Getting ready for winter
 

Mrs WD and I both grew up on farms, and putting food up for winter was a big part of both of our childhoods. Now that we are retired and have time we have gone back to our roots a little bit and we're growing and preserving some of our own food. We are finished with tomatoes and taking a little breather, apples and cucumbers will be coming ripe in a few weeks. Then we'll be making apple butter, pickles, and relishes.

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One load of tomatoes ready to be processed. We went through about 3 loads - about 90 pounds of tomatoes.

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The garlic was ready to harvest first. We harvested about 20 pounds, with half of that in salsa and pickles and half still in storage for winter.
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All together we harvested about 50 pounds of onions of 3 different varieties.

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The larder isn't full yet, but it's getting there!

So far this year we have put up:

9 qts frozen tomatoes
2 pints frozen tomatoes
3 pints yellow tomato soup base
26 pints corn salsa
26 pints tomato salsa
3 ½ pints tomato salsa
10 pints dill pickles
4 ½ pints banana peppers
2 ¾ pints
banana peppers
6 pints bread and butter pickles
1 pound dried serrano peppers
¼ pound dried habanero peppers

That's cool stuff!

Cool stuff indeed.
I grew up in a city.
Now live in the hicks.
Wifey and I are doing what you're doing but a much smaller scale.
Be interested in some of your recipes, especially non freezer ones.

Fresh garlic - very nice.

While talking garlic; never eat the very white looking garlic imported from china. They soak it in bleach to look like that.

WD - Would like to see Pic's of your garden? Is your hauler a golf cart?
Lots of work went into this for sure......

We are hoping to do the same gardening/greenhouse when we retire in 10 years. Right now, we are both working 50+ hours a week, with 2 kids in college, and just an absolute nuts schedule.

My parents garden quite a bit, but do have that extra 20-24 per day (between the two of them) from not going to a workplace, over what my wife and I have right now.

Yum yum! Nothing tastes better than what you've grown in your own garden. Just looking a that fresh garlic makes my mouth water.

Bill .. I wouldn't eat ANYthing from China. Whole Foods brings in a LOT of that trash.. and when I tried some canned mandarins from Costco they just tasted "off". Checked the can, and sure enough .. product of China.

Trader Joes sells almost exclusively grown in Mexico. I try to avoid that as much as possible, too. Some of it's OK, but you just never know which veggies are good and which contain pesticides. FDA "inspections" are generally just a rubber stamp. Corporate greed.

I just put up 15 jars of ollalielberry jam from my garden. It's a very satisfying process.

:( I don't know if I have any pictures of it this year. For sure no recent ones. It's a real mess now, tomatoes are nearly dead, vine crops are weedy, cucumbers are only 3" high. The hauler is a golf cart I turned into a pickup truck. I'll post a pic tomorrow.
BK911, pm me with your email and I'll send you the recipes. The corn salsa is killer, I don't think the 26 pints will last through football season.

Wonder why…we grow it. Once you let dry all that's needed for the he clean look is to peel/flake off a layer of the outer "paper". I guess it speeds up their "processing".

It's my favorite thing to grow along with snap peas and blue potato.

Thats what I would like to do!

Never seen garlic and onions like that. Are the tops edible like green onions or chives?

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This is the closest thing I have to a photo of the garden. It is about 1/3 of the whole thing. The tomato patch and the vine plants area are about the same size as this plot.

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Bob - Yes, our hauler is a golf cart that I converted to a pickup truck. VERY handy!


Bryan - The tops of onions are edible when they are young. By the time they are full grown they are tough and bitter. I've never tried to eat garlic tops. They do send up flower heads called "scapes" that are tasty. (I'll try to find a picture) Lay a bed of them on the grill, put a steak on top, and grill it. Delicious!
The onions and garlic in the photos are about to be spread out on the garage floor so the dirt on them will dry and can be brushed off. Then the tops and roots are cut off and they are put on drying racks for two weeks, then stored in our spare fridge. They are still usable 9 months to a year later.

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Found a picture of garlic with the scapes on it. The scapes are those curly things with the pointed flower head on the end. You have to cut these off so the garlic will put all its energy into making the bulb. They taste just like garlic.

Nice!

I'm not really sure why but I'm a bit nervous about canning. I've made a bunch of pickles this year but all for the fridge so only good for ~60 days.

Food safety is hugely important. Botulism is a big issue. Botulinum bacteria can't survive in a ph lower than 4.5 or temps higher than 240 degrees F. I check the acid level of foods I can and add citric acid if needed to get to 4.5. Anything like salsa and pickles with a lot of vinegar or tomatoes (which are acidic) is safe in a water bath canner if you check the acidity. Most recipes have the safe levels of acid ingredients built in. That's why it is important to stick to the formula. Anything with a higher ph number needs to be brought to 240 degrees and held there for a while to kill the bacteria. That takes a pressure canner (autoclave).

That is a beautiful garden and that is a lot of tomatoes. I draw the line at potatoes coz they are a ton of work washing and cleaning them. Our East Coast produces great spuds at a decent price. Yes there is nothing like home grown tomatoes...

THANKS for the Pic's WD........Luv the gold cart setup with trailer and pickup bed.....UR living the life for sure.....

That's a wonderful garden! Maybe you could use the garlic tops in a pesto for a lighter taste?

I see any more talk of winter and I'll be sending the mods a PM asking that they shut this thread down. :D

Nice garden! You can come up to NW OH and plant one for me if you get bored. Then you can weed it too. Don't worry though, I'll water it.

After 5 decades I've gotten back to my roots some, and realizing if you are a farmer, or try to be self-sufficient, you have to simultaneously live in today and plan for 6 months ahead. I didn't realize it as I was a kid living it, but it was good training for being in business. I think I was a better businessman because I was comfortable living with one foot in the present and one in the future.
Yes, thinking about winter is a bummer, but it's going to be here in a few months whether we are ready for it or not. May as well be ready.

What is this winter of which you speak? I think that's the nice time of the year when I can wear short sleeves and blue jeans comfortably and have the top down on the Boxster and the windows open in the house, right?

In this day and age you might not NEED to grow you own, but damn does the fresh stuff taste better. I love getting fresh fruits and veggies from my in-laws' garden.

With all of the questionable growth hormones, GMOs, and pesticides/insecticides being used on commercially grown produce, having a garden is much healthier for you in several respects. It gets you out of the house, and working in the garden, which is good for your heart, not to mention that everything tastes much better when completely fresh. It is much cheaper than buying organically grown produce at the grocery/farm market, it also gives you a sense of satisfaction like no other, and does prepare you for the future (you never know when the power will go out, and stores will be closed).

Not trying to bring more people here, but all your neighbors have found SWFL. The reason is winter.

Are deer a problem? Here, you would need an 8 ft fence to keep them away from the buffet...

Oh yes! Deer, rabbits, voles, raccoons, 'possums, and assorted birds are all problems. It's a constant battle, but I like a challenge.

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These cages are on the strawberries 365 days a year. Strawberries are like candy to deer. They dig through the snow to get to them in the winter. The upside down flower pot was a cover over a vole run access hole. I put rat poison next to the hole, put the flower pot over it, and weight it down so nothing can get to it from the top. Strawberry roots are apparently very tasty to voles.

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When the apples are coming ripe I put bird net around the trees. Birds are a small problem, but deer will strip all the apples off a tree this size overnight.

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This is the second planting of cucumbers. The dust is rabbit repellent. It may work on deer too, or maybe they just don't like cucumbers.