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I had to buy some hive bodies from Arson Alley apiary for the bees I've ordered (last year's colony sadly did not make it through the winter) and while I was up north I stopped at the Good Earth, a little organic nursery that stocks heirloom tomatoes and spices.  The rule of thumb here is to plant after Mother's day and so they hadn't actually set any of their tomatoes up for sale.  But I talked Joyce (one of the owners) into potting a couple of Jaune Flamme starters for me.  When I mentioned that I was going to put them into the ground, she looked appalled and I thought for a moment that she was going to take them back.  But then she just looked sadly at the seedlings that I was obviously going to murder and rang them up with the seed packets I was also buying.  I got the sense it wasn't the first time she's regretfully handed a carefully nurtured plant off to a sad fate, but such are the compromises we make when we set out to earn a living doing something that we're not indifferent to.

But I'm sold on this "season extension" thing.  We're eating mesclun mix that I planted back in March and it is like mainlining spring vitamins.  The sunflowers are eight inches tall and I have to put a riser on the cold frame to give them room.  The slugs are very pleased as well.  So into the ground the tomatoes go.  And maybe they will survive the coming nights in the 30's.

I'll bring Joyce a photograph if they do.

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