One of ED’s (enforced) projects lately is drying apples. Bernard is taking a break from her Sungold cherry tomato drying to let ED use the dehydrator. So far she’s got 5 quarts of dried apples, some of which you can see in the previous post of the inside of the root cellar. They are so incredibly good, it’s going to be all we can do to abide by the “no eating the put-up food til after frost” rule. 
I’ve noticed a lot of other blogs have photos of yellow sunflower-type flowers, so in the interest of being a part of the cool crowd, I’ve decided to post one of my own. This is a Jerusalem Artichoke flower; I dug up some that I had planted up at the old house, but then, in typical fashion, left them in a bucket all winter. Most were no good by this spring, but one tiny piece of a root survived and turned into an eight foot tall plant outside the bathroom window.
DH’s truck, Ruby, and Bernard’s hibiscus.
Another shot of the very special Carbon tomato.
Here are some of the photos I’ve been promising. I finally have my new computer all hooked up, and it is way more wonderful than I thought it was going to be! Just the way the new monitor renders colors is so delicious—the old one was so washed out, though I really had no idea how dull it was until I hooked this one up at the same time the old one was running.
Here’s a picture of the lovely smelling nicotiana growing next to our front porch.
And here is my fabulous Carbon tomato. I’ll have some more pictures of it coming soon. Isn’t it gorgeous? 
And here’s Bernard the cowgirl. 
Wow! This is really fun! I’m going to do some more!
How did I suddenly end up with a fifteen year old? And, even crazier, one I like so much?
ED was born on a beautiful summer morning in West Virginia fifteen years ago today, and I can’t imagine life without her. Happy birthday, sweet girl.
We’re having a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, after three years of none at all. Our favorite varieties are:
Carbon, which is a “black” tomato that looks similar to a Cherokee Purple or Black Krim. It has fantastic flavor, huge production, and the fruit is beautiful—no catfacing and little cracking. (I discovered a perfect specimen the other day—beautiful shape, excellent color, mellow sheen—and I put it all around in different places—the front porch, the yard, in a straw hat, on a blue tablecloth—and took pictures of it for three days until it really was time to eat it. Photos coming soon.)
Persimmon is another heirloom. It’s a deep gorgeous orange all the way through, with huge tomatoes. It does have more of the catfacing thing going on, but they’re so big and so delicious that it hardly seems to matter.
And our other favorites are the Sungold cherry tomatoes. They’re so good—really sweet, but with a perfectly well-rounded tomato flavor. I wish I could find a big tomato that tastes like a Sungold! Bernard has been picking them and cutting them in half and putting them in the little electric dehydrator on the front porch—they’re candy!
The big surprise this year has been the Great Whites, which are usually our very favorite. We like them this year—they’re fine—but they really just aren’t doing it for us like they have in years past.
I’ve been canning quarts of tomato puree. My initial goal was thirty quarts; last night put me at thirty-one, and so now I’m thinking more like fifty.
The weather has cooled off a bit, though you can’t tell it from my steamy kitchen. One of these years we’re going to put in an outside kitchen, for canning and interns.
A neighbor stopped by yesterday to tell us she thought our cow was up at her grandson’s barn. ED rode up there with her, and sure enough, there was Rosemary, looking forlorn and lost. Silly cow. ED said she practically put the halter on herself, and she ran to our barn with ED trailing behind on the end of the lead rope. I guess she couldn’t find her way home?!
Shannon—if she isn’t already bred, I hope she found a bull! A local old timer told us that we wouldn’t really be able to tell if she’s bred until middle of September at the earliest—at least just by looking at her. So we’re still holding our breath!
A month or two ago, the opportunity arose to go to Ocracoke Island at the end of September. The same day we had several friends visiting, one of who was an intern at a friend’s farm, who spoke up and said she’d farm-sit for us if we decided to go. Fabulous news, as that’s the hardest part of going on vacation for a farmer with livestock! So yesterday she came over and spent the day and tried her hand at milking and just hung out and got to know the farm a little. I feel wonderfully confidant that we’re leaving the farm in good hands, freeing my mind to just look forward to a vacation.
