Meet the new EOT!

The EtsyOrganicTeam, after a short break and revitalization, is back! Things are much tidier, and we now have an all-in-one website with forums, a team shop, the blog, directories, slideshows, and the whole nine yards. Applications and reapplications have started trickling in, the twitter feed is up and running, and we're off to a great start.

The reorganization has been a great thing and I think the team will be able to have a much more involved membership, move forward with marketing projects, and generally be able to grow as a team. It's been a project, but it was worth the effort.

Check out the website and see what you think! :)

Bad blogger syndrome

Things have been very busy here. It's the green season and things are really picking up speed. Of course, in the middle of it all, we had three trips to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

I made my first pumpkin custard last week from this lovely. It's a Rouge Vif d'Etamps -- or the Cindarella pumpkin. I must say, it's delightful orange exterior is nothing compared to the delightful orange insides!

The potato blight is BACK!

Yeek. The late blight is taking no prisoners this year. It's not here yet, but I'll definitely take the rain over the drought!

Green things

By now, word has probably leaked around that the EtsyOrganicTeam is temporary closed for redirection, recentering, rebuilding, and a bunch of other re's. I've been working with Brenda, of NaturalStar, and Maura, of GreenWorks, and we've been making leaps towards a new, fresh start. Make sure to check back soon for an announcement that we're open and ready to roll!

Now for a few garden shots.

This is a flower on my asparagus pea vine. Look at the flower closely. Think. Giggle to yourself. Move on. :)


Here are some greenies. I believe this plant is a Black Zebra tomato, but I can't recall for sure. The hail didn't keep these guys too down, and they're putting out flowers and little tomatoes like crazy. With my luck this year, a hornworm will come along and gnaw them down.


This is a spontaneously occurring pumpkin. The vine put out this 10 lb (and growing!) beauty in a week. It's actually the variety of pumpkin that the Cindarella coach was modeled after, which is kinda neat. Can't wait for pumpkin custards!

Bounce back!

We just got back yesterday after a week at the Mayo Clinic, and oh my how the gardens have changed!

In a week's time:

• grass has done some damage in my flower beds
• my asparagus peas are podding
• my pumpkin vines spontaneously produced a 10 lb beauty (still needs a few more days on the vine, but it's lookin' good!)
• little green tomatoes are showing their faces
• my compost caught on fire
• my lone hydrangea is in full bloom
• the first fig of the year was picked

Tomorrow, I'll take some pictures of the upcoming bounty. It rained like the dickens today, so I just took a quick run through the raindrops to check things out.

I may also see about getting my butt in gear and putting together some new kits for my shop. I've been dragging my heels on that, but I have some plans and some inspiration fresh and ready to go!

Recovery

After the hail storm, I took a bunch of cuttings of my tomatoes and thought I'd share a down and dirty how-to.

First thing is to identify a prime bit of broken tomato that you'd like to salvage. Branches work just as well as main stems, so pick a bit that has most of its leaves intact and minimal bruising on the stem. The piece I chose was a sucker from the main tomato plant.

You can see how the stem was broken and pretty much destroyed. Above all of the breaks, though, was a fairly sturdy vine. This is where I chose to cut.


Now that all of the decision making has been done and you've committed to a cut, the easy part comes. Plop that puppy into a pot. Since tomatoes root along the stems, I like to put a couple of inches (depending on the size of the cutting) under ground. This'll give you a pretty solid root mass in a shorter period of time.


I laid the bottom of the cutting across the potting soil in a 1 gallon pot. I bent the top of the vine upwards and packed potting mix around the stem. I watered thoroughly and gave the little puppy a squirt of Superthrive for added punch.

And this is what it looks like a week later!

Several of the cuttings are flowering and showing signs of greenies again. What a relief!

Oh hail.

You heard right! HAIL.

About a week ago, we had a normal, everyday thunderstorm that dropped a nice bucket of hail all over my growing plantation. I'd just gotten the Florida weave rocking, and everything was beaten down quite nicely. Entertainingly, our roof, two miles away, survived without a dent. Drat!

We went over to survey the damage, and I took long cuttings from about half of the plants and have them going at home. They're doing pretty well, so I hope we'll be back in gear (albeit extremely behind schedule!) shortly.

Talk about taking the wind outta someone's sale. Mother nature, sometimes you royally stink. I wish they had home growers' crop insurance!!

Tutorial on how to take tomato cuttings should be up soon. ;)