a case of tomato poisoning

A CASE OF TOMATO POISONING
last week i wrote a blog called organic weed killer
in the blog i mentioned purslane and amaranth as invasive plants in our garden
both of which we eat in salads and pull the rest out of the garden

here is the purple amaranth plants near the garden with thousands of seeds that will seed the garden probably for years to come whether we want it or not
keep that in mind if you decide to plant some

this is the purslane that grows wild here in the garden
thankfully its easy to pull up

i usually go to my garden every day or two to harvest stuff
i usually get a haul like this one of squash beans peppers okra eggplant cukes and lots and lots of good ole juicy tasty tomatoes

now mr tomato man appeared in my garden recently
i first noticed it when some elementary kids wondered into the garden one sunday morning as they were walking their dog in the neigborhood
they were certainly intrigued with mr tomato man
we added two christmas lima beans for his sunglasses
he has since grown some as has his nose so that he now is a ripe old man
we cant decide to eat him or not so we are just letting him ripen and ripen
ms b loves him also

this tomato is a heirloom either a black krim or a cherokee purple
we cut it this way like two hearts
i ate one
my wife she ate the other

heirlooms like this above and those below are what tomatoes use to be like in the old days before the flavor was bred out of them in favor of better storage and a a better look in the store

im sorry but these tomatoes are the best looking of any tomatoes that you can grow
wish all of them tasted this good

these are my favorite small tomatoes called sun gold
this one is thanks ms b since she planted it in her small garden here at the community garden
they are yellow and have a real sweet taste and produce a lot of tomatoes
i have eat hundreds of these already

here is a haul of a few days of tomatoes minus those i ate in the garden when i was working minus those we ate in salads or cooking or canned

for those tomato growers im growing brown cherry early girl i think mr tomato head is really an early girl so that makes him her a trans tomato black krim cherokee purple roma sweet 100 cherry some heirloom russian tomato someone gave me celebrity brandywine sun gold juliette cherry also a mini mexican heirlom cherry

my lunch every day is to take two slices of bread and add two big slices of those big juicy heirlooms or if not available big juicy slices of red tomatoes with a sprinkling of salt plus a slicing off a zucchini squash and a slicing off our armenian cuke and a slicing off an onion with a handful of garden salad mix
this makes the best ever sandwich
the kind you cant go in and buy anywhere
its all from our garden

now ive been eating a ton of tomatoes
probably way too much
my mouth is starting to get sore
my tongue feels like i burned it
all from eating tomaotes
if you love tomatoes you know what im talking about
im like a bear that keeps eating honey even though the bees keep stinging them

last week i felt funny on wed then had gi symptoms on thursday unable to eat solids
that didnt keep me from getting my infusion at ucla though

i told them i had
not food poisoning
but
tomato poisoning

lycopene overdose it was maybe
lycopene is the good stuff thats found in tomatoes
its good for the prostate and for bone health and blood pressure and for skin

i told my wife she i know its tomato poisoning

i think its from tomatotene
its a condition that you get from eating too much tomatoes especially
organically grown tomaotes
especially
organically grown heirloom tomatoes

it causes
a sore mouth
a sore tongue
a full tummy
a satisfying just ate the best sandwich ever feeling
and
a big ole smile on your face

all worth it i must add

the organicgreen doctor

tomato planting

the meals on wheels night at the austin toros game at the cedar park
center is friday night at 730 pm
one half of the tickets you buy  goes to meals on wheels
then
there will be a silent auction on several items with 100% of the proceeds
going to meals on wheel
come join us and bid on the items

if you want to donate to the meals on wheels
go to this link and make a  donation

in the designation box write in 
meals on wheels program

or
send a check to
wbc opportunities
604 high tech drive
georgetown texas   78626

include a note that the check is for meals on wheels
thanks
ogd

TOMATO PLANTING
recently i was at the natural gardener in austin texas to buy plants
and
i started thinking about my tomato crop this year

a friend had given me a celebrity tomato plant that i had put in
a 1 gallon pot
i placed it in my green house and man did it grow there

at the natural gardener i looked at their garden where they had
already planted their tomatoes in holes
heres the label that was on their tomato bed

so i decided i would plant my tomatoes in a well or a hole
following their general directions
i did something like this last year and was successful

first i have a 4 ft x 14 ft g garden bed that i decided to turn into an anthill or
a hugelkulter bed

i got these ingredients
old cardboard
old newspapers
old records
shredded stuff from my shredder
my chicken made compost
leaves yall gave me
limbs twigs tree trunks

i dug out all the dirt out of my bed in 4 ft increments down to about 2 ft

then i added cardboard newspapers old records shredded stuff
on top of that i added limbs and old tree trunks
then added some of the soil from the hole
then added your leaves
then added the chicken compost
then added more newspaper
then added leaves
then added the compost
then the dirt
layer after layer until i ran out of soil
then on top i added my compost from my really composted compost

i did this to all 14 ft of the bed

then i raked it all out real well
dug a trench down the middle where i will plant
dug a trench on the sides where my drippers will go

then i dug this hole that would hold my 3 gallon bucket
which i cut out the bottom
thats my shovel handle in the hole

i then planted my celebrity tomato down in that hole
adding some earthworm castings in the hole
watered it well with seaweed
then filled the hole partially with the garden stuff i had just made

as the tomato grows i gradually will lift the bucket out of the hole
until it gets to the top of the garden soil
leaving it in place for a while to provide protection from the wind
and from the cold
later i will use it as a well to pour some of johns liquid fertilizer
which has fish emulsion in it seaweed and molasses as the season
progresses

