Merry Christmas and time for some final thoughts for 2022. It has been a challenging year in many ways. Prices are up, supply has been down on many things, and there is a lot of divisive, mean-spirited stuff out there these days. But as we near Christmas, I want to share with you a special greeting.
So my year-end useful idea to share is love. May you and your loved ones be blessed with peace and love during this most special time of the year.
Have you ever wondered how to harvest radish seeds from your radish plants? Many times my radishes bolt and go to seed but I had never tried to harvest the seeds for future use. This year I had several radish plants that bolted so I set out to harvest the seeds for next year’s radish plantings.
After the radish plants go to seed, they later develop these green pods which is where the radish seeds form. You have to let the pods grow and then dry them out to be able to harvest the little seeds inside. Here is a photo of a big bunch of radishes with the pods drying. It works well to cut the vines with the pods attached and leave them out in the sun to dry out.
The pods turn white in color and are hard when ready to harvest the seeds as shown in this next photo.
Here is a photo of just some of the seeds I collected from the radish pods I harvested.
It is a slow process to open the pods and collect the seeds. I found it works well to put the vines and pods on a Continue Reading →
I want to share a great tip for protecting your strawberries and other garden plants from birds and critters. Last year something keep eating all my strawberries just as they were ripening. It was so frustrating to see a strawberry just about ripe one day and gone the next. So here is my solution.
It’s called garden netting. I found that you can buy a large sheet of it fairly reasonable. It is very fine netting similar to bridal netting. It’s light enough that you can water through it and your plants still get sun too. The best part is that it keeps birds, most bugs and other critters away from your fruit.
As shown, I just cut a big piece and placed it over my plants. I tucked in the netting under the sides of my raised boxes to protect my strawberries. It works and so far I haven’t lost any ripen strawberries this year.
So if you have been experiencing similar problems with something eating your fruits or veggies, check out this useful idea and save yourself a lot of heartache and lost harvest items.
How does one prepare for this 2022 season? A season where we are already seeing severe grocery price increases, soaring fuel costs, shortages on the store shelves and wars raging in other countries.
I have been busying thinking about the additional efforts and ways I can save money and prepare for the challenges that we all are facing. It can be overwhelming but we must consider what we can control and focused on the things we can do rather than the things we can’t control.
To break things down, I have created a short list of things I can do.
I know many people are saying that these are things that they already do or that we should always be focusing on but with the urgent situations that we are facing, I think that additional emphasis should be made on these basic ideas.
Remember the old adage “One is none and two is one.” I think 3 or 4 is one now. Watch for sales and stock up. Cut out those coupons and watch for store discounts. If you use retail apps, use them to save money and get discounts where ever and whenever possible.
Buy garden seeds even if you have a stock of them. You may need them in the near future and prices are only going higher. Buy fertilizer and other garden supplies now for the coming year(s) as who knows what you can buy with these shortages in the future. Prepare to plant a larger garden than you had last year. If you didn’t have a garden in the past, plan to have a least a small garden or some container pots to grow some veggies this year. Every little bit helps and homegrown veggies are so much richer in nutrients and tastier than store-bought ones.
Lastly save some money. Have some cash on hand. Cash is king and it’s always a good idea to have some extra money should things get tight as I believe we are all seeing in our world today. But one final useful idea to share, plan now and don’t be anxious for anything but pray about everything.
I had many green tomatoes still when it was time to pull up the tomatoes plants for the season. Just like last year, I saved all the green tomatoes and wrapped them in newspaper for ripening. You can read about those tips here. This idea works well and given a little time, the green tomatoes turn red while stored in a bag.
But on with this post and how I roasted some tomatoes that were ripe and needing processed. I have frozen tomatoes, made salsa and tomato sauce and used many of my tomatoes already this year. But I hadn’t tried roasting in the oven yet.
First I washed and cut up the tomatoes in about quarters. I placed them on a baking sheet that had just a bit of olive oil spread over it. I sprinkled the tomatoes with a dash of garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. You can use any spices that you like to season your roasted tomatoes. I dribble a little more olive oil over the tomatoes and tossed them a bit to cover them with all the seasoning and oil.
Here is my pan ready for the oven.
Bake at 400 F degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Just check them at 30 to make sure them aren’t burning or overdone. I think mine took Continue Reading →
A few months ago I shared about my wild cantaloupes that started growing in an old wheelbarrow. Well I nurtured the vines and they took over the whole wheelbarrow. After a while I did cut back new blooms to keep the energy going to the 7-8 actual cantaloupe melons growing. Just short of three months, I started harvesting my melons. Here is a photo of the largest one I grew.
It is just so sweet and juicy! It sat on my counter for a week as it was a bit green and hard, but it ripened up as seen in this photo. Here is another photo of it ripening on my counter. It is 13 inches around which is small but oh so tasty.
As I mentioned before, I have never planted cantaloupe before and had no idea how to grow them. I did do some reading and I know they love lots of water and heat. But they do not like to have their feet wet according to an old gardening book. By feet they mean, don’t let them sit in over-moist dirt too long. Good idea to use a sandy top soil or I sat them on top of a vine to keep them out of puddled water in the wheelbarrow.
I hope you have enjoy reading about my wild cantaloupe melons and find these tips useful. Here is one final picture of my cantaloupe cut and ready to enjoy. Continue Reading →