Disaster Abound, a Diamond Emerges

Well the kickstrater thing didn't happen, and some family of mine are betraying their commitment and my trust in them, so I will not be at the Heirloom Expo as I had hoped. A hail storm decimated my garden, and I now longer have anything but rotten and scared tomatoes, and plants that ar so damaged that I'm debating pulling them up to end their misery. I was able to to salvage some tomatoes, but my melons are gone approximately two weeks before they would be ripe. I had some really nice Canary melons and some equally nice Jenny Linds. I have sunflowers that are decapitated. It looks like a scene of a horror film. Oh well. The book, Future Tomatoes, has a very rough draft completed though. That's the diamond. So as would be expected in any any epic, disaster has to strike. It just does. Just read Greek mythology. And while I'm a big fan of reading Greek mythology, not so much though of living a slight version of one of their myths. It's a good thing I focused on the buds, or else this book might not have happened.

I'm very proud of the book. I have a book signing lined up at the library in my town after the first of the year. Now that I have one confirmed, I will book more. The book will become a fund raising tool. By leveraging the discount I will get from createspace.com by joining their Pro Plan, I will be able to approach the libraries in the area with the offer of a talk about heirloom vegetables and what people can do to save them, and a portion of the proceeds from a book sale that will go directly to the library. Hopefully, a seed company will want to provide seeds as incentive for people to attend.

The fund raising aspect of this book will not be limited to libraries. I will make the book available to any organization that supports the mission of preserving heirloom plants, sustainable and local support of farms, farm preservation etc. Farm market associations are one example, CSAs are another, and so are garden clubs.

So that's the spin for now. I'm quite dizzy from spinning the events of the past two weeks. I will be catching up with some stories about the tomatoes I harvested before the storm now that the book is an draft format.

Black Cherry Tomatoes, Small Tomatoes, Taste as Big as the Plants

I'm 6'4" and my Black Cherry Tomato plants are taller then me, and still growing. We had a severe thunderstorm Tuesday evening, and two of these plants fell over. It's a good thing the Northern Lights were there to catch them. The plants are fine. I'm can see using a ladder soon to put in the 8 ft. stakes that these plants are going to need. The plants are covered in delicious fruit. Sweet little morsels of flavor that pack a wallop as big as the plants. Add a nice bit of acid, and they are everything I want in a bite size tomato. These are first black tomato I've grown. Black Prince are on deck though. From reading around, I see the blacks and or purples are known for their intense flavor. I know Cherokee Purples are my favorite because of their intense flavor. I was tempted to grow Carbon this year, but I didn't. It's on my list for next year.

The tops of the plants resemble a lit Christmas tree with all the tiny yellow flowers signaling more flavor to come. Cherry tomatoes are my favorite choice among the smaller varieties. I find Juliet tomatoes are a really good choice in grape tomato varieties. A local farmer grows them, and they are a short harvest. I fell lucky when I stumble upon them at his stand. Somehow though, my heart belongs to cherry tomatoes.

The plants are easy to grow, seems to be disease resistent, are more wispy then bushy, and are very prolific. Just be forewarned, they are VERY tall. I'm actually looking forward to using the ladder and the 8 ft. stake. Also using a ladder to pick tomatoes will be a unique experience, and one I'm sure will attract a lot of attention at the community garden. If that should happen, I will post a photo or two.

Check out my kickstarter.com project, a photo book of the buds of the 22 varities of tomatoes that I'm growing this year.  

Cuor Di Bue, Italian Oxheart Tomatoes Taste Great

I can't wait to make sauce with these. The first tomatoes came off the vine today, and while a little small compared to the fruits that will be coming, the taste for me is what I want in a tomato. Sweet but not overwhelming, a robust and clean tomato taste, and nice finish of acid to cleanse the pallete. The sweet and the acid are balanced nicely, and the tomato itself is full of genuine tomato flavor. Sometime I will buy jars of prepared sauce from Italy when there is a good sale. I often wondered what tomatoes they used for these sauces. I doubt they are San Marzanos because if they were, it would be noted on the label. The taste is very close to the flavor of the jar sauces I buy, and close to the taste of the canned Italian tomato puree I buy also.

From what I've read, the Cour Di Bue is considered a good saucing tomato and is considered a red tomato. It has a dense and meaty texture. The vines that I'm growing are vigorous, however I haven't grown too many oxhearts so I don't have a frame of reference to compare this variety to. They are VERY prolific. It's considered a rare tomato in the USA, and I can see that it will be in my garden every year. I am very pleased.

I ordered my seeds from here, however I got a different brand then what is available now.

Check out my kickstarter.com project, a photo book of the buds of the 22 varities of tomatoes that I'm growing this year.

Did I Provide a Heirloom Solution to a Vanishing Variety of Tomato?

It's a possibility, and one that is part of a ongoing story. Time will tell, as it does with all stories ever told or written. Back in February or March some tomato seeds came my way through my friend Kathleen, who got them from friend of hers, an elderly gentleman named Sam. Not much was known about the origin of the seeds, and I asked Kathleen to see if she could talk to Sam and get some information. All I had to go on was the seeds were from Italy, and Sam referred to them as Bell tomatoes. The way Kathleen described them, they sounded like plums, and rather large ones at that.

I planted the seeds. The plants grew without abandon. I mistakenly cut the early growth on one, and within two days, a new shoot shut up like a rocket. It was a total HUH! experience. The plants continued their rapid growth, and now are bushel-basket wide, 4 ft. high bushes that need little support. They are the largest plum tomatoes I have seen, and still growing.

Kathleen said she drove by Sam's house in the interim and it seemed like it was closed up. Today I heard from Kathleen. She spoke to Sam. That conversation filled in a lot details.

It turns out that Sam got these seeds from an acquaintance 40 years ago. He doesn't remember the name of who he got them from, but he knows the seeds are from Italy. Sam's 90, and was gardening up until 4 years ago. He grew these tomatoes for 36 years.

Forty years have passed since these seeds were sourced. Forty years, that's two generations. If you read about the history of the San Marzano tomato, you will see that some significant changes occured with the tomato industry in Italy during the 1970s. Those changes pushed the San Marzano close to extinction. Could the same circumstances that happened to San Marzano apply here? According to Sam, these seeds were sourced from Italy and came into his possession in 1971. How many other people in that time gave up growing them? While a remote possibility, it is something to consider.

Let's say this is a know variety of tomato, which I believe it is. It was a precious part of Sam's life for 40 years. That's significant. Stop. Take a moment. Think about anything that has been in your life for that many years, or relatively speaking, in your life proportionally if your not over 40. It would seem like family is a constant that has been there, perhaps a house, a friendship, or some other heirloom that has been handed down in your family. How many people can say that a variety of vegetable or flower has been there for that significant lenght of time? I'm 51, and that tomato would have to have been in my life since I was 11. It will now be in my life until I leave this earth.