i then cover the whole tomato with a five gallon bucket
then cover that with row cover to protect it from the cold
opening it to the weather when its nice
covering it when its cold

if all goes well my tomatoes will get a real jump start on the season
our summers can come real early
once the heat hits hard the tomatoes quit producing

the varieties i chose are mostly indeterminate
which means they will keep producing as long as conditions are good
determinates produce only a set number of tomatoes then
thats it

the indeterminates have the chance of surviving and being
fall producers if i am lucky

my varieties im planting are sweet 100s juliets both small ones
early girl as they will produce quicker in the spring
celebrity a good producer
then heirlooms like cherokee purple black krum brandywine
mortgage lifter hopefully arkansase traveler
and porter
adding more as they become available

 if you plant your tomatoes here in cental texas remember
late freezing weather is not unusual in late march
we here at the country n seem to get one in early april
so
be sure and protect them with row covers and blankets
when the weather is threatening

there is nothing like a good juicy tomato

the organicgreen doctor

growin stuff

GROWIN STUFF
ive written about the monkey pod vine
im really not sure what plant it is and what it
eventually looks like but
i was told it has a beautiful flower that grows on it
later on in the year

to review a family friend my med school friends friend
told me about it and gave me some monkey pods to plant
this is my third try to get them to grow
one year i got them to 6 feet but they died when the drought
hit and i had to reroute the water to the garden

this year i have added a dripper to the two i planted in my
garden so that when i water my okra this summer im
watering my monkey pod vine

here is what it looks like before i plant it

here it is early on
its climbing the white string in the bottom right of
the photograph

here its what it looks like now

i cant wait until the flowers bloom this summer
ill post a picture when it does

this is a three year project
ie the first two years failed












here is a picture of an okra bloom
you can see some okra starting to grow in
the background

this is a red heirloom german okra from seed my rainwater brother
got from the organic garden guru malcolm becks wife
in san antonio

these are a larger in diameter okra but are my favorite
okra ive planted
i saved seeds from last years crop










then here is my wife she holding one of our heirloom
tomatoes
i think its a brandywine
these things are so delicious and juicy
we call them sink tomatoes since you have to
eat them over the sink since they are so juicy
and so flavorful

thats what has been removed from a lot of the
tomatoes you buy at the food stores
we picked this one a little early so we will let it
ripen more to that juicy stage


then finally i want to write about that paper mulberry again
dont ever ever ever ever plant one in your yard
you may not ever be able to control the new
mulberry plants that pop up in your yard

most of the yard above was cleared of these trees by
hand
now after the rains they had the paper mulberry
plants now cover all that yard
again
they are about 2-3 feet tall

it is probably one of the most invasive trees to plant
on your property
you will never ever get rid of it totally no matter how
hard you try to

there is no good way that is organic to really get rid of it
you dig up the stumps as much as possible then
carefully apply the r word to any shoots that appear
being very careful to only spot treat them

there ive confessed i used the r word stuff

i feel better now
dont you use the r stuff in your yard

the organicgreen doctor

garden update

GARDEN UPDATE
as the longest day is past
and the dog days of summer will start today as
we start a run of 100+ degree temperature days
its reassessment and clean up time here at the country n

we have 10 acres with 9 acres of it being pasture land that
i have decided to let go back to nature a few years ago
i planted some native grasses and have selectively let cedars
hackberries and other trees grow back in them
i have also have planted some native trees such as oaks
and cedars to supplement as visual breaks and shade trees

since we had done this we have noticed a return of more animals
and birds and butterflies to the property
we also supply 3 watering troughs of water and two smaller
waterers for the animals to access

this year we had a showy display of different wildflowers
especially bluebonnets fire wheels and bee balms

the one acre in the middle of the property is where our
house sits and is fenced with a 7 ft fence to keep out
the deer

each spring i let the wildflowers grow until they go to seed
then i go in and mow them down and leave them on the ground
to provide seeds for birds and for next years crop of wildflowers

sometimes though like this year it can look like a jungle around
our house
real snake habitat
know my wife she worries about that a lot in the spring

now its mowing time
it takes me 2-3 days to mow weedeat and pick up
excessive clippings

this year i was given a new blade for my weedeater
dang wish i had used this before

its dry here 
its especially noticeable when i mowed and can actually see
the ground

the 1/2 inch of rain yesterday just barely moistened the dust layer

now to the garden
its decision time as my water for irrigation is getting low
i will have to decide which things to continue to water and which
to just pull up and call it over with until the fall

remember the fall is the best time to garden here in central texas

this year i planted a 4 x 12 ft bed i call my summer garden
it has things that will grow in the heat and things that will last
until winter time
okra  malabar spinach  pursalane  christmas lima beans
sweet 100 tomato  juliet tomato  bell pepper
sweet banana pepper  jalapeno pepper  two different basils
swiss chard  and arugula

i now will only water this bed and let the rest of the garden go
then this fall will plant another 4 x 12 bed with my fall garden

here is some of my tomato produce for the year
the canned jars are tomatoes
the varieties of tomatoes are celebrities  cherokee purple  lemon boy
sweet 100  juliet  roma  porter  an unlabelled heirloom
and brandywine

the pumpkin is a sugar or minature pumpkin that we will cook and
can like winter squash
its part of the 3 sisters we planted-corn  beans  pumpkins

overall a good spring garden that
is coming to a end
its time to shut it down and compost whats left

the organicgreen doctor