Focaccia Across the Seasons
Preserving
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.
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.
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.
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.
Winter Solstice Garden
We had some surprise snow yesterday. It was supposed to snow less than an inch, but we got about 6 inches. Boston has not had this much snow in about three years! Today was a glorious crisp winter day, perfect for a winter solstice walk in the neighborhood.
Winter Kale
First wintry mix this morning. Rain had turned to snow overnight.
November Plot
Overwintering Dahlias
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.
Last Swiss Chard
We are expecting our first “real” frost tonight, so this afternoon, I harvested all the Swiss chard that was still in the plot. Not much else still growing there: kale, some leeks (that I will let overwinter), some small carrots plus fall greens and komatsuna (both of which need to be harvested soon as well).
Planting Spring Bulbs
This morning, I planted 40 spring bulbs, 20 in our front yard and 20 in my large flower container on the back porch. It is a mix of White Splendour Anemone, Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica), King of the Striped Crocus and Blue Grape Hyacinth.
Fall Clean-up and Planting Garlic
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.
November Harvest