Sam's daughter doesn't garden, but I do, and these seeds found their way to me. And now this story is being told to you. As I have written in previous posts, there is magic in the process. And just like the stories that we've read as kids, plot twists happen. Plan as you will, some things come at you when you open yourself up to possibilities. You will never see them coming. Just read Greek mythology. This is classic example of possibilities, and one that is so ripe and rich with them that ultimately it could be that a variety of tomatoes could have been saved.

This story has all the classic components of seed collecting stories. A majority of them have a single person or a family who loved a variety so much that they took it with them when they left their home for another country, Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying Peppers, which I'm growing, Or, families that grew the variety for generations, and passed them along as heirlooms such as Grandfather Ashlocks, (growing them too), until they found their way into the hands of someone like me who may have not been part of a blood lineage, however is part of the larger lineage of keeping plants from disappearing forever.

Here's the paper towel with the seeds. The instructions that I got were to plant the paper towel. Cryptic enough to lend intrigue and mystery to the story that was unfolding.

Cue timing. The details emerge during the my campaign to raise money through kickstarter.com to self-publish a book called Future Tomatoes. It's a book of photography of tomatoes buds, with a short blurb about the variety of tomato represented in the photograph. These tomatoes will be included in this book and so will a short summary of this story. It illustrates why what I'm doing in so important.

One does not go out to find a story like this. One starts a process, and stays open to the conspiracy of the graces and the fates to toss them a bone like this to test their awareness and commitment to what they are doing.

I see this as a major narrative being thrown my way at the start of what I'm doing, I have to believe that I'm onto something that is larger then myself. I know I can tell this story. I need some help though, and your pledge through kickstarter.com you will be part of the third component of the conspiracy triptych started by the graces and the fates. The book will go a long to help me continue to do what I am doing.

And Sam will get the first harvest of tomatoes. And I can assure you that as long as I grow them, and Sam is here, he will taste the flavor of his lifetime. If by chance this is a variety of tomato that I now have the last seeds of, they will be known as Tullytown Sams to honor the man who grew them for so many years, in the town that he grew them. Cheers!

Lemon Cucumber, A Real Charmer

As promised, I present to you, the Lemon Cucumber. As you can see from this photo, it makes a great prop. Try that with you average, wax-encased supermarket variety. I know what you thinking, Jeff I don't need my cucumbers to be props, I need them them to crisp and tasty. Well I'm here to tell you the Lemon Cucumber is crisp and tasty, and it's beautiful. I challenge anyone to come up with a still life with the supermarket variety that has the grace and interest of what you see here. They are susceptible to the bacterial wilt spread by the dreaded cucumber beetle, and like a lot heirlooms, the shelf life is relatively short. All the more reason to eat them fresh off the vine. There is something about the round shape that makes devouring one quite easy. Lighter than an apple, and about the size of one, one bite and you'll see why you should grow them. Most cucumbers have a delicate and subtle flavor, this one has a more pronounced flavor that makes for a satisfying and somewhat thirst-quenching snack.

According to Seeds of Change, the Lemon Cucumber has been charming gardeners since the 1890s. Allow it to charm you, and share in over a century of delight.

Check out my kickstarter.com project, a photo book of the buds of the 22 varities of tomatoes that I'm growing this year.  

The Wonder and Amazement of Nature Through a Child's Eyes

I'm an insomniac. No rhyme or reason to it. It happens and has been since I was a child. And I'm in a current bout with it. So when I woke up for the day I felt like a colorless blob of a being, which when this happens is normal. We've had a steady amount of rain recently, and I needed to catch up on weeding at my garden plot, and some touch ups that needed to be done that were driving me crazy, so I took this feeling of a colorless blob to the garden, and figured in some way it would work it's magic.

And it did.

On my way over, I had rescued some Gerbera Daisies. Some people rescue animals, I rescue plants off clearance shelves. While sunflowers are the happiest flowers to me, Gerberas are a close second. I found my color, now I just needed to add some life to my spirit. I was off to garden to hopefully find it there.

When I arrived, my neighbor's were there and they had their grandchild with them, who is about 5 years old. A motivated helper, and curious as children could be, I found myself having a memory played out in front in me in real time. Many years ago that child was me, and the grandparents were my parents, or the farmer friends of the family who taught me the value of caring for the earth, and the delicate balance that rewards us for bring the stewards of the land.

It was pure joy to hear this child's wonder and amazement as the soundtrack for my time there. No music could ever top the sound of amazement this child was expressing. Pumpkins from flowers! Tomatoes from buds! Flowers that keep the bad bugs away, all resonated in my heart and soul. I was watching a story write itself naturally about nature, and the traditions and knowledge that were being passed from one generation to the next as I worked the soil to save rescued plants.

An living example of a great story unfolding naturally as most stories do. And, the true essence of what Vanishing Feast is all about.

Boothby's Blonde, My First Harvest

Tonight was it, my first harvest! And the first time I've tasted Boothby' Blonde Cucumber. And the result, it tastes like a cucumber, which I love cucumbers. And there is quite a difference in one that you grow as opposed to the ones you buy. A major difference, no wax. That's why I don't buy them in supermarkets. Secondly, there no comparison to a freshly picked anything and some supermarket dud. And finally and most important, you will never see these in a supermarket. A farm market perhaps. That's the value of growing heirlooms. They are unique. For myself that's important. I want to experience the buffet that Mother Nature provided. Not be feed what come profit driven business decides what's best for them. I like idea that cucumbers could be yellow, that tomatoes can be considered black or purple, string beans are purple and peppers and melons that come all shapes, sizes and colors. There's a zest to that. A passion that is meant to delight the senses, and inspire the soul. It's nice to have options.

The cucumber itself is delightfuly crisp, has a sweet creamy texture, and from what I can see, the plants are very prolific. I'm glad I choose to grow these. I hope you will consider them as well.

I have Lemon Cucumbers on deck. I grew them last year and only got a few. I did enjoy them and look forward to picking a few of them in the next week or so. I'll post about them as well. Round and yellow, now there's a cucumber to turn your concept of cucumbers upside down.

The First Tomato of the Season

No, not my first tomato, the first tomatoes of the season are out. I was running around the supermarket this afternoon with the intention of making a quick pizza for dinner with some roasted feta cheese that I was going to make like a friend me told me she made. I was going for the grape tomatoes, and low and behold there they were, the first local tomatoes of the season. I thought to myself, in the middle of June, really? I know there are early varieties having grown Early Girls and Jetsetters before, but never before the 4th of July. So I walked over and looked at the waxed caricatures of real tomatoes on that display. Madame Tussuad would be proud. There was an rendition of a beefsteak, which are my favorites. I wanted to cry at the sight of this fruit. There were globe shaped balls and a few that had the point of a strawberry variety.

