Sunday, August 31, 2008

Tomato Feeds Family for a Month

 

If only the State Fair was this week, I'd have to enter this baby and claim my prize. It's HUGE. Six 1/2" wide and almost 4" tall - it was one of the few blessings of the drought though we'd settle for having rain and rotted tomatoes. Still, the once-thought poisonous fruits are abundant this year because lack of rain has made the many blights that plague them, struggle for existence - if a blight can do such a thing. I caught Franklin just before he sliced this one. He's had several BLTs from it (and I had one) and there's enough left to make a meal out of. I believe it's a German Johnson tomato - an heirloom variety from NC and Virginia that was one of the four parent lines of the Mortgage Lifter tomato. During the 1940's in West Virginia, it seems there was a guy named Radiator Charlie who, without much of any knowledge of plant breeding, decided he wanted to create a large tomato. He chose the German Johnson (pictured here), the Red Beefsteak and two unknowns. He planted nine of the plants in a circle and put the German Johnson in the center and cross-pollinated it with the others. He did this for six years, saving the best tomato each year to go in the center. When the breed was stable, he sold the seeds for $1.00 each - exorbitant even at today's prices. Thus he paid off his $6,000 mortgage and this new variety (which came from the one pictured here) was called Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter. He never had another variety on his place after that and the seeds are sold even today, though at much more reasonable prices. For the Mortgage Lifter tomato it's not uncommon to grow four-pound fruits!!! Guess you could call the German Johnson it's cousin once or twice removed.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

RAIN & Walker's Moving Back

After months of drought we have rain !!! It's overflowed Mr. Frog's bowl and creeks are flowing over. Franklin spent the night with Walker last night at Tuckasegee and the river was up 20 ft at the place we call Paradise. The horse's pasture was beginning to flood so they had to move them and the electric fence in the pouring rain at dusk. They have battle scars this morning from the blackberry bushes in the pasture. My garden here was all but dying and now everything is looking skyward. I know Fay hit Florida hard but we in NC can't wait for the next hurricane to swing our way.
This is Walker's abode on the farm, tucked between several pastures. He'll be back home tomorrow or Friday. Franklin hauled his motorcycle back here today among other things like homemade wine from wild blackberries. The cabin was built in the 1800's and is pretty rustic and rough around the edges.
Still, they've done lots of work to it in the past year. The kitchen is NOT as cute as this photo makes it out to be but there are new IKEA cabinets and a new gas stove.
Ditto for the bathroom. You don't want to know what I found under the bathtub when I was sweeping the house!!! The floors give the feel of the "Fun House" at the fair but it's a perfect bachelor pad for a Fairview-raised boy and Walker is so happy to be back and have a place of his own as long as he's working for the farm. It'll help him save more money so he can buy a piece of land. We're thrilled to have him nearby and to have Cameron in Jake's old room - speaking of which - that room is SOOOO clean now. Photos of Jake's dorm soon. Just imagine a sardine can packed full of odds and ends. Now add two sardines. HE loves it.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Visiting Martha

Gabriel and I visit Miss Martha every Tuesday. Usually we water her plants and it's Martha's ritual to offer Gabriel a little, pack of cereal, the kind you cut through the box on the dotted line and pour the milk right into the box. She's also known as "The Mint Lady" and he gets his share of mints there as well. Martha was in an auto accident over six months ago and we're so glad she's finally fully recovered. Today, at Gabe's mom's request, we brought fresh sliced peaches and vanilla ice cream and shared them with her for lunch. Martha's not keen on eating veggies so this 'dessert for lunch' idea pleased her to no end. Soon to come: Walker's new abode, Jake's new digs and Cameron moves into Jake & Walker's old room this weekend. Also soon to come: Rain - Glorious Rain!!!!! Just when plants were dying right and left, pastures were down to dirt and neighbors had lost their springs, along comes Fay's feeder bands. Everything is perked up and oh, so happy. And that's all the news from Fairview, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and the children are above average.


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Monday, August 18, 2008

Walker & I Fishing at Tuckasegee - photos

Here are the photos that didn't publish with the last post.
 

 

 
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Friday, August 15, 2008

Fishing With Walker @ Tuckasegee

 

 

 

After work on Thursday in Flat Rock, I tooled on over to Tuckasegee where Walker is warden for the summer. We spent just over 24 hours together talking, cooking, digging a new outhouse hole (he did the digging, I did the watching), looking for bear signs, sitting around the campfire, picking blackberries and fishing in the Tuckasegee River. We caught quite a few brown (native) trout which are not really brown but full of beautiful color patterns. At one point while I was digging for worms for our fishing trip, he yelled, "Mom, come here quick." I ran up to his cabin and he showed me his resident black snake that was crawling around his kitchen sink and then heading up into the rafters to look for mice.

He returns to Fairview in two weeks after being in Chapel Hill for two years and at Tuckasegee this summer. He's going to be the farm manager for the organic pasture meats business at the end of our road (Spring House Meats - you can check them out on the web). They have an old very small house for him to live in less than a mile from us!! His girlfriend is waiting to hear on the 25th whether or not she gets a job with one of the Clarke clan right here. If she does, we've offered her Jake's room. I had such a great time with Walker that I hope to go again next week before he moves back here. If so, more photos will be forthcoming, especially if we DO see that bear he's sighted several times already.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Locks-Of-Love Haircut

 
As most of you know, Jake's been growing his hair out for some time now so he can give it to an organization - Locks-of-Love - that makes wigs for children who lose their hair due to chemo. This first photo is of him and Mark enjoying some homemade cookies just before the drastic change.
 
If you're going to do something this big, you make the most of it and Jake decided to have me cut half his hair and leave the other half for this photo-op. From one side he was the old Jake and from the other - Baldie.
 
After I made a million little bundles of hair and clipped them close to the scalp with scizzors, friend Mark got to use the buzzer to make it all uniform.
 
Later we celebrated with blueberry buckle at Mark's house before driving Jake back to campus to face his friends. The cute girl and great athelete in this photo is Mark's sister, Lily, whom I got the priviledge of seeing be born.
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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Jake & Girlfriend Sarah

 
Oops. Some of you will get this twice because I just decided to blog it. Here's Jake and his girlfriend Sarah this summer at Indian Springs Camp in Georgia. He's been friends with her family for years because one of his two best buddies is Sarah's cousin.
 
And here is the mode of transportation at the camp. Luckily, Jake and Walker had loads of experience driving golf carts when they were young.
 
Lastly, Jake's sillouette at the Atlanta Aquarium where they snuck off to for a day. They both love to spearfish and snorkle and it's supposed to be one awesome aquarium!!
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