The case for tomato transplants. February 11, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in gardening, homesteading, wit and wisdom.Tags: growing tomatoes, Tomato Casual, tomato seeds, tomato transplants, tomatoes
8 comments
Time was when the backyard gardener had two choices: buy a flat of six identical tomato transplants—usually hybrids like ‘Early Girl’, ‘Better Boy’, or, if you were lucky, ‘Sweet 100′—from the local garden center, Agway, or hardware store, or, if you wanted more interesting varieties (technically, cultivars, cultivated varieties), grow them yourself from seed. But what if your garden space was limited and you wanted to grow, say, 10 to 12 different varieties, one plant of each? You either had to buy 10 to 12 seed packets and plant one seed from each packet, or you were the hell out of luck.
Fortunately for all us small-space gardeners, things have changed dramatically in the tomato universe in the past few years. Garden centers have expanded their transplant offerings to include more interesting varieties. And mail-order transplants are becoming more and more available.
Our friend Ben is lucky, since I live relatively near James Weaver’s Meadowview Farm in Bowers, Pennsylvania. Jim Weaver loves heirloom veggies, and grows numerous types of transplants of tomatoes, peppers, hot peppers, eggplants, melons, cukes, squash, and much more, along with herbs, annuals, and a nursery of perennials, shrubs, and trees, as well as offering decorative containers, homemade jams, jellies, and canned goods, customized hot pepper powders, and much, much more. For many years, Silence Dogood, Richard Saunders and I have made the annual spring trek out to Meadowview to select our tomatoes, peppers, decorative hot peppers, nasturtiums, herbs, golden zucchini, ‘Lemon’ and pickling cukes, melons, and ‘Moon and Stars’ watermelon transplants (OFB and Silence) and the hottest hot pepper transplants known to man or beast (Richard).
Thanks to Jim Weaver and Meadowview Farm, our friend Ben has never had to order transplants through the mail. But I’ve been most impressed with the selection of tomato transplants offered by an ever-widening group of highly reputable mail-order companies. If any of you have experience with mail-order transplants, please share it with us!
Meanwhile, here are some sources you should definitely check out if you’d like to go the “one or two of each but really wonderful varieties, please” route:
Totally Tomatoes (www.totallytomato.com): Offers tomato and pepper transplants; minimum purchase is eight plants, four each of two varieties of eight of a single variety. They also offer a number of collections, including the Brandywine Collection, Heirloom Tomato Collection, Paste Tomato Collection, Lil Bit Tomato Collection, Big and Little Tomato Collection, and Main Crop Tomato Collection. Since you’re still getting four plants of each type, you might want to go in with a friend (or four).
Burpee (www.burpee.com): The venerable seed house now offers transplants of most of its tomatoes, three plants per variety, as well as collections like Burpee’s Hot Tomato Collection (no, they’re not fiery hot, just “hot” new introductions), Best of Show Tomato Collection, Burpee’s Tomato Sampler, Burpee’s Tomato Hall of Fame, and Heirloom Taste Tomato Collection. Burpee’s collections include one of each plant, or you can order a double collection with two of each variety.
Seeds of Change (www.seedsofchange.com): Certified organic and committed to preserving biodiversity and supporting sustainable organic agriculture, Seeds of Change takes the higher moral ground. If you’re not pressed for cash and want to put your money where your principles are, check out their Heirloom Tomato Seedlings. You can buy their collection of six excellent organic heirloom transplants as a one-plant-each set or save by buying two of each.
Territorial Seed Company (www.territorialseed.com): Territorial offers a wonderful selection of tomato transplants, including lots of heirlooms. Best of all, you can buy them by the plant for just $3.25 each. Check it out!
White Flower Farm (www.whiteflowerfarm.com): Hard to believe but true, the venerable perennial firm White Flower Farm has gotten into tomato transplants in a big way. Check out their Tomatomania Collection, Early Pickers Collection, Tomato Sampler, Heirloom Sampler, and huge assortment of individual tomato plants, including lots of heirlooms (available individually or in groups of three). As you might expect from an upscale company, the plants aren’t exactly cheap—$6.95 each or three for $19.95—but if you’ve got the money, they certainly have the selection.
Hmmm. Our friend Ben sees that a number of my very favorite seed companies aren’t represented here. That’s because they don’t offer transplants. But they do offer a ton of wonderful tomato seeds, and they all offer free catalogues as well. Our friend Ben suggests that you request their catalogues if you don’t already have them, and think about following up with a seed order: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com), Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com), Abundant Life Seeds (www.abundantlifeseeds.com), Park Seed Company (www.parkseed.com), Renee’s Garden (www.reneesgarden.com), and last but certainly not least, Tomato Growers Supply Comapny (www.tomatogrowers.com).
