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Post by steev on Aug 27, 2015 10:52:57 GMT -5
steev - i know you didn't say that, i cant seem to remove you from that quote I sure could have said it. |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 27, 2015 17:38:50 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about all that. But good to hear you are taking care of your own mental health. I'm planning on sending a few seeds at some point. Mainly a few pea seeds. Not a lot, but hopefully enough to play with. . keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.): I haven't manually cross pollinated my daddy's version of Charleston Gray with anything else. There might be some of it's genes, or even pure plants running around in my landrace. This was my early seed crop in 2014. One of the fruits (on the right edge of the photo) looked like Charleston Gray.  The watermelon on the far left looks interesting. I don't remember seeing that pattern in your landrace a few years ago. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 27, 2015 19:57:11 GMT -5
The watermelon on the far left looks interesting. I don't remember seeing that pattern in your landrace a few years ago. That family has been my earliest watermelon for the past 4 years... (Perhaps 4 of the past 5). I have already eaten the first fruit from it this year. (Yes somewhat prematurely!) It usually gets missed in the photos because it has already been eaten by the time I get around to taking photos. It is the line that I used in the attempt to make the seedless watermelon. |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 28, 2015 7:55:07 GMT -5
It looks like there is some Golden Midget genes still surviving in your watermelons too?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 28, 2015 8:38:10 GMT -5
oxbowfarm: I've kept the Golden Midget clade around, hoping that eventually it will hybridize with the the yellow fleshed melons to produce a yellow fleshed melon that turns yellow-skinned when ripe. I think that this is the 4th year I have planted them intermingled with the other watermelons. They lack vigor in my garden, but as long as they keep producing fruit I'll keep replanting them. I'm a week or two away from my fall frosts, and when I checked a couple days ago I didn't see any fruits.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 31, 2015 21:17:35 GMT -5
I'm feeling fine! Up days, and down days. But I'm smiling a lot more, and feeling energetic. Medium Sized Maxima Squash:  The Second Year Tobacco Is Thriving!  I've been taking okra to the farmer's market for 3 weeks now... Finally learned how to screen it for tenderness. Most of those tomatoes are Jagodka, and potato leaved Bradley. The sweet corn is Astronomy Domine.  |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 6, 2015 23:49:32 GMT -5
The dry bean harvest is accelerating. Until today, I have been gleaning the beans, collecting individual pods from the earliest of the early. Today I started harvesting whole plants on which all of the beans are already dry or almost dry. So far, I have collected from about 27 visually different varieties. I found one type-to-row planting that looks like it may have been an F1 hybrid. I intend to look at the group more closely next time I pick. Still no beans dry from the oxbowfarm (hybrid) clade. Harvested the first pod today from the Dutch Brown (hybrid) clade. I'm taking photos, but having temporary technical issues with regards to posting them... |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 8, 2015 17:51:34 GMT -5
Today I found my bypass secateurs: Rusty as heck from their journey, but still functional. And a glorious pocket-knife arrived in the mail. I didn't even know that such high quality pocket knifes existed... I cried. It's more like a belt-knife. It's been 25 days now. I'm riding a bike and walking for most of my travels, except to market. I'm not losing weight, but it's shifting. Can't keep my pants on these days. Guess I'll have to start wearing a belt so that I can carry a knife. These days I'm picking dry beans most days. Also picked musk melons this morning. Picked a ripe watermelon, and super tasty. Today I prepared an archive copy of my garden seeds for a fellow that lives here in the valley. There were about 61 varieties and 37 species. Most of them are landraces that I have developed specifically for my farm. I picked a pocket-full of beans from the oxbowfarm (hybrid) clade. The earliest maturing plants were bush beans. Still haven't got the camera situation worked out. Sorry. |
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Post by steev on Sept 8, 2015 21:03:12 GMT -5
Don't know what I'd do on the farm without my cheesy pocket-knife; I graze all fruit season on bird-raddled fruit, cutting off the good parts, same as my Grandad did. I think I probably eat more produce every weekend than I eat during the week, just because it's there and I graze all day. I'm sure we weren't so persnickety the first hundreds of millennia of our existence as a species, but relative abundance permits more refined tastes. I'd say more wasteful, except that I drop the discards to return to the soil whence they came.
We are built for bipedal locomotion; this sit-on-the-glutes lifestyle is very bad for us, as organisms. I had no access to a car into my 20's; got around fine on the occasional bus, a bike, and mostly shank's mare; 5mph was my normal pace; think I'm down to ~4mph; I can do 5mph, but it makes me sweat too much, now. It's no strain to me, walking for many hours, because I've always done it; actually, the hardest thing is walking at less than my cruising speed; that gets me in the hips, because it just isn't my accustomed rhythm. Walking is good for the spine and general torso, cardiovascular and pulmonary health, hips through feet as it strengthens and tones the muscles, and for our integration into the environment, permitting observation and reflection far better than whipping through at 25-60mph.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 15, 2015 13:20:19 GMT -5
I started harvesting squash before the rains. When the rain ends I expect frost. I'm taking a rain/mud day vacation today. (I've been staying at a place that didn't support my camera, so now that I'm back home I'm making up for lost posting opportunities). If the frosts are too severe it will damage the fruits, but chances are that most will survive.  Lagenaria  Extra Large Moschata  Medium Moschata "Lofthouse Landrace"  |
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Post by toad on Oct 11, 2015 13:35:14 GMT -5
toad: For your viewing enjoyment I found a photo of the prettiest squash from this year. Seeds headed your way before spring.  It's mother looked like this:  Harvested today. Summer has been cold and unfriendly to heatlovers, but your squash seeds did well. They germinated surprisingly quick and strong, and plants was quite unaffected by the weather here. Today I decided to harvest, as I think we had the last GDD for squash.  DSCN8056 by Søren Holt, on Flickr On the right, in front, are two moschatas, also from you Joseph. They also grew very well, and several plants set fruit, and these two managed to mature (I hope). One is immature, will use as summersquash, and two was eaten by slugs. I would never expect moscatas to set fruit in this cold weather. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 11, 2015 13:58:53 GMT -5
toad: Good deal! Thanks for the grow report. The first time I grew moschata squash, 75% of the plants didn't set fruits, and every fruit that did form was harvested immature. I think I waited a couple of months after harvest before taking the seeds: Hoping that they would continue to mature while in the fruit. Start of moschata landrace: 
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 14, 2015 1:06:40 GMT -5
I've sure enjoyed biking the past few months. I can really pack a lot of squash, beans, or corn into that cargo carrier... Aught to build another to sit in front of the handlebars. I've already biked 50 miles this week. And, I can confirm the rumors that wearing a kilt is a chick magnet.  |
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Post by steev on Oct 14, 2015 1:45:53 GMT -5
Well, why else did you think the Brits were against kilts?
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Post by philagardener on Oct 14, 2015 5:43:05 GMT -5
Maybe it's the moschata . . .  |
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