Preserving the tomato harvest

Saturday, July 31, 2021

The tomato plants are producing faster than we can eat them right now.  There are so many recipes that fresh tomatoes can be used in-salsa, salads, bruschetta, cucumber/tomato/onion salad, on burgers, on sandwiches, on pasta, the list goes on.  So, what to do when you are eating tomatoes at every meal and still have them coming?  It is time to preserve them!

I freeze, dry and can my excess tomatoes.  

Be sure to put the date and description on each freezer bag and quart jar.  You may think you will remember the date they were frozen, but to be on the safe side write the type and date you bagged them.  Use the oldest first and all within a year.

Tomatoes sliced and in quart freezer bag

During peak season for any produce, you can get the lowest prices at your neighborhood farm or farmers market.  In many cases you can get a huge discount for any bruised or blemished tomatoes.  These are great to use for preserving, just be sure to remove any soft spots.

Right now, I prefer to freeze them because it is so hot that I don’t want to turn on any heat generators inside the house.  For cherry type tomatoes, I just half them and throw them in a quart freezer bag and put in the freezer.  For larger tomatoes, I slice then put them in freezer bags.  They thaw much quicker this way.  They will have a fresh taste when thawed and used for salsa, sauces, or chili.  Freezing the extras for winter

When it cools, I start drying and canning.  I take all the tomatoes still left from last year and can those.  I use this year's for freshly frozen and dried.  

I just love “sun dried” tomatoes right out of my own dehydrator.  You can dry them in the oven too if your oven temp goes down low enough. 150-200 degrees F is recommended and the lower the temp, the redder the dried tomato.  The higher temps will cause the dried fruit to darken.  It will take 6-10 hours for the tomato to dry.  You want to make sure they are completely dry or they will mold in the jar.  You store your dried tomatoes in a quart jar to use until next year.  Dehydrate or sun dry your extra veggies

Chocolate and black tomatoes oven dried

Only a water bath is needed for canning tomatoes because they are acidic.  Make sure you follow a sauce recipe exactly as it is critical for keeping to the right acid level.  I use Weck's canning jars.  They are all glass, including the lid, so no worries about what is in the lining of the lids.  And they are a really pretty shape.  They are made in Germany.  I haven't found any all glass canning jars made in the USA, unless you purchase antique jars.  

All you need to can tomato sauce is a large pot, canning jars, a metal funnel, and tongs.  A pressure canner is not needed for acidic foods like tomatoes.  Always follow the recipe as written to insure food safety.  For more on canning, see  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

I throw the entire tomato (without the stem) into the food processor.  Most recipes say to remove the peel and seeds because they can impart a bitter taste.  I have not had any bitterness in my sauces and there are lots of nutrition in the seeds and peels so I make use of the entire fruit.  I also use all types of tomatoes and not just the paste tomatoes.  You will likely have more juice in non-paste tomatoes so cooking them down will take a bit longer to get a thick sauce.

Paste tomatoes are meatier and make a silkier sauce which is nice for soups.  I always have a paste tomato in my garden and try to have one per bag when I freeze them.  My favorite paste is the heirloom Italian Pear Paste.  It provides lots of huge, red tomatoes.

This is a good time to save the seeds from the best, biggest, tastiest tomatoes for your garden next year.  Only save seeds from plants that do not have a disease.  I take the seeds and put them in water to let them ferment.  Those that float are not viable.  I remove these, lay the good seeds on a paper towel to dry thoroughly, then place in a zip lock bag with the date and variety to use in next year's garden.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

Sauce in Weck canning jars

Here is the recipe from Ball’s “Complete Book of Home Preserving” for tomato paste:

9 cups of pureed tomatoes, 1½ cups of chopped sweet bell peppers, 2 bay leaves, 1 teas salt, 1 clove of garlic.  I'll also toss in some of my dried mixed herbs for flavor.  About a tablespoon or two per batch.

