Spotty Posts and Spotty Tomatoes

Sorry about the spotty posting. We have been pretty busy ever since our return from Philly. We went to Randy's wedding on July 2nd in Elkhart Lake. It was a fun little wedding, but HOT. It was held at the Oostoff Resort, which is a huge, multi-building resort on the lake. The grounds were nice, but the whole resort smelled like a pool for some reason. Weird.

Also, we made our first foray into the world of gardening. I am proud to say that our yard looks better than it did last year. And hopefully that trend will continue into the foreseeable future. We are already making plans for some big improvements. We are definitely going to have a real vegetable garden next year, and maybe even a patio. I am giddy at the thought of it....or maybe I am dizzy and nauseous at the thought of the work. Yecch.

But this year we just have a container garden. We have tomatoes, tomatoes and....well, tomatoes. I received four small (now huge) tomato plants from a co-worker for my birthday. Two days previous to that we had planted a flat of seeds that we bought on a whim from Steins. I never thought they would actually sprout, but they did. All of them. So, we have four big plants and about 15 puny plants. I couldn't bear to not give the little plants a chance, especially after they survived that week when we forgot about them inside the garage. Every planter I have is now filled with a tomato plant. Not flowers. Tomatoes. Oh well.

In preparation for the tomato deluge I have done some research and found a way to store the Great Red Excess in the freezer. Apparently you can keep them well in a half-cooked state in the freezer and use them for sauce and chili during the winter. (I can hear everyone now. "Yes you idiot. " Well, this is the first time for me, ok? Have patience... :) ) But I may not need to whip out the storage plan after all. When I checked on the plants today I actually took an extra step and examined our many, many, many little green tomatoes. About half of them have a wide black or brown sunken indentation on the bottom of them. After some fast internet research we learned that this is what is known as Blossom End Rot, or BER. It is apparently caused by lack of calcium in the plant.

After a speedy rejection of Eric's suggestion for a quick fix, ("Let's water them with milk! Come on, you know it will work!") it was back to the internet for more research. And after more research, we are off to Stein's for more shopping. It is an endless struggle, but we will prevail and get the calcium supplement we need for our plants. With that, and careful watering, the second crop of tomatoes should be untainted. In the meantime, I have to cut off and destroy about half of our little green guys....