Tomatoes, Peppers & Eggplants...Oh My!

 Whenever I decide to do something, Bob says that I tend to go all in with it. Case in point would be starting tomatoes, peppers and eggplants from seed. I figure that I have the room, why not go for it? What's the worst case scenario? I'll be advertising my extra seedlings for sale on Facebook Marketplace. I'll be giving them away to friends. I already tried to talk my sister into taking some and she said no way. Final count on seedlings that have made it is 274 seedlings of 69 different varieties. I purposely planted some varieties heavy because I knew that they would be in high demand, like Prairie Fire.

I also have 39 varieties of peppers that made it and 10 varieties of eggplant. This is the very first year that I will have eggplant that survive from seed. Last year, I planted out around 50 varieties of peppers and the deer wiped them out overnight. Not this year. We got smart. We will be growing them in one of the greenhouses.

I have no method with the different colors of cups. They were just the cheapest ones I could find and they came in different colors.

They are lucky we're not fond of venison. If the truth be told, we think they're awesome and we don't mind them in the yard. We just devise ways around their nibbling nature to get a vegetable harvest. One of the things we do is toss carrots out in areas of our property that we don't mind them being in. A 25-pound bag of juicing carrots is like $10 at a restaurant supply store. It saves a lot of headaches.

Inokra Panigang is a Filipino pepper variety that I'm very excited to try.

Yes. We grow THAT, too.

This is a sweet pepper, bell style, variety that I got from Ukraine.

This is the only Black Hole Sun that I got to germinate. It's pretty healthy looking.

Heaven Oregon is the variety that I planted in honor of my friend, Conda Walsh, and her late husband, Steve. I hope to be able to send some seeds her way for next year so she can grow this variety.

Amy's Sugar Gem is the variety that I am growing to take the place of Isis Candy Cherry that I grew last year.

 
Wolverine is a sample pack that I received from an Etsy seller in Canada. It's a pretty striking looking tomato and I can't wait to see them on the vine.

So, my final pepper list for 2023 is 39 varieties:

Sugar Rush Peach
Blot
Peter Yellow
Elephant Ear
Erotica Orange
Corbaci
Sweet Ratunda
Ampuis
Black Square
Red Habanero
Ancho Poblano
Rainforest
King of the North
Korean Dark Green
Inokra Panigang
Gong Bao
Lesia Yellow
Greygo
Greek Pepperoncini
Peperone di Senise
Witch Stick
Jalora Jalapeno
Lemon Spice Jalapeno
Tabasco
Bridge To Paris
Coyote Teeth
Calabrian
Murasaki
Habanada
Lesya
Zapotec Jalapeno
Bohemian Baron
Pumpkin Spice Jalapeno
Hong Gochu
Tekni Dolmasi
Rezha Macedonia
Farmer Jalapeno
Chicago Sport
Peter Red

My eggplant list contains 10 varieties that made it through the transplant process:

Rosita
Violetta Luaga
Golub Sizokriliy
Louisiana Long Green
Antigua
Indoor Golden Eggs
Green Thai Frog Fingers
Laura
Pandora di Mazzarino
Casper

My tomatoes number 69 varieties. Those with an (*) by their name indicates a determinate or semi-determinate variety.

Phil's One
Phil's Two
Reisetomate
Prairie Fire
Taiga
Opalka
Stoney's Neighbor's
Pink Jazz
Maple Syrup
Cour di Bue Albenga
Queen of the Night
Mushroom Basket
Wolverine
Thorburn's Terra-Cotta
Orange Icicle
Korean Long
Indigo Blue Chocolate
Amy's Sugar Gem
Fleur de Reagar
Blue Zebra
Moonlight Mile
San Francisco Fog
Heaven Oregon
Julia Child
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red
DB Cooper
Dolly Parton
Hippie Zebra
Black Hole Sun
Midnight Roma
Butter Apple
Red Dumplin Winner Pink
Polish Nights
Cote d'Zebra
Glacial Zebra
Work Release
British Breakfast
Granny's Throwing
Zlatava
Surrendar's Indian Curry*
Sart Roloise
Everett's Rusty Oxheart
Butterscotch Paste
Arabesque*
Elita*
Cream Sausage*
Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge
Colonnade*
Midnight Sun
Fuzzy Blue Balls
Eros
Bakir*
Lava Flow
Marianna's Peace
Nature's Riddle
Bug Tussle Buttermilk Wonder
Rose
Inciardi Paste
Stripes of Yore
Yamali Blue
Yamali Green
Yamali Yellow
Campbell's 33*
KC 146*
Heinz 2653*
Heinz 1350*
Heinz 1706*
Heinz 1370*
Heinz 2274*

Hopefully, these will be enough to net me all the tomatoes that I need to go through the year.