If you have other favorites our friend Ben has overlooked, please let me know! Check out my earlier post, “Ben Picks Ten: Tomatoes,” for my own top tomato choices. And if you aren’t familiar with the tomatocentric blog, Tomato Casual (www.tomatocasual.com), check it out for “all things tomato.” Happy tomato growing!
Frugal living tip #6. February 10, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom.Tags: energy savings, flat-screen TVs, frugal living, frugal tips
5 comments
Silence Dogood here. As faithful readers know, we here at Poor Richard’s Almanac have elected to start each week of 2009 with a frugal living tip, so folks who are struggling with the economic downturn like us can find some inspiration and cost-cutting ideas. So what happened to yesterday’s tip?
Well, here it is, a day late if not a dollar short, thanks to the kind of customer service that would bring tears to your eyes. Our friend Ben and I live so far from what passes from civilization that our internet access involved both the cable company and the telephone company—high-speed cable in, dial-up out. Are you dying yet? We certainly were when we set up our home office and discovered that this was the best we could get. Paying two monthly bills for internet access wasn’t any fun, either.
This weekend, our internet access kicked out. As always when this happens, we called the cable service and spoke to tech support to let them know we had no access and see if access was down in our area or if it was just us. After checking things out, the technician cheerfully informed us that “Oh, your area was just upgraded to two-way cable so your modem doesn’t work anymore. You won’t be able to get internet access until you bring it to our office and exchange it for a two-way modem.”
Gee, thanks for letting us know. But at least now we can cancel our dedicated computer phone line and save some money. There’s a silver lining to every cloud, or so they say.
But getting back to this week’s frugal living tip. Each month, our electric company sends us a newsletter along with our bill, and not surprisingly, the last few have been focused on strategies for saving energy. This month’s focused on energy hogs you might not have thought about: flat-screen TVs.
Now, with analog TVs going the way of leaded gasoline, even our friend Ben and I finally succumbed and exchanged Ben’s ancient, computer-screen-sized analog TV for a 24-inch flat screen when we visited OFB’s father at Christmas, going to his local Costco and splitting the price with him as our Christmas present. We’ve been enjoying watching DVDs from Netflix on our new and improved TV, even though we still don’t receive any channels. So we probably have the TV plugged in about 6 hours a week, which is a good thing, given the following. I quote:
“LCD and plasma TVs are a big hit. With their dazzling pictures, it’s no wonder. But what you may not know is that these flat-panel phenoms of the TV world are big energy users. Consider this: A new 42-inch plasma TV can draw as much as three times the power of a traditional 27-inch TV, or about as much as a full-size refrigerator. A 42-inch LCD can draw about twice as much as a traditional 27-inch model.
“Those numbers add up to higher electricity bills. Add in other home electronics, like high-definition cable boxes, digital recorders and more, and you could be in for a big surprise. You could also be wiping out any energy savings you might otherwise realize from steps like switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs. To reduce your electricity use and save money, consider how much electricity those new appliances will use. Look for the most energy-efficient models.”
Of course I loved the concept of a 27-inch TV as “traditional,” i.e., hopelessly outdated, as opposed to, say, our new and wonderful 24-inch flat screen. How big does it really have to be?!! But their point is certainly worth taking into account. Remember, an unplugged TV draws no energy, so when you’re not watching, maybe you should pull the plug.
Please share any other energy-conserving ideas you have with us. We could all use some help reducing those electric bills!
‘Til next time,
Silence
God speed the plough. February 10, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, chickens, critters, gardening, homesteading, wit and wisdom.Tags: Burgess & Leigh Farmers Arms bowl, self-sufficiency, the farming life
4 comments
Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood were doing a bit of recreational antiquing this past weekend. We were exploring a local antiques mall with the priceless (and true) sign out front “Go Green, Buy Vintage” when our friend Ben came upon an extraordinary plate. Well, not really a plate, one of those Victorian soup bowls with the wide, flat rim and comparatively shallow, flat bowl.
Mind you, our friend Ben was not looking for bowls, plates, or any form of dishware, nor would I normally have given it a glance. But this particular dish displayed an Eighteenth-Century farm scene, with the farmwife churning butter, the farmer holding some old implement, and between them, all the old hand tools, from scythes and flails to sieves and hay forks, that were an essential part of daily farm life. Underneath them was a farmyard scene with cows, pigs, horses, chickens, geese, a barn, and a wheelbarrow full of what our friend Ben presumes to be manure. And between the farmer and his wife and the barnyard scene was a ribbon with the legend “God speed the plough.” The flat edge of the bowl was bordered with grains and grasses.
