Another year is almost gone. How did you do? Are you happy with how this year went? This is a good time to sit down and evaluate how much you’ve accomplished so you can go in to the new year with a better idea of what you want to improve and build upon. Time to…
Here are gourds, peppers, tomatilloes, zucchini, purple and white eggplant and fresh dill. I know I said that tomatoes are the reason we garden and that’s mostly true. But the thing I REALLY love about gardening is that we have healthy, chemical-free food year round. The food from our garden is more nutritious, tastier and…
I just completed my seventh batch of dried tomatoes. Each batch of tomatoes fills all nine trays in my Excalibur Dehydrator. I get about 20-22 lbs into each batch. That’s the equivalent of about 7 quarts of canned diced tomatoes. It takes about 24 hrs for a load of tomatoes to dry, give or take…
Winter is the real test of our emergency preparations. In our area winter can be very unforgiving. A power outage that lasts just 1-2 days can be more than an inconvenience. If you do not have alternative power or heat sources, it could be dangerous. At best, you might lose a water pipe (or two…
Tomatoes. Is there any better reason to have a garden? Our tomatoes have done fairly well this year, despite a cooler June and two months of drought followed by two weeks of heavy rains. The tomatoes showed a little wear–delayed ripening, cracked shoulders and catfacing. Catfacing is a new problem that I’ve never seen before…
There’s not much that you really need to get started canning. A canner with rack and some canning jars with 2-piece lids will get you started. And maybe a jar lifter, magnetic lid wand, funnel and timer. Altogether all of this can cost you as little as $10 if you buy it at rummage sales…