Duckies & Kitties

Ducks @ 17 weeks

Opal @ ~5 months

Jasper @ ~5 months

Heirloom Tomatoes

Here is a sampling of heirlooms from today's harvest. I grew these tomatoes from seed, starting on April 4, 2009. That's 6 months of work for these beauties! Heirloom varieties include: Dr. Wyche's Yellow; Brandywine Sudduth's; Silvery Fir Tree; German Pink; and Cherokee Purple. We also have (not pictured) Crimson Carmello (an experiment--grown in a soil-less medium) and the Super Sweet 100 Hybrid (a delicious cherry tomato).

I recently attended a "Tomato Masters" workshop at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond lead by Cynthia Sandberg. I learned many techniques for successful heirloom growing and maximizing yields. She has over 125 heirloom varieties, and I plan to take her "Grow your Own Tomato Transplants from Seed" workshop next winter.

Black Manuka Table Grapes

Almost exactly two years since we planted these grapes,
we've harvested our first crop.

Estelle was eager to help...

And she gladly accepted grapes as compensation for her efforts.

New Potatoes!

We used Phil Foster's big honkin' red potatoes as seed potatoes this year and are quite pleased with the results so far. The plants are just starting to senesce, but I dug one up tonight for a sneak preview. Not too shabby considering each plant was started with 1/4 potato. Sartaj is included for scale.

"Candy" for the HGP

We are happy to announce that today marked the beginning of a strategic partnership between AHMF and the Homeless Garden Project. We delivered 6 cases of "Candy" sweet white onions for their 70 member CSA. Unfortunately, I pulled out to deliver them before Nancy had a chance to get any photos, but they were large, good looking and a "high quality product" in the words of Paul Glowaski, HGP's Garden Director. We look forward to supplying them with "Apple" sweet and "Tiburon" poblano peppers later this season. If you haven't been out to the HGP recently, it is beautiful this year. A map to their garden can be found here.