"Organic" tomatoes packed in styrofoam?

Uh, huh.  I rarely buy tomatoes, like maybe twice a year, but I did the other day for hubby's pizza since I obviously don't have any in my garden right now but was getting tired of tomato-less pizzas!  


What do we have here?


Beautiful organic heirloom tomatoes, they were labeled "UglyRipe" but those are the least ugly heirlooms I'VE ever seen... packed in styrofoam?  

Has everyone lost their d@mn minds?  

I feel pretty badly since I was in such a hurry I threw them in the cart not even thinking that a company that shouts organic & heirloom on the same label would have such arcane packaging, when did I stop inspecting things like this?  How about labeling them "Contradiction Tomatoes"?!

Now on to the things I can control :)

The tomato seedlings are really nice looking once pulled out of the seedling box and standing alone, this one is a Yellow Pear.

"Wait, wait - don't tell me...."!

Instantly recognizable by their cute mittened hands, you're right - 

it's the Brandywine!

Holy moly - basil lovers, put this on your list...

"Lettuce Leaf" Basil, compare the little pot to my hand in the photo - the leaves are fantastically huge!

No outdoor stuff going on, it's cold!  Well, not really cold (37ºnights, 48º days), but I'm looking for a reason to indulge myself in fabric one last time before spring begins in earnest.  I  started a quilt for my bed on Wednesday.  This one is a fun challenge since I'm doing it from stash, there is nothing in the budget for yards of fabric but yet I really want a spring quilt to brighten up the bedroom and it will be fun to see what happens when left to my own devices and my stash, more on that later for those that are interested.  It's probably a better use of my time and money to use what I have since I'm such a beginner, I'd hate to ruin nice quilt shop fabric!

I did find a way to part with $6 this morning at the local deep discount store:

$2.99 each for nice, thick hardcovers - how could I say no?

Did someone say she has TOMATOES???

Believe it or not, some things in my garden have been thriving in the cool temps! Here's what's going on now:

Salvia is thriving all around the little barrel pond. It blooms most of the year round, but in the fall it really takes off. The little fish in the pond are starting to go dormant, not wanting food or swimming the surface much anymore.

Garlic & Onion & Pansy Bed

Lettuces, this may be the last photo I get of them due to frost.

Mama got some new boots!!

A stray clematis bloom that thought it was springtime after it had already been pruned back! It proceeded to grow about 2 feet and start budding! The bloom was very pale compared to normal, but it was a surprise beauty anyways. That's gone now, thanks to the frost last night. Our area even had cherry & pear trees putting out blossoms 2 weeks ago due to the strange fall we have been having.

My deck containers are still going, the Giant Parsley LOVES fall and is going crazy taking over my Swiss Chard. These containers have been getting covered at night the past two nights since they are easily accessible from the house. I suspect their time is limited though.

My husband's awesome find at work - not sure what it's purpose will be yet.

And finally... don't laugh.... TOMATOES in the house??!! I rescued these babies growing out of a few fallen tomatoes in one of the beds back in October. They are both Heirloom, so there is no reason not to use the seedlings, since I save seed anyways. I didn't expect much, but they seem to be thriving in the kids' southern facing room. I went ahead and drug out one of the grow lights a little early and hung one above. If it never fruits, no big deal, at least a fun experiment, but if it does..... fresh tomato grilled pizza in winter!! Stay tuned...

I think I will have to admit defeat on the lettuces for the year, they are suffering frost damage bit by by over the past week, but this weekend we are actually supposed to get snow. I didn't do anything in the way of hoophouses or tunnels this year, so I think the fact that we got greens for this long is pretty good! Hope you are all getting ready for the Holiday... Me? Haven't even started shopping yet! I am doing sugar cookies today, and I cannot even describe how much I hate rolling and cutting and transferring them to the baking sheet! Every year I seem to forget how big of a pain it is...

Fish on a Wall!

With all the work on our rental unit, the weekend flew by!  Luckily, we finished putting the new floor in and all the miscellaneous things to be done just in time, and our new tenants arrived about 3 hours later.  They have come all the way from Seattle, and in this economy we feel lucky that they chose our house to rent and cannot wait to start getting rental income again.  We only went 6 weeks without a tenant, but it couldn't be helped because we had a lot of work to do on the house and needed every minute of that time!  We chose to install a new floor called "Allure", it looks like wood laminate but is actually a floating VINYL floor (hopefully perfect for a rental property)!  It was extremely easy to lay compared to the laminate we have in our house and looks like this:   

                                                                

Nothing big happening on the garden front yet...peas outside haven't sprouted yet and my seedlings are still coming along under the lights.  There was only about 4 seeds that never sprouted and they were all True Black Brandywine tomatoes, but I still got enough of those that did... glad I planted more than I needed!  So the tomato seedlings consist of several heirloom types (Brandywine, True Black Brandywine, Black Krim) Black Truffle and Black Pearl Hybrids.  The peppers are Jalapeno Gigante, Ancho Chile, Red Poppers and Pinot Noir Bell.  Eggplant consist of heirloom Thai Yellow and Purple Rain hybrid.  Next I will be starting herbs, but many of those can be direct seeded so they aren't as fussy!  As of today, the babies are just starting to develop their first true leaves after the cotyledons:

                             

      

And finally, it's fish on a wall...