fall garden

its getting cold outside.  too cold infact, for the vegetables

these days are filled with seed collecting, herb drying, carting vegetables around, looking thru cook books for pickle recipes...

leaves are falling off the trees

crispness fills the lungs when we go for walks

Three days ago I pulled out most of my garden.. 

salvaged the tomatoes, zuchs, cukes, squash, corn and the one eggplant!

here's some of the fruits:

nice big brandywine tomato.

 medieval purple carrots and good sized beets.

collecting tomato seeds for next year

 here's how:

saving tomato seeds 

ONE beautyful eggplant!!

I'm not crazy about eggplant, however I think its a beautyful thing to watch grown!

babaganoush or eggplant parmesan?

Onions drying

a pile of tomatoes to turn red...

the red pile will turn into salsa tomoro!

 one batch of canned tomatoes..  

This pure apple juice is from neigbor's apple tree!  

sooo yum. 

I just froze it tho cuz not sure how or if you can can pure apple juice. anyone know?

Ava in the calendula patch.

then we picked all the flowers.

to make salve!

the Corn and calendula princess!

 a bit of summers end chaos in the greenhouse.

drying calendula, peas for seed, cukes waiting to get the seed sucked out, lettuce seeds, tomatoes ready for seed sucking...

exploding seed tomato berries

aka sweet million

Saving Spaghetti Squash Seeds

It is February and we still have about 5 spaghetti Squashes left from the garden!!

They are a great winter keeper - and delicious in all kinds of recipes,

So why not save the seeds when I am gutting them, I ask?

 Its so easy to do.
~Remove the seeds from the pulp
~place in a colander and rinse
~ Pat dry with a clean dish towel or paper towel
~ place on a plate/cookie sheet/ newspaper...  to dry

~ They need about one week of drying, but the longer the better!

And look how many seeds ONE squash gives - almost one hundred!!

~Place dry seeds in a little bag Paper is best. I use old envelopes, cut them to size...

~Label the kind of seed, origion AND Month/Year.

THis here made me happy, I sent away two packages which I've been meaning to send for MONTHS!!

Then I organizes a couple disastrous cupboards and shelves!

What a great day.

Its finally SNOWING too!!

Going to make spaghetti squash enchiladas...

saving more seeds, spinach seeds and pea seeds

Look at how many seeds mother nature gives us from just one plant.

blue lake beans

Bounty Peas

bloomsdale spinach

 dry them really well,

 label, date and store in an envelope or bag.

How to save tomato seeds (and cucumber seeds)

 I have just noticed that it is full on AUTUMN! 

loving it. 

The gardening task for now is to save seeds for next year.

Ever wondered how to save tomato and cucumber seeds? 
Its not as simple as beans, peas or spinach. 

 Here's how:

Find a really ripe tomato.

 I get right in there with my hands!

(a more civilized way would include a knife to cut it in half and a scooper type utensil)

Get the seedy goop out of the tomato with your preferred method...

place the seeds in a cup or bowl with a couple tbsps of water,

cover loosely - allow a bit of air in.

Let this sit for 3-7 days in a warmish location (in a sunny windowsill). It needs to ferment!

When it has fermented, there will be a scummy layer on top. carefully remove this.

Rinse the seeds very well in a fine sieve.

lay them out on a screen/ board/ paper coffee filter... to dry.

Allow them 1-3 weeks to dry.

Now label and date your little envelope and store till spring!

I have a sister who has done this process a gazillion times at her work, so she filled me in on some of the details.

 Cucumbers go by the same fermenting process.

Let the cuke ripen fully on the vine. 

then let it ripen a bit more on the counter.

Let it sit for 3-5 days.

rinse really well with a sieve:

cuke seeds:

now dry them on a screen/ coffee filter/ board 
for about 3 weeks, until a seed will easily snap right in half.

store in an envelope, label and date, wait!

Mother Nature gives us SO many seeds within just one fruit.

It feels really good to take that gift and use it.

happy seed saving!