Being tomato growers, we learned quickly that on cold, cloudy, and rainy days, we do not "work the plants" for fear of breaks, leaf damage, and causing plant wounds that will not heal.  Overall, there are only a few tasks that we will do in the tomato houses on cloudy days. Once in awhile, when those nasty, raw days come around, we'll drive an hour and fifteen minutes east and have lunch at the Cypress Grill. 

Sometime around the second week of January, The Cypress Grill opens up for its short season. (Mid-January through early April)  What's the specialty.....fried (cremated) herring, an Eastern NC favorite. We try to go 2 to 3 times a year, and usually for lunch.

So far this year we've had with plenty of cloudy days, but we've not had the time to travel to Jamesville, NC....so when Saturday night rolled around, we needed to go out for a nice supper.  Yes, I'm an Eastern North Carolina southerner and will always call my evening meal supper.  Dinner is the big meal on Sunday after church, as well as all the big meals on my favorite holidays. 

Back to the Cypress Grill.   It's a wonderful place to be, with ambience like none other.  For goodness sake, it's a fish shack ON the Roanoke River that transports you back in time.  The owners are not even trying, it's just that quaint.   We love it!

My plate Saturday night.  Two herring, stewed potatoes,
 coleslaw, and hushpuppies.  All for only $7.95.
   All I added was the vinegar and salt on the herring.  Delicious!

So as not to disturb the other patrons, while we were there (the building is tiny), I only took pictures of my plate.  To get the full visual, go to the following blog.  You'll enjoy the experience.

http://chloesblog.bigmill.com/road-food-north-carolina/

The Old Greenhouse

The pine trees are east of the house.  That means a good bit of shade for the morning.

Whenever we display images from our little piece of heaven on earth, it seems we only show the beauty of the plants growing in what call "the new greenhouse".  With that in mind, I bet you're wondering if there's a new one, there must be an old one.  Well there is!!!!

When asked how did you meet Tim, I always say, "he came with the house".  He did, and in addition to Tim coming with the house, the old greenhouse came with the farm.  IT'S OLD!  (1980's)  When Tim built the old greenhouse, it was actually two hoop houses that housed tobacco plants on a float bed.  When the tomato idea came to mind, we used one of the old houses for the first 400 plants.  Success!!!  Tim then had the bright idea of joining the two structures together.  For some reason, he felt this would be more efficient.  I don't know about that, but it is a big awkward looking house.
Greenhouses are aluminum structures with 2 layers of plastic covering it.  Between the layers of plastic is a pocket of air blown up like a balloon.  That is the only insulation from the outside elements.  Ours is riddled with tiny holes from past storms and so it will not hold air and allows water to pool on the top when it rains. Yes, we should have already replaced it.  In addition, it faces the wrong direction, east/west instead of north/ south.   It has a nice pine forest behind it.  That's not good, tomato plants need full sun, not shade half the day. 

Other than all that's wrong with the house, it actually grows some darn good tomatoes. Because it's so shady, the tomatoes won't ripen in a timely manner. They just hang on the vine about a week past their due dates and get huge! Sometimes two clusters of tomatoes per plant come off all within one week's times and then there's nothing else to pick until a week later. That's our feast to famine.
We manage the old greenhouse the same way we manage the new greenhouse.  In fact, without the Old Greenhouse, there would be no New Greenhouse and no Sunburst Tomatoes.  We are just as particular with the plant nutrition and care and use the same beneficial insects.  We find that it is so unpredictable that it's actually a lot of fun.  It's a nice bonus to go into that greenhouse and feel no pressure because whatever you do, that house has plans of its own.    We love you, Old Greenhouse:)

Tim on top dipping out water after an inch of rain the night before.

Interior view of that large pool

Look at the water pooled overhead

Sweeping out water (plus suckers)

Rain clouds building on the horizon.  Get the bailing buckets ready.

The weekend was beautiful with sunshine and clear skies.  The days were bright and sunny with low humidity, and the nights were clear and cold.  That's perfect tomato growing weather.  Those cloudy, dreary days that we've been having lately are not desirable growing conditions.

This week should be an awesome pick week for a winter crop.  Take a look at the pictures.  They are turning nicely and should be ripe enough to pick and eat soon.

We have not opened our little store here at the farm yet.  It's a little too early to have the quantity that we need to supply so many, so that one will have to wait to open in late February to early March. 

We are selling to Smith's Red & White in Dortches.  (Their sausage is great!)  In addition to the red, ripe tomatoes, Smith's is carrying our green tomatoes for frying. 

If you happen to be in the Triangle or Triad area, contact easterncarolinaorganics.com for availability.  There delivery details are listed on their website. 

Today was a pick day and we enjoyed quite a nice picking.  Jonathan and Nancy picked all morning while Tim chose another chore.  Last time he was seen,  he was puttering around on a tractor. 

On a dreaded note, the bills must be paid today.  One of the most unusual and unseen purchases we make is for beneficial insects.  We shop with www.koppert.com and www.hydrogarden.com/. When the "bugs" arrive, they are in tiny little packets or bottles and are invisible to the naked eye.  The invisible eggs will eventually hatch and begin to seek and destroy the specific bugs that are their food supply. 

 The beneficials are quite often packed in an unidentifiable medium that makes it appear you are actually purchasing something.  If not for the medium, I'd swear we were buying air except for the fact that they do hatch and prey on the unsuspecting evil bugs that have already shown up uninvited.  Today's purchase was a total amount of $622.08.  For that we received two bumblebee hives (highly visible), Ervipar (for aphids), and Spical (for spider mites)

Today was not a pick day, but it was a work day.  We clipped, suckered, and lowered some of the plants.  It was nice to see the sunshine appear after a 3 day absence.  When we left the greenhouse, the tomato plants were standing up straight and tall, sucker-free, and smiling.

Today is one of those dreary Mondays with a foggy, cloudy, damp, coolness that makes you want to sit by the wood heater and drink coffee all day. Fortunately for us, we picked tomatoes today by the warmth of heat blown into the greenhouse from the Goliath 300 boiler. We had a pretty good picking of tomatoes for a winter crop. This is the earliest we've had tomatoes since we've been in the business. Ideally, we would love to have (and sell) tomatoes 12 months of the year, but we have to clean out and start over sometime. Although we just started picking, we seeded the plants in early October. Our cleanout was in August/September. Tim went on to pick cotton, so let's give Jonathan and Nancy the credit for this early crop. (True, but Tim did micro-manage us from the comfort of a cotton picker with his cellphone.) The bumblebees are working, the beneficial insects are hunting and all is well in our little, green world. We are not at all at full capacity, but the fun has begun.....whoopee!

What we've been waiting for!

We began picking towards the first of March. With that happy task comes packing for delivery and (of course) delivery. We still have to maintain the plants (i.e. suckering, clipping up, leaf pulling, fruit pruning, and lowering the plants). The fruit is delicious and beautiful. The best I can do right now is just to post a few pictures when I remember the camera.