I put it all into a large pot and let simmer until it is the consistency and taste I like, about 2.5 hours.  Remove the bay leaves and garlic.  Boil the jars, lids, and seals as the sauce is close to done.

Add 3 teas of lemon juice to each hot pint jar, fill with the hot tomato sauce to within ½ inch of the top, and seal the lid, following the instructions for the type of jar you are using.  Place all the filled jars in a large pot, insuring they are fully covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 45 minutes.  Remove from canner.  Let cool.  Test the seal after the jar is completely cool.  It should not lift off.  That’s it!  

I will can any frozen tomatoes I have left over from last season in the fall when it is cooler.  It takes about 12 quarts of frozen tomatoes yesterday to make 1 gallon (4 liters) of sauce.  I use the half liter Weck's tulip jars which is almost the exact size of a pint jar and are pretty to boot.

Other high acid foods you can use a water bath for canning are jams, jellies, condiments, salsas (Quick, homemade salsa), pickles (Make your own pickles without a store bought seasoning mix), and relishes.  Consult with a canning book for more tips and always be sure to follow the recipe exactly to ensure they safely keep.

Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

Homemade pickled garlic

Sunday, July 18, 2021

If you had a bumper crop of garlic or just want to have garlic cloves on hand all the time, it is super easy and inexpensive to simply pickle garlic cloves.  All you need to buy is apple cider vinegar.  Or you can make your own.......

I first learned about pickled garlic when I went to a general store in Albany, Georgia.  They had many local canned items in Mason jars for sale.  I saw the jarred garlic and bought it.  They had added some spicy peppers in the jar which gave it a kick.  I loved it!  It has become my favorite way of preserving my garlic harvest.

How to pickle garlic

  1.  Get quart canning jars.  I use Tattler or glass lids.  The vinegar eats at metal lids.  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty
2.  Either make or purchase raw apple cider vinegar.  Any neutral tasting vinegar will work.  I just like the nutritional benefit of raw vinegar.  Make your own apple cider vinegar

3.  If using your own garlic or purchasing whole cloves, separate the cloves and remove the "skin".  You can also buy separated cloves, sans skins in many grocery stores that you can use.

4.  Slice 2 or 3 hot peppers and place in the jar, if you like your garlic a kick.

5.  Fill the rest of the jar with garlic cloves to an inch or so below the mouth of the jar.

6.  Fill the jar with vinegar.

7.  Put the jar in the frig.

8.  Use cloves any time a recipe calls for it!

When picking garlic to plant, I look for types that have large cloves and say "easy to peel" in the description.  Then I save the biggest and easiest to peel cloves from each harvest to save for planting my next crop.  I plant in October or early November for our Zone 7.
Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

Time to plant for fall and winter edibles

Savoy cabbage in November edible garden

Saturday, July 17, 2021

It may seem crazy to be sowing seeds in July for your fall and winter garden, but it is the time to do so.  Everything you can grow for spring, you can grow for fall.  For winter harvests, just look for cold hardy varieties.  

You can garden edibles year round, even in a small space.  You can garden year round in small space  The trick to harvesting all fall and winter is to have your veggies to full size by mid-October.  With the shorter days of late fall and winter, your plants will not grow much after mid-October through mid-February.

In the fall, I plant those varieties that are cold tolerant to extend the harvest as long as possible into winter.  Depending on the severity of the winter, many cold tolerant varieties revive in the spring and provide a really early, nice harvest surprise.  Look for varieties that advertise being cold hardy.

Because daylight hours are getting shorter in the fall, you will need to add about 2 weeks to the “Days to Harvest” your seed packet gives as the seed packet dates are based on spring planting.  Plants grow slower in fall because the days are getting shorter instead of longer.  Frost date look up

Just like in spring, seeds have to be kept moist to sprout.  You can also plant the seeds in peat pots or you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring.  Just be sure to sanitize any pots you are re-using.  You can put the plastic trays in a water catch pan, find a shady spot convenient to watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist.  When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to harden off before transplanting into the garden.

