Another catching up post...

Larry Eckart

Well-known member
Guys (and Dani),

I've been absent all summer with NDR activities and adventures. Here's a photo tour of what I've been up to:

I spent a week in early June camping at Roan Mountain State Park in Tennessee and trout fishing:
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In addition to fly fishing, I started making my own spinners with the Jenn's Netcraft Tackle Tool:
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I have a small garden using horse troughs as raised beds. You can plant intensively. Kathy and I have enjoyed a bountiful harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.
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I spent a few days catching channel catfish on Jordan Lake and caught enough to have a fish fry for ten guys from our church:
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When the heat of summer began to wear us out, Kathy and I spent a few days at a cabin at Roan Mountain State Park. A local young farmer was selling hand sized Cherokee Purple tomatoes for $1 a piece. They would cost $4 at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh. Huge!
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We packed up a small picnic and had wine at 6,000 ft one evening. Note the jackets that had not been out of our closet since April.
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The Smokies are just wonderful.
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Hope you all are well.

Peace,
Larry
 
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Larry

Good to hear from you. Sounds like you've been enjoying leisure pursuits to the fullest. BTW, the Smokies are one of my favorite vacation spots. Simply beautiful landscapes.

Eric
 
Sounds like a wonderful summer. I also love the Smoky Mountains.
I never saw those tomatoes, how do they compare to red tomatoes?
 
Mike,
Cherokee Purple and German Johnson are two heirloom varieties that many people believe are the most flavorful of all tomatoes. Cherokee Purples are actually thought to originate with the Cherokee Indians.

But any homegrown tomato is better than a hot house tomato.

Larry
 
Good morning, Larry~


Looks like time well spent!


I am anxious to get back to boats and decoys full bore - but still winding up family activities.
somehow

This NDR project was one of many "piece of cake - 20 minutes" jobs that somehow turned into 5 trips to 4 different hardware stores over a day-and-a-half. But, the faucet no longer drips and both hot and cold risers have shut-offs for the first time ever!


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All the best,


SJS
 
It sure looked like the two of you had a great time this summer. I sure enjoyed the pictures. Now I sure would like to know what you and Kathy thought about the purple tomato. It sure looked good to me. I have never seen one like that.

Those spinners are really nice that you are making. Congrats
Al
 
Guys,
I didn't realize that people in other parts of the country may not be aware of some of the key varieties of heirloom tomatoes. There are several varieties of tomatoes that have color shades other than deep red. You will find them at farmer's markets, but rarely at any grocery store. Heirloom varieties are not grown in mass production in areas like the California Valleys or Arizona because they do not stand up to to shipping as well as hybrids.

I include two pics: one of a BLT with large slices of Cherokee Purple which in that pic looks more red than purple.

And a second pic from my garden when we lived in Hilton Head of Cherokee Purple and German Johnson tomatoes lined up on our counter.

Tomatoes love heat and SC provided plenty of heat.

Larry

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Looks like you guys have been having a great summer! Nice that you checked in to say hi. I had to look up your tackle maker and spent way more time than I expected learning how to make spinners. It was fascinating.

My neighbor used to grow monster cherokee purple tomatoes. They are deeeeelicious.
 
GReat looking tomatoes.
Wonder how these varieties would hold up under Tampa's sub-tropical conditions??
 
Thanks for what you had to say about the heirlooms, Larry. I also liked those pictures. When I saw the picture of your BLT, I chuckled because just three days ago, I went out to Bev's garden and picked a huge pink heirloom variety and cut if up for my BLT.
Al
 
Larry,
It's cool to hear you were at Roan Mountain. Brings back memories of sleeping Thanksgiving Weekend at the Roan High Knob Shelter (highest on the Appalachian Trail) with two of our sons and their 2 buddies around 20 years ago. Coming from Wake County we weren't as prepared as we should have been (and I didn't supervise packing by 3 of the 4 boys being Boy Scouts--3 made Eagle). Our son's friend brought only an Army Surplus wool mummy bag. His teeth chattered all night. It was a good learning experience for him--he survived with no ill effects is now a fine family man/father to 3 beautiful young girls. Our canvas water bucket was a solid block of ice in the morning.
'Glad to see you enjoying the Jordan Lake catfishing--brings back memories of "jugging" for them--easy to fill a cooler with catfish near Parker's Creek. Outstanding crappie fishing at Jordan too--many folks go when they see dogwoods blooming but in my experience that misses a lot of the spawn/bite. The RedBuds/"purple plums" seem to be a better indicator. I usually got my gear ready when daffodils started coming up.
Did you make those 'mater sandwiches with Duke's (vs. Hellman's) mayonnaise? If you get caught using anything other than Duke's you might get extradited to back Up North! I tried growing Cherokee Purples in Carteret County but couldn't get past blossom end rot. 'Might be one reason why some heirloom varieties fell out of common favor.
 
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