Happy Farming . com

This video from YouTube gives a very thorough introduction to the different heirloom tomato types, presented by Dr. Amy P. Goldman. You’ll also hear a bit about her history growing tomatoes, along with her personal favorite types of tomatoes. She’ll speak about seed saving and throw in a few growing tips near the end of the video, which is also packed with beautiful tomato pictures from her book The Heirloom Tomato. (The sound is poor at the start of the video but gets fixed at 1:37):

Names mentioned in the video that caught my attention:

• Gregory Long, President of The New York Botanical Garden
• Seed Savers Exchange
• The Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust
• Goldman’s Italian American Grocery in Brooklyn
• Myrtle “Tillie” Lewis
• Cary Fowler
• SeedSavers.org

Some of Amy Goldman’s favorite heirloom tomatoes mentioned in the video:

• Dinner Plate
• Believe it or not
• Reisetomate
• Aunt Ruby’s German Green
• White Beauty
• Aunt Gertie’s Gold
• Burpee’s Globe
• Peach
• Big Rainbow
• Orange Strawberry
• Red Brandywine
• Green Zebra
• Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter

That’s exactly what organic farmers have been doing. They’ve been taking age old ideas and just doing them much better. Making better compost, setting up better crop rotations, figuring out different ways in which there is a symbiosis between different parts of the biology on a farm.

– Eliot Coleman

Tall trees are underestimated. I’m working in the shades from several 10 m (33 feet) trees in our backyard, and what you can’t see in the pictures is the 30 deg. C (86 deg. F) temperature. Pretty nice not to be forced to work in the sun. I’m using the uncut studs as a table for sawing:

The next picture shows the base of the chicken coop taking shape. Four 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inch) pressure treated pieces of wood will be used as legs. I haven’t done any assembly yet, just checking if the pieces fit together:

According to the plan it’s necessary to do the assembly on a flat surface, and I’ll be using the terrace:

(Notice the large metal bucket on the right with different spices growing in it, just outside the terrace door.)

The plan says you have to fasten the legs to the concrete piers first, but I think it will work better for me if I assemble the base first, and then level the four concrete slabs I’ll be using instead of piers.

Stay tuned for more coop building updates.