There are some veggies that the temps are too high to germinate in our Zone 7 this time of year, like lettuce.  These you will have to start on the cool side of the house in the shade or you can start inside the home and move outside into the shade after sprouting.  Just like in spring, you need to make sure your seedlings are hardened before planting into the garden bed or placing in full sun.  

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

"Hardening off" seedlings

Good choices for fall planting:

Root crops-Beets, Burdock, Carrots, Celeriac, Kohlrabi, Parsnips. Radishes, Root Parsley, Rutabaga, Salsify, Scorzonera, Turnips  All about beautiful beets All you need to know about growing carrots Another spring veggie-kohlrabi  Easy to grow crispy, peppery radishes All about turnips

Greens-Chard, Lettuce, Mustard, Collards, Chicory, Kale  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Fall and winter greens
Brassicas-Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower  Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips

Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Choose varieties that have terms like cold hardy, frost tolerant, overwintering in their descriptions in catalogs or on their seed packet to extend your season into early winter.

Fall garden

Below are some general planting times for cool season crops for our Zone 6/7 garden:

July

Beets, carrots, Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi), cilantro, collard greens, endive, escarole, frisee, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnips, scallions, and Swiss chard.  Use transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

August

The rest of the greens (arugula, corn salad, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, spinach, mustard, endive), kohlrabi, onions, snap peas, scallions, cabbage plants, radishes, and turnips.  Peas and Fava beans can be planted in August for spring harvests in Zone 6 or higher.  

September

Plant more greens, carrots, and radishes.  September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.  Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

October

The month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest and over-wintering onions.  Order your favorites early as many sell out quick.  Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies.   If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.  Late August, early September is the best time to get transplants into the garden for fall and winter harvests.

With cover, you can harvest all winter crops of arugula, beets, chicory, corn salad, lettuce, mustard greens, parsley root, radicchio, radishes, spinach, and Swiss chard.  Extend the season with protection for plants

Potted winter lettuce and greens in mini greenhouse

The following don’t require covering for winter harvesting: brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, bunching onions or Egyptian onions, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips.

Fall and winter harvested veggies are at their crispest and sweetest after a light frost.  The cold temps concentrate the sugars, making them extra yummy!  

It only makes sense to keep your garden productive through all four seasons.  The great thing about fall and winter gardens is there is very little pests, disease, or weeds.  Winter gardening is the least labor intensive of all.

What's happening in the mid July edible garden

Edible garden

Sunday, July 11, 2021

This year's garden is behind previous years for summer vegetables.  We had a typical spring with cool days into May.  We have not had that in years.  The summer veggies were planted about 3 weeks later than in recent years.  They are 1-3 weeks behind in being ready to harvest.

 For summer veggies, I am harvesting red goji berries, Aronia berries, wild blackberries, White eggplant that overwintered in the house, Turkish Orange eggplant, Amadeo eggplant, AO Daimaru eggplant, Chocolate Pear cherry tomatoes, White cucumber, a volunteer green cucumber, a volunteer yellow cucumber, a volunteer squash, my overwintered Chipetin hot pepper bush, my overwintered Long Thin Cayenne, quinoa, New Zealand spinach, Red Malabar spinach, orach and Multicolored Chinese amaranth for salads.

The summer veggies getting close to picking are the larger tomatoes, okra, snap beans, volunteer tomatillo and basil.  Just one of my large tomatoes on Cherokee Purple vine is starting to ripen.  The rest have only small green fruits-Red Pear paste, Kentucky Beefsteak, and Granny Cantrell.

Most of my garden bed tomatoes are not doing great this year.  I planted them in a different location since we are in the middle of a renovation.  This spot gets a lot more shade and the voles have been going to town.  You should never plant tomatoes in the same spot 2 years in a row and it is best if not for 4 years.  To be on the safe side, I went and bought 4 more tomato plants that I put in large pots in a sunnier spot.  I got Big Beef,  Bonnie's Our Favorite Tomato, Sweet Million, and Super Sweet 100 tomatoes.  I sowed seed for the Italian heirloom Red Pear paste tomato. 

