages from the get-go. Probably a no-brainer. Or, one of those topsy-turvy tomato planter things.

Recipes, you ask? It is Thursday, after all. For several reasons, we are still mainly doing sandwiches and random conglomerations of whatever is on hand. The former have been rather straightforward, and the latter are not things about which I would boast. Instead, I watch Food Network or Cooking (we have TV again!), and drool.

Tomato Transplants

So, my tomato plants. For lack of a better place to put them, I had stuck them in a flower box in the front of our house. I didn't have any stakes or cages, so they sort of grew however. Also found out that I planted them too close together.

This weekend, I finally got a couple of stakes, and transplanted to along the fence in the backyard, using said fence to help support the plants when I ran out of stakes. The poor things looked all droopy from the shock of being transplanted. I hope that transplanting them at this point wasn't a horrendous mistake, and that the fact that they aren't so much in a garden bed as they are in yard doesn't hurt.

I've heard that tomato plants are hardy, and relatively difficult to kill. We'll see if I have a black or a green thumb.

Moving and Recipe Thursday silence

As a result of moving, for a while, I had two kitchens. One without a working oven, and full of paint cans, and tools. And one that I rarely saw, with depleted stores. Therefore, I did not cook much.

My kitchen now is still down a working oven, but a replacement is scheduled to be installed. It is also still full of tools, but I should, in theory, have time to sort that mess out.

Therefore, cooking is still difficult. Unless you count microwaving hot dogs left over from a pitch in a work. We've been spending too much money on fast food. And we can tell. We've also been eating quite a few sandwiches. My kitchen can handle sandwiches!

On a happier note, I have planted a few tomato plants, a lavender bush and a rose bush. I think I need to transplant the lavender someplace with more sun, but the rose bush is growing well. So are the tomato plants! I don't have stakes or cages for them, so some of them are falling over themselves a bit. But, they have flowers on them. I may end up with some home-grown tomatoes! This thrills me. I'm also excited because I bought three different varieties... the names of which escape me at the moment, but I am looking forward to tasting the differences.

So - are you a better mover than I am? Better at the eating-while-moving than me? How about gardener? (I bet you are.) Any advice for a novice gardener with limited tools?