The whole thing was colorful, primitive, and charming, and Silence and our friend Ben were captivated. We thought it would make a delightful addition to our own little homestead, Hawk’s Haven, located in the precise middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. But it was when we turned the bowl over and saw what was on the back that our friend Ben realized that I just had to share our find with you.
There’s a verse on the back that would make our hero and blog mentor, Benjamin Franklin, proud. Let it be an inspiration to all of us who strive not just for a more self-sufficient lifestyle, but for everyday contentment. Between the heading “B&L Farmers Arms England” and a ribbon bearing the slogan “Industry Produceth Wealth,” and flanked on both sides by sheaves of wheat, is this:
“Let the wealthy and great
Roll in splendour and state
I envy them not, I declare it
I eat my own lamb
My own chickens and ham
I shear my own fleece and I wear it
I have lawns, I have bowers
I have fruits, I have flowers
The lark is my morning alarmer
So jolly boys now
Heres God speed the plough
Long life and success to the farmer.”
“There is no wisdom… “ February 8, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom.Tags: life lessons, the happy life, wisdom
4 comments
It’s Sunday, so our friend Ben would like to inspire you with a one-sentence sermon. But first, a bit of background. Our friend Ben recalls reading with astonishment that, when polled about what they most wished they could be, Americans overwhelmingly answered “I wish I were smart.” “Smart” ranks right up there with “young,” “thin,” and “rich” in the pantheon of our society’s wannabes. Despite reading such unbelievable statistics as that the average American IQ is 98, our friend Ben knows virtually nobody who isn’t at least a bit smart, so this aspiration struck me as heartrending.
But, as our friend Ben’s beloved Mama loved to point out, “smart” is just the tip of the iceberg. Natural intelligence—the “smarts” you’re born with—is not the whole story by any means. Intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom are three different things. You can have an IQ of 300 and be both ignorant and clueless. You can have an ordinary IQ and have amassed a vast store of knowledge. Whether or not you are wise depends on how you apply the knowledge you have learned through study and/or life experience. Our friend Ben knows people of exceptional intellect whose smartness has not saved them from a life of clueless misery, since they lack even one iota of commonsense. And I know completely uneducated people who have lived rich, full lives because they have learned a great deal through living and become wise.
Wisdom is something our friend Ben both admires and aspires to. But wisdom, like being smart, isn’t the ultimate aspiration. Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood have a fortune-cookie fortune one of us acquired long ago clipped to a magnet on our refrigerator. It says: “There is no wisdom greater than kindness.”
This is one of the most profound and profoundly true statements our friend Ben has ever read. Here at last is a true aspiration, a worthy topic for any Sunday sermon. I leave you with it again as a thought, a hope, a life goal for today and every day. Use your native intelligence and the knowledge you’ve gained through learning and life to try to become wise, for true wisdom is compassion and acceptance, the setting aside of anger and acquisitiveness, the abandonment of “If…” and “If only… ,” and therein lies happiness and contentment. But kindness is wisdom reaching outward, the everyday best that we humans can hope for. Our friend Ben urges you to remember this sentence, to carry it in your heart as I do.
“There is no wisdom greater than kindness.”
Amen.
Eeeww, stink bug stew. February 6, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in critters, wit and wisdom.Tags: edible insects, humor, stink bugs
7 comments
Silence Dogood here. Yesterday, someone came on our blog, Poor Richard’s Almanac, searching for, and I quote, “what do stink bugs taste like.” Well, we don’t know what stink bugs taste like. We don’t want to know what stink bugs taste like. We don’t want to know people who want to know what stink bugs taste like. Just thinking about it gave me a bad night.
But this morning, I began to see the whole stink bug-eating business in a new light. Even as I write, a stink bug is lurking on top of the paper in my printer, waving its antennae at me as if to say (in a high, squeaky, but somehow still ominous voice) “You’re going to forget about me. And the second you do, I’m going to blast off—BZZZZTTTT!!!—and land on the front of your tee-shirt. This time, I’ll succeed in killing you off.” After all, I can only survive so many tests of my cardiac fitness.
So I’m thinking, why not turn the tables (or in this case, possibly, table)? I could go outside right now and put up a big sign at the road:
STINK BUGS! All You Can Eat!
(Takeout Only)
Would-be stink bug gourmets could stop by and scoop up as many as they could find. I’d even give them a nice plastic bag and some dip at no extra charge.
Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww.