This year, I'll need to preserve basil as we enjoyed lots of pesto this past year.  Pesto is my favorite way of preserving basil.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil   

Volunteer squash

The vine borer got my zucchini vines.  I cut one that looked like it was still alive and replanted the end in the dirt.  I have started another one from seed.   Everything you need to know to grow squash

The onions, lettuce, strawberries, Chinese Hilton cabbage, sprouting broccoli, kale, cultivated dandelions and chard continue to produce. 

My garlic is pulled and hardened off so it is ready to store the extras.  I always save the biggest cloves for planting in the fall.  My favorite way to preserve garlic is to pickle it.  Super easy and the garlic lasts for years this way.  Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!  I've found this is the best way to preserve garlic for using year round.  I tried keeping the whole cloves, but most would disintegrate by early winter.

I started making pickles to preserve the extra cucumbers.  My husband loves pickles on his burgers.  You don't have to do any fancy canning with a pressure cooker.  Just mix together a few herbs from the garden and some vinegar, add sliced cucumbers and you have pickles!  Make your own pickles without a store bought seasoning mix   So far, the White Wonder cucumbers have tough skins and many seeds so am slicing those and eating fresh.  It's ideal to plant cucumbers bred for pickles to get the best balance between the flesh, seeds and softer skins but any work. 

  I freeze the extra strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, blanching is not needed for these fruits to preserve the flavor.  I will put some of the frozen berries into a bowl that I cover with balsamic vinegar that I can store in the frig for a couple of weeks.  Vinegar is a great preserver and the balsamic vinegar tastes great with the berries over yogurt, ice cream or whipped cream.  I dry the goji and Aronia berries.  

I am using amaranth, Red Malabar spinach, orach, Hilton Chinese cabbage, kale, sprouting broccoli, New Zealand spinach, and cultivated dandelions for salads.   For kale, sprouting broccoli, mustard and other summer greens extras, I will blanch and freeze the extras.  Freezing the extras for winter

For all my herbs, there is plenty to use fresh with extras to harvest.  I will dry them.  I am currently harvesting bay, sage and tarragon.   Harvest and preserve your herbs  I use tarragon as a substitute for cilantro in the summer.  Cilantro bolts early in summer but tarragon goes right through frost.  Tarragon has a different flavor than cilantro but it  still adds a refreshing taste to salsa.  Quick and fresh homemade salsa

Oregano, bolted carrots, and thyme are in full bloom.  The bees love their tiny flowers!  These herbs could be cut and dried now, but I love the flowers and will wait until fall.

I make sure the pots get water 2-3 times a week and fertilized every other week.  I had to start watering the garden beds in May.  We are getting wet spells and then long dry spells.  Garden beds need a deep watering once a week.  If I don't get at least 1" of rain during the week, I do a deep watering with a drip hose.  Garden beds get nitrogen monthly in the form of blood meal.  For the squash, cucumbers, snap beans, and tomatoes, I am using an organic fungicide every other week.  So far, no sign of fungal disease but this is the time of year it really gets going.  Summer garden tips

We are harvesting the vegetables and fruits that are synonymous with a backyard garden.  Soon it will be time to plant for continuing the harvest into fall and winter.  The garden keeps me busy year round.  It is so nice to be able to watch things grow and have fresh produce all year right out your back door.

What's happening in the early July edible garden

Marigold and tomato in July garden

Monday, July 5, 2021

This year has been a slow start to summer loving vegetables.  The only ripe summer lovers we have gotten so far are cucumbers.  The rest are flowering and have baby fruits, but usually I would have been harvesting peppers and summer squash throughout June.  This is the first time in memory that I did not have a ripe tomato on the Fourth of July.  It should be soon!