March Homestead Happenings

 It's that time of year again, the time of year I live for all winter long. We're getting some really nice days out. Bob's whittling down his honey-do list. We are just waiting on the last few things we'll need to start brooding our chicks to get delivered and we'll get the coop set up and then we'll go figure out the 15-16 chicks we want to get. I'm just going to say this. Chicks are expensive!

Bob's out there building the chicken run as I type.

We had a friend come up to help Bob move the coop into place. I was really thankful for that.

We bought this coop off of Facebook Marketplace last year. We paid $100 for it. It's a big coop. There's 18 nesting boxes. Realistically, you can have 4-5 laying hens per nesting box. I'm not going to have anywhere near that number of chickens, however. My chickens aren't going to be crowded.
I haven't decided what breeds I want to get, I just know that life is too short for boring white eggs, so I prefer them to have colors.

Bob had to use the panels that we had up for my tomatoes last year. No matter, he's just swapping them out and adding 1 more onto there. I'll still have my tomato garden and it's going to be expanded so that I can fit 60 indeterminate tomatoes onto the trellises.

Bob's going to take this chicken run back to the hog pen. The coop is in the middle of the area. We need to trim those fir branches and the run will be topped with a heavy duty tarp and bird netting. Not only do we have ground predators to contend with (coyotes, bobcat, raccoons and, quite possibly, a cougar), we also have air predators (bald eagles, hawks, owls).
We want our chickens to be as safe as possible.

Bob said he will run some more wire along the bottom of the pen. It will discourage things from trying to dig. A coyote probably wouldn't be able to dig under because we're located on the rim of an old rock pit, but something smaller could do it, possibly.

We have learned that the coop is almost 10-feet wide.
I may have him spin it so that a person can walk past it. I haven't decided yet and it's something that I'll need to discuss with Bob.

So, within the next two weeks, we plan on having our chicks brooding in the coop.

Buying supplies for these chicks was not cheap, either. I still need to get a bag of playground sand, a small pool or container to put the sand in (chickens need to be able to take dust baths), and I suspect we'll be getting another watering set-up for out in the yard once they come out of the brooder. We've dropped $300 so far getting this set up. Chicks are going to run me $4-$7 each.

Here's what our pig pasture looks like. We've already decided that we just can't do it. We cannot raise a meat pig. We'd get WAY too attached to it. That pasture will be better used for something like dairy goats and a mule instead.

Here's the front pen. I would like to use this for turkeys. I would not have one single problem raising turkeys for meat.

About a week ago, I got my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants all seeded out.

I have some pretty obscure varieties this year, like Stoney's Neighbor's. If you couldn't tell, there are times when I will buy a variety for the name alone. I also planted out a variety called Fuzzy Blue Balls. What can I say? I find it hilarious!

The tomatoes have been popping up like crazy lately. Bob was out there this morning and he said there's been like 30 or so pop up.

I can't wait to meet them all.

The garden is starting to wake up. Here is my old rhubarb plant.

I planted out 1/2 pound of Red Musik garlic last October. It's been thriving over the winter.

My eyesight must be going. I already posted the pasture photo.

I'm hoping to get a bumper crop of garlic scapes from these.

I planted out an entire bed of Walla Walla sweet onions.

My big bed is planted out with Red Express cabbage, Tonus broccoli, Primaru onions, Falstaff brussels sprouts and a Tiger Laeta viola plant.

The netting is over the top because we have a feral kitten. She's a cute little thing. Bob's been working with her to gain her trust. We plan on adopting her. He's been able to pet her a few times. Anyhow, I already know that cats look at raised beds like huge fun sandboxes and I'm not into it.

Close up of my garlic. It's super easy to grow. It just takes a while.

Bob's got the frames up for the greenhouses. I think I'll be able to raise some peppers, okra, melons, etc. in there. At least, I hope I can!

I never get tired of looking down that tunnel. It's fantastic!

Rose likes to come out and help.

The raised beds are all tucked in with dead leaves. We'll take some of these off and toss them into the compost pile and we top it with some fresh soil and compost. We figured out what went wrong last year as far as bogus soil. The company wouldn't listen to me and they sold me the wrong type. We went and bought a yard of the right stuff.

I love looking at that greenhouse tunnel from every angle imaginable.

Here's what it looks like from down by the far side of the chicken pen.

This is such an awesome view! I can't wait to get the covers on them. I'm not going to rush it, though, because I don't want to lose it if we get some heavy wind gusts.

Rose is the world's best helper.

I've obtained a few of these barrels. Unfortunately, they have a hole cut into the top. I think we'll cut them in half and use them for raised beds. 

My tomato garden looks weird in this photo. It's all put back up now, though, with an extra panel added on.

It will soon be time to get these out and start riding again! I can't wait!

I have a cubic yard of soil in the bed of my truck waiting to fill grow bags and ready to go out onto the beds. We'll probably need 1-2 more before it's all said and done.

So this is what we've been up to here on Kelpie Kapers Farm. How about you? What are you looking forward to the most about spring?