I have forgotten what I know about the different old varieties of the tomatoes, check out Sandhill Preservation link that I sent, they should have it.
Sweet potatoes do not grow here, but they did in San Diego.
As a kid, we had them, a giant plant, it was watered by the water from the kitchen sink, where it ran out on the ground and when we wanted a mess of them for dinner, we [I] went out and lifted the vine, dug up the potatoes, tramped the ground in tight and laid the vine back over the spot.
Next time, I dug over a little bit, as I recall, maybe 2 foot and simply kept going around the outside edges of the patch.
Since this was our families first home with a real water faucet in the house [kitchen], we were not at all worried about using kitchen water on growing food.
LOL, Even here, all these years later, my bathtub drains on a huge Male Mulberry tree in the front yard and the kitchen waters a cluster of desert trees, with a pretty bloom.
When I could still use a washer, it watered a bed of bamboo.
All that is needed, is a hose connected to the drain, where it is cut and a hose connection patched in.
I don’t think that I would want to use it for food growing.
Sorry about the double post. FR seemed to have stalled out and I clicked send again. Oops.
It sounds like you have been there and done that. I appreciate all your words of wisdom.
I remember a lot of these things from watching the neighbors when I was little. I was adopted at the age of five, and I got the benefit of new indoor plumbing and even a b& w TV. This was the mid-1950s so some of the old ways were still in use, and I stayed with the neighbors while mom worked. We didn’t start school until the age of 6.
They had a “wash house” where they boiled water to wash the clothes and a ringer washer. I remember gathering and canning food, cooking on a wood stove, etc.
I grew up and married an “old timer” at heart. He makes a living farming, blacksmithing, rail splitting and shingle making. I am confident that if times get really hard we can make it. LOL, we may see just how good the “good old days” really were.