High Dry Farm, Sultan, Washington….Certified Organic
This year I am introducing a new method for making low tunnels. 6′ lengths of 3/4″ poly tubing are threaded onto lengths of bamboo.
The bamboo is inserted in the bed to create an arc. These are linked at the centerline with a baling twine, and the hoops are then covered with poly film.
The last few days I have been busy sowing my ~120 different tomato varieties, as well as eggplant and tomatillo. The very first tomato variety to germinate was Amy’s Apricot.
Here is my new cable-heated bench for getting my tomato starts off to a strong start. 100′ of heating cable on a 3×12′ bench. An Inkbird C206 thermostat controls Redi-heat 8554 cable.
[Update 4/5/2017] Sadly, the heating cables stopped heating after only one month in use. The thermostat continues to work well, so it now powers two 150W heat lamps.
New varieties for 2017 planting – I just ordered these from Tomatofest.
| 1884 |
| Alaskan Fancy |
| Amy’s Apricot |
| Aurora |
| Black Zebra |
| Dicoff’s Yellow |
| Full Flavored Paste |
| Jaffa |
| Josephine Carter |
| Malinowski |
| Matina |
| Milano Plum |
| Pink Grapefruit |
| Ten Fingers of Naples |
This week-end I converted an old boat trailer into a flat-bed trailer. I am pretty pleased with the way it came out. The trailer can be switched back to boat trailer mode in 20 minutes by lifting the deck off in two sections and remounting two longitudinal bars that cradle the boat hull.
Shake with crushed ice, garnish with a twist of orange peel and a tart cherry, serve with ice.
This year we had a bumper crop of pie cherries. I saved the pits and covered them with vodka. Two weeks later, the vodka infusion was decanted and filtered. The result is amazing. The liquor has a strong Amaretto-like almond flavor with a touch of tartness and complex underlying cherry notes.
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