We are harvesting lettuce, New Zealand spinach, Red Malabar spinach, herbs, onions, cucumbers, carrots, Asian greens, and kale.   Flowers that are blooming are daylilies, petunias, hollyhocks, gladiolus, hostas, jasmine, lantana, gardenia, zinnias, carrots (look like Queen Ann's Lace).  My red and variegated Cock's Comb and red Chinese Woolflower have small flowers on them but will get much larger this month.  

We had a normal spring this year.  Summer so far has had cool days and hot days.  Rainfall has been typical this summer.  I have had to water the beds on weeks with no rainfall and I am watering the pots about every 3 days.  

Both the new hot and sweet pepper plants have flowers and baby peppers on them.  I planted a couple of sweet peppers for snacking and a few Ancho pepper plants for drying and making chili powder.  My two hot pepper plants I overwintered have had ripe peppers for a month now.  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Tomatoes are way behind again this year.  I have many flowers and some baby tomatoes but will be another couple of weeks before there are ripe tomatoes.  Neighbors tomatoes are just starting to turn red.  I am having a lot of vole issues this year tunneling all around my tomato and summer squash plants.  It looks like I will need to re-sow my zucchini after the latest attack.

My first ripe eggplant, besides the one I overwintered, will be the Turkish Orange.  It has some fruits that are about full size and should be turning orange soon.  I love the taste of this eggplant.  It has a smoky flavor; plus the orange fruits are pretty!

I have one green bean growing.  I am usually harvesting them steadily this time of year.  Shouldn't be long now, though.  Lots of flowers going.  

Oregano in bloom

I harvested our garlic a couple of weeks ago and is getting hardening in the shade on our outdoor, covered deck.  Garlic harvest time is near!

I got basil planted late this year.  There is enough to harvest fresh leaves for cooking but will be another 2-3 weeks before cutting back to make pesto.  My husband just loves pesto.  I make big batches of it and freeze for using the rest of the year.  I should get at least two good harvests for pesto making.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano and thyme is in full bloom.  The bees love the purple and lavender flowers!  I can harvest any time now, but I love the flowers and so do the bees.  Harvest and preserve your herbs

Lettuce gone to seed

I fertilized all the pots again as well as the veggies in the garden.  It is good to fertilize pots biweekly and garden plants monthly during the growing season to give them the nutrition they need to produce well. Summer garden tips

  

My second round of lettuce has gone to seed.  When you see the white fuzzies, they are ready to save.  I just pull the seed heads, break apart, put in a ziplock freezer bag, label with type and date, and store in the refrigerator.  The third round is bolting.  I do have a fourth round growing.  I sowed those seeds a month ago.  They have just really started filling out.  It will be a couple more weeks for them to be of baby lettuce size to harvest.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

In the greens department, summer is a hard time for most greens.  Sprouting broccoli, different types of sorrel, arugula, dandelion greens, chard, amaranth, Asian greens, orach, chard and herbs are all available.  The heat increases the sharpness of most greens.  Succession planting of lettuce every 3 weeks and planting types that are resistant to bolting can keep your lettuce crop going.  Plant them in the coolest part of the yard where they are not in full sun all day and get shade in the afternoon.  Pots are a good option to be able to move them to the cooler part of the yard.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

I sowed a couple of varieties of greens that have a similar taste to spinach two month ago.  I grow Malabar spinach and New Zealand spinach each summer now.  They love the heat and have a juicy leaf.   They have been growing rapidly for the last month.  For lettuce leaf substitutes, I always grow sprouting broccoli.  New standbys are Chinese Hilton cabbage, Chinese multi-colored amaranth and different colors of orach.  All three do well in the heat and have sweet leaves similar in taste and texture to lettuce.  Growing summer salads  

Chard, dandelion greens, sprouting broccoli, mustard greens and kale can all be harvested for steamed greens if the leaves aren't prime for salads.  The smallest leaves are the sweetest.  I blanch and freeze the larger leaves for winter eating.  Freezing the extras for winter

I have some volunteer vines in the cucurbit family.  One has small green fruits and another has small yellow fruits.  Think one is a watermelon and the other a squash.  Will know soon!