I bought about a pound, and while they did taste better then the other red waxed balls from out-of-state, or out-of-country now, they were no match for a real heirloom. In the past few years I've noticed a quickening of the pace to get fresh local tomatoes to market. I know farmers need to make money, and I respect that, however when the product is marginally better and more expensive then what's available, you're doing nothing to help the buy local movement.

Food as fashion doesn't help, either but that's for another post. And Madison Ave. with their sale of perfection is another problem. As this story unfolds, I will focus some attention on those subjects. For now though, this rant is done with. By the way the pizza rocked. Roasting some feta in tin foil is a nice thing to do, especially with some olive oil, garlic and crushed, dried cherry peppers. The wax ball of a tomato melted into a pool of flavor thanks to roasting it with fresh basil, garlic through a press, a squeeze of fresh lemon and good olive oil.

Saving Gravenstein

Being the open minded person that I am, I do understand that not everyone wants to play in the dirt and collect cucumber and potato beetles off their plants everyday. But to those of who garden, well we all know how awesome it is. There are many ways for people to get involved in saving heirloom varieties. I choose to garden, and focus my creative energy in growing the content that inspires me to create. Now that is truly awesome. I'm learning so much by doing the artistic study the plants I grow. So gardening is my choice. There are many other choices for those who want to do something but don't garden, I hope that sharing some of the stories that people are creating in their lives while saving heirlooms, will inspire you to add your voice to an ongoing story in your community.

Consider it a walk on role to start.

I love apples. Just as I love tomatoes and melons, apples to me feel intuitively exciting. I also love Sonoma County, CA. And, Sonoma County loves the Gravenstein Apple. The story of the saving the Gravenstein is a natural fit for the storyteller that I am.

From Slow Food Russian River's website:

In the 1970’s Sonoma County was the Gravenstein capital of the world: today there are fewer than 10 Sonoma farmers who still make a living selling apples.

The international Slow Food movement is committed to preserving biodiversity and regionally important foods. Working with farmers, processors, and local community leaders, Farmers Markets and chefs, and in collaboration with the California non profit Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), the Russian River Slow Food chapter is helping to develop high-value marketing channels for the Gravenstein, and to increase awareness in the bay area and beyond of the value of buying and eating this local apple. We are actively working to safeguard the future of the apple and the livelihood on those who grow it.

Slow Food is a great organization. Their members are passionate, they are international, and they are local. I attribute what I'm doing now to the US Slow Food Ark of Taste. Check out local chapters, or start your own, if there's not one in your area. It's a great way to get involved if you don't want to, or can't garden.

A domestic progarm of Slow Food USA is the US Presidia. From the US Presida program page:

If unique, traditional and endangered food products can have an economic impact, they can be saved from extinction. This is the simple reasoning behind the Presidia; small projects to assist groups of artisan producers.

And from the US Presida's website here's a nice history of the Gravenstein, along with a list of growers. From the link:

The Gravenstein was introduced to South Jutland, Denmark, in 1669, which is where it gained its name. German migrants brought the apple to North America in 1790 and Russian fur traders planted the first West Coast Gravenstein orchards at their outpost in Fort Ross in 1820, where the trees survived despite inhospitable conditions such as intense winds and salt air. It is likely that cuttings from theses trees were used to start the orchards in Sebastopol.

Using Sebastopol as segway to another level of commitment to the Gravenstein,The Rotary Club of Sebastpool, CA has a weekly bulentin called The Appleknocker. Here is a pdf of The Bullentin from August, 28, 2009, Program: Saving the Gravenstein Apple. Scroll through the pdf to the third page. From the bullentin:

Tom Lambert introduced our speaker, Paula Shatkin from Slow Food Russian River. Tom informed us that of the 5,500 acres of Gravenstein apple orchards that existed in SonomaCounty in 1958, only 875 remain today, an 84% drop in 50 years.

That's quite dramatic. It's a nice read, especially about the 1,500 Gravenstein apple pies that are made every year in the same room where the meeting was taking place. It complements the history I linked to above. Sonoma County takes the heritage of Gravenstein apples seriously.

And there's the Gravenstein Apple Fair.

But what I want to leave you with are the words of someone who lives take great pride in living in Sonoma County. She's a dear friend, whose insight I admire a lot. Laura says:

Gravenstein apples are one of the best parts of fall in Sonoma County, Jeff. They are a greenish apple, often with a big blush of red, and have the a tangy perfume that colors the air, already sharpened by the coolish, early nights. There's something wistful about the Gravenstein, in both flavor and aroma. You know you're about to enter the dark days of the year, and the apple is one of the last things before the threshold. Their season is very short. When organic Gravs show up at the farmer's markets (and/or my friends who have trees tell me to show up with a box), I'm there in a heart-beat, gathering as much as I can. They are a delicious snack apple, and make great crisps and pies. Once upon a time I used to put up apple sauce too, but honestly, I'm happiest eating them for lunch and breakfast with a bit of cheese.

Why would anyone want to lose such a delightful aspect of their local community?

The Garden is Finished

When I left off last time I was transitioning from Tribute to Tye Dye with Hopi Dye Sunflowers to some yet unknown patch in my garden. Ah, what a sweet and philosophical post that was. Living in the moment seemed to be the happy go lucky way forward.

There have been many moments since. Most of them wet with rain. Others filled with coughing from a really bad cold. Somewhere in between my birthday, which I usually spend in the garden. Well this year that was not the case, it was a washout here. I did however, write the draft of this post, so I was working the virtual soil.

Stuff happens, it's unavoidable. When you look at your life and what you do as a story, you come to realize the magic is messy and uncontrollable at at times. It still adds to the narrative. Take for example all the rain we've had around here. While it's decimated my plans to get the plants in the ground, as well as two pepper plants, it showed me that I had a slight problem with my plot. 

This double plot has a rather large low spot that the rain settled. I was able to fix it by filling it in with some other dirt.  I'm glad I didn't plant anything there. I've been working my way around it for no reason really. A potential safety hazard, my food dropped about a foot, which the rain help to expose. Not every plot twist will reap the magic that the Mark Twain tomatoes did, but that does not make any less important. 