‘Til next time,
Silence
Poor Richard’s first birthday. February 5, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, chickens, critters, gardening, homesteading, pets, recipes, wit and wisdom.Tags: Ben Franklin, blog anniversary, blogiversary, Poor Richard's Almanac
12 comments
Poor Richard’s Almanac is one year old today. Our friend Ben, Silence Dogood, and Richard Saunders would like to thank each and every one of you for hanging in there as Silence battled stink bugs, Richard celebrated Pirate Week, and our friend Ben droned on, I mean, shared deep thoughts and important observations.
In the past year, we’ve talked about chickens and greenhouse gardening, shared historical tidbits and the wit and wisdom of our hero and blog mentor, Ben Franklin (who actually dropped in on our friend Ben in one memorable post), revealed some of Silence’s favorite recipes and frugal living tips, and generally ranted on about anything we found worth sharing. We appreciate your taking the time to read and comment on our posts. If you laughed at one of our ludicrous encounters with the household wildlife or took away one useful fact or tip, we feel that it’s been worthwhile. And besides, it’s been fun!!!
Here’s our year of Poor Richard’s stats in a nutshell: 445 posts; 1,993 comments; 65,495 visits*; most-viewed post, “To thine own self be true,” 2,091 views so far.
We look forward to many more posts, comments, and visits in the year ahead. And readers, please: As you know, we have something to say about practically everything, from collecting marbles to burying the dead. If there’s something you’d like for us to take on, please speak up! We love a challenge.
So happy birthday, Poor Richard’s Almanac! We hope up in Heaven, Ben Franklin is laughing and raising a glass in our honor.
—Our friend Ben, Silence Dogood, and Richard Saunders
* Observant readers will note that the SiteMeter stats on our blog show a considerably lower number, but that’s because we’re such Luddites it took us months to get SiteMeter set up. Fortunately, our blog host, WordPress, has been tracking our visitors from the beginning, and it’s their stats we’re citing here.
Whose alternate universe? February 3, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom.Tags: Amish, Amish burial customs
5 comments
Silence Dogood here. I was driving into nearby Kutztown, PA yesterday and passed a road sign, one of the yellow signs like the deer crossing or falling rock or children playing alerts. This one, however, showed a silhouette of an Amish horse and buggy.
As I looked at the sign, I realized that, over the years I’ve lived in this area, I’ve become so used to seeing these signs that they no longer strike me as a novelty, or as something humorous in today’s world of SUVs and endless traffic. I’m used to seeing the occasional horse and buggy trotting along the road; used to seeing a horse and buggy, as I did moments later when I pulled into the parking lot of a local store, tied to the railing all local store owners put out front to accommodate their Amish and Old Order Mennonite customers.
In this particular parking lot, the horse-and-buggy rail happens to be situated in front of a music store called Young Ones that boasts the most amazing original mural of Bob Marley, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and other deceased music legends covering an entire wall of the building. The irony of the juxtaposition struck me, along with the thought that here was yet another incredible photo op wasted.
I continued to ponder all this on the way home. “You know, to most people, we must seem to be living in an alternate universe,” I thought. But I didn’t realize just how alternate until I turned on the computer this morning.
My computer opens to MSN, and I scan the headlines every morning before moving on to my e-mail and to Poor Richard’s Almanac. Today, there was a headline that even I, cynic that I am, simply couldn’t believe. It appears that a hot new trend is to have plastic surgery performed on your corpse before it goes on display at the funeral home.
Now, plastic surgery costs thousands to tens of thousands of dollars (or more). That people are anteing up this money to try to look younger in a youth-obsessed culture is a sad enough commentary. But to spend that money so their dead bodies can look younger before they go into the ground, vault, or furnace! God have mercy. Truly, we must be living in a plastic society when vanity is our final operative thought. Talk about an alternate universe.
To anyone contemplating this final bow to their own surface appearance, I say this: Please consider making your last gesture an unselfish one instead. Leave that money to your heirs, to an orphanage, to a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, a pet rescue shelter, a hospital, your local library. Billions of people are in want in our world; millions are starving and suffering. Our environment is at risk. The cost of education is soaring. Can’t you try to think of one better place to put that money than into your dead body?! If you don’t want people to see you at less than your best, you can always request a closed coffin and a display of photos of yourself looking wonderful.
Thinking of this brings me full circle to the Amish, who have no funeral homes and no undertakers who preserve their bodies for vainglorious display. They lay out their own dead, come to say a final goodbye, put them in a plain handmade pine box, and take them to their burial ground. It is a low-key, personal burial, where the dead are surrounded by their community as they were throughout their lives. There is no question of incurring expense at such a solemn time. Instead, there is a quiet, dignified, respectful departure. Families are not left with massive funeral-home bills, much less huge expenses from the plastic surgeon.
