01.22.08 JACK FROST JUMPS

...and lands in the bitter night upon the window pane. But this morning as the sun creeps up and threatens to polish away this delicate tracery, I can still make out the gentle rise of the mountains surrounding our hollow.

10.29.07 FIRST FROST

Cold last night! We get out the blankets and turn the heat on downstairs. We awake in the morning to a frost covered world. Frost is a bit late this year, I would have expected it more toward the middle of the month. I can remember that in 1979 we even had a snow in October!

04.02.07 TOMATO SEEDS

Its time. Tomato seedlings are fast growers and shouldn't be started too early. Our average last frost date is April 30, so seedlings begun now will be a good size for planting out in the garden at the beginning of May. (Two years ago we had a hard frost in mid-May and lost almost every seedling we had planted out!)

Plant a number of tomato varieties, mostly paste tomatoes. I am trying out three heirloom paste varieties: Opalka, Polish Linguisa, and San Marzano La Padino. For my wife's kitchen garden we also start some Costoluto Genovese, an Italian heirloom tomato with superb taste and an awesome old-fashioned lobed shape. None of these tomatoes are hybrids, it is always interesting to see how they will grow.

Last year I successfully froze enough tomato sauce and roasted tomatoes to last us the year. If the weather and the bugs cooperate, we may do the same this year.