And now back to the fun part of this story, the patches. The transition never happened. The Hopi Dye Sunflowers were going to transition to a patch that I call Tennessee. Tennessee has a rich tradition in heirloom gardening, specifically tomatoes like Cherokee Purples, Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Lilian's Yellow, to name a few. I have Cherokee Purples and Cherokee Chocolates. It seemed perfect. The seeds from the Hopi Dye are used for dyeing, and they are named after one Native America nation would transition to another patch that featured Cherokee Purples, which are named after another Native American nation. The sunflowers would unite the two, except for the fact that my Family Garden Quilt was in the way. Smack dab in the middle of the two patches. So much for that. 

So now each patch will stand on its own, united by the fence that surrounds the plot, and the inclusion in this story. Tennessee has made a big splash into my life this year. It all started innocently enough, a gift of a package of Middle Tennessee Low Acid tomato seeds would arrive from tomatofest.com with my order. Who knew it was foreshadowing?

An intriguing tomato, a low acid red, I was grateful for the generosity and the tomato blessings from Gary Isben and Dagma Lacey. After all Tennessee is where I acquired the Mark Twains, and and an Israeli tomato plant which is a Greene County, Tennesse heirloom. It was great to acknowledge this content with a patch of plants.

The next patch over is what I like to consider a patch of history. I have a Painted Serpent Cucumber, which has been gracing gardens since the 1400's, Grandfather Ashlocks which is named after a descendant of a soldier who fought in the Revolutionary war, Red Figs, which has been around since the early 1800s, Watermelon Pink Beefsteaks, which have been around for ovwer 100 years, and Goose Creek, which are red tomatoes that a slave brought seeds with them from their home land, passed those seeds down through generations of her family. 

There's my Family Garden Quilt, and finally Gallimaufry, which could turn out to be the most intriguing of them all. It's here that I have the mystery seeds planted. These seeds came to me through a friend, from a friend of hers, an elderly Italian gentleman whose family plants these seeds in Sicily. George, the seed source, called them Bell tomatoes. The instructions that I got was to plant the paper towel. The seeds were dried on a paper towel. I did plant the paper towel, and these plants took off like rockets. I believe they are plum type. The plants have the look of plums and name Bell, can be used to describe a variety of plum tomato. As the plants grow, and more distinctive characteristics appear, I will know for sure. There are the Cour Di Bue tomatoes, an Italian oxheart, and and a couple Hinkelhatz hot pepper plants. They are one of the oldest Pennsylvania Dutch heirlooms. 

Also, me being me, and that's human, I forgot to record what some seeds were when I started them. Last year I got the Pineapples and Aunt Ruby's German Green mixed up. I was waiting for the Aunt Rubys to turn yellow. The first few just got rotten. As the Pineapples started to turn yellow I realized my mistake. I think the tomatoes I didn't record are Cherokee Purples, but I won't know until the fruits ripen. A little fun and mystery goes a long way.

And that's the garden. I love that I was able to create these patches using the heirloom qualities and the stories that my plants possess. 

Garden Update; Living in the Moment, A Tribute to Tye-dye

Seems like that what plants do. Given the fact they have roots, and just can't get up and go, living in the moment seems like something they do. Weather, seasons, cycle of day and night. Except for a mighty Oak, I doubt seriously that they plan ahead.

Given the storytelling aspect here, living in the moment has become quite relevant. And, it seems like that's another lesson to learn from my plants. A lesson of course comes out of most stories.

I had this great garden planned in my head. That's where it will live. Forever. Life is busy,the weather has been very wet on weekends, and my garden plot not on my property and is 10 minutes. It's a conspiracy. And because of that, I won't be doing rows. I'll be doing patches instead. I always have done rows. The plot is now dived ed up into quarters, with a large area in the middle for my family garden quilt.

As I look at the stories behind the heirloom plants I have, which were picked totally at random, and with some other idea of how my garden is going to be, I had a moment. I can create narratives by using the nature of plants. Their heirloom quality. And you can too, if you want.

There will be a patch called Tribute to Tye-dye. Black Cherry Tomatoes. Lime Green Salad Tomatoes. Northern Lights, a bicolor. (And let's face it, the true northern lights are part of the spectrum of tye-dye palates in astronomy). Lemon Cucumbers. Boothbys BlondeCucumbers. Peppino Melons which are yellow with purple stripes. Canary Melons for even more yellow. And some Hopi Dye Sunflowers to transition to the next chapter. A color is a defining characteristic of these plants, icluding the dye that can be culled from the seeds of the Hopi Dye Sunflower.

And that's it for this moment. I need to have 3 more for the rest of the patches, or this post is toast.

The Plot Twist of the Mark Twain Tomatoes

In this post, The Magic in This Story's Process, I wrote about a plot twist about Mark Twain tomatoes that presented itself: Mark Twain tomatoes - Never heard of them until I started seeking out rare tomato seeds for Vanishing Feast. I discovered them in the fedcoseed.com catalogue. When I went to order the seeds, they were out. I was faced with a choice, a classic example in building a narrative in a story. Do I just say "oh well I'll order earlier next year" or do I demonstrate my commitment to this project, and start a journey to find these seeds or plants. I chose to find seeds, plants or both. A little alchemy later for making the right choice, I found plants that will be available in northern Tennessee at Shy Valley Plant Farm. Living in southern New Jersey I can make this trip, document it as part of this story, and taste these rare tomatoes, that evidently bruise easily but taste really good. Perhaps the Mark Twain will become a rally point in this story.

I took that trip this past weekend. I stayed in Johnson City, TN, which I found out is right down the the road from Jonesborough, TN. Jonesborough hosts a National Storytelling Festival. At the Inetrnational Storytelling Center.  Imagine that? A plot twist in a story about tomatoes named after a great American writer, who wrote classic American stories, leads me to an area that hosts a storytelling festival and is home to an international storytelling center.

Pretty darn cool I will say. Had I shrugged my shoulders, and said I'll order earlier next year, the above would never happened. I would have gotten the seeds instead of finding the plants. I would've never met the nice owners of Shy Valley, and never discovered the storytelling festival or center.

Viewing my life as a story, and using this blog as a medium to focus my passion and attention towards expressing that concept, along with demonstrating the twists and turns that make a story great, the narrative that developed is so much better then anything I could've made up. There's the magic in the process.

The tomatoes Jeff? What about the tomatoes? I'll find out later in the season when they get ripe.The people at fedcoseed.com have good things to say about the flavor, so I will go on that for now. I can't seem to find much more information about Mark Twain tomatoes so far, but if its out there, I will.

The blurb from fedcoseed.com says they bruise easily, which disqualifies them the big box retailing model in existence today. According to that model, this tomato has no value. I call bull shit on that. The value in this tomato is that exclusive to people who grow it. It much more precious because of it's nature. And it fits in well the concept of heirloom plants as family heirlooms. I can see these tomatoes becoming a rally point for Vanishing Feast because of the process covered above that brought them to my attention, the magic in the process, and the value that disqualifies them from the big box retail model.

