preparing for canning
I just weighed up my tomatoes and hot peppers – I have 15 lbs of tomatoes and 4 lbs of peppers ready to go. I need to pick up some lemon juice or citric acid tomorrow at the store and the I’ll get going on the canning. It should make about a dozen jars of tomatoes. I’m following recipes from the Ball Home Preserving Book: Crushed Tomatoes and Pickled Hot Peppers. At the other end of the kitchen, my dehydrator is humming away. I have a tray of Thai hot…
sowing seed for my winter garden
Even though my last year’s winter garden was eaten to the ground by voles, I’m planting another one this year. I’m planting all of the crops included in my Winter Planting Calendar App (part of my Full Season Calendar App). I’m using the dates recommended there. It’ll be a good double check of the app. The app requires an input of my “Limited Daylight Date”, which is the date when my area falls to less than 10 hours of sunlight per day (also called the beginning of the Persephone Period).…
summer is passing
What a busy summer! I keep thinking I’ll get a minute to write a post and then I need to pick the pears or process a big pile of tomatoes. Of course life is throwing other things at me too. It’s been a great year for my tomatoes, peppers, pears, and beets. I’ve made red sauce from 30 lbs of tomatoes and dried another 15. I expect them to keep coming in for a while – there are many still on the plants, though they are fading with the dryness…
my vegetable garden
I’ve been experimenting with ways to photograph my vegetable garden. Above is a “panorama” photograph using my i-phone. And below, a regular photo.
inspected!
I called the Middlesex bee inspector last week and told him I was a new beekeeper in the area. He was very quick to come by and inspect my hives. And it was exciting for me to have an expert take a look. The bottom line: I passed! Yeah. He said my hives look super. We started first at the far side of the yard, looking over at the hives. He said they are in a good location with lots of morning sun, maybe a bit shady in the afternoon.…
fall seedlings
I’ve been starting up a bunch of fall seedlings this past week. I used tape for tags instead of pretty wood labels. Looks like I’ll be eating a lot of Bok Choi! The BoPak is a new experimental variety that I’m trialling, Mei Qing and Win Win are my old favorites. And then I found a package of Pechag that I couldn’t resist buying. I love stir fried bok choi. I’m hoping I can get a big crop of fall cucumbers for pickling. All my summer vines have died from…
today’s harvest
Carrots: I’m just thinning them so for, but the little ones are tasty. The varieties from left are: Bolero, Mokum, Oxheart. Beets: This is my first beet harvest. Four varieties from left: ???, Chiogga, Blankoma, Merlin. And it’s my first TOMATO of the season. Yippee, but WOW, really late. (A previous harvest photo had a couple tomatoes that another gardener gave me.) The tomato variety is Tiren. The seedling was grown by Jane, a friend of my mom’s. It’s a Roma type. A super looking plant with fruit hanging heavy.…
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
