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Drying Onions

I harvested these onions that had fallen over and were ready to start curing and drying for winter storage.
Drying Onions

Once the onions fall over, you can gently dig them up and put them out to begin to dry. You want them laying out like this for at least one day. You don’t want to leave them out in the sun after that. So you can either find a shady spot or cover them with a sheet as shown.
Onions covered for drying

You want to use a sheet so the curing onions can breathe and have air circulate around them. Do not cover with plastic. After about a week or two, the tops will die off and then you can trim the onion tops.

Next photo is after the tops were cut and I placed them in this shallow box in the shade under a lean-to for them to continue to dry and cure for another month. You can now just brush off the roots as they are dry and dead.
Onions drying for storage

Check on the drying onions to make sure that any damaged onions are used right away. Store the dried onions in Continue Reading →

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Early Potatoes

Here is my first harvest from the early potatoes I planted this year. These were grown from some leftover little potatoes from last year’s crop that I planted early this spring.

First Harvest Potatoes

I was pleased how my seedling potatoes that I planted, sprouted and grew so nicely. The tops died off recently and I dug up the potatoes yesterday. It is always fun, like a game to dig and find the potatoes. This harvest of potatoes was from just two plants. I still have many more but this was from the first planting which were ready for harvest. Now I have some nice homegrown potatoes for breakfast to cook tomorrow!

A useful tip: As these are early potatoes, the skins are thin and can not be stored long. You want to use early potatoes right away as they will only store for about a week or so.

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Indoor Plant Starts

Here are my indoor plant starts for this year. The front row of cups are beef steak tomatoes that I saved the heirloom seeds from last year’s plants. I am so excited that they germinated so well. You can read more about saving tomato seeds here. The seeds were planted 12 days ago and many sprouted within just a few days.

Indoor Plant Starts 4-2024

On the back row on the left is a zucchini start. I planted two seeds in the cup but so far only one has sprouted but I had that happen last year too. Sometimes the seeds take extra time to come up.

The other two back row cups are cherry tomato plants that I started from store bought seeds.

As it is still cold at night here, these plant starts will continue to grow in my kitchen window until things warm up more. I will be transfering them into some bigger pots soon so the plants can have more room to grow. Then I will be hardening them off outside during the day until I can plant them in the garden outside.

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Saving & Drying Tomato Seeds

It is always a great idea to save and dry tomato seeds from your heirloom tomatoes. Here are a few seeds I saved earlier this Fall and am drying on a paper towel. These were some tasty and big beef steak tomatoes so I really wanted to save the seeds for next year’s garden.
Drying Tomato Seeds

After they dried out some on the paper towel, I gently moved the seeds around to continue the drying process. You want to make sure your seeds are completely dried out before storing them for future planting. Use a new paper towel if necessary to make sure the seeds dry and ready for storing.

Saving your tomato seeds is not only a way to save money on buying seeds but also is a useful idea for growing more great tasting tomatoes that you enjoyed during this year’s garden.

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Late Fall Carrots

Here are my late fall carrots that I just harvested. I had lots of late carrots I planted and have been enjoying them immensely. With the warmer weather, I was able to put up these carrots even after several frosts this year. You want to pull them before the ground freezes solid. Otherwise it is hard to get them out and you break them trying to get them out of the hard-as-concrete dirt. Trust me on this, I had that happen last year.

Late Fall Harvested Carrots

I cut them up a bit and blanched them in boiling water for about 5 minutes.

Blanched Carrots

Once the carrots are blanched, I put them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Next drain them well. Then I froze them flat in a Ziplock freezer bag for use later.

Now next time I need some carrots, I can just pull some out of the freezer bag for use in a stew, shepherd’s pie, or other recipe. It’s wonderful having homegrown carrots available all year around.

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Homemade Tomato Sauce Ideas

I had an abundance of tomatoes this year from my garden. I have made sauce, salsa, and frozen cut-up pieces of tomatoes. I decided that I was going to try a new idea where I processed the tomatoes and then froze the sauce in ice cube trays.
Tomato Sauce in Ice Cube Tray

First I cut up a big pot of tomatoes and cooked them for about 45 minutes.

Cut-up Tomatoes in Pot

Once the pot cooked down, next I put the tomato pulp through a food mill. The food mill removes most of the skins and seeds as shown in this picture.

Tomatoes in Food Mill

I cooked the remaining tomato juice along with a bit of salt, pepper, sugar, and a few other spices (season as you desire) for about another hour. I cooked it over medium low on the stove top. This allows the juice to thicken up and now you can either put it in a jar or put it in an ice cube tray for freezing. The handy thing about freezing the tomato sauce into ice cubes is that you can add a few as needed to any recipe that you are making.

Tomato Sauce in a Jar

After freezing the tomato sauce in the trays, I did have to let it unthaw a little so I could get them out. Then I moved the frozen tomato cubes to a ziplock freezer bag to keep in my freezer until needed.
Frozen Tomato Sauce Cubes

These are a few useful ideas for processing your homegrown tomatoes and saving them for use later. Don’t let all those tomatoes go to waste, cut them up and get them cooking so you can enjoy your own homemade tomato sauce this winter.

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