Both went into the food dehydrator yesterday and today they came out tasting delicious!
I had already dried some of the cherry tomatoes in this way and while the little tomatoes are wonderful for snacks or salads they dry into raisin sized kernels which I don't like despite adoring the taste. With the first Roma tomatoes to go in the food dehydrator I decided to simply slice them a little less than a centimeter which still turned out a bit thin for my tastes. So far the old K-Tel machine that was my mother's is doing a great job!
I've also got access to plum and apple trees so will be making jam this year after all. :)
I still have plenty of salad and Swiss Chard. S.C. is a wonderful plant that just keeps on producing. It has a slightly salty flavor and is awesome in or as the main ingredient for a salad. Ditto for spinach but that's pretty much gone now. I have 3 cabbages that survived first the brutal summer and second the cabbage butterflies. Lots of carrots. 2 broccoli plants that I am awaiting going to seed. Corn is SLOWLY growing bigger. Some radishes that I doubt will make it before winter is really here.
There are a few cucumbers still lumbering along, some pumpkins/squash plants which will probably not produce anything...beans in the front are a joke but the one's in the back do awesomely as do the tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, birdhouse gourd and pepper plants.
The potatoes in the 4 buckets are still doing well while the ones in the front of house (the main garden) will soon be harvested as they are browning and breaking down. The strawberries are being transplanted (so far the one's that have been moved have survived) and in their place shall be moved the compost pile. (Now done)
The nettle patch will be growing elsewhere and the grapes will just have to deal with it.
The plan is to have the entire main garden in the back of house next year because it's more sheltered and better suited to it despite the fact that it's much smaller in size. The boat will obviously be brought to the front where there is room to park it on the trailer- just a matter of securing it.
I still get a few surprises. What I thought was a bean that had germinated late turned out to be one of Mama's morning glory seeds. There is one purple flower there to remind me that I was to hasty with giving up on those seeds. Where it's growing will become a gravelled seating area with possibly a pond in the future. The whole front of house will be dedicated to perennials and herbs, particularly the native plants that form the basis of my organic teas. More on that in a future post but here is a picture of what 10 pounds of rose hips look like:
In other matters I am selling post cards fairly steadily, getting some of my work published in one place or another and am reworking my web site ( it's amazing how that has become so all-consuming ).
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