Category: Garden
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Lettuce and Peas, Please
Here’s a bright idea: Bookmark this page for updates throughout the season — words + photographs JULIE JOHNSON — Today’s the day, or so says my mom’s printed copy of the 2023 The Old Farmer’s Almanac. If I am to plant lettuce and peas under moon-favorable conditions and timing and all, it’s now or wait…
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PLANTED: Spoon Tomato
Sources tell me the spoon tomato is the tiniest tomato of all. Seed reviewers note the overabundance of fruit overloading the plant, the space around the plant and the time given by the grower to pick the small, little salad toppers. Psshhh*. I hesitate to bring up the drought and 100 degree temperatures we dealt…
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Amish Paste Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato I don’t like to eat tomatoes as a side or in a salad. I eat cooked tomatoes in dishes. Until last summer, I grew them in my garden to make others happy: family, neighbors, chiropractor. I grow to give.
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#GiveLocal: Family Through Faith Farm
“I hope our food brings joy,” says Andrew McGowan, founder and farmer at Family Through Faith Farm. “I am a foodie. I love what great food can do to someone emotionally.”
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Big Rainbow Tomato: The Giving Food
At the end of October, before the rains came, I loaded up another bunch of ripe Big Rainbow tomatoes, as well as several green, ready-for-frying tomatoes. I walked up the street past the green-leaved redbud trees, marched through the still-green grass, climbed the back deck steps and met my neighbors at the door. I handed…
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Family Through Faith Farm
The mission of Family Through Faith Ministries is focused on one mission expressed in three ways. The mission is to feed people Physically, Spiritually, Mentally. interview JULIE JOHNSONphotographs courtesy of FAMILY THROUGH FAITH FARM When I began researching Family Through Faith Farm in Nixa, Missouri, I began to question the how. Andrew McGowan and his…
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September
Midway through summer, wind and rain visited my home during the night. Had I been nervous about a storm, I would have been nervous for my tomato plants. I have two, 2’ x 8’ elevated garden beds tucked around the corner of the back of my house. They are my secret garden. Secret, except my…
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Pink Bumble Bee Cherry Tomatoes
Hear me. I cannot see myself becoming an expert gardener. I laughed off the completely ridiculous notion of Master Gardener. However, I will try, try, try again. I also vow to expand my garden interests, experiment with different varieties and learn, learn, learn. This year, one of the newcomers is the pink bumble bee tomato…
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Strawberry Blonde Calendula
I have not been successful in identifying this insect. The flower, on the other hand, is a strawberry blonde calendula. Seeds were purchased from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Flowers are mixed in with both the flower garden and vegetable garden. Bees like them, but so do green worms. The plants do not seem to do…
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Goodbye, Shishito Pepper
For some time, I had been watching with anticipation a large lipstick pepper turn from green to red. Within a few days of full color, all that was left in its space on the plant was the top and stem. Poof. Poof and it was gone. I ruled out squirrels because they don’t seem to…
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My Pea-pickin’ Heart
At the start of elementary school, my family lived in Minnesota, close to the Twin Cities. You could say Prince and I were practically neighbors. #80sGirl Mary Hefner – neighbor lady, mother of two sons and one daughter, taker carer of a German Shepherd – taught swim lessons to me and my school of friends.…
Homegrown Journal 