Planning – Page 2 – Nine by Eighteen

Preserving

SabineDecember 25, 2024Leave 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.

Overwintering Dahlias

SabineNovember 13, 2024Leave a Reply

*A beauty from the communal bed*, *dinner plate dahlia Cafe au Lait*

About a week ago (on November 7) after our first light frost had killed the dahlia leaves, I dug up the tubers, both from the communal flower bed and my own plot including my back porch container dwarf varieties. I roughly cleaned them and let them dry in card board boxes in my back hallway. This morning, I transferred the boxes to a cool dark spot in the basement. I plan to check on them once a month or so and mist them if necessary to prevent them from shriveling up to much. Fingers crossed they will survive.

Fall Clean-up and Planting Garlic

SabineNovember 8, 2024Leave a Reply

Today, I finished cleaning up my plot (weeding, spreading compost and salt marsh hay), and I sowed my garlic for next year – 6 rows total, 15 cloves of hardneck garlic, and 20 cloves of softneck garlic.

*Plot at the end of today. Still growing: kale, Swiss chard, leeks, fall greens, komatsuna, a few carrots, calendula.*

Ginger

SabineOctober 27, 2024Leave 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.

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)*

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.

More Fall Sowing

SabineSeptember 11, 2024Leave a Reply

Today, I sowed one row each mache (seeds were from 2020, so my hopes of germination are extremely low), komatsuna (also known as Japanese mustard spinach) and French Breakfast radishes in the plot. I had sowed some radishes yesterday in containers on the back porch. The winter lettuce (Landis) I had sown about two weeks ago unfortunately never germinated. I have two rows of fall greens coming up (lettuces, chards, kale, arugula, mustard greens, Chinese cabbage, spinach, endive), plus two rows of beets (one Golden, one Chioggia) and a (spotty) row of early carrots. My plan is to have the mache and komatsuna overwinter under a row cover. And perhaps the fall greens as well. We shall see.

Fall Squash and Fall Sowing

SabineAugust 25, 2024Leave a Reply

Today, I took out the zucchini plant and in its place sowed one row of winter lettuce (Landis) and two rows of fall greens (a mix of different lettuces, chards, greens, Chinese cabbage, spinach, and endive). Fall seems just around the corner.

Sowing for Fall Harvest

SabineAugust 11, 2024Leave a Reply

Today, I harvested a ton of tomatoes. Sadly, many of them had split because of the recent heavy rains. I also started my fall sowing: one row of Golden beets, one row of Chioggia beets and one row of Scarlet Nantes carrots. Towards the end of the month, I will start fall greens.

Hardneck Garlic

SabineJuly 28, 2024Leave a Reply

This morning, I cleaned my hardneck garlic for storage. I did not grow much garlic this year (only 12 heads, and those heads are huge), but might amp up production for the next year. I saved the two largest heads as seed garlic.

First Tomatoes

SabineJuly 22, 2024Leave a Reply

I harvested my first tomatoes! Stupice, a small-fruited tasty early Czech variety. As in previous years, I staggered my tomatoes and planted early, mid-season and late tomatoes, hoping to ensure a steady tomato harvest from July through November. This year, I planted 8 varieties (11 plants total). Early varieties: Stupice, Ailsa Craig (2 plants) ; Mid-season varieties: Brimmer, Striped German (2), Black Prince; Late varieties: Green Zebra, De Wiese Streaked (a shipping mistake, I had ordered Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, one of my favorite tomatoes), Ananas Noire (2). The tomato seeds were from Sand Hill Preservation Center (Stupice, Ailsa Craig, Brimmer, Black Prince, De Wiese Streaked), Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (Green Zebra, Ananas Noire) and Johnnys (Striped German).

Garlic Braid

SabineJuly 20, 2024Leave a Reply

I cleaned and braided my softneck garlic this afternoon. With only 13 heads, this is the smallest braid ever. But those heads are big. But then, I still have four heads from last year’s harvest. The braid will hang in my pantry for storage. I will consume my hardnecks first, plus four or five smaller (and “injured”) softnecks that did not make it into the braid. I also saved the two largest heads separately as seed garlic to go in the ground in late October/early November. The hardneck garlic is still just hanging in the back hallway. I want to give it a bit more time for curing before I clean it and put it away as it has been very hot and humid these past few weeks.