The Fink Farm Dirt

Another spring, another hand-knit tomato trellis. It certainly is a California rainbow over the garden plot! Unlike past tomato trellises, this one is made of bulky acrylic yarn, knit on US 19 knitting needles. It's super easy to make. Cast on 82 stitches -- or more if you want and your needles are long enough. Knit it in stockinette stitch: knit the first row, purl the second, and repeat until the piece is as long as you like.  On the last row, bind off four stitches, then drop a stitch. Repeat this, keeping the first stitch that you bind off after a dropped stitch loose, until you come to the end of row. Thread yarn through the last stitch and weave in the end. Voilá, a tomato trellis. I experimented with dropping off more than a single stitch, but it seemed to make the trellis too loose.  I also stitched on fabric casings for the poles that support the trellis.  There are about four, evenly spaced casings. It makes it easier and more stable to string up the trellis. Th...

I annually write the date for Tomatomania! in my calendar. Something always comes up that keeps me from going. But this year was different. Karen and I drove over to Tapia Brothers and checked out the riches. According to the website, Tomatomania! is what the New York Times calls "the tomato freaks' Woodstock." It started in the early 90s at Hortus, a trend-setting nursery in Pasadena, CA, which regretfully closed in 2001, with classes, sales, "tomato tasting and impromptu social gatherings at nurseries and garden destinations across the state." So instead of buying our usual pony pack of tomato plants from a standard chain nursery, we wandered the aisles looking at the wild and wonderful heirlooms -- Mortgage Lifters, Black Krims, Cherokee Purples, yellow ones, striped ones, deep purple nearly black ones.   We selected three indeterminate tomatoes and a couple of determinate ones. By the end of the weekend, we had the tomato trellis hung and the tomatoes plant...