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Seed Gathering

10/30/2019

9 Comments

 
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The office
I wrote the below a few weeks ago and decided to post it now anyway - we have had more snow since and lots of sun and I did make it back up into the Forest - absolutely love it up there. Still squeezing tomatoes everyday and there is a growing pile of empty boxes in the front yard - I am making progress!  So much to share - life is interesting and the work is sacred. 

Well, seed gathering has been shut down here in the Rockies.  October brought with it forests and roadsides full of seeds, the mowers didn't mow much and I have been bringing in seed samples for months.  All of these seed samples will be grown and trialed here. There is a tight path to walk through the Seed Room and the house is a maze of ripening boxes of tomatoes. And cucumbers, and squash, and corn. Nowhere to sit. I love it like this but Mother Nature just made me pause.  Light snows are fine, but this continued dumping is really messing up my chi.  I will go after seed until the roads close or are impassable. Some years that's not until December.  I will travel long distances to get something I saw along an old road to somewhere. Meanwhile, -4 is just not doable. 
Yesterday, on my way home from shipping seeds to New York City, I jumped into the snowy ditch wearing shorts and long johns to get the beautiful red Penstemon barbatus that I could now suddenly see, backlit by the snow.  I knew it was there but was going to have to scour the road cuts to find it. As I was driving, it all appeared before me and I had to turn around in 4WD and go back for it. So there is yet another bag of seed ready for the seed room.  
Colorado is famous for erratic weather. When we are in it though, we think it will always be this way.  We think the sun will never shine again. Or when it's hot, that there will never be relief. It will change, it will warm up, it will melt. And I will be out there again, nose to the ground, butt in the air. 
I have been so blessed this season, even if it is cut short and my little 4-Runner can't make it into the National Forest roads anymore, I am equipped with more seed than I've ever seen. Last year's snow was magic for the wildflowers, food, trees and shrubs.  While elk hunting, I gathered many tree seeds and shall grow them here. The Ponderosa's were just beginning to drop their seeds and I even got seed of the mighty Bristlecone Pine.  It was heavenly. 
Today the trees here are loaded with snow, it is very cold and the clouds are starting to separate already.  The sun will shine, the snow will begin to fall in big 'woofs', and the melting will begin. The day before it started Wulfgar and I worked many hours to dig all of the potatoes and then to plant garlic into the freshly dug beds.  The soil was just right, rich, warm and not too wet. Near the end of the day, Cord came down and helped which saved us - we were pushing dark and we were pretty tired. I fed them stew. And then it snowed and snowed and hasn't stopped. The garlic was a little late but the snow will insulate and it will be another great year for garlic. Snowy winters also mean mondo garlic. Ok some pictures of my tales of the Rockies.
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From this....
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...to this, in just a few days. Sun through the morning clouds, moon as the evening comes down.
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I made it back into the Forest!
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Lunch time in the Aspens.
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A typical day at work.
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Swirling Fringed Sage! Artemisia frigida
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The seeds fell right in to the bag.
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Sasha's Altai Harvest!

10/13/2019

8 Comments

 
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Penn and Sasha's Altai in the snow.
I love Sasha.  I wish I could meet him. I've already written Ode's to Sasha - but this year's harvest is just - rock and roll.  The above pic is just about 1/4 of the Sasha Harvest.  I grow Sasha with deep love. Love for the guy - Sasha - who developed and adapted it to the Siberian mountains and love for Bill McDorman for bringing it home to America for the mountain growers. I've grown Sasha's Altai for 28 years. It never disappoints.  It's always delicious, prolific and so juicy. 
I am busy squeezing tomatoes right now to ferment the seeds so I can get them ready for the 2020 growing season. It's joyful work. It's my favorite tomato so even though there are MANY other varieties all over the floor ripening in boxes, bags, trays, on the couch, on the table, under the couch - this is my happy time. 
I asked Mother Earth to give us September to make up for June, (it froze until the 22nd), and many varieties weren't planted until the top of July - Sasha did what it does best - loaded up in a hurry.  Thanks Mother - you gave us September. 
The plants are small, other sellers consider it a determinate but I don't agree.  I call it 'a small indeterminate', as Sasha blooms until frost.  In the greenhouse I can string it up 6-7' tall.  In the open, it grows compact and easy to manage. 
Oh and that flavor!  Mostly I am just making noises when I am taste testing it but I try and manage words like, 'perfectly balanced', 'smear-on-your-face-good', and 'Oooooooo' and 'aaaaaahhhh'.  Did I say juicy?  
I've done three photo shoots with those big, heavy bowls to get the exact right feeling I wanted, to show the world how much I love this tomato. 
Having a harvest like this is jump-up-and-down happiness. I don't always have enough room to grow more than a few plants at a time but this year, Sasha got an entire 5' X 20' Bio-intensive bed with a half-open cover called, "The Sasha Bed."  Yes, I grow Sasha totally in the open as well but the Sasha Bed was built specifically for this tomato.  It's a half-greenhouse film, half-screened cover that does not have to be opened and closed every day in Colorado's intense sun as it breathes and traps warmth for the night.  I only put Siberian tomatoes in it as the screen lets the cold in and they will freeze before other beds. 
Planting Sasha en masse is such a joy!  
I made the call just in time too - the big freeze didn't come right away - but a few small ones did, triggering the Wood Rats to start doing their evil. They like to line their nests with the tomato branches and if there are ripe or unripe tomatoes on them - so be it.  They stole some significant varieties this year and really pissed me off. As soon as I see that, it's time to start pulling them in - ready or not. They all ripen perfectly in the house.
The mice tripped the live traps, ate the peanut butter and escaped, the Wood Rats high-fived them.  They like the tomatoes better anyway.
Today is another wonderful day of squeezing all of my favorite varieties and many new and unusual ones too. I should be out hunting all day every day but I have to balance the harvest. 
Happy Sunday - I hope you are posing with your tomatoes or lining them up and taking 'Tomato Porn' pics like I do.
Enjoy!
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Penn and Sasha
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First fermenting jars of Sasha. Notice the separation in the jar on the left - starting to mold....yippee!
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The Sasha Bed - on the left. The other tomato bed is surrounded with pallets for wind protection with a hail guard over the top.
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The Sasha Bed with one end open. First nips of frost - harvesting underway.
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The Sasha Bed, covers propped open for watering. A rogue Brussels Sprouts grew amongst the tomatoes.
8 Comments

    Author

    Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth.  She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.  She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman.  Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner.  At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.    

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