BLACK RUSSIANS GOING BLACK

We have some fabulous heritage tomatoes. The Black Russians are looking good, Coeur de Boeuf is spectacular, and the black cherries just eat like sweets.
The only bad bit is picking them- think jungle, it's sticky, dirty, there are spiders everywhere, and I think the crop will run to 5 tons this year- an alarming amount of picking for us "girls"!

BLACK RUSSIANS...

Black Russian tomatoes are a right b*****d to grow! First, they make a crazy shape, with flowers that look more like dandelions than tomatoes, splitting the plant so they can't be trained.
Next they just have to split the minute they are anywhere near ripe-
And lastly, they are irresistible to blackbirds! Just one plant that has mistakenly got muddled in with another variety, the varmints will get in, and head unerringly to the ripening Russian, taking juicy big pecks out- and making them completely unsellable!
What makes these Black Russians so appealing- followed by the pink Coeur de Boeuf that we grow? How do the blackbirds know where they are and track them down even when surrounded by other varieties.
It's a mystery!
In a bid to beat them at their own game, I have been through and picked all the lower trusses while bright green- we'll see who wins this round!
Look for them on our markets www.edenfarms.co.uk/farmers_market.php, or order from our delivery service! ww.edenfarms.co.uk/products.php

ON PICKING TOMATOES.....

We are finally harvesting the fruits of our labour- this must be the dirtiest job on the farm! A special outfit, stiff with tomato grease, plus woolly hat, are needed to pick even in tropical conditions!Otherwise the grower gets covered in a scaly resin from the plants that turns the bathwater yellow and only comes off when soaked and scrubbed. Lovely!
However, aren't the results worth it! This week we have just started on our favourite plums, the strange Coeur de Boeuf, and a jewelled assortment of black, red and yellow cherry tomatoes; if you don't here from me again, assume I am trapped in Jungle Bolingbroke and send out the search party!
(anybody read Stephen King's Duma Key- it's a bit like that!)

ON GROWING TOMATOES...

There's a really long gap between buying tomato seeds in early February ( mine cost 50p each!), raising small plants, working up polytunnels, laying out trickle irrigation and black plastic to supress the weeds, planting out the tomato plants with strings in late April- we grow about 7 varieties, over 3500 plants,and then- we wiat for them to start growing.
At this point, they have cost several £K in plants and labour, but that's only the start of it!
Tomatoes are really only successful if grown with 1 main stem up the support, but what they prefer to do is throw out dozens of vigorous shoots all competeing for water and light- so someone has to go round and pull off all the sideshoots. Then, they can't support themselves- so they have to be wound on.
This is a pretty full time job- and this year, we don't have a tomato girl! Usually I find someone to come in part time and help out- this year there are only males, and, sorry guys, you just aren't very good at this! So the tomato plants look like triffids, botanical anarchy- and I've just seen the first ripening yellow cherry plum! Help!

SUMMERTIME!

I am lucky to live out in a beautiful part of the world- the Lincolnshire Wolds! At times in the winter very isolated, now the countryside is especially gorgeous after the recent rain- at last! Wild flowers are everywhere, sometimes not where they were planned!
I especially enjoy the stunning crimson fields of poppies that appear in the middle of grain fields! These actually represent a failure of herbicide spray programme, but as I am an organic farmer, I can just enjoy the sight with only a small smug satisfaction that nature outwits even the bad guys!Poppy red cheeks for that farmer!
Farming is one of the most public occupations you can undertake: in a factory, you hide behind walls; an artist or musician has to be chosen to be viewed. But anyone can drive past your farm and see both the cock-ups and the successes. Mile upon mile of fields in Lincolnshire with few hedges creates plenty to look at!

BUNCH CARROTS AND FRESH GARLIC

At last a day of rain has finally fallen and moved our crops from near-death into growth. The reluctant carrots and garlic, for which no spare irrigation was available, have finally swelled, and will make their first appearance this weekend on markets. www.edenfarms.co.uk/farmers_market.php
We have had a heavy week trimming and tie-ing(sp??) tomato plants; we have about 10 different varieties, including some great heritage ones, but they have some way to go! We are also inundated with hares and pigeons, who prefer organic veg to anything else currently available- ba****ds! We have 2 gas guns going, driving the neighbours mad, plus several "terror kites", the livestock just don't give a damn!

BEST NEW POTATOES IN 4 YEARS!!

Lincolnshire grows the best potatoes in the world, and we're all connoisseurs, like wine tasters in Bordeaux! Therefore it's specially gratifying to get comments like this about our crop of Premiere, being hand dug this week: " best potatoes I have had in 4 years" " best new potatoes this season" "absolutely amazing"
I had a plate of steamed baby new potatoes with mint, olive oil, salt and black pepper for lunch. It was.....well, absolutely amazing!