It looks like I will have to re-sow my zucchini that the vole attacked.  Zucchini is such a great producer!  There are so many different ways to use it.  My favorites are for grilling with fresh and then making spaghetti noodles with any additional we can't eat.  Really healthy substitute for pasta.  You can also dry them to use in soups or roasts over the winter.  What to do with all that zucchini?!

Summer garden is close to being in full swing!

What to start in the July edible garden

July edible garden

Saturday, July 3, 2021

You can still plant for summer harvests, but July is also the time to start seeds for fall harvests.  It may seem crazy to be sowing seeds in July for your fall and winter garden, but it is the time to do so.  Everything you can grow for spring, you can grow for fall.  For winter harvests, you'll look for cold hardy varieties.  

September until your first frost is high time in the garden.  Your summer veggies will still be producing at the same time your cool season crops can be harvested.

The trick to harvesting all fall and winter is to have your veggies to full size by mid-October.  With the shorter days of late fall and winter, your plants will not grow much after mid-October through mid-February.

The change I make from spring to fall plantings is for spring, I plant those varieties that are heat tolerant.  In the fall, I plant those varieties that are cold tolerant to extend the harvest as long as possible into winter.  Depending on the severity of the winter, many cold tolerant varieties revive in the spring and provide a really early, nice harvest surprise.

Because daylight hours are getting shorter in the fall, you will need to add about 2 weeks to the “Days to Harvest” your seed packet gives as the seed packet dates are based on spring planting.  Plants grow slower in fall because the days are getting shorter instead of longer.  Frost date look up

Just like in spring, seeds have to be kept moist to sprout.  You can also plant the seeds in peat pots or you can reuse the plastic annual trays you got in the spring.  You can put the plastic trays in a water catch pan, find a shady spot convenient to watering, fill with seed starting mix, sow your seeds and keep moist.  When the seedlings get their true leaves on them (second set), they are ready to transplant into the garden or a larger pot.  I transplant into the garden on a cloudy day or when they are calling for rain.  Keep an eye on them after planting.  They'll need extra watering the first week or two.

Summer seedlings

There are some veggies that the temps are too high to germinate in our Zone 6, like lettuce.  These you will have to start inside or on the cool side of the house in the shade.  Spinach and lettuce have relatively short days to harvest.  For these greens, I start the heat tolerant varieties now and the cold tolerant varieties at the end of August.  

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

You can also plant a second crop of summer veggies and herbs to keep the harvests strong through October.  Look for varieties that have short "days to harvest" or purchase transplants.  Summer lovers include basil, beans, corn, tomatoes, and zucchini.

July-Seeds or Transplants

Basil  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Beets All about beautiful beets

Bush beans  Growing beans

Carrots All you need to know about growing carrots

Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi) Fall and winter greens

Celery  Give celery a try, an easy to grow garden staple

Cilantro  Growing cilantro (coriander)

Collard greens Grow a southern favorite-collards 

Corn  Growing corn

Endive

Escarole 

Frisee

Fennel Growing fennel

Kale  Grow one of the super greens this year-kale

Kohlrabi  Another spring veggie-kohlrabi

Leeks

Lettuce  Everything you need to know about growing lettuce

Mustard  Mustard greens

Onions  Everything to know about growing onions

Parsnips

Rutabagas

Salsify

Scallions

Swiss chard  For year round steamed greens, grow chard!

Spinach  Grow spinach-a super nutritious, easy green

Tomatoes  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

Turnips  All about turnips

Zucchini  Growing zucchini and summer squash

July-Transplants

Broccoli  Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips

Brussel sprouts  Growing Brussel sprouts

Cabbage Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Cauliflower

Chinese cabbage

If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies.   If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants.