Tomatoes
There is something missing when a garden does not have tomato plants growing in it. So each year we try to get the tomatoes planted and the
Lord certainly has blessed the tomatoes grown here.
Sometimes we buy some organic fertilizer to put in the hole for the tomato plants when we put then in the ground. There are so many kinds of tomatoes. The seeds of this particular plant grew a leaf that is not so jagged as the tomatoes we usually see. Tomatoes are used in so many ways and are so yummy and good for you. It’s also fun to share them with others fresh from the garden.
Big. Tender, Pinky Heirlooms
February 10. "I arose at half past four a.m. At five I was at work spading up ground and preparing to set out my flowers. I worked one hour alone, then Edith Ward and Ella May White united with me, and we planted our flowers. Then we set out twenty-eight tomato plants, when the bell rang for morning prayers and breakfast. . . . After breakfast I read manuscript. . . .Grounds are prepared for vegetables to be put in--potatoes, beans, peas, and other things. . . ."
3MR 407
"I find Sister Nelson to be a faithful, economical housekeeper. She has been very busy canning fruit and drying corn. The others have not been able to help her much; for they have all been busy on the writings. But Mrs. Nelson does not complain. She sees what needs to be done, and does it. This is a great blessing.
She has already canned one hundred and thirty-eight quarts of tomatoes, sixty quarts of loganberries, and seventy-five quarts of applesauce, besides cherries, peaches, and apricots. We hope to have 200 quarts of tomatoes put up. We have nearly a bushel of sweet corn dried, and have had sweet corn on the table nearly every day for two or three weeks.
It seems wonderful that in this dry time--not a drop of rain has fallen for nearly six months--there can be such an abundance of tomatoes and sweet corn. To me this seems like a miracle; for the crops have not been watered, and there has been very little fog. I certainly cannot solve the problem of how, without a drop of rain, there can be so rich a harvest."
7MR 119
The grapes are ripening fast.
"I determined to set my trees, even before the foundation of the house was built. We broke up only furrows, leaving large spaces unplowed. Here in these furrows we planted our trees the last of September, and lo, this year they were loaded with beautiful blossoms and the trees were loaded with fruit. It was thought best to pick off the fruit, although the trees had obtained a growth that seemed almost incredible. The small amount of fruit--peaches and nectarines--have served me these three weeks. They were delicious, early peaches. We have later peaches--only a few left to mature as samples. Our pomegranates looked beautiful in full bloom. Apricots were trimmed back in April and June, but they threw up their branches and in five weeks, by measurement, had a thrifty growth of five and eight feet.
If the Lord prospers us next year, as He has done the past year, we will have all the fruit we wish to take care of, early and late. The early fruit comes when there is nothing else, so this is an important item. The peaches are rich and juicy and grateful to the taste. We have quince trees set out, and lemon, orange, apple, plum, and persimmon trees. We have even planted elderberry bushes. We planted our vineyard in June. Everything is flourishing and we shall have many clusters of grapes this season.
We have a large strawberry bed which will yield fruit next season. We have a few cherry trees, but the testimony is that the land is not good for cherries. But so many false, discouraging testimonies have been borne in regard to the land that we pay no attention to what they say. We shall try every kind of a tree. We have a large number of mulberry trees and fig trees of different kinds. This is not only good fruit land, but it is excellent in producing root crops and tomatoes, beans, peas, potatoes--two crops a season. All these good treasures that the land will yield have been brought in from Sydney and Newcastle and thousands of acres of land have been untouched because the owners say they will not raise anything. We have our farm as an object lesson."
8MR 252
