Like many weeds, lambs quarters self seeds, so they are up and established weeks before your regular garden. Also called goose foot – lambs quarters is a relative of spinach and quinoa. Sometimes known as wild spinach, and considered a weed in most gardens, it deserves more credit than it usually gets. Highly nutritious, tasting similar to spinach but more tender, rich in Vitamins A, C and E, essential fatty acids, iron, calcium, minerals and antioxidants.
Name: I always thought the name was curious and so odd. Apparently, it comes from “Lammas quarter“, an old English harvest festival celebrating the first grain harvest at the beginning of August. Lammas means “loaf mass” in Old English, originating from two words meaning bread and festival. It seems the name evolved from “Lammas” to “lamb’s” over time. It may have had nothing to do with ‘lambs’ except that it likely was a field green they liked to eat. Certainly, it was an abundant green that people liked to eat as well.
Identifying: I’ve heard many people call it pigweed, and fair enough they look similar. Sometimes pigweed is simply an easy name to call all sorts of weeds that look similar and are often given to pigs, but more precisely both lambs quarters and pigweed are in the amaranth family. That may not help much, because there are officially 42 types of amaranth in North America. For the record, red rooted amaranth IS red rooted pigweed.
Leaves: Young leaves are often opposite and become alternate as the plant matures. They are triangular to diamond-shaped, sometimes resembling a goose foot (often called Goosefoot). Powdery Coating: The most distinctive feature is a whitish, dusty powder on new growth and the underside of leaves. Stems: They are succulent, hairless, and frequently have reddish, purple, or light green lengthwise stripes. Flowers: Small, grey-green, roundish flowers grow in tight clusters at the top of the stalk or in leaf axils. Size: Generally grows 2 to 3 feet tall but can reach up to 6 feet. Edible Parts: All parts are edible and nutritious, but the best-tasting and easiest to eat are the young leaves. Once the plant matures, energy goes into flowering, seeding and growing taller so the seeds can be more widely dispersed. Location: Grows best in full sun to partially sunny areas, including gardens, roadsides, fields, and disturbed soil. Growing Season: Germinates early in the season, with peak growth in late spring to early summer. After that, it begins going to seed, with less energy devoted to the leaves – but no matter, it’s filled its job of providing us with early greens, and it can step into the background while other garden greens become the focus.
What if nature gave you a FREE vegetable that is super nutritious, cold-hardy, and fed you while you waited for the rest of your garden to produce? Oh Wait! It did!
Surely you recognize lambs quarters as a common weed in your garden. I did, and I was trained to look at all weeds as the enemy and to get rid of them. At the same time, I was a big fan of spinach, but when the spring weather warmed up, spinach would bolt – which means that a plant prematurely produces a flowering stem and goes to seed. This usually happens as a result of heat or stress. The plant takes its cues from hotter, longer, rainless days, and goes into the next phase of its life. It stops producing edible leaves or roots to focus energy on reproduction. Bolting commonly affects lettuce, chard, spinach, cilantro, broccoli and onions. It is irreversible, but you can break off the stem to buy yourself a few more days, and harvest all you can while you still can.
*tip: to prevent bolting, plant the affected plants earlier in the season when the weather is still cool, provide shade during heatwaves and keep the plants well watered.
This would be a big frustration to me. Had I understood that spinach should be planted much earlier, (at least a month earlier) when the spring was still cold, I would have been less frustrated. At the same time, while I was mourning the loss of spinach, I noticed lambs quarters in my garden living its best life. It seemed to be snubbing its nose at me – this incorrigible WEED. I also noticed that it tasted good (yes I tasted it). One day the light went on so-to-speak. “Why am I knocking my head against a brick wall trying to grow spinach, when this weed that tastes so much like it, WANTS TO GROW? Why am I ripping it out and feeling sorry for myself because my spinach hates me?” My story changed that day.
I looked into Lambs Quarters, and discovered it had much to offer a gardener with an open mind. I opened my mind.
Lambs Quarters in the Kitchen
* tip: Like spinach, beet greens, swiss chard and most other greens lambs quarters contains some oxalic acid which, when eaten raw in large quantities, can inhibit calcium absorption. These plants are so loaded with calcium, however, that the amount of calcium not absorbed due to oxalic acid is minimized. Its a good idea to rotate your ‘greens’ for that reason anyway. Variety is always a good thing. Individuals with kidney issues, gout or arthritis – know that oxalic acid should be consumed in moderation.
Lambs Quarters is highly nutritious, with a taste similar to spinach, and is often used in salads, sautéed, or blanched. The black seeds are edible and are an excellent source of vegetable protein.
early spring green garden salad with a base of romaine and some marigold sprinkled on top. Use a nice mild vinaigrette dressing.
