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We're still eating fresh Super Marzano tomatoes, that we picked in September when they were green. We've had them ripening in the kitchen for months - lost a few, but most stayed firm & red. They're just about gone now :-(
Although I wouldn't be without my frozen green peppers all winter long, the dried parsley and basil get used almost every day. Last year I gave little jars of it away as Christmas gifts.
Still enjoying the canned tomatoes, salsa, zucchini pineapple, sweet zucchini relish, apricots, applesauce, and apple butter... along with frozen corn, bell peppers, buttercup squash, rhubarb, strawberries, and herbs. :)
My "Plum Hot Pepper Jelly" is a BIG hit. Some of the Peach preserves & Raspberry Pepper Jelly were given as gifts in the fall, but we'll have plenty to last us until fresh batches can be made in the summer.
Still enjoying stuffed green peppers and tomato chuncks from the freezer. Canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice. Frozen green beans, parsley, onions, carrots. Lots of butternut squash left yet, keeps very well in a box.
LOVE the tomatoes I canned, some sauce too. I use it for home-made pizzas, soup and stew, just had some for lunch. The homegrown ripe tomaotes can't be beat!
I freeze apples, strawberries, rhubarb, tomatoes, peppers, other vegies harvested from my back yard (and apple orchard) with a vacuum packer. I make pies, marinara, chili, soups, other desserts...and they taste as if I just picked the fruits and vegies. My food garden is just a minor part of gardening for me. I'm a daylily collector.
I don't dry my herbs. The Oregano is still going strong. The thyme drowned in this winter's rains but the 2 winters before that it did great. The Lemon Thyme that I have in a large pot is hanging in there, but also suffering from all the rain this winter. Lemon grass is there all winter. I even have a bit of mint and lemon balm that hangs on throughout the winter. Lemon Verbena is there at the back door whenever I need it. My marjoram died but that's because the Lemon Grass behind it grew so large that the marjoram got buried under it LOL. The only herb I have to harvest and store for the winter is Basil. But I don't dry it. I wash it, pat it dry, leave it hanging for a few hours to make sure all the water is off the leaves. Then I chop it up in the food processor and freeze it in small jars. This makes it possible to have "fresh" basil for sauces and such all winter long. It really is a whole different thing from dried Basil. :-) I had an army of Basil palnts volunteer this past summer from all the seeds that fell the previous year. I gave more Basil away than you can imagine! Last year my Tarragon made it through the whole winter...but I never did actually use it...I just love the smell of it in my garden :-). This winter it drowned quite early. Can you see a theme happening here...lots and lots of rain this year has meant lots of casualties. Oh well...it just makes room for me to plant more stuff in the spring LOL. I also froze a lot of my chili peppers and we enjoy those all winter long too. I gave lots of them away as gifts too :-).
My tomatoes (also basil and mint basil) were in my front garden and were shared with neighbors and joggers. We had a bumper year of Fuyu persimmons, and while we froze some, we had neighbors knocking on our door, ate a lot ourselves, and the squirrels cleaned up. The oranges we eat as they come. It's really fun to share what we have while it's right there in the garden and it becomes a social time for the neighborhood.
I voted other. We have canned, frozen, pickles, dried herbs. Also all the potatoes we can ever eat! What fun!
Also have beef & pork from vendors at the market. Stocked up on chicken, too.
I really feel good when I'm at the store behind someone that has a cart of stuff that rings the total in the hundreds. We don't spend much on groceries.
Bernie
Love having my own fresh herbs in my garden for use "year round" Including parsley, rosemarie, thyme, oregano...and basil frozen from summer...also tomatoes frozen whole from summer.
We eat home canned tomatoes, green beans, jams, jellys, fruit and fruit juices all winter. I freeze brocolli, peas, rhubarb, and sliced apples. Stored onions, potatoes and winter squash last until sping although the spuds and onions are sprouting now, anxious as I am for spring and planting time. I dry parsley and some fruit. Basically we eat out of the garden all year in one way or another. We also raise our own beef from time to time.
I put other because I do none of the above. I wish I lived close to somebody that could teach me canning and all that good stuff. All my current neighbors and I know to do is go to the supermarket, get their stuff and then complain how awful it is and how we wished we had the fresh stuff. Bunch or whiners we are...
