A few weeks ago I ordered seed garlic. I haven’t grown garlic in years, so I asked my friend Willi at DigginFood where she gets hers. She suggested I contact garlic guru, Dan. I did as she suggested and was overwhelmed with the seed garlic to choose from, so I ordered some of each. Actually, [...]

Now that the rains are back in force, its time to get the last potatoes harvested. Some will say that leaving potatoes in the ground for winter keeps them protected and fresh. In my experience it leads to a potato patch that gets out of control and a bunch of diseased, sloppy rotten potatoes in [...]

Last month I was asked to submit to a horticultural trade magazine some photos of a favorite fall container planting. Sure, this is a tough choice. There are so many combinations to choose from and build going into the fall. I ended up submitting a container filled with edible plants that add interest and food [...]

Here in western Washington, the season has definitely taken a turn to autumn. Trees are showing brilliant colors. Wind storms are kicking up (and kicking trees over). Fog is settling in. Rain is falling and so are temperatures. As this happens, summer heat-loving food crops begin to wane.
Heat-lovers like tomatoes are about at their end. [...]

I plugged in the food dehydrator later in the day, and it started up again. Thank goodness! Now all the tomatoes are done drying, and I am contemplating buying another batch to dry today. A good 15 lbs of tomatoes dried down to about a paper lunch sack full. It seems like such a waste, [...]

I just checked my tomatoes and found my dehydrator had stopped running. Maybe 17 hours straight is just too long for these machines, but many juicy items require a lot of time to finish drying. Alas, perhaps when it cools down, it will work again, but I have my suspicions that it is finished. Fortunately, [...]

You know the tune. And, if you’re putting up fresh summer vegetables to enjoy over the winter, you may be singing a similar tune. I really did end up preserving close to one hundred pounds of tomatoes, or at least that’s what I bought with the intention of preserving them. We ate quite a few [...]

Even my regular farmer at the farmer’s market asked on Sunday, “What are you doing with all the food you’re buying?”
“Putting it up for winter, of course.”
I know that the time invested over the last few weeks harvesting corn, basil, tomatoes and other things I’ve grown and preparing them for the freezer will reward me [...]

I several previous posts I’ve talked about fixing nitrogen. This symbiotic work between plants, fungi and soil is a great way to easily help your garden. And, its inexpensive!
Yesterday, as I was clearing out beds of summer vegies to make way for fall plantings, including nitrogen-fixing fava beans, I pulled out spent green bean plants. [...]

Yes, yes…I keep posting about getting out and doing crop exchanges. And, yes, here I am writing that I’m going to get out there today to do it. Sometimes life gets in the way of what we intend, but if I don’t get out there soon, I’m going to miss my window to get in [...]