I have been busily canning stewed tomatoes, marinara sauce and ketchup, but still the harvest basket fills with tomatoes. Roasting fresh tomatoes with garden onions and garlic is an easy way to blow through that late summer harvest. Sauce tomatoes work best, like the delicious San Marzanos. But any old mix of tomatoes will work – just roast a bit longer for slicer tomatoes that
September Harvest
It’s still summertime on our homestead in September. Let’s take a little walk through the garden together. The harvest basket includes everything from eggplant to green beans, or rather Dragon’s Tongue beans. They are long with purple strips that taste great fresh or sauteed with tons of garlic. Tomatoes are coming on strong and Juniper is learning that the green ones don’t taste so good.
Front Yard – Summer Update
The bright greens and purples of our lush front garden in springtime has faded to the yellow and tans of late summer. This past winter I dug up and divided several perennials from the front garden, arranging and replanting them to fill in empty spaces. After a few years of this routine, the entrance to our homestead is getting more and more welcoming. Euphorbia produces
What? It’s the End of July??
How did it become the end of July? I feel like this summer is slipping by so quickly this year. Maybe that’s part of getting older. Nah… I like to think it’s more related to living close to the land. I’m noticing artichoke flowers getting so huge and open that they topple over from their own weight. Juniper could hardly hold the hose a few weeks
Apricot-Rosemary Preserves
Our Puget Gold apricot tree has been prolific this year! This variety of apricot was developed in Washington and is particularly well-suited for the Pacific Northwest, with our late cool springs. They are self-fertile, meaning you only need one to get fruit. Apricots are a finicky fruit tree that doesn’t grow well in much of the country, so you may have live vicariously through this
How to Install Drip Irrigation
It takes some serious juggling to balance modern living with growing a substantial amount of your own food at home. I am no expert juggler, but I have become much more savvy when it comes to simplifying the way I manage our homestead. One of the best ways to simplify your garden time: an automatic drip irrigation system. Setting up an automatic drip irrigation system
How to Plant Tomatoes
It is time to get those tomatoes in the ground! I pulled out almost everything in my late spring bed – all the bolted celery, arugula and mature onions – and replaced them with healthy young tomato starts. There are a few things you can do when planting your tomatoes to make them extra happy. First, dig a hole larger than the tomato you are
Three Bin Compost System
That brown stuff my veggies are planted in isn’t “dirt” – it’s “soil”, a substance teeming with life from the millions of microorganisms at work. They give my plants the nutrients they need to thrive. But those veggies are greedy with how many nutrients they need, which means I need to provide them steady supplies of homegrown compost to keep them all happy. That’s not
From Spring to Summer
I can’t tell you how many people I have heard gushing about the amazingly sunny spring we are enjoying in Portland… How much they love being outside again… How it’s so overdue after a gray winter… Meanwhile, I’m the curmudgeon wishing for showers in the forecast! It has turned out to be one of the driest Oregon springs in state history, which is bad news
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