I'm an "Other" here in California -- I do have a few herbs I snipped and dried, but we are enjoying fresh Moro blood oranges and Meyer lemons this (and last) month. It was a kick to take both to Moab, to Bloom and my DB/DS and their spouses last month, not only fresh, but from our own [dwarf] trees.
The parsley is looking better than it did all summer, but haven't harvested any to see how it tastes... Rosemary is there all year, here, and my basils and thyme *were* looking better than in summer -- but I returned from Blooms' last month to find the basils dead and the lemon thyme looking very unhappy -- probably too much rain, like Julie's.
For a postage-stamp lot, we grow quite a few edibles, but not enough to "put up" (except for the herbs, of which I could do more -- and would, if I actually cooked enough to need them).
The blueberries and apricot are blooming and the grape is leafing out -- I think it's a bit early, but the weather is so bizarre it's not a wonder the plants are confused.
I have a thyme plant in a clay pot that I keep on its side. it's hanging in. The squirells devour all veges, so I don't even try. Actually plant anything I think will kill them if they eat it, hehehe, not.
I have other herbs, rosemary, bay, and marjoram. Will add alot of Parsley for the Butterflies, some Basil and Dill.
Other!
The fruits fo labour -- dry leaves for mulch! Fruits for labour, I mean. Have a lot of sweeping to do, but I have used them for manure also and it should show results in the coming months.
I cann, freeze, dry, or anything I can think of to fresh vegetables just to have the best I can for my family. It is always better than what you can get in the store.
Since I do all I put other...
I am starting up my herb and veggie garden again. The Hurricanes here in Flroida hurt us badly. My Rosemary made it thru along with Mexican tarragon and aloe. TIme to start over. My focus this year will be clay pot container gardening. I did some last year for flowers only and enjoyed them so much plan to do a veggie and herb container garden this year.
Welcome to DG, Beverlyplants! Sorry to hear you lost plants to those blasted hurricanes. Ask in the plant or seed trading forums, some folks might be able to help you replace lost plants. :)
I voted 'other' because I do it all...can, freeze, dry...veggies, fruits, and herbs...I grow my own and can't stand the supermarket stuff...who knows what has been sprayed on that stuff anyway?
I voted "other" because we do all of the above. One year we will can lots of tomatoes and the next we might not have to can any but we are still eating on what we grew ourselves.
Grow our own beef, pork, lamb and chicken so we don't spend much at the grocery stores.
I'm so deathly allergic to so many vegetables and fruits I figure it would be suicide to grow my own. Can't have tomatoes,any kind of melon, avocado, kiwi fruit, pinto beans,navy beans,eggplant, blood oranges,strawberries, bananas, cucumbers, unground corn, okra, cilantro, rubarb and that's just what I know about. Try to imagine having to carry an epi-pin everywhere you go and having to give yourself a shot with a three inch needle just so you have twenty minutes to get to hospital before you stop breathing. I'll just stick with my brugs and cycads and salvias and all my weird little orchids thank you very much.
Wow - that is difficult to imagine. You must have had some scary moments over the years. 'Weird little orchids'... lol :-) - brings The Orchid Thief to mind.
Hey now! It'll only let me vote once! I'm enjoying my canned goods, frozen fruit, dried herbs, winter squash, AND Jams, Jellies and Preserves. I think we need to be able to click more then one selection!
OTHER would be my vote because we do a little bit of everything around our house! I grow all of this stuff and then my wife and I work it all up as we have time. I love growing all of this stuff and its great exercise and a good way to relieve stress for me. Here is some of the things we enjoy working up on our small acreage: we can many quarts of pears,applesauce(brown sugar , cinnamon, and red hots), tomato juice, carrots, apples, concord grape juice, etc. We make apple/blackberry, applebutter, blackberry, pear, apricot, apple/pear, wild gooseberry, wild blackraspberry jams and blackberry and grape jellies. We freeze different things each year but usually freeze some blanched broccoli, cauliflower, and an enormous crop of blackberries. We can't begin to eat all of this so we share it with family and friends. At Xmas we give away lots of jams and jellies for gifts. Most people would think that growing all of this is nuts but for me its fun just like running is fun for other people. I can't imagine not being able to get outside(or inside) and grow something!
