Dropstone Farms » tomatoes

Using a Chicken Tractor as an Inexpensive Greenhouse

garth — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:49:32 +0000

So it’s Spring and the chickens are sleeping in the coop and are still in the sacrificial paddock when the fence keeps them in and free-ranging when it doesn’t. I prefer to think of it as a Sacrifice Zone but that’s because I’m a nerd.

The result is that we’ve got a mess of tomato starts potted up in 4″ soil blocks and a shortage of space in the greenhouse and a spare chicken tractor. In the best idea I’ve had in a long time, it occurred to me to remove the blue tarp covering the tractor and replace it with clear plastic. Ta-daaa! Instant greenhouse.

In use, the tractor is partially covered with a blue tarp to let the ladies to get out of the sun or rain, depending.

Because of the poultry cloth on the tractor we couldn’t clip the plastic to the PVC hoops as is our usual custom. Instead we attached the plastic by laying it on top and zig-zagging twine over the plastic in the manner we learned during the Tilth Producers farm walk at Terry’s Berries. This has proven to be faster and more reliable that the clips with the added bonus that the greenhouse can be vented by sliding the plastic up without fiddling with any clips and potentially tearing the plastic.

So, yeah, I’m pretty pleased with myself.

Here is the tractor greenhouse with the plastic fully deployed for maximum heat.

Here is the tractor cum greenhouse with the sides pushed up for venting. Noticing how much easier this is than farting around with clips?

Look how happy the tomatoes are in their roomy new soil blocks. I'm pretty sure we started them too late but, you know, first year farming.

Chicken bunker yay!

Lauren — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:35:34 +0000

We made a lot of progress on the expanded chicken coop this weekend! Its name is now Chicken Bunker, on account of how cozy and built-into-the-hill it is. All that’s left to do is get the roof on and wire up the sides, which is only a few more hours of work. The old coop will need mucked out and composted, and the whole thing re-lined with hay, and then we can deploy the chickens! We are well ahead of schedule to have it finished before we go to the Tilth conference; now I don’t feel bad about asking the neighbors to check on the critters, as they will all be in one place and will not need to be let out and put away.

Chicken bunker in progress, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Last weekend I broke my glasses, but I got new ones!

Nose Tomato models my new glasses, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

We’ve been processing tomatoes

Lauren — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:19:13 +0000

We’ve been processing tomatoes, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

… a little at a time. We don’t have a pot that holds more than four quart-jars anyway so it works out.

We have also slow-roasted and frozen a couple of pounds, and have dried some too.

Pictured: Green Zebra; Ananas Noire; Black Prince; Brandywine; more varieties whose names I don’t know; some basil; an apple.

So it’s early fall, after all

Lauren — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:57:15 +0000

I was sure it was just going to rain all through August (which it did) and into September and then for the rest of the winter, with no breaks. But it has warmed up and cleared up, and we have some tomatoes coming in after all. In fact, we harvested enough on Thursday to make two delicious pizzas.

We had a tomato taste test, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Unfortunately, I don’t know all their names, but, left to right, #2 is Black Prince — VERY delicious!; yellow (#4, let’s say) is Limmony, also tasty; #6, a favorite for 3 years now, is Green Zebra. One of the red bumpy ones (either #1 or #3) is a Brandywine and delicious as always. #7 is, I think, an Ananas Noire (“black pineapple”).

Delicious awesome pizza, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Background pizza: Red Tomato Pizza, cooked.
Foreground pizza: Funny-Colored Tomato Pizza, yet uncooked. Yellow, green, and black/purple/brown tomatoes.

Both have fresh mozzarella from the grocery store, and for sauce they have chopped basil and garlic, mixed with olive oil and some grated parmigiano — a sort of loose pesto.

There has been much more preserving around here. But most of it was today and I am too tired to post more, so, further updates … in the future!

Burrito fixins

Lauren — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:37:47 +0000

Burrito fixins, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Stew meat (from our quarter cow) was braising in the oven. Garden potatoes boiled like normal. Garden zucchini and garden tomatoes grilled briefly. All combined in a delicious tortilla with a sauce of sour cream + goat yogurt (island grown!) plus garden basil. Garden cabbage on top. Yum.

A series: tomatoes are finally some color, any color, other than green.

Lauren — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:28:13 +0000

Colors that tomatoes might be: orange; yellow; red.*

See the whole set (reproduced here in its entirety).

Click on any picture to view it in Flickr.

Orange cherry tomatoes get some color, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Yellow Pear tomatoes get some color, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Oregon Cherry tomatoes get some color, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Brandywine is turning too!!, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Our first Big Tomato to turn colors!!

* We will also have several plants of green and purple/brownish fruits, too, but those don’t seem to be doing much yet.