Here's a quote from Mark Twain's story, Hunting The Deciftful Turkey:

I was ashamed, and also lost; and it was while wandering the woods hunting for myself that I found a deserted log cabin and had one of the best meals there that in my life-days I have eaten. The weed-grown garden was full of ripe tomatoes, and I ate them ravenously, though I had never liked them before. Not more than two or three times since have I tasted anything that was so delicious as those tomatoes. I surfeited myself with them, and did not taste another one until I was in middle life. I can eat them now, but I do not like the look of them. I suppose we have all experienced a surfeit at one time or another. Once, in stress of circumstances, I ate part of a barrel of sardines, there being nothing else at hand, but since then I have always been able to get along without sardines.

I'll let you know if the Mark Twain's are as delicious as that quote. Que the cliffhanger.

From Seed Room to Showroom, An Eyewitness Account of My Last Post

In my previous post, Big Boxing the Seed Collector, A Slight Time Line, I painted a time line with some very broad strokes. One of those strokes, about how Levittown, NY and the start of preplanned suburban communities, laid down a line that my family followed. In 1965 there were race riots in south Philly at a high school there. South Philly is the southern area of Philadelphia, PA where my family was living. The suburbs beckoned. My father made the decision to move his family out of the city. It just so happened that a friend of his knew of this community that was being built in southern NJ. It was a complete community. Three styles of houses for families to choose from, a elementary school, a playground, a tennis court, a community pool, a golf course, an apartment complex and a very small mall of 5 small stores, and anchor in the form of small convenience store.

Our community was the third to be built in this township, and too many more were planned. We were out in the country. While our community was built on a old farm, there was plenty of farms left that still needed supplies. Orol Ledden and Sons was in the next town over, and was a place that local farmers got their supplies and traded stoories in the Seed Room. Yes a Seed Room. And a rather large one.

There were rows and rows of drawers along two walls that were the equivalent of a card catalogue in library. There were wooden barrels full of onion sets, and a large counter with a scale. Now imagine a wide-eyed and curious kid in a room that was treasure chest full of seed packages and seed sets, along with farmers talking about their crops. It was a great place. I loved being there. I was fortunate to have experienced this as young child because as I grew up, so did the suburbs. And the seed room was turning into a storage area.

There was rapid growth in the area in which we lived. Farms went to the highest bidder. Fields of crops turned into cookie cuter plots of suburban culture. Barrels of onion sets turned in prepackaged bags of grass seeds. The drawers, which had seed packets on the front of them to identify their contents, slowly lost their identity as the need for seeds turned into a demand for seedlings to plant.

It was a sad process to watch, but what could a former city kid do? After all, I was there because of the the dynamic that was changing Leedens on the local level, and the massive, national shift in social living. The experience I lived and witnessed, started about 15 years after the broad strokes that I painted the time line with. The canvas of the time line was the life that I was living.

The seed room is now a showroom for carpets, and hardwood floors. It's an appropriate metaphor for what Vanishing Feast is all about.

Big Boxing the Seed Collector, A Slight Timeline

Another plot twist, another piece of magic. I had a hunch to look up the word heirloom. I'm kind of a geek about words. I have the same dictionary on my shelf that I've had my whole life. I don't remember my life without it. It was published in 1965 when I was 5 years old. I've read through most of this dictionary in the course of our life together. It has served me well, and will continue to do so. So I went to my old friend and found that there were only two meanings given for the word heirloom, neither of which included plants. I went online where I found the current definition that does includes plants. I set off to find out when the meaning was changed to include plants, at least in the Merriam Webster's dictionaries.

I started an etymology search, and found that in 1949 heirloom plant came into lexicon of America. The hunch morphed into intrigue, and curiosity took over. I googled Levittown, and found this, from the Levittown Historical Society:

Then, in 1949, Levitt and Sons discontinued building rental houses and turned their attention to building larger, more modern houses, which they called "ranches" and which they would offer for sale at $7,990.  All a prospective buyer needed was a $90 deposit and payments of $58 per month.  The Levitt ranch measured 32' by 25' and came in five different models, differing only by exterior color, roof line, and the placement of windows.  Like previous Levitt homes, the ranch was built on a concrete slab with radiant heating coils.  It had no garage, and came with an expandable attic.  The kitchen was outfitted with a General Electric stove and refrigerator, stainless steel sink and cabinets, the latest Bendix washer, and a York oil burner.  Immediately, the demand for the new Levitt ranches was so overwhelming that even the procedure for purchasing them had to be modified to incorporate "assembly line" methods.  Once these techniques were put into action, a buyer could choose a house and sign a contract for  it within three minutes.

Two seemingly random events in the same year and I knew a good story was unfolding in front me. As I have written before, when you frame you life in the context of the stories you loved as a child, you can see how narrative develops. And this project demonstrates that.

Enter the next hunch, shopping malls. The first commerical shopping mall was opened in 1950:

On April 21, 1950, the Northgate Shopping Mall opens at NE Northgate Way at 5th Avenue NE in Seattle. Planned by developers Rex Allison and Ben B. Ehrlichman (1895-1971) and designed by John Graham Jr. (1908-1991), it is the country's first regional shopping center to be defined as a "mall" (although there were at least three predecessor shopping centers). The stores face "a wide shopping walkway, probably to be known as the Mall or Plaza, in which no vehicles will be permitted" (The Seattle Times). The parking lot is quickly found to be insufficient for the number of shoppers attracted by the Bon Marché and 17 other specialty stores.

Continuing on this fork in the road, remember I started out to find when the meaning of the word heirloom changed to include plants in Merriam Webster's dictionaries, I next went to processed foods. Processed foods have been around for a very long time, and I focused on commercially processed foods. I found that the first TV Dinner was developed in 1953. Next, I had to see when the first coast-to coast-televsion broadcast.  That was 1951.

In four years time, the phrase heirloom plant started to be used in America. The suburban planned development was being launched, regional shopping malls were coming into vogue, television became a coast-to-coast delivery vehicle for information, and complete, frozen meals were now commercially available from commercial food processing companies.

The suburban, big-box retail business model was being seeded by the direction of society. Meanwhile, the tradition and lifestyle of the seed collector as source of sustaining the food supply was being marginalized. Society was moving away from the local, and into regional, and national mindsets. The dynamics of food was changing with the growth of commercially processed foods. Television allowed visual advertisement of perfection and connivence in way that never could be with print and radio spots.

Society changed, and the value of a diverse seed collection seems to have gotten lost in the process. Things are changing though:

Sales shot up 100 percent in 2008 at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a Missouri-based garden company that stocks 1,200 vegetable varieties, and the last two years have brought 20 percent annual growth, said the company’s owner, Jere Gettle.