The underside of Lamb’s Quarters’ leaves and the top of the new leaves are covered in a fine whitish or pinkish ‘dust’. Resist the temptation to wash it off, as it is full of calcium and protein. Lambs quarters contains more protein than kale, more iron than spinach, and it WANTS to grow in your garden. You don’t even need to plant it; it is so comfortable that it invites itself to the party. You’ve gotta respect that quality.
The stems and leaves can be eaten raw, steamed, or sautéed; used in any way and in any recipe calling for spinach: scrambled eggs, omelets, fresh as a green in sandwiches, in a mixed green salad, or in a green breakfast smoothie. Add some to your next spaghetti sauce, soup, or fried rice. Use them in your favourite “spinach dip”.
wash well as it can be gritty
recipe: Korean Lambs Quarters Side Dish
Serves 2-4 10 oz lambs quarters (300 g) young leaves and stems 3 tablespoons doenjang (soybean paste) 1 tablespoon gochujang (hot pepper paste) 2 garlic cloves minced 1 green onion chopped 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds Directions 1. Boil 3 quarts of water. Blanch the lamb’s quarters for about 1 to 2 minutes, until the leaves are tender. 2. Strain and rinse them in cold water a couple of times to stop them from cooking and to remove any grit. 3. Strain and squeeze out any excess water. If the leaves and stems are too long, cut them a few times into bite-sized pieces. 4. Put them into a mixing bowl and add soybean paste, hot pepper paste, garlic, green onion, and toasted sesame oil. 5. Mix by hand until all the leaves are well coated with the seasonings, and have absorbed them. You can wear disposable plastic gloves if you want. 6. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and transfer to a serving plate.
Serve as a side dish to rice. Toss in or garnish with sundried tomatoes if desired.
When I am in my garden, I will often pick the tender new plants and eat them while I work. I never pull them to get rid of them. They’re much too valuable for that, I just break them off, hoping they’ll come back and offer more. I’ll throw them into early season salads, and combine with other greens that I steam, including our favourite: spanakopita.1 (read more about Spanakopita here)
Back to that nasty rumour about lambs quarters being considered a ‘common weed’. It’s true. Officially. But don’t listen to that sorta ridicule. Those other plants are just jealous. Who cares what people call it? “Weed” is just a word. Don’t be unkind or avoid eating it. It’s not it’s fault that some uneducated person gave it such a rude nickname.
5 Facts: 1. Lambs quarters is cold-hardy, and heat-tolerant. That’s quite a talent. 2. Because it self-seeds, it will grow before any of your cultivated greens have even germinated. 3. It WANTS to grow in your garden. It WANTS to be your friend. And it’s FREE. 4. It is a versatile, nutrient-dense substitute for spinach or chard in nearly any recipe. 5. It deserves to be accepted on its own merit, not indiscriminately discarded because of some misunderstanding carried over from a previous generation.
Healthy soil produces healthy, strong plants. It’s simple math. It contains optimal nutrition – rich in microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and earthworms) that break down organic matter into nutrients that plants can easily absorb. Healthy soil builds immunity in plants, making them naturally more disease and pest-resistant. It provides essential air pockets for roots to breathe and grow strong (proper aeration). Healthy, nutritious soil results in healthy, nutritious vegetables.
What is the difference between SOIL and DIRT? Soil is a complex ecosystem that supports plant life. Dirt is material that cannot support plant growth. Sometimes we get frustrated and feel that the universe is against us because our ground is full of weeds. We think there’s something wrong with it. Your soil doesn’t know the difference between a dandelion and broccoli. In many cases, weeds indicate that your soil is healthy and nutritious. It’s either a healthy place to grow or it’s not. If it grows healthy weeds, it will grow healthy vegetables. So relax, take a chill pill. If your new backyard, which looked so beautiful when you bought the house last summer, is full of weeds this spring, it’s not a conspiracy. Your soil is healthy. You just need to roll up your sleeves and get to work. But that’s another sermon for another time. The point is: when you don’t have any weeds, just nice clean empty ‘dirt’, you should be worried.
There is much we can do to continually improve the quality of soil in our home gardens.
How
ADDING ORGANIC MATTER by incorporating compost into the planting area, and using mulch all around the planting area not only enhances soil structure but also improves moisture retention and nutrient availability.
REDUCING TILLAGE! A long-term no-till commitment boosts microbial activity, improving soil health. Every time we dig up our soil, we destroy colonies of tiny organisms and critters trying to set up housekeeping. They are not the enemy. They are an important part of the soil ecosystem and critical to healthy soil. In addition, a no-till, mulched method of gardening reduces evaporation, addressing the problem of soil thirst. No more water wasted. Moisture passes through the mulch, where it is absorbed into the soil while being protected from evaporation.
