Repotting tomato plants

A big part of raising vegetables from seed is upsizing the pots they live in until they make it out to the garden. For most vegetables the process is straight-forward: carefully pop the plants out of their outgrown container into a slightly larger one, add dirt and water. You don't want to go too much bigger with the new container because the plants will spend all their time growing roots to fill all that dirt and not growing the actual plant. Most plants will only need to be repotted once before going outdoors. But tomato plants (and sometimes peppers) may take several transplants before they reach the garden. Especially if your growing season is short: You want the biggest plants possible going into the ground on your last frost date.

To get seedlings out of their container:

• Make sure the soil is wet so it doesn't stick to the plastic container. 
• Do not pull on the plant, because it will just break!
• Squeeze the sides of the cell or plastic container to loosen the soil and tip the plant out into your hand. Even if you have a six pack of cells, you should be able to get just one cell out at a time. I cup my fingers in the "receiving" hand so I can catch the soil on my fingertips while the plant is protected by the cupped part of my palm.
• If the plant is short, you'll need to put some potting soil in the bottom of the new container to raise it up. Then fill with more soil around the sides.

This plant will end up having soil almost
up to it's leaves.

As with all plants, the bigger and stronger the root system, the healthier the plant. Tomato plants have the unique ability to grow roots out of their stems. You could actually break a branch off a mature tomato plant and root it in water or soil! The trick to getting a great root system going on a tomato transplant is to bury the plant up to it's leaves in soil. Extra roots will grow along the stem. More roots mean more water and nutrition being consumed by the plant, so faster growth. I do this every time I move them to a larger container, and even when I plant them in the garden. They will have a nice tall stem again within a week.

Another thing I learned is that because of this rooting ability, tomatoes don't seem to mind having their roots disturbed when transplanting. With other plants you have to be extremely careful to not injure the roots and with some vegetables you need to plant the seeds directly into your garden soil because they won't tolerate transplanting at all. Not tomatoes! 

Same plant, one week later!

You know how when you're starting off seeds, it's recommended that you put 2-3 seeds in each plant cell, since not all seeds will germinate? Then sometimes all the seeds germinate and you're supposed to pinch off the smaller ones and keep the healthiest plant (if you pull out the smaller ones you will disturb the roots of your chosen surviving plant). Well, a couple of years ago I started separating the baby tomato plants that grew together in the cells, rather than pinching some back. All of the tomatoes transplanted this way survived and flourished! So now I end up with 2 - 3 times as many plants as I expected. I give away and donate whatever I can't fit into the garden. Need some tomato plants?

When should you plant garden seeds?

Just the beginning...

A week ago I started my seeds indoors for this summer's garden. Normally the "last frost date" in this area is around May 17, although some sources day as late as June 1—nearly three weeks later than Denver, which is only about 20 miles away! But our elevation is higher and we're in a more open area than Denver proper, which has it's own microcosm. I'm aiming for a May 3 or 4 plant date, two weeks earlier than advised, but my hoop frames with row covers will protect the garden from late-season snow and frost.

Wondering what your last frost date it? A great online source for that information is the Farmer's Almanac web site. All you need to do is enter your town or zip code into the search box and the site will not only give you a last frost date, but also a list of vegetables, when to start your seeds and when to set the plants out—all based on your frost date. Each vegetable on the list is a link to more in-depth information on how to grow that specific veggie. What a great resource! They even have an amazing on-line garden planner that you can use for free for 30 days. 

Seed start planning!

Taking plant dates even a little farther, I put together an Excel chart listing only the vegetables I plan to grow. For plants that didn't appear on the Farmer's chart, I either used the recommendations on my seed packages, the charts that come in Park's Seeds catalogs or looked for an on-line source such as Heirloom Seeds. Some seeds will be sown directly into the garden, on my plant date, so those went to the bottom of my chart. I then sorted the list by seed start date. I'm putting the Excel chart up here for download if you're interested. You can then personalize the chart for your particular plants and planting schedule. If you don't have Excel, here's a PDF version that you can edit by hand. You'll see a column labeled Actual. I decided to keep track on actual germination time, which can vary depending on temperature of the room in which you're starting your seeds.