What have we come to?! “Vanity, vanity; all is vanity.” Give me the alternate universe of the humble horse and buggy and the unadorned pine coffin any day.
‘Til next time,
Silence
Frugal living tip #5. February 2, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, homesteading, wit and wisdom.Tags: frugal tips, marketing gimmicks, saving money, smart spending
3 comments
Silence Dogood here. Happy Groundhog Day from the home state of Punxsutawney Phil! It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to start the week with another frugal tip from Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Yesterday, I got an e-mail with the subject line “Last chance to save up to 60% on… ” It reminded me of how many times I see advertisements recasting spending as saving. “Save $100 on… !” “Buy two and save!” “Big savings on new/pre-owned/green… !” “Overstock! HUGE savings!!!” Right.
It’s easy to get swept up in the momentum of these marketing pitches. But before you grab your credit or debit card, do as I do and ask yourself: “How much would I save if I didn’t buy whatever?” Look at the “sale” price and there’s your answer. My, those savings can really add up fast when you keep your cards in your purse or wallet instead of using them to buy the sale items!
Obviously, if you actually need whatever it is, be it a car or a “buy one, get one free” deal on toilet paper, taking advantage of these sales makes sense. But if you’re swayed by the “big savings” of an impulse buy, try my little trick and see if it doesn’t actually save you a little money!
‘Til next time,
Silence
A collection of cardinals. February 1, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in critters, gardening, homesteading.Tags: backyard birds, bird feeding, cardinals, feeding cardinals, winter bird feeding
1 comment so far
Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood would just like to boast a bit about the large flock of cardinals, including six brilliant red males, that appeared at our cabin feeder yesterday afternoon. Of course, we always have cardinals at our cottage home, Hawk’s Haven, located in the precise middle of nowhere, PA. But six males at once! This is a first for us. Backlit by the snow, they looked like they were posing in hopes that a famous nature photographer would happen by. (No such luck. Our friend Ben and Silence are both photographically challenged.)
After speculating about whether these cardinals had finally come far enough south to reach our property, or had migrated back to their northern breeding grounds with the lengthening days, our friend Ben had a rush of brains to the head (in the immortal words of a friend’s mother) and picked up the phone. Fortunately, I caught our expert birding friend, Rudy, just before he raced out the door for an annual hawk count.
Turns out that these cardinals are actually local residents. “When there’s snow and ice and it’s bitterly cold, cardinals have trouble finding food,” Rudy told me. “So they leave their usual territories and band together to look for sources of food like people’s feeders.” Wow, what a great reason to keep those feeders filled!
Cardinals aren’t too fond of tube feeders, preferring to feed on the ground or on a wide ledge like the ones on cabin-style feeders (also called hopper feeders for reasons unknown to our friend Ben; they look just like little cabins to me). We see them on the ground beneath our tube feeders, which we keep filled with black-oil sunflower seed, a favorite of many kinds of birds,* and both on our cabin feeder and on the ground beneath it, as well as perched in surrounding shrubs waiting their turn. Unlike the tube feeders, we keep the cabin feeder filled with a wild bird seed mix.
But wait, you say: Don’t cardinals prefer safflower seed? In a word: no. But unlike most birds, cardinals will eat safflower seed when nothing better’s on offer, which is why people sell bags of safflower seed or a safflower/sunflower mix as “cardinal’s delight.” I suppose the idea is to deter other birds and encourage cardinals, but our friend Ben says forget that. Choose a good all-purpose wild bird mix that will attract an abundance of cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, wrens, sparrows, doves, bluejays, woodpeckers, juncos, and other feeder favorites. Then sit back and enjoy the show!
While I had him on the phone, our friend Ben had another cardinal-related question for Rudy. I always think of male cardinals as a deep red. But the males in this flock, and many others I’ve seen this past year, are a brilliant red that actually looks fluorescent. It of course occurred to our friend Ben that this might be an effect of their snow-white backdrop, but there was a little problem with this hypothesis: They’d also looked fluorescent when there wasn’t any snow. Was this a mutation that had occurred as cardinals began establishing their year-round territories farther and farther north?
Again, the answer was no. Rudy explained that cardinals moult in late summer or early fall, so I had been seeing them in their immaculate new plumage. As spring turns to summer, their feathers become worn and lose their brilliance, so they look darker and duller red. Oh. Thanks, Rudy, for once again straightening our friend Ben out.
So that’s our cardinal story. What’s yours?
* Yes, our friend Ben realizes that it’s grammatically correct to say “kinds of bird,” not “birds,” but it sounds awkward so I’m not doin’ it.