AVOID THE SUNBURN OF BARE SOIL There should be no bare soil in your garden. Not in the rows where the plants are growing, not in the spaces between the rows, not in the walking paths. Protect your soil from being sunburned.
Seriously? Soil can get sunburnt? YES! As important as the sun is to life in general and to garden growth, it can harm the very soil in which our plants, which are completely dependent on it, grow. I know it seems like an oxymoron, but soil really does get sunburned. It’s the leaves that need the sun – they are the plant’s vital organs, primarily responsible for producing food through photosynthesis, utilizing sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to create energy. They also facilitate gas exchange (breathing), release excess water through transpiration, and can be specialized for storage or protection.
HOW TO PREVENT SUNBURNED SOIL
1. MULCH Cover soil with organic mulch like straw, shredded leaves, small wood chips, etc. – but not a combination of these methods. Pick one and stick to it. Mulch creates a barrier (like sunscreen or light clothing for us), that keeps the soil cooler and locks in moisture. I use straw, dry grass clipping, chopped leaves and wood chips, but never together.
* note the straw mulch still in place from last summer, protecting and feeding the soil
Wood chips take longer to break down, so they’re best used in paths. I use lots of it. They are so chunky and loose that they don’t compact down quickly, and are easy to walk on, keeping your weight centred in the paths and away from the delicate root growth area of your plants. Rain water goes right through the wood chips, seeping into the softer rows on either side of the paths.
MULCH prevents MOISTURE LOSS. High heat causes rapid evaporation, drying out the soil and depriving plant roots of desperately needed water.
MULCH prevents NUTRIENT DEGRADATION. Intense sunlight and heat can degrade essential nutrients, making the soil less effective for plant growth and health.
MULCH prevents MICROBE DESTRUCTION. Extreme surface temperature can kill beneficial micro organisms and fungi that are living in the soil and are essential for plant growth and health.
MULCH prevents CRUSTING. Crusting is when the top layer of soil becomes excessively dry, hard and cracked, reducing it’s ability to absorb and retain water.
The rows in my community garden plot are higher than the paths, and they never get stepped on, so the soil doesn’t get packed down. In it I use straw mulch in the rows around my plants. In my backyard garden – space and sun are at a premium, my plants are close together, mostly in raised beds, so we chop up our straw (with the lawn mower) so it’s easier to spread into small areas. I try to pile the straw no less than three inches deep, providing serious protection from the sun, additional nutrients as it breaks down, and keeping the soil moist.
2. COMPOST Apply generous amounts of good, clean compost into the rows where you expect to seed. Pat the seeds into it. This will give the seedlings or starter plants, much needed nutrition, in their early life.
3. WATER DEEPLY Watering deeply and early in the day reduces evaporation and allows water to penetrate deeply, instead of only wetting the surface. The straw mulch protects the moisture from evaporating quickly.
Always water near to the ground, avoiding drenching the leaves. Less of the water will be wasted this way, going directly where it’s needed most.
4. Use GROUND COVER PLANTS when appropriate If you don’t have enough mulch, it may be helpful to use low growing plants like thyme in an herb garden, and chickweed in a vegetable garden. These offer shade for the soil, keeping it cool. They are both edible, delicious and nutritious, so clip often and bring them into the kitchen.
Keeping your soil healthy is crucial because it is a living ecosystem that is the foundation for all plant, animal, and human life. Healthy soil provides nutrients to plants, filters water, and stores carbon. Unhealthy soil is merely dirt.
It is a surprisingly common myth that once you ‘preserve’ a food, it has an indefinite shelf life. Absolutely FALSE. Pay attention to shelf life and plan to USE the food you store as it will not be good forever. 1
All storage methods have limits that are shorter than we are tempted to assume. Be reasonable. Nothing STOPS food spoilage, but certain methods of preserving slow it down considerably. It’s food! Its not indestructible. Nutrition is optimum the fresher it is of course, and at the beginning of storing, best used within a certain time frame.
Generally this is what you can expect:
Canned food – commercially canned or home bottled food has a recommended shelf life of 18 months to 2 years. Two years is the time frame I try to work within. Nutritional value is approximately 40% of whatever that food was the hour it went into the bottle. That nutritional value decreases as it ages, so yes, we may all know someone who has bottled peaches from 2018 on their shelf, but the nutritional value is so poor . . . . Just EAT the doggone thing or give it to the chickens! Get it over with! What are you waiting for?
Frozen fruits and vegetables if prepared properly have a recommended shelf life of 4 months to a year. For me, I use a year as my benchmark. Nutritional value is approximately 60% of whatever the food was the hour it went into the freezer. The key is to have it in the freezer as close to harvest time as possible. Don’t forget about it in there.
