Here are the first tomatoes of the season. Yes, I realize it’s the end of August. It’s been a long cool summer here in Montana, and the tomatoes have only just now started getting ripe. Just in time to be swathed in plastic sheeting. The romas are looking good — I planted two kinds, Borghese and Milano Plum, both from Seeds of Italy. They’re just starting to pink up, but I’m beginning to see homemade sauce and salsa in my future. The Siberians are coming in nicely. I couldn’t remember the difference when I was planting between Perestroika and Grushovka,…
-
-
Well, not a tub exactly, but the top half of a composter that didn’t work very well. Since I’m dating a man who doesn’t eat vegetables, except for, as he puts it “the noble root crop” I’m growing spuds this year. I tried them once before and they didn’t work particularly well — mostly because I don’t think I watered them enough. Also, they take up a lot of space — so this year I thought I’d try containment spuds — the bottom of this thing is open, so perhaps they’re rooting their way down into the stony ground (this…
-
There’s a vigorous and healthy debate going on in the blogosphere about school lunch. Congress is gearing up to revise the Child Nutrition and WIC act, which includes the school lunch program, and the forces of Hope and Change have ideas. (Click through to the actual essays linked, my summaries necessarily oversimplify.) Alice Waters started the debate on the NY Times Op-Ed page, advocating that we double the lunch subsidy from $2.17 to $5.00. She also, no surprise, wants a program that works with farmers to get organic local produce into schools, and advocates rebuilding school kitchens. This suggestion, particularly…