4th week of August 2010

Stevia There are plenty of herbs, veggies and fruits waiting to be dehydrated. This week I harvested my stevia plants that will be used to sweeten winter tea mixes. Next in line are apples to be dried for winter snacks but this project takes more time with peeling and slicing. I also want to do more dried tomatoes and peppers. Since our freezer is full with chicken and standing over a hot stove canning is not my favorite activity, dehydrating is an appealing option. I also like the fact that dehydrated foods retain more of their nutrients since they are done at a lower heat. One year I even attempted to dehydrate watermelon which turned out kind of like fruit leather.

Roma Tomatoes One thing that we do enjoy the convenience of the canned form is pizza suce. Here are brilliant Roma tomatoes being washed and readied for the kettle. We made 21 quarts of sauce on one day which is quite a messy and lengthy process but we will savor the flavors of summer during our winter meals. I am hungry for salsa this year and have plans to try a batch of that next. I will probably do a mild batch to appease the youngsters and then a slightly more fiery version for the adults. I need to check if local peaches are still in season and will probably buy a bushel to can, freeze a few for smoothies and dehydrate some for snacks. The snow peach trees on our farm are heavy with fruit but the small size makes them better for just snacking.

Mexican Sunflowers I'm still a little slow on getting all of my fall things planted but it looks like my focus will be on teaching others to plant greens for fall eating and cold framing. My first seminar took place at Lehmans with more classes coming up (see Events.) and from the registrations coming in, interest is very high. So instead of working at planting long rows of spinach and chard, I need to get busy transplanting plants into packs, filling seed packets and getting my poor greenhouse weeded and in presentable shape. In the midst of this I also like taking time to watch the wildlife in the garden. One evening four hummingbirds were flitting and diving about as I was picking dried sunflower heads. Apparently they were defending their territories. These bright orange Mexican sunflowers are magnets for butterflies and I love to check out who is drinking from them as I pass. These are such peaceful scenes that help make gardening such a joy even when the weeds are shaggy.