Today I went as far north as I've ever been... Up to visit with my good friend, AnnaMarie. (Apparently, my timing was near perfect - any sooner and I'd have had to wake them up.) She had given me directions, but the funniest thing was that I spotted the house, not by the house number or the description, but by the pea-fence that Wes had built. Ah, the power of the blog!
(Interesting sidelight - I went past a sign on the highway that announced the 45th latitude - halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Who knew? Though I would have guessed that we were closer to the North Pole than that, given our general climate...)
I had a fabulous time looking at her garden - so full of life and hope and promise. The woman is a dynamo. I can't believe all she and Wes have accomplished in the short time they've been in the house. And she gave me tomato plants, including the 2 varieties that we had lost when our hoophouse froze last month. (Debarao and Moskvich - both heirloom varieties that we have grown from seed for years, neither of which is available commercially as started plants. So when we lost ours, we were screwed. (We still have seed, since we never plant ALL our seed, just in case. But still - this year was down the tubes...) ) Many thanks, AM! There are also several varieties that we've never tried before, so I'm interested to see how they do and how they taste!
She also showed me what she'd been up to in the fiber area - and I apologize for drooling on her floor. The pictures on her blog don't come near the beauty of her batts in person. I think I may have left cheek-prints on a couple of them, and I'm sure the moaning may have frightened the dogs...
It was the best afternoon I've had in a long time. Balm for the soul.
Thanks, sweetie!
3 comments:
I can attest that AM and Wes know how to show a grrl a good time. Did you get a Brazilian while there? ROFLMAO. Couldn't resist that.
So glad you had a great time and you got your tomatoes. I grew Muskviches (sp?) last year from the seeds Kristen gave me direct from Russian -- I plum forgot about that!
I had to look up Moskvich and De Barao tomatoes in the Seed Saver's Exchange listings after reading your post. I'm always excited to hear about tomato varieties that perform well in the NEK. How is De Barao for flavor, considering it is a paste tomato? We have been growing Ropreco (another canning/ paste tomato) for about 25 years. It's early, heavy bearing, and reliable. The flavor is good enough for canning, but I keep wishing it was better, though that may be because they get grown in subprime tomato real estate - not as much sun as they would probably like.
We trial a few new-to-us tomato varieties every year, and these two might be good 2010 candidates!
You must be just a tad south of us; we are just above the 45th parallel. The dry beans sound interesting; DH and I have been trying various dry beans (bought from the store!) and love the Maya Copa. Heirloom tomatoes are certainly the best; we get them at our farmer's market. Have you tried Black Prince? It's an eating variety, little larger than a tennis ball, dark purple to almost black. SIL grows them every year; I'll see if I can talk her out of some for you.
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