This is the last of the cucumbers for this season

Autumn is here. The leaves on the trees in the forest around us are beginning to change color. It is hunting season in our neck of the woods. The garden is winding down for the year. Tonight’s temperature is a low of 3 Celsius. My cucumber plants are  light yellow and brown. Hubby harvested these cucumbers as he pulled up the plants today. The plants are lying in the compost bin and I am going to make Salt brine pickles out of these tomorrow.

Stop Wasting Food And Money – A Crash Course

Great tips to stop wasting food and money.
Honey

Town & Country Gardening

Wasting food and money
American families spend as much as $2,275.00 every year on food that is ‘Wasted’. Food that goes into your garbage can that is perfectly good food.

Start by taking a look at your current grocery shopping, meal planning, and eating habits. Save a lot of cash and eat healthier foods. First ‘Stop’ eating out or ordering in meals more than two(2) times a month. You will save a ton of money and eat healthier foods cooking and eating your homemade meals.
Eating out or ordering in meals should be a special event. Not how you feed your family 7 days a week!

Save your unused vegetable parts in freezer bags for making homemade vegetable stocks. Save Carrot tops and tips, Mushroom stems, Celery tops and tough rib bottoms, Broccoli stems, Cabbage cores, Potato peelings, tomato parts, squash ends and peelings, turnip parts and peelings and such…

View original post 312 more words

First batch of home-made Sundried tomatoes

We have been blessed with a bountiful tomato harvest this year. I wanted to try to make some sun-dried tomatoes. I found that most sun-dried tomatoes that we buy in the stores are actually dehydrated in machines not in the sun. We rarely find true sun-dried tomatoes in shops today.  I went on-line and read how to make them. The finished product is our first batch that is in the glass bowl. I have already started the second batch as you can see in the picture.

I cut the blemishes off the tomatoes, after I washed them in vinegar and water bath 3 times. I sliced the tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick. I seasoned them lightly with salt, garlic powder, ground oregano and ground basil.  It took a little more than 24 hours for these to dry. The instructions I read said 6-12 hours. They were using plum or cherry tomatoes. I am using beef tomatoes thus the longer drying time.

Storage

* Air dry the tomatoes for two days after you remove them from the dehydrator. I placed a cloth draped over the bowl while they air-dried. You can place them in a jar with a lid.  Place them jar in a dry cool dark cabinett.

* Another page I read said after two days of air drying put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer until I want to use them.

Suggestions on how to use Sun-dried tomatoes

*You can re-hydrate them in water and pat dry the water off them. You then could put them in a food processor which makes tomato paste. You might need to add a little water to them.

* You can re-hydrate the tomatoes and dry the water off and place them in virgin olive oil in a glass jar with a lid. Then place them in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.
One page I read said that  if you don’t have an electric dehydrater or a solar one , that you could put the tomatoes on a deep cookie sheet and place them on your dashboard of your car. You might need to place a container under one end to make it level.  How many times have you said in the summer time that your car is as hot as an oven. If you didn’t want it to smell like spaghetti  or pizza just omit the oregano and basil. You would want to place your car in the sun all day. You would have to bring them in during the night and place them back out on the dashboard for a second day to completely dry them.