On the right you see Bridget's homeschooling books and notebooks. They are there for easy access. We've never had a schoolroom… |
{Just realized my post didn't have a title!}
I like homeschooling because I like these last days of summer to be busy but also quiet. Yes, the endless activities have started, and in the last couple of days I was literally, in the words of Joyce, run off my feet.
But the days are still sweetly sunny, the garden has picked up now that the heat has passed, and I need a little time to get some things packed away for winter. I'm grateful for the freedom to plan my days around the weather and my inclinations. What a gift!
Bridget does her work, occasionally with me but usually on her own, and I try to tend to these end of the season chores, which aren't burdensome at all.
I'm a city girl, so I'm always surprised at how much food I can tuck away, although it's nothing compared to some of you!
I've been making lots of tomato sauce, pear sauce, pear slices, raspberry sauce, and dried herbs.
We certainly don't have a farm, although I woke up the other day wanting chickens again. We have a small garden that I'm not too good at tending. But I'm getting better!
Every year I wish I had done things differently (maybe I need to tape a note to my forehead that says something like “Plants get way bigger than you think!” or “One veg per row, dummie, interplanting is not for the likes of you!”).
These little tomatoes are ones Habou grew for me from seeds I saved from storebought organic bigger-than-cherry tomatoes. They grew very well! I have a funny story actually. There were so many seedlings that I switched them with the marigolds by mistake. Then, after many weeks, I realized that instead of carefully interspersing marigold plants amongst my vegetables, I had put in…tomatoes. In with the tomatoes. And beans. And cucumbers…. I even gracefully bestowed a batch of tomato plants on the painters. Only they were marigolds. I just let them think I'm an idiot, because I couldn't really face explaining. |
I've pulled out the green beans and old broccoli. |
I'm going to top off those beds with the rest of this soil. I think a whole season with a tarp in the driveway is long enough, don't you? |
Some things are best learned by doing. I think that some of you are like me, poring over directions to a new process like canning or dehydrating, trying to find the exact method before you start…when really, either someone has to show you or you have to go by trial and error.
So far I have found two countertop dehydrators at yard sales for $5 each. The first one was as simple as could be. You plugged it in and it heated up.
But you know, my tomato slices dried out wonderfully, and herbs, I have found out, are much nicer dried this way than by hanging, which just makes them smell grassy and get dusty, or in the oven, which is inconvenient and expensive.
I don't actually wash these herbs. You have to look at the basil as you're stripping the stems, though. Sometimes there are spiders in there, little ones… |
The second one I found is more fancy, supposedly. The lady wanted $15 because the list price was $85, but that's not exactly how yard sales work, at least not at the end of the day! I told her that I'd give her $5 and pointed out with gentle humor that the alternative was probably going to be taking it back up to her attic. She gave it to me for $5.
I'm not sure that the fact that it has a fan and a thermostat makes that much difference. Maybe when the Chief slays a deer for me, I'll be happy to try out some venison jerky! For my purposes now, it works fine. (I gave the old one to a friend for her herbs.)
You have to keep checking things and when the herbs are crumbly, they are ready.
Things don't get ready all at once. If you were doing tomato slices, you might want to know how a sundried tomato from the store feels and even chews up in your mouth. Then, just aim for that. Keep moving them around and taking out the ones that seem done.
I have two tiers of basil — which, dried, has an underappreciated flavor in stews and sauces, and one of chives, which I get mad if I don't dry. My yard is full of chives — why should I buy dried chives? |
Real dehydrating — drying things so that they are good to store in a pantry — is tricky and really requires special equipment. You are going to want to put your tomatoes in a ziploc bag in the freezer anyway, so don't worry about it.
The herbs can just go into glass jars, tightly closed. They last a long time. I have some that are more than a year old that are just as lovely as ever.
That's lemon thyme (it has truly tiny leaves) on the left, and rosemary and sage on the right. Not much, but that's okay. |
Crumble off the leaves and discard the stems. Then decant into a glass jar that you've saved. |
These tomatoes are an heirloom beefsteak grown by the friend of a friend. They are a true meaty tasty tomato! I will save the seeds and try to grow them next year! Just now the vines are bearing pounds and pounds! |
freckledhen says
I can almost smell that fresh basil. You have so many tomatoes! And I laughed at your marigold/tomato story. I thought I was the only one to do stuff like that–it's the story of my life!
Pippajo says
Every year I intend to plant herbs so I can dry them in the Fall, but I have yet to actually do it. But sometimes my much more industrious sister gives me some of the fruits of her labors. She keeps her dried herbs in old prescription drug bottles (well rinsed, of course)! Her pantry looks a little like a pharmacy!
And by the way, venison jerky sounds heavenly!
briana says
My dehydrator just died. I'll have to find some garage sales to check out. I'm not very good at shopping garage sales though. I need someone to teach me how.
I have tomatoes everywhere in my garden too. They were volunteers. I just left them in the hopes that we would have lots of tomatoes to eat, but that is not what happened. I guess the heat shut them down.
Your pictures are lovely, as usual!
margo says
I don't have a dehydrator and I haven't even dried herbs. I wonder why not!!? I have basil and mint left in my back yard – I will get right on it.
I loved hearing about all your fall preparations. I'm mostly done with food preservation except for apples next week and apparently now herbs. But I'm wishing I had squirreled away some more peaches and berries. Oh well. I took notes and we'll see how it works out and maybe next year I'll tape notes to my children's heads so I can remember 🙂
Deirdre says
SIGH I love that garden. I wish I could have a garden here at school. Seriously, just to hang out there with the cat and the smell of tomato plants while pulling weeds… So great.
Brittany Hunter says
I have a question maybe you can answer. I tried heirloom beefsteak tomatoes in my garden for the first time this year, and while they got big and beautiful, they also cracked open (before they ripened) and got all rotten. I've had maybe one, or two edible ones all season! Is there a way to prevent them from doing this?
_Leila says
Hi Brittany,
When there's a big fluctuation in moisture — the weather gets dry and then it rains a lot — the tomatoes may split.
Some remedies: Keep watering during dry spells, pick tomatoes even if they are not completely ripe (even if they are mostly green!), before it rains — they will ripen inside. Newly split tomatoes can be used for sauce, I think, but yes, if you leave them on the vine they will rot.