And that's a good thing. Now that the current defintion of heirloom includes a third meaning relating to plants:

Definition of HEIRLOOM 1: a piece of property that descends to the heir as an inseparable part of an inheritance of real property

2: something of special value handed on from one generation to another

3: a horticultural variety that has survived for several generations usually due to the efforts of private individuals

I hope with this project to connect people with the value of seeds and plants. They represent the people who collect them, and plant them, as much as any other piece of property.

Words have meanings for a reason. As society changes, so does it language. It's interesting to see how far ahead of the curve the language was in 1949 when heirloom plant came into being. We can see now the massive shift that happened in society. And with that shift, the definition of heirloom now includes plants. This was not the case in 1965 as my faithful friend, my dictionary,  can attest to. The value in the third meaning of the word heirloom, which is a bout plants, needs to be elevated in society. It's that concept that I hope to accomplish.

Heirloom? Hybrids? Why Not Both?

A friend of mine sent me a link to this article, Heirloom Seeds or Flinty Hybrids? and it gave me some food for thought. Since this is not a blog devoted to media critiques, I'll refrain from that. I will focus on the one thing that made sense to me from that article, the subject matter, heirlooms or hybrids. Heirlooms hold a special place in my heart. I am a passionate supporter of them. My mission now is to connect people to them, and encourage them to make them family heirlooms. That said, I feel hybrids serve an equally important purpose. It comes down to what is the end user's goal.

I can understand farmers needing to have a a uniform crop. Their living depends on the harvest. The challenge of weather, plant disease and pests is a formidable one. Hybrid seeds level the playing field in a big way, and encourage the farmer to farm. On a smaller scale, the home gardner faces the same challenges, and hybrids offer them the same advantage. Hybrids plants offer a safe and stable alternative to the potential gamble that heirlooms offer.

Heirloom varieties can be a bit of a crap shoot. Take for example heirloom tomatoes. For the farmer looking for a full-fledged, market-ready cash crop, a major stumbling blocks to heirloom tomatoes is their thin skin. It hinders shipping them over a distance. They also have a shorter shelf life. The plants can be more susceptible to disease. The odd shapes and sizes makes packing difficult.  In the structure of modern society, with the big box retail model as the driving consumer practice, heirloom tomatoes don't stand a chance.

For the backyard gardener, the stability of hybrids offers them opportunity to grow plants that aren't as finicky and fussy as heirlooms, according to the reputation that heirloom's have. Limitations of time, space, ability, and the growing zone in which a gardner lives, all are challenges that hybrids can address to a varying degree of success. They can bring more people in the fold as gardeners.

Hybrids on the surface offer a safer return on your investment of time and money for gardening for a certain segment of society.

They just don't taste as good. And you can't save the seeds. The seed factor is big. With hybrids you're handing over the power to sustain life on this planet to seed companies. These companies will decide which plants are worthy to be grown. This allows decisions to be made about what best for the company, not the balance of life on the planet. Keep in mind, mother nature perfected the blend of art and science in a seed. This generally tiny thing, that when planted in the earth with the addition of light and water, can grow into something that can help sustain life, for so many inhabitants on this planet, while tantalizing and tickling all of the human senses, is an amazing achievement. And it wasn't done for profit.

And it's that factor that I will place my trust in her, and her heirloom varieties.

While Watermelon Pink Beefsteaks, are, at least in my experience, one of THOSE varieties with THAT reputation about being not prolific, uncooperative and having a will of their own, the majesty of their process makes it easy to forgive them. Watching the fruit ripen on these plants is a sight to be seen. Not all ripen this way, however some go from a standard green tomato, to a green striped tomato that resembles a watermelon right before turning a highly chromatic crimson that is the color of a very sweet and ripe watermelon. The tomatoes are big, after all they are beefstakes, and ultra sweet. And the taste is worthy of the experience of their process. If you get a half a dozen from a plant, you've done well. They are truly fascinating. I'll always have a couple of these plants around.

So for me, that's what I relish in my garden. I could also understand why a farmer would pass these over for a cash crop, or someone who was challenged by time, space and enviromental issues, to choose a hybrid over a Watermelon Pink. There's good reasons for both heirlooms and hybrids. For me though, it's that nonconformist tendency that heirlooms offer, that make them my choice. And the power of their seeds.

Seeds, The Divine Inspiration of Mother Nature

 
Seeds are amazing. Amazing in it's true intent, not like it gets tossed around today to express something that is done very well, or brings about a level of joy or excitement. A seed is divine inspiration provided by mother nature. 

A seed brings nourishment, taste, aroma, texture, sound and visual stimulation. It's a source of life. A source that sustains life. Seeds are an essential part of existence, and have been for every generation of that has inhabited the earth. As I work through this story of Vanishing Feast and focus on the tangible result, a source of food, it's equally important to raise the awareness of seeds. If it wasn't for the seeds, we would all vanish.

Seed saving, a necessity for many generations, is a tradition is equally under threat as the plants are. The two can't be separated. No seeds. No plants. No life. Living in our suburban, consumer, big box culture, the ease of purchasing plants removes the public from the seed saving tradition. It puts the power to sustain life and varieties in the hands of business, not people.

As part of this story, seed saving will be an equal focus as the plants and vegetables. To separate the two would be disingenuous. Thanks to the dedication of seed savers who realized exactly what's at stake, a lot of the diversity of plants has survived. Some have vanished, and that's truly unfortunate. With the progress of technology, and the direction of society, we have been foolish in many ways, brilliant in others. Part of what I want to focus on here is to elevate how essential seed diversity is, and honor their purpose for being. With out them, our being will vanish.

Heirloom Garden 2011, Part 2 of 2

As mention in part 1, I'm going to be growing a lot of tomato varieties, sixteen to be exact. A few more then I originally thought, but since I have a knack for growing them, I might as well work with the inherent magic that is presented. Without further ado, and in no particular order, I give you tomatoes 2011:

Pomodoro Belmonte – That is what the front of this beautiful package of seeds from Italy says. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato, and Belmonte is a heirloom from the Calabria region in Italy. There is a town called Belmonte in Italy, which the residents are very proud of their culinary flag.

I was so excited to find these tomatoes. They will be part of my Family Garden Quilt. My paternal grandparents are from Calabria, so to find a tomato that is from their region is really very special. While my grandparents are gone, I will be sharing a taste of a tomato that I would venture a guess they tasted before they left for America. I shared some seeds with my cousins who will be growing them this year also. One tomato, many generations, and a common experience of taste, aroma and visual stimulation.

