Planting Tomato Seeds

 

Starting Tomatoes—An Annual Event                            Jerry Apps Photo

We were a day late.  My mother, an avid gardener, always started her tomato seeds on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. She said it was a day for recognizing green—and thus a proper day for planting tomato seeds she had saved from the previous year’s crop. She did not buy the seeds.

My daughter-in-law, Natasha and I planted our tomato seeds on March 18.  It has been an annual event for us.  For those who might be interested, we started the following varieties: Steak Sandwich Hybrid (a 10 oz tomato ready 70 days from transplanting in the garden), Big Beef Hybrid (large red, ready 73 days from transplanting), Early Girl Hybrid (medium large, ready 57 days from transplanting), Fourth of July Hybrid, (4 oz fruits ready 49 days from transplanting), Better Boy Hybrid ( large red fruit, ready 75 days from transplanting), Wisconsin 55  (large red, 75 days from transplanting), Super Sweet 100 Hybrid (a cherry tomato ready about 70 days from transplanting.

We planted 72 seeds (seven varieties)  with harvest dates ranging from 49 days (Fourth of July Hybrid) to 75 days for Better Boy Hybrid,  Our plan is to have fresh tomatoes from early July until frost in the fall.

We germinate the seeds in a germination flat.  As soon as the little plants come up, I put the flat under a grow light where they remain for several weeks. We then transplant them into little fiber pots and keep them outside where they “toughen in” before we plant them in our farm garden. We transplant the fiber pots directly into the garden soil.

I have never gotten over the fun of watching a tiny tomato seed grow into a plant that is four feet tall and taller and hangs heavy with beautiful red tomatoes.  It’s one of nature’s miracles.  I’m reminded of it all as I enjoy a bowl of Ruth’s tomato soap on a cold winter day.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Starting tomato seeds is one of the rites of spring.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

You can buy my books at your local bookstore including my book, GARDEN WISDOM. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories of Spring Break

This is the time of the year for spring break.  When the schools and colleges shut their doors for a week so students and teachers can regroup after a long winter of classes and study.  A popular activity for college students is to trek off to a Florida beach for week of sun and fun away from the snow and cold. 

I remember so well my first year of college (1951-1952), and how I looked forward to spring break.  No going to Florida—I had neither interest nor the money to do that.  I looked forward to a week on the home farm.  I’ll fess up now—as many people who know me are aware;  My heart has always been in the country, and likely will always be.  I couldn’t wait for spring break, which in those days was mid-April.  I looked forward to hearing the meadowlarks and the mourning doves, and seeing bluebirds and robins. I couldn’t wait to smell newly turned soil, as this was the week when I crawled on our Farmall H tractor and disked and smooth dragged the fields prior to planting oats.

Today, I can still remember the cool mornings, after I helped my dad with the morning milking, ate a big breakfast, and then headed out to the shed for the tractor and a day of having the warm sun on my back while I drove up and back on the twenty-acre field that soon would be oats.   No sound of sirens, no traffic sounds.  Just the steady drone of the tractor.

After a week of “farming,” I was ready to return to the “big city” refreshed, and ready to endure several more weeks of classes and study before the semester ended, and I could return to the farm for the summer.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Once a farm boy, always a farm boy.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

 

 

Farm Auctions: A Sad Time.

 

The coming of spring meant the coming of farm auctions when I when I was a kid. There were many auctions as small family farms closed down, one after the other.  It was a sad time in the country.  In was also a sad time for the small villages that depended on these farms for their livelihood.

Especially after World War II, farming changed--tractors replaced horses, electricity replaced lamps and lanterns.  Get big or get out was the message of the day.  In the neighborhood where I grew up there was a small family dairy farm about every half mile.  I remember them well: Bill Miller, Allen Davis, Andrew Nelson, Griff Davis, Arlan Handrich, Joe Hudziak,

Charlie George, Bill Witt (my grandfather), Frank Kolka, Jesse DeWitt, and McKinley Jenks.

            On a chilly spring day, in 1965, my dad sold our small herd of registered Holsteins at an auction.   It was a sad day, for dad had worked since the 1920s to develop and improve his dairy herd.  Now he saw them, one after the other, sold.  That evening, when I walked with dad from the barn to house, he was crying.  I had never seen him cry before.

            My dad and mother lived on the home farm until 1973, when they had another auction.  This time the farm machinery, household goods, and feed were sold.  The auction bill also noted a category for “Antiques and Collectibles.” Most of these items the folks used every day; they were more than antiques to them.  A Farmall C tractor was on the list. Also, several horse- drawn machines—a dump rake, a two-row corn planter, a potato digger and a hay loader.  I knew each item, knew it well, knew the stories connected to it.

            It was a tough time, for me, for my brothers, and especially for my dad and mom.  Farming was so much more than making a living, it was a way of life.  The farm auction closed the door on a way of living—so important, but too often ignored.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Never forgot the importance of the small family farm to the history of this country.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

More Cookstove Memories Photo by Susan Apps Bodilly

 

.

My recent article about the old woodburning cookstove triggered many memories of these old stoves beyond cooking meals and baking bread. During the long, cold winter months, readers remembered that those old stoves had multiple uses.  A couple readers commented that they knew of little pre-mature babies placed in a cookstove’s oven to keep them warm. This was a new and great story for me.

When we got electricity on the home farm in 1947, my mother decided that maybe she should look at one of those new, modern at time, combination woodburning and bottled gas ranges, similar to the one pictured above.  Now she could cook during the hot days of summer without starting the woodburning side of the stove, but cook on the bottled gas side.  In winter she used the wood burning side of the stove, as it not only did the cooking and baking but warmed the kitchen.

When my wife and I bought Roshara in 1966, the farm we own now, we discussed what kind of a cookstove we should buy.  We had electricity, but no indoor plumbing in the old granary that we were working hard to make livable.

I learned about a used combination wood and gas burning cookstove, the one pictured above.  It had been used for maybe 20 years. We bought it for $40.00.  My dad thought it was an enormous price to pay for a used cookstove. It took five of us to carry it into the cabin—one cast-iron heavy beast—but oh, such a good stove. It works as well today as it did 56 years ago.  It warms our kitchen, and cooks our meals.  It provides wonderful memories of when I was a kid, doing my home work by the old woodburning stove.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Like an old friend, our woodburning cookstove helps keep memories alive.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books.