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137 Preserving the harvest
Fall is harvest season. I busily preserved the harvest from my and other gardens. Despite issues with blight, our tomatoes had produced enough for some canning. The neighbor’s apple trees had left me with goo harvests. In the garden, I harvested the rest of the sunflowers. Despite issues with blight earlier in the season, our…
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136 Catching up indoors
The outside world was darkening. Growing food was moving mostly indoors, the focus otherwise shifted to preservation.I switched to indoor tasks–and I had put off enough of them to fill a book. With too few harvests from the garden to keep us fed, I had signed up for the local produce box again. During the…
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120 Blackberry jam from foraged fruit
My neighbors think these aren’t worth the trouble. I disagree. The blackberries in the surrounding abandoned gardens were in full swing. So I harvested what I could. And then I made jam from what we couldn’t eat fresh. Note: The video version of this post gets released on Saturday, August 24, 2024. I’m back in…
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113 Pretty flower syrups
Hiding from the rain outside, I turned our first berry harvest, mint and lavender we grew, and edible flower blossoms from the garden into syrups (or non-alcoholic cordial if you prefer). I don’t want to buy juice anymore and needed an alternative to elderflower syrup, as those are out of season. Note: The video version…
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108 Despite mosquitoes and rain
Despite rain and mosquitoes, Pepper and I get a lot done in the garden. After checking on what my husband did the day before, we harvest some currants, string-trellis some tomatoes, cook a delicious dinner from volunteer potatoes, and return the next day to continue a new bed. My husband asked to be picked up…
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106 Harvesting the garlic + Strawberry jam
Almost every day brings fresh rain around here at the moment. Many days, we are forced to work around the weather–and take breaks when it rains. Or we ignore the weather and go to the garden anyway. On a rainy day, we made strawberry jam, then rescued the garlic from the non-stop rain by harvesting…
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105 Everything needs planting
The garden was weeks behind, so I spent every free minute catching up. Every gap in the weather was spent in and around my beds. Everything was a rescue mission against clocks set by weather and wind. When it rained, I turned the tops of the onion I’d harvested into green onion pesto and planted…
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097 A rhubarb BBQ
When I got a chance to harvest a lot of free rhubarb, I ignored both my injury and the vacation preparations to make a rhubarb BBQ sauce, some rhubarb syrup, and a sweet treat. While I share it all, I ramble on about the myth of the Tragedy of the Commons. Note: The video version…
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088 I have a greenhouse now
With my husband back at work, I set out to finish the greenhouse alone. I had to get it done before the wind got too strong–and didn’t like the time pressure at all. The next day, with more time pressure, I put up the rain collection system. We couldn’t quite finish the greenhouse as planned.…