And Now for the Rest of the Story.....

So whatever happened to…..

I know you’ve been wondering and waiting for updates on many of my adventures (just play along with me anyhow), so this post is dedicated to bringing you up to speed.

First off, the Buy Local experiment –

I’m happy to report that we are still buying primarily local, despite the end of our three month challenge to buy exclusively from locally owned businesses. One of the great side effects of our experiment was saving money. We were so laser-focused on only buying what we needed due to the limits of our shopping options that we spent significantly less money. Now that the flood gates are open and we’ve made occasional necessary trips to Wal-Mart and Home Depot, our expenses are right back up there.

I found myself in Wal-Mart recently to allow my youngest offspring to spend the gift card he received at his birthday party. While he agonized over which Lego set to buy (this can take hours and is very much a big part of the joy of Legos), I wandered the aisles. What a mistake! Looking back I wish I had just endured the running commentary on the pros and cons of Bionicles versus Star Wars, instead of setting off for the back of the store to buy quart-size zip lock bags to freeze all the fresh fruit we’d been harvesting.

The Blight Battle Begins

The battle has begun.

The battle to avoid the Tomato Blight of the Summer of 2013.

I did everything I could to avoid it. My babes were raised on homemade seed starter containing lots of organic compost. They grew strong and healthy in our basement under the lights, transitioned to the porch for hardening off and were planted after danger of frost in our best vegetable bed where no tomatoes had been grown in over three years. They were mulched heavily in clean straw and on cold nights were blanketed in buckets.

I dutifully snipped off all the branches that neared the ground. We gave each plant its own cage to protect it from flying feet chasing baseballs and to later support them as they grew.

We watered only when necessary, using a soaker setting and being careful not to splash the leaves.

And yet….