Category: Harvest

Preserving

SabineLeave a Reply
Slow-roasted tomatoes in olive oil (August 23, 2024)

I always try to preserve vegetables and herbs from the garden. This year, I preserved tomatoes by making slow-roasted tomatoes in oil, pickling green tomatoes and making a roasted green tomato salsa. The pickled tomatoes keep for a couple of months in the fridge (I love them in sandwiches, especially with sharp cheddar, sliced green apple, arugula and coarse mustard), the salsa keeps a few days, and I always freeze the slow-roasted tomatoes and move one jar at a time to the fridge for use. Those are terrific in pasta recipes or on pizza.

Tomatoes and garlic after roasting before being packed in oil.

I also made Thai hot sauce, quick-pickled several batches of cucumbers and made several batches of Thai pesto and regular pesto, including a delicious garlic scape pesto with sunflowers. The hot sauce is stored in the fridge (it keeps forever, the last batch kept for two years). The pickled cucumbers keep for a few weeks, and I always freeze the pesto in ice cube trays and use one or several cubes in my cooking as needed.

Pickling green tomatoes before adding the brine (October 30, 2024)

As I do every year, I cured my garlic and winter squash. The softneck garlic hangs in my pantry (I used up all the hardneck garlic), and the winter squash is stored in the unheated back hallway that connects the kitchen and the back porch. Both will keep well into the spring if they last that long.

Quick-pickled cucumbers, September 28, 2024

I also froze a big ziplock bag of red currants that I had harvested in June. And I cleaned and froze my home-grown ginger. I don’t grow enough herbs (other than basil) to preserve them. But maybe I will grow some next year to dry.

Roasted Green Tomato Salsa

SabineLeave a Reply

Last night, I turned almost two pounds of green tomatoes into this roasted green tomato salsa. It is absolutely delicious, but has a thicker consistency than normal salsa, almost like a spread. I might have over-mixed it. Or perhaps my tomatoes were just not as juicy as others. I refrigerated the salsa, and I think before I use it, I might cut up some fresh tomatoes for juiciness and extra brightness, and to add more texture. I still have about a pound and a half of green tomatoes that will ripen on the counter – the end of my 2024 garden tomatoes.

Mise-en-place (plus two cloves of garlic, olive oil and salt)

Fall Work Day

SabineLeave a Reply
Blueberry foliage

Yesterday, we had our community garden fall work day. We got a lot done, from weeding and clearing the common areas inside the garden to getting the communal outside beds ready for winter (including planting 100 tulip bulbs and 100 crocus bulbs), to spreading hay and mulch, replacing three more timber plot borders and more. We harvested the last green tomatoes and flowers for gardeners to take home, and placed the remaining tomatoes in our donation box outside the garden gate for neighbors to take home. All that is left to do apart from finishing weeding & mulching and cleaning the shed is to dig up the dahlia tubers after the first hard frost. The common areas are (almost) ready for winter.

Before
After
Pinwheel marigolds

Pickled Green Tomatoes

SabineLeave a Reply
Just before adding the brine (vinegar, water, peppercorns, garlic, sugar, kosher salt)

Two days ago, I harvested many of the green tomatoes that were still on the vines in our new vegetable/flower bed outside the community garden as we had a light frost that night. They were all of a smallish variety (I think it was Mountain Magic), with the fruit being very uniform perfect little globes of about 1.5 inch in diameter. Last night I quick-pickled them and filled two jars. I always use this recipe but omit the turmeric and the dill. They keep in the fridge for a few months. I am looking forward to adding the pickles to sandwiches (sharp cheddar/apple/grainy mustard, pickled tomatoes is a great combo – yum!).

Ginger

SabineLeave a Reply

This year, I experimented with growing ginger in a container. I started in February with a piece of store-bought organic ginger that I misted with water for about a month to encourage formation of growth buds. Then, on March 12, I planted it in a pot, very shallow, with the roots exposed.

Ginger today just before the harvest
March 12

I let it grow indoors for a couple of months until temperatures were warm enough to bring the container outside.

May 14 (ginger in center in the back)
October 17
October 17

Today, I harvested the ginger. The pot I used had a smallish diameter, and I did not get as much ginger as I had hoped. The new ginger is so juicy and fragrant! I am very excited to use it. Next year, I will grow ginger again, but in a wide shallow planter.

Harvest (notice the strong fibrous roots)
A piece of ginger with old growth on the left and new growth on the right

I saved a small piece with several growth buds (and two stems) and replanted it in the same container. I plan to overwinter it in my back hallway.

Overwintering ginger