I have sunshine on
a cloudy day!

This year I moved my seed starting operation to a small upstairs bedroom with a south-facing window. It's very easy to keep that room warm—much warmer than the rest of the house. I bought a second LED grow light to double my coverage, and added a humidifier for moisture and a little more heat, especially for those overcast or snowy days. I was very surprised to see that the first plants to germinate, chamomile and cabbage, came up within three days of planting. Their germination time is supposed to be roughly 7-14 days! In fact, everything I planted last week, with the exception of peppers (bell and Anaheim) and celery, are up and growing. I think I'll photograph their progress every Sunday and update this post with the photos.

If you're growing your garden from seed this year, you'd better get to work now! Here is a more detailed post on starting plants from seeds from March of last year.

Why are Americans so sick?

This is me, on a rant.

We, as a country, have killed our food. And in the process, we are killing ourselves.

Since Americans have been following advice given (and sometimes laws made) by the FDA, DOA and the medical and scientific communities such as the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, etc., there has been a drastic increase in obesity, cancer, autoimmune disease, heart disease and dementia in America, just to name a few. As of 2004 almost half of all Americans suffer from chronic conditions, children as well as adults. Before 1920, heart disease was rare in the US. Now it's the leading cause (40%) of death. During that time period, the consumption of animal fats and meats declined while the consumption of vegetable oils in the forms of margarin and shortening, and sugar and processed foods rose 60%. (NT pg. 5) Other cultures around the world that have adopted our "western" diet have seen the same decline in their health, while remote people that retain their native traditional diets remain healthy: no chronic diseases, dental decay or mental illness. (NT preface)

Rosie wasn't the only riveter!

I'm not sure just how things went so far south as to how we handle and relate to our most elementary need: sustenance. Some people say it started when we went from hunter/gatherers to farmer/agriculture/manufacturing. Some people blame the WWII and then the women's liberation movement for creating changes in women's roles: going from the family food preparer, housekeeper and caregiver to the working women who were in desperate need of conveniences to help them juggle work, home and family. However it happened, I don't like it.

We've given away our power by trusting doctors, government (FDA and DOA), pharmaceutical companies, cereal companies, dog food companies, soda companies, energy drink companies, etc. as they tell us what we should eat, what we should do and what we should take to be healthy. We don't even question them—we believe they are there to protect us, by law. We have given away our power, period. We don't research how pharma companies pay for studies to make their products look safe, how they wine and dine medical professionals and have their check books deep into medical schools, how dog food companies and pet pharmas pay for vets' education, continuing education and more. We don't realize how many studies are faulty, slanted or flat-out falsified.

These are "cageless" chickens.

How factory farmed food  animals (FFFA) are mistreated, abused and genetically altered to make the biggest profits, given antibiotics to compensate for their compromised immune systems from overcrowded living conditions, fed by-products from other industries because they're cheap and easy to get and fatten animals up quickly.

We rarely think about how we eat what we eat eats. Read that slowly, it does make sense. Really. All the unnatural foods fed to FFFAs end up in their meat, which we consume. FFFAs have a serious imbalance in Omega 3's because they're not eating the pasture grasses for which their bodies were designed. That's why everyone is gulping down Omega 3 fish oil capsules! But then, where do those capsules come from? If it's farmed fish, they too are being fed garbage. Soy, corn meal, chicken and pig feces (yes really), canola oil, dyes, arsenic and… antibiotics. With loads of PCB and other chemicals thrown in just for fun.  And really, do any of us want animals of any kind to suffer?

Think you can
wash off pesticides?

I'm not just talking about animals. Vegetable, nut, fruit, grain and fruit farms are being over-farmed due to zero crop rotation. The soils become deficient in vitamins, minerals, healthy bacteria and nutrients— and so are the crops they produce. To make up for the lack of nutrients in soil, they are being sprayed with chemical fertilizers.  Don't get me started on Monsanto, but they are genetically modifying seeds (GMOs) so they are "Roundup ready." You know Roundup, the stuff you spray on weeds and "they won't come back?" Well, weeds become a problem in the fields as well, competing with the food crops for water, space and nutrition. The quickest, cheapest and easiest way to deal with them is to spray with Roundup.The genetically modified plants can withstand the barrage of herbicides while the weeds die. The food plants soak up Roundup like Koolaid. Think that stuff can be washed off? Then they sell you more chemicals in a spray bottle to "wash off" the pesticides. Right. So once again we're eating foods that are nutritionally deficient and loaded with poisonous chemicals. Yum.

Not just potatoes! click

And then there's the dry and canned convenience foods. Ever read the labels? All the nutrients have been removed by processing, sterilizing and preserving. Any of the "good" bacteria found in raw milk and milk products, pickled foods and preserved foods have been killed off by heat processing and chemical preservatives. That's why there are so many of those probiotic commercials! Food in boxes comes with labels almost completely written in laboratory-speak. No more MSG? Look again, it's been renamed to hydrolyzed protein, just one of 50 names to throw us off the trail. Loads of flavor enhancers and lab-created vitamins to make up for dead food, preservatives to keep an infinite shelf-life (but they add expiration dates so we will throw out unused products and buy more).

Read this amazing,
enlightening book!

Is it any wonder that people are sicker than ever? More cancer, more autoimmune diseases, more allergies, asthma, GI problems, heart disease, gluten intolerance, mystery illnesses.

I say, let's take back our power! Here are just a few ways we can step back from the commercial food industry and get back to what's real, natural and healthy. Don't feel overwhelmed -- take one step at a time. Our bodies have done an amazing job surviving despite what we expose them to, but it's just a matter of time. Although, if you're already suffering from any sort of chronic illness, your body is telling you NOW is the time for a change. It IS possible to stop illnesses that have already begun, and recover as well. I've seen it myself. If you want to learn more, read 

Autoimmune Disease, The Cause and The Cure by Annesse Brockley and Kristin Urdiales. Even if you don't suffer from an autoimmune disease per se, the detailed information in this book will explain a lot of what's going on in your body and WHY.

Take your power back — Ten easy ways to get started!

1. Read labels. Try to get an idea of what's in the food you're buying and what it will do to your body. Many of the chemicals found in personal care products, laundry products, air fresheners and household cleaners are known carcinogens. (AI, pg 196) Environmental Working Group ranks over 15,000 brand-name products and has loads of information on what's in other things we are exposed to or consume.

2. Buy good quality water filters. Fluoride and chlorine/dioxins are in our water supplies and many products. Don't forget we are bathing in this same water and absorbing the chemicals through our skin. Fluoride is a by-product of cement, metals and nuclear weapon manufacturing and used as a rat and cockroach poison. It has been proven that fluoride does not strengthen teeth; just the opposite in fact. Chlorine/dioxin is a pesticide linked to various cancers, heart disease, miscarriage and birth defects. (Info from pg. 183, Autoimmune book, see link below.)

2.  Get educated. Read more books like Nourishing Traditions (a cook book but first and foremost a WEALTH of information) and Autoimmune Disease, The Cause and The Cure. Follow Annesse and Kristin on Facebook, they are always updating with new information and responding to people's questions.

Natural =  Not from another planet.

3. Know where your food is coming from! Again, read labels. Is it organic, certified organic or "natural." Any GMOs? Are the chickens "cage free" or "free range?" Both are misnomers and deliberately misleading. Is the meat pastured and grass finished? Learn the differences and how truthful agriculture really has to be under our lenient and misleading labeling laws. Pay more attention to the way your food is being raised and processed. You'll be eating what they eat, animal or plant. The ideal solution would be buy from local farmers and see their farming and animal treatment practices in person. There are resources on the internet for finding raw milk, organic produce and pasture-fed animals.

4. Be willing to spend more money on organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed free-range meats, dairy and eggs. You can start gradually. It is SO worth it. And pay attention to grass-fed meats vs. grass-finished. Ranchers will finish cattle and other animals off in feed lots being fed garbage to fatten them up before going to market, which drops the quality of the meats. Don't be fooled by that, you want pasture-raised, pasture-FINISHED meats.

Indoor tomatoes!

5. Start a garden. I realize it's not possible under all situations, but you can even start small and grow herbs indoors and tomatoes and other patio vegetables in planters on a porch or balcony.  I currently have a potted garden in my second story guest bedroom and it's doing great!

A lot of neighborhoods have community gardens where for a small fee you get a little plot of land and can spend time tilling the earth, getting close to nature and meeting new friends.

Another way would be to volunteer at a local organic farm and get fresh, healthy food for trade.

6. Question authority. Is there a special interest group (soy growers, corn growers, sugar growers, pork growers "the other white meat", high profit industries, chemical manufacturers, ad nauseam, their marketing budgets and lobbyists) behind what you're being told? Honestly, no one is interested in taking care of you and your health other than you and possibly your family and friends. If there's a profit involved, you can be assured there's corruption, deceit and greed. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I just read a lot.

7. Take up a new hobby such as canning your own foods (or foods from farmers' markets), culturing vegetables and dairy, cooking more meals from scratch. Get the whole family involved. It's so easy to make your own salad dressings (and mixes), rice seasonings, sauces and gravies, marinades and rubs, mashed potatoes and more from wholesome and organic herbs, meats and vegetables.

8. Research cooking oil options, butter and animals fats—I guarantee you'll dump the vegetable oils in a heartbeat.

9. Ditch the cans of soup, stews and chilis. If you're making soup, stew or chili, make extra and freeze it in freezer-safe canning jars. Stay away from processed foods, avoid all canned food (as in cans, glass jars are better) and opt for frozen foods at the very least. As far as fruits and vegetables go, the frozen ones were frozen at their peak of ripeness and have not been heat processed to death. Check for preservatives!

10. Learn the truth about chemically manufactured table salt vs. sea salt, what's wrong with boxed cereals, crackers, MSG, raw vs. pasteurized milk, margarine vs. butter. I could go on and on. Here's a paper written by the Nourishing Traditions author Sally Fallon to get you started, Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry. It will shock and disgust you when you read about what we have been unknowingly eating, and it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Let your food
be your medicine. Why, oh why,
don't we listen to this man!

Our food has ceased be safe and nutritious as commercial food providers have slowly seduced us into being dependent on them. I've learned so much about how we've learned to trust industry and government agencies, pharmaceutical and agricultural interests, thinking that they know what's good for our bodies. We've been taught that we should fear handling food prep ourselves because of all the things that can "go wrong" when a layperson tries to grow, preserve and even cook their own food!

Don't let this nonsense continue! Step up to the plate :-) and take the time to feed yourself and your loved ones properly. To quote Sally Fallon, author of the Dirty Secrets article mentioned above:

"To be healthy, we need to prepare our own food, for ourselves and our families. This doesn't mean you have to spend hours in the kitchen, but you do need to spend some time there, preparing food with wisdom and love. If no one in the family has time to prepare food, you need to sit down and rethink how you are spending your time, because this is the only way to get nourishing foods into your kitchen. We can return to good eating practices one mouth at a time, one meal at a time, by preparing own own food and preparing it properly."

Indoor gardening -- Is it feasible for the average home owner?

What do urban farmers do in the winter, when they can't get their hands on decent tasting tomatoes and herbs? When their green thumbs long for gardens during long, cold, snowy winters? When they get tired of paying a fortune for fresh organic produce that doesn't taste any better than the rest of the produce in the store? This urban farmer brings the garden indoors.

Last year's seedlings

For years I've successfully started my outdoor garden from seeds germinated indoors, weeks ahead of time. A couple of years ago I bought this amazing LED grow light that made my seedlings flourish like never before. The first winter I bought it I tried growing a number of veggies and herbs, not intending to keep them very long. I was just curious how they'd do.

Indoor garden

But a few weeks under the light gave me fully edible chard, collards, parsley, basil and other herbs. The tomato plants had a  little tomatoes on them and the green beans had miniature beans growing. I was impressed!

This fall I decided it would be a fun experiment to try to make it through the entire winter growing tomatoes and herbs indoors. I wish I'd started earlier, like maybe in September. But I didn't get things planted until after Thanksgiving. I started with the typical little plastic seed packs and seed starter mix. One each of three different  types of tomatoes: Costoluto Genovese, Brandywine and Roma. Some basil, dill, parsley, oregano and sage. Rosemary from the store. I also started some white sage, which I never had luck germinating previously.

White Sage & Dill

Once the seeds sprouted, I moved them to the window in the guest bedroom. It's south-facing so it gets a lot of our hot Colorado winter sun. It's also the warmest and most temperature place in the house. I hung the grow light over the plants using a light stand with a boom arm. The light was just under 12" from the plants. I plugged the light into a timer-- one less thing to think about.

Within about 3 weeks the plants were outgrowing that space. I moved the guest room furniture to a different room to make more space. I bought this great stainless rack at target and placed it front of the window. Since the shelves are very adjustable, I gave the now overgrown tomatoes a shelf to themselves, with a short shelf above them for the herbs. The grow light sits on yet another shelf above that. I position the herbs in a way that the tomatoes below them can still get light from the LED and everyone is happy.

Lemon tree

In the beginning I was only running the grow light from 4 pm (sunset) until 10 pm.  But the plants weren't looking as healthy as they should. They weren't the deep green I wanted and some were getting a little spindly.  A happy plant will look strong and stocky. So I increased grow light time until midnight. That, plus the slightly longer daylight since we're past the solstice has made a big improvement. I added a cool temp humidifier, although I'm not sure I need it. On sunny days I swear it gets close to 90 in there! I found a variegated lemon tree at the grocery store and that's now producing new leaves. Let's see if I can keep it alive.

Basil!

I've been using the herbs for cooking almost every day. The basil especially impresses me since I think of them needing a lot of light in the garden, but they look perfectly normal indoors.

Babies!

The tomatoes have little fruits on them and I'm curious if they'll get large enough to ripen. And how long might that take? If they're still around in late May, I will most likely introduce them to the outdoors. I'm also curious if they will taste better than store-bought tomatoes. If they don't, I'll ditch my goal of growing tomatoes indoors in the winter and just stick to herbs. After all, why buy those teeny $4.00 packets of herb snippets in the grocery store when it's so easy to grow my own for the cost of one seed?

If the tomatoes are a success, I'll keep better records next year on plant dates, grow time and even photograph them weekly to have a clearer idea of how they're doing.

It's now early February.  I'll update this post at some point to let you know how things are getting along. Wish me luck!

Preserving Food: More options than just canning!

A few ways to preserve foods.

I've been so busy putting food up that I haven't had time to write. This is going to be a long post, but extremely informative as well! So, here goes...

As a kid, I remember our basement being full of canned tomatoes, pickles and peaches. The basement always smelled like dill and garlic (and mold, we're talking about Jersey after all), the colorful jars lined up on metal shelves. We always had more than we needed.

Time to put on an apron and dig in!

Later as an adult I tried my own hand at canning. It was a long, hot and arduous process. I shopped for the best vegetables at farmers' markets miles away from home; cleaned and prepared the vegetables, jars and lids; cut and cooked vegetables and washed and boiled the glass canning jars and lids. The the hot filled jars would go into a boiling vat of water. Due to Colorado's high altitude, I had to increase the boiling time quite a bit to ensure bacteria-free food. The extra boiling time turned them to mush and probably killed off whatever nutritional value they originally had. I could also only can high acid fruits and vegetables safely (again, because of the altitude) and so restricted myself to peaches, tomatoes, jams & jellies, various pickles and pickled beets. After reading in my canning book about Botulism (Putting Food By), I never felt completely comfortable eating what I preserved, despite all the care I put into the process. When I moved 15 years ago, I sold all of my canning paraphernalia and gave up on the idea of preserving foods.

Yet, I garden, therefore I am. I want to provide my family with real, healthy and organic food. And at times we have more vegetables than we can eat. I end up giving a lot away. I really wanted to find practical ways to preserve my fresh, organic foods so we can still be eating them during the winter. I started looking around for new ideas, and these are what I came up with. If you decide to try any of these preserving methods, please do your research and follow instructions and recipes from reputable books or web sites. If not preserved properly, food can spoil and even kill! A great resource I found this summer is SB Canning. There you'll find loads of information about how to can, great recipes and the author will even edit your favorite recipes to make them canning-safe. Here we go:

Ball Jar Freezing of Foods

Although pressure or water bath canning is my favorite way to preserve food, this summer I discovered "freezer safe" Ball jars. I made a batch of green chili, then some chicken, beef and pho stock and most recently tomato soup, poured them into pint jars and froze them. What a great thing! The pints are a great size and stack really well. To get the frozen contents out I put hot water into a pot in the sink, set the jars in (without the bands) and let them sit until they can be slide out of the jars. I love these jars so much I'm thinking of throwing out all our old plastic storage tubs and replacing them with the jars. Also since I'm not using the lids to "seal" the contents, they can be washed and reused. The glass jars are airtight and the contents don't get freezer burned like they do in plastic.

Cellaring or Root Cellaring Vegetables

My parents used to harvest all our green tomatoes at the end of the season, pack them between heavy layers of newspaper and keep them in shallow cardboard boxes in our chilly covered cellar door well. Not all of them survived, but a lot would very slowly turn red so we could have "fresh" tomatoes well into the winter. Once in a while we'd pull a few out of the basket and put them on a window sill in the kitchen to finish the ripening process.

In the past I've kept butternut and acorn squash in my basement, but they were gone by December because they were so incredibly delicious. You can also keep root vegetables such as turnips, beets, potatoes, etc. this same way. The secret is storing them in a cool dry area with very little temperature fluctuation, which with modern housing is harder than it sounds. But it's an ancient method of food preservation and still a good one.

Culturing Foods

Last year, thanks to an article on Dr. Mercola's web site , I learned about cultured vegetables. These are raw, cut up vegetables that are fermented with naturally present lactobacillus (good) bacteria for a few days, or weeks, in a crock or glass container at room temperature. When ready, they can be processed in canning jars (this will kill the cultures) or kept safely in the refrigerator for months. I think it's a great way to preserve some the fresh organic vegetables I grow all summer that can't be frozen or canned. I found this cultured veggie recipe and made a couple of test jars. DELICIOUS! Not only are the vegetables raw, which preserves their nutrition and crunch, but they are loaded with probiotics which is great for the gut and digestion, and the culturing process makes the nutrients and minerals super absorbable for our bodies. It's also extremely easy to make and if you grow your own vegetables, costs about nothing! These folks were showcased in a couple of Dr. Mercola articles and are out of stock quite often, even at about $18 per jar!  Recently I bought The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods, written by Wardeh Harmon. It's a great book containing lots of information on how nutritious cultured foods are, the science behind it, and loads of recipes I can't wait to try. I've also been making milk kefir, water kefir and sourdough and will try making my own Kombucha and butter next. Food culturing is a natural way to preserve all types of foods, probably as old as mankind, and is an excellent alternative to canning.

I've also made  sauerkraut, dill pickles, kimchee and green beans using the culturing process and they turned out delicious as well. A couple of friends have tasted my mixed vegetables and begged some jars off of me, validation that they are tasty for sure!

Basic Freezing

Last year I tried freezing a few things from my garden. My sour cherries did will. Apples turned to brown mush. Tomatoes tasted horrible when defrosted -- sort of over-ripe/spoiled tasting. The apples and tomatoes went straight from the freezer to the compost. What a shame! The National Center for Food Preservation web site is an amazing resource for information on how much time vegetables should be parboiled prior to freezing. I did make a couple of jars of stewed tomatoes at a time there were not enough to warrant dragging out the pressure canner. The stewed tomatoes are delicious and I've already used a jar to make a pot roast last week. I used this recipe, but omitted the sugar.  I also made several baggies-full of pesto with all the basil I had. This is my favorite pesto recipe.

Now that's a carrot!

There are some things that supposedly freeze well, such as green beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, collards, peas, summer squash, lima beans--the things you'll normally see frozen in the grocery store. Tomatoes freeze well only if made into a sauce or stewed. All fruits and veggies need to be washed, cut and parboiled before freezing. Herbs can be chopped and frozen in water in ice cube trays.

Basil can be made into pesto.

Pressure Canning

This summer I broke down and bought a pressure canner. The pressure canner took the "fear" out of preserving at high altitudes, doesn't turn food to mush since processing time is so much shorter, and can also be used to cook meals when not being used for canning. I still have to make altitude adjustments but it's not too bad. Once I had my routine figured out, it ended up being an efficient process and took little time. I found a great tomato sauce recipe and was able to can a dozen pints fairly quickly. And yes, she really means 6 bulbs/heads (not cloves) of garlic. I also canned a few jars of apple sauce and apple slices, so I won't be throwing apples into the compost pile next spring!

Air Drying

My son and began air-drying some things a few years ago. I grew a stevia plant this summer, and it ended up being huge. I pulled it up by the roots, rinsed it under fresh water, tied some twine around the base of the stem and hung it up-side-down in the pantry. It's dry now and ready for me to grind the leaves to powder in the food processor or just drop a leaf into a hot cup of tea. My son is drying mint, lavender and lemon balm for teas. We also have garlic hanging in the pantry. Fuss free preservation.

Dehydrating

I had a batch of tomatoes that were not quite ready to can when I made my sauce. These extra tomatoes were ripe a few days later and there were not enough of them to can. I washed and sliced them, sprinkled with a little garlic salt and laid them out on parchment in my old trusty dehydrator. I've gotten so much use out of my dehydrator!  Now, after 20 years, the plastic is cracking a little but it's still in working order. Previously I would spray the plastic shelves with Pam, but still had trouble getting the food off. Smearing olive oil on the trays works as well.   Parchment adds a little expense but it's definitely a great solution as well. I've recently discovered Reynolds Wrap Pan Lining Paper. It's parchment with a foil backing so you can "shape" it to fit different surfaces. I just rip off a length to fit a shelf in the dehydrator, press it over the shelf to make an impression, and cut out the shape with kitchen scissors. I'll be using my dried tomatoes to make pesto, which I will freeze in baggies and use through the winter. I keep any leftover dried tomatoes in a Ball jar in the fridge for other recipes. I even use them in salads during the winter and spring since I can't stand "fresh" store bought tomatoes. But they mysteriously disappear around here: tomato chips. You can also dehydrate kale, broccoli leaves, kohlrabi leaves -- probably more.

Fruit rollups

Since the parchment worked so well with dehydrating tomatoes, I decided to try using it to make some fruit roll-ups. Our apples were badly damaged by the June hail storm and have been falling off the trees for weeks. I gathered up a few pounds of the ones that had some good flesh on them, washed them and cut out the best chunks. I put the good apple chunks, skin and all, into a big pot, splashed in some lemon juice and about 1/2 cup of filtered water and set it to simmer for about 45 minutes (until the apples were soft). When they were cool enough, I pureed small batches in a food processor and poured them back into the pot. They simmered, uncovered, for 1-2 hours until they were the consistency of frosting and a nice caramel color. Using a spatula, I spread the apples about 3/8" thick and as evenly as I could on parchment covered dehydrator trays and sprinkled some cinnamon on top.  By the end of the day we had beautiful deep gold fruit bark, which I cut up and put in a container in the fridge. It's supposed to keep for up to 6 months, but the first batch I made was gone in a couple of days. Not a speck of added sugar and it tastes like the most delicious apple pie! 

You can also dehydrate foods in your oven, but I prefer the dehydrator because the heat is consistent, it doesn't heat up the whole kitchen and I can use the oven for other things while the dehydrator merrily hums away on a counter. I've wanted to try stringing up apple slices to air dry, but that will have to be next summer since my apples are such a mess.

I think I'm done preserving for this season. I have some carrots I picked today, which I may dice, parboil and freeze. I may even make some carrot soup and freeze that. I'm curious how long it will take me to use up the vegetables and fruits I've preserved this late summer and fall. My ever-evolving garden project will contain a different variety of vegetables next summer, maybe geared even more towards what I can preserve for use throughout the winter. I have this idea that next summer I want to challenge myself to being totally self-sustained (no trips to the grocery story) for a month, just living off what is growing in our garden and what has been preserved through canning and freezing. I can see me upping the ante in the next few summers to stretch out the month to two, and then three... Of course living in Colorado, with such a short and dicey growing season, really makes more than that challenging. But then I love a good challenge!