The Tomatoes So Far.

So, overall I am pretty pleased with how things are going this first year with the tomato garden. I have learned a lot about growing them, and have many things I want to do differently.

This is a recent picture of the garden. If you notice, the left bed is not caged and is laying along the ground. I had planned to cage them all, but summer happened and I ran out of time. 70 of the plants are caged, 10 are not.

This summer I realized just how little time I have for anything other than the kitchen. Next year, I have got to make the garden as low maintenance as possible.

Bugs have been a small problem. Nothing too bad, but I have had fireants, small bugs, grasshoppers and cutworms. I plan on looking for organic methods next year for dealing with them all, though I am not all that opposed to using chemicals.

The cages I bought were a little too flimsy. As the tomato plants grew bigger and taller, the cages bent and fell. I plan on making my own cages next year out of heavy duty wire and staking each for support. I also plan to cage them much much earlier.

The biggest thing that I didn't get to was the irrigation system. It takes me a good hour to water all of the plants at night. Which is time I just don't have. So, I need to get the irrigation system in place and with soaker hoses that go off on a timer. That way the ground will stay consistently moist.

I have two very visible problems with my tomatoes. The first has been blossom end rot (BER) which has caused little brown bottoms on my tomatoes. It was very apparent at the beginning and now has pretty much dissipated.

The second problem is cracking. You can see the cracking in the 2nd picture above. For the most part, the cracking is just ugly. But the cracking can cause fungus, disease and rotting. Which is pretty irritating.

Both of those problems are caused by the irregular watering. The ground is either dry or wet. not just a steady moist. So, the soaker hoses will help with all that.

The last thing I want to do differently is to put down mulch. Specifically straw. The straw will help the soil keep it's moisture and will also prevent weeds from seeing the light of day. It will help with fungus & disease.

So, I am pretty happy with the taste and colors that I am getting, but I am extremely eager about next year and all the improvements.

Dry Cure Fail

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. "
- Thomas Edison

I think Carrottop said something similar. But I am going to go ahead with the Thomas Edison quote since he actually learned from failure.

I am old enough to understand that most things I do the first time are going to be problematic. It is only after doing things several times that you start to avoid simple mistakes and errors. And it is only with these failures that you actually learn. I like to say that if I am not failing at things, I am not taking risks. That being said, I hate failing. I understand it is a rational part of it all, but when things go wrong, my whole day is shot and I am miserable to be around.

So then, to the dry cure. The first batch of Tuscan Salami had way to much humidity initially and started to dry, but never got close enough.

I was about a week away from the large Soppressata and the Coppa being done when we had a large weather storm come in. The heat and all the moisture in the air caused the humidity to go through the roof. I was at 90%+ for about a week. Nothing can dry with that sort of humidity.

So, here is where the sausages lie:

I quickly ordered a dehumidifier, but it did not arrive in time. I'll be better prepared next year.

So, I apologize for not having updated the dry cure posts the past few weeks. I had been busy getting the Mother's Day brunch together. And blogger makes updating posts with photos in them a hassle. But mainly, it was just me not being excited to post all the crashing and burning.