Black Cherry Tomato – This is considered a rare cherry tomato. From what I read, black tomatoes are argued by a lot of connoisseurs to be the best tasting color in palette of tomato colors. I love cherry tomatoes, and these are said to produce and abundant crop.

Goose Creek Tomato – The story of this tomato is that a Caribbean slave smuggled these seeds aboard a ship that docked near Goose Creek, South Carolina. She planted the seeds the first spring after she arrived, and the seeds have been passed down through generations of her family. I look forward to sharing the taste that motivated a slave to smuggle seeds with her on her journey, and shared with her family as a true heirloom.

Lime Green Salad Tomatoes – These are new to me this year. They are small fruits, early season and grow on compact plants. Green tomatoes have a great flavor, and this variety is said to be be prolific. I'm excited to mix these with the black cherry tomatoes in a very colorful salad.

Northern Lights – Another early season variety. Last year I planted all mid to late season varieties. I ended up with a  boat load of tomatoes that ripened all at once, over a two week period. It's a bicolor, red and yellow, and smaller then most of the bicolors that are around. I may never see the northern lights but I will be able to say I tasted them.

Middle Tennessee Low Acid – These seeds were a gift from a purchase from tomatofest.com. What a great surprise. These large red beefsteaks have a low acidity to them, something I used to only associate with yellow tomatoes. Now this gift of seeds will not only broaden my selection of tomatoes that I grow, but my knowledge of low acid tomatoes.

Red Fig – I was fascinated by the story of this tomato. Imagine that. Me fascinated by a story. Grown since the early 1800's in America, this small pear shaped, red tomato got it's name from a process in which they ended dried out and stored as a fig substitute. Yum. You can about that process here.

Grandfather Ashlock – More history that I'm going to grow and taste. Three Ashlock brothers served George Washington in the Revolutionary War., One brother settled in Kentucky, where he grew this pink, potato-leaf beefsteak variety. The seeds were passed along the generations, and this is a very rare tomato.

Cherokee Chocolate – Cherokee Purples are my favorite tomato overall,and any variety that comes from them is going to get attention from me. From what I read, there's not much difference in taste, but it's the color and size that distinguishes the chocolate from the purple. Evidently, there was mutation in a grower's garden that changed the color of the epidermis from clear to yellow, which changed the color of the fruit to mahogany.

Cherokee Purples – My favorite tomato, all though last year Henderson's Pink Ponderosas swooped in and stole my heart. The Cherokee Purples though, still retain the top spot. An amazing taste experience for me. And quite beautiful to look at. I saved seeds from last year's garden.

Watermelon Pink Beefsteak – These tomatoes are big, red and very sweet. Last year they were the least prolific in my garden, but produced some of of the largest tomatoes overall. During the ripening process, I observed a couple that developed green stripes on them, and for a couple days they had the markings of a watermelon. It's said that it's the little things in life that make it worth living. Seeing that process is one of them. Allow yourself to see it too by growing them.

Mark Twain – I never heard of these tomaotes before, and I haven't found the reason why they are named for Mark Twain yet. I will do my best though to find out. These are another very rare tomato, one that I will drive from NJ to Tennessee to buy Mark Twain tomato plants. They will be featured post in the future, so stay tuned for more about them.

Pomodoro Cuor Di Bue – Or Oxheart, or Heart of the Bull. Another Italian variety, and since I am a Taurus, I do have heart, and I am of Italian descent, this is me in a tomato. As I encourage people to look at plants as a reflection of themselves, and their family, this tomato demonstrates that concept for me. It's an oxheart shaped tomato, pink/red in color, very meaty from what I read, and a nice saucing tomato. It's also considered a rare tomato by some. I look forward to growing them. I grew an Orange Oxheart one year, and I just loved the shape, and flavor of that tomato.

Rutger's Tomato – I grew this New Jersey heirloom last year. A wonderful tomato I have to say. Small sized fruits, very prolific, a great taste, no cracking problems, and overall a tomato that demonstrates what a Jersey Tomato is all about. The local lore here in New Jersey is that we grow the best tasting tomatoes. Anywhere.

Boxcar Willie – Another New Jersey heirloom, a late season orange/red tomato that will round out my Family Garden Quilt as representative of learning to grow tomatoes in New Jersey. I welcome this tomato into the fold, and look forward to making a nice sauce with the Rutgers for a true Jersey Tomato sauce.

"Bell Tomatoes" – I put the name of this tomato in parentheses because that's the name of the tomato that these seeds originated from. The seeds are part of a larger seed collecting story that I feel I'm living right now. This is another post in the making, and has the potential to add a significant layer to the story of Vanishing Feast. For now thought I will leave you with the cryptic instructions I was given, "...plant the paper towel".

That's the list for this year. It's through the power of seeds that I can do this. They offer me the opportunity to grow history, and tickle and tantalize my senses like so many generations before, and hopefully after, providing that this feast for the senses does not vanish.

Heirloom Garden 2011, Part 1 of 2

So I sat down to plot my garden, and I realized I don't have the specific layout of my double plot. The plots are 20'x30'. I'm not sure if I will have a 20'x60' vertical rectangle, or a 40"x30" horizontal rectangle. I'll know for sure on March 22, 2011 when I attend the community garden program  meeting. I did get the seedlings started, and for now I will fill you in what's included this year. The perimeter of the plot will be defined by a necessary fence, and a lot of sunflowers. I love sunflowers. I always have. And once I read the Greek myth about how the sunflower came about, well I channeled that into a Halloween costume. You haven't lived until you danced to The B52s dressed as a sunflower. Being 6'4" I would have to say I was a Mammoth Grey Stripe.

From GreeceGreek.com;

Clytie was a water-nymph and in love with Apollo, who made her no return. So she pined away, sitting all day long upon the cold ground, with her unbound tresses streaming over her shoulders. Nine days she sat and tasted neither food nor drink, her own tears and the chilly dew her only food. She gazed on the sun when he rose, and as he passed through his daily course to his setting; she saw no other object, her face turned constantly on him. At last, they say, her limbs rooted in the ground, her face became a sunflower, which turns on its stem so as always to face the sun throughout its daily course; for it retains to that extent the feeling of the nymph from whom it sprang.

Appropriately enough, I do have Mammoth Grey Stripes for the corners, and perhaps in the middle of each side. In between there will Ruby Eclipse, Tiger's Eye, Soraya, The Joker, and Hopi Black Dye, which may turn into a tie-dye project. I also have two sunflower samplers, one of which is from Italy.

