Why on earth I can't add photos is totally beyond me, and it's a pain in my backside, but at least I can write, and maybe figure out the image issue later.
Yes, there are little tomatoes coming. They're small, of course, about the size of a fingernail. These aren't going to get very big anyway being as they're cherry tomatoes. And the two plants I didn't think would make it because they weren't very strong in the first place, have rallied and are flowering!
If all goes well I ought to have the tomatoes and my first crop of baby spinach leaves ready at the same time and I'll have a terrific salad.
The combination is a winner.
Both are great for you, and the tomatoes will get the iron of the spinach quickly into your bloodstream where it will do you some good.
A raw salad is good, but a cooked side dish of these two is even better. Saute them in a little olive oil. The cooking and the bit of fat puts the antioxidants to work on your behalf better than raw - although raw is definitely still pretty darned good, the change-up of cooked adds that bit of oomph, besides trying something different.
One thing I want to do, with my own 'crops' and/or produce I get at local farmers' markets, is to dehydrate as much as I can.
Tomatoes and spinach are perfect for this. The dehydrating leaves them with almost all of the benefits of fresh or fresh-cooked. Adding them to soups, stews, hotdishes, whatever, in the non-producing months means I'll get those benefits year-round. Canning is good, don't get me wrong, but canned spinach just isn't on my 'best-loved' list. Dehydrated produce will be good forever. Okay, not forever, but for a really long time. Plus (and this makes a difference to me) it's no hassle. Just fill the dehydrator and go do whatever you want while they dry. When they're completely dry put them into baggies or the jars you would have canned them in, and you're done. One thing about the jars. You can fit a whole lot more dehydrated stuff into a jar than canning will allow. And some things, when subjected to the temperatures required for canning, lose nutritional value. As a general rule dehydrating doesn't have that effect.
End of lecture.
The straw bales seem to be working out pretty well so far (knock wood) and as we've had more rain than has been usual around here (again, knock wood) I haven't had to water them too much yet. The hot dry days of summer are coming, and I'll keep a close eye (hand) on them to make sure they're staying hydrated (don't want to dehydrate anything until I'm good and ready to). The 'hand' bit has to do with checking the internal condition of the bales as I go along. The straw with the little bit of potting soil around the plants makes it easy to wriggle a hand in to check the temperature (you want it warm in there) and moisture content.
Also, although this post is about tomatoes and spinach, I got green beans planted along the fence line that's about a foot and a half away from my line of bales. They don't get any of the special treatment that the bale plants do, so we'll see how they cope. If I'm lucky they'll grow up the fence; if they don't, I'll likely use strips of cloth to tie them up as they grow (IF they grow).
The spinach is in a tub and so are the carrots. The carrots I first planted sprouted fine but I was totally not aware of it because I'd put too much straw and potting soil over them (sad eyes). It was barely a sprinkle, mind you. It's not like I buried them nine feet in the ground. But ... it was too much for those tiny seeds and the seedlings didn't make it, which I discovered when I brushed aside the straw and soil to check on them. I put beets into the carrot bale instead.
So I've got a bale of sweet bell peppers (there are lots of folks around here who plant the hot ones; believe me I don't need to plant any of those) with four plants; two bales of cherry tomatoes with three plants in each; a bale of onions, a bale of beets, and a bale that's got three little watermelon plants and three little cantaloupe plants (although one of the cantaloupe plants isn't looking too healthy, it might make it). Six bales for this experiment, plus the tubs for the spinach and carrots.
*laughing*
I planted cosmos flowers in the washtub that had daffodils and hyacinth (wow, they were awesome! I planted them in the ground after they were done blooming so they'll hopefully come up next year). While the cosmos (hopefully) are growing and blooming and all that this summer, I'll choose a spot for them in the yard and that's where the seeds will go as they come along.
Anyway, around the inside perimeter of the washtub went a bunch of the extra onion sets that I didn't want to try to crowd into the bale. I think I'll let those flower. The cosmos are supposed to be shades of pink and the purple (or maybe white; I'll find out soon enough) of the onion flowers will be a good combination I betcha. Plus they'll be shorter and the flowers are those round balls, as opposed to the petals of the cosmos, so there's that contrast to add interest. Being as I put the daffodils and hyacinths into two places, I dumped the rest of the onions in with one of those batches. We'll see what happens there, too! People will likely think me nuts to let my onions flower, but it might take them a minute of wondering what those pretty flowers are that I've planted before they figure it out.
I sure wish I could figure out why my images aren't 'taking'. Grrrrrr!
If ever I can get fixed whatever's ailing here, I'll add them and update the posts.
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