There is the Family Quilt which I am planting in the center of the plot. I'm thinking a 5'x5' square, and will include Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Peppers, that represent the Basilica region Italy where my maternal grandparents are from. Belmonte tomatoes, which is a Calabrese heriloom, representing the Calabria region of Italy, where my paternal grandparents are from. Fish Peppers, which represent the Philadelphia area that my grandparents settled in. The Fish Pepper is a hot pepper variety grown by African-Americans in the Philadelphia/Baltimore area to season fish chowders. They have lovely variegated foliage, with peepers that change colors as they mature. And representing the Garden State, aka New Jersey, where I grew up and learned about gardening from my parents, there will be Rutgers tomatoes, a very prolific and tasty New Jersey red heirloom tomato, and Box Car Willies, another New Jersey red heirlooms.

New this year will be a small patch of cucumbers. Last year I had one Lemon Cucumber plant which I got a total of 2 cucumbers from. I tried to direct seed them, and got hit with excessive heat and cucumber beetles right away. I'm surprised the plant survived. I am growing them again this year, but will have plants from my seeds.  I really enjoyed the two that I got. They're round and a very pretty yellow. They have thin skins and have a nice taste.

There will be Painted Serpent Cucumbers, which are really a melon that originated in Armenia, and were brought to Italy in the 15th century. Think of all the generations that have passed since then. They grow long and narrow with a slight twist. They will be a good complement to the round yellow Lemon cucumbers. I'm proud to be growing a plant with such a long history.

Rounding out the trilogy, I will be growing Boothby's Blonde Cucumbers, which is a Maine heirloom. They tend to be small, plumb ovals and are yellow. They sound like a nice compliment to the other two.

I also have some melon seeds but I'm not sure if I will attempt to grow them. If I do, there is the Pepino Melon which sounds like beauty. It's a South American melon that grows on a shrub more then a vine. Combine that with it's yellow color and purple stripes, and you have my attention. I do have to say though I'm as fascinated with melons as I am with tomatoes.

And rounding out Part 1 is the Hinklehatz Hot Pepper, or Chicken Heart as it's know to the Pennsylvania Amish. It's suppose to have 125,000 scoville units, which is quite a kick. The Amish use it for a spicy vinegar, which sounds like a great idea to me. I'll add some to a bottle of organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and have a nice bottle of sweet and spicy for when that mood strikes.

Part 2 will cover the rest of the tomatoes in depth. There are 15 varities that I will be growing, including the two mentioned above. It will be quite a garden.

The Magic in This Story's Process

When I started writing my other blog, Magic Hat Stories (MHS) I encouraged people to look at their lives as stories, and to remember the magic and impact that stories had on them growing up. I know for myself, as an adult, I get caught up in the stress of modern life, and at times, forgo the magic that living a life framed in stories offered. I got really lucky when I started writing MHS. It reconnected me to when I was a child living the adventures in my storybook pages. The incredible journeys that myths and folklore took me on in college, and at one point, when both of those times conspired to push me into being a storytelling milliner. That though, is another story for another time.

In the midst of living my life, and being open to the creating this story of Vanishing Feast, the magic appeared ten fold over the past 6 weeks or so. In any process, magic happens. One has to keep a keen eye or two open, and perhaps three if you consider the mythical third eye to your soul, to see what magic happens with the process. I feel the magic that existed in the storybooks of my youth is what I'm experiencing now with this project.

For example;

Mark Twain tomatoes- Never heard of them until I started seeking out rare tomato seeds for Vanishing Feast. I discovered them in the fedcoseed.com catalogue. When I went to order the seeds, they were out. I was faced with a choice, a classic example in building a narrative in a story. Do I just say "oh well I'll order earlier next year" or do I demonstrate my commitment to this project, and start a journey to find these seeds or plants. I chose to find seeds, plants or both. A little alchemy later for making the right choice, I found plants that will be available in northern Tennessee at Shy Valley Plant Farm. Living in southern New Jersey I can make this trip, document it as part of this story, and taste these rare tomatoes, that evidently bruise easily but taste really good. Perhaps the Mark Twain will become a rally point in this story.

Seed Collecting Stories - The charm of a lot heirloom plants for me obviously is the story behind them. In the course of a conversation with a friend, it seems like I am living a my own version of a seed saving or seed collecting story. I'm keeping this close to vest as I follow the path this story is taking me on. Once I get more details I will share them here. You gotta love the instructions "Plant the paper towel."

Hydroponics - It started innocently enough, I walked in the door of the local horticultural supply company. When I walked out, I had this potential hydroponic system in my head as way to keep the feast going year round. There's an odd shaped closet in my studio that has become a catch all of dead energy. What a great flip this would be to turn this dead space into a thriving area that could perpetuate the feast all year round. This presents a bit of challenge  since I would have to slightly modify a room and find the cash for this system though.

In the context of living my life as a story though, the plot twists above offer me the opportunity to take this story to the next level. And as true storyteller will tell you, these magical moments that so innocently appear, offer the best content to be told.

I've secured a double lot in the community garden program I participate in for this year, have a great variety of seeds, and will be plotting my garden this afternoon. That will be the next post up. I will be posting more frequently now, so thanks for your patience and stay tuned.

My Family Garden Quilt

Well I'm planning my garden, and this year I'm ahead of the game. Last year it all happened so quickly that I was lucky to get anything out of it. The greatest harvest thought was this concept of Vanishing Feast. How lucky am I?! In these posts at my other blog, Magic Hat Stories (MHS), An Heirloom Garden, A Family Quilt by Another Name, Part 1, Part 2, I look at the concept of heirloom gardening, and put it in the context of a family quilt. This year I fully intend to use a portion of my garden as a family garden quilt.

In this post at MHS, My Heirloom Garden Follows the Journey of My Family, I use 3 heirloom varities of vegetables to trace my family's journey from Italy, to Philadelphia, PA, and eventually to southern New Jersey. While I did grow all three varities, they were not set up as a quilt. As I mentioned above, last year was rushed experience.

I will be using the same 3 varities I wrote about in the post mentioned in the paragraph above. These are Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Peppers, Fish Peppers and Rutger's tomatoes. This year I will be adding Belmonte Tomatoes, which originated in Calabria area of Italy, where my Dad's family is from. The Jimmy Nardello's are from Basilicata, Italy where my Mom's family is from. The story of the Fish Peppers goes that it originated with African-American slaves, and was used in the Baltimore/Philadlephia area to flavor seafood chowders. Both sets of my grandparents settled in Philadelphia, and the Fish peper will honor that fact my garden quilt.

Rutgers and Boxcar Willie tomatoes will complete the quilt. They represent New Jersery where my dad moved our family in the 1960's. This is where my dad taught me and my brothers about organic gardening.  I'll use some flowers and herbs to represent my mom to color and texture. And yes, this will be a square shape. I plan on shooting video and still photos as part of the documentry.

I will share the photo and the progress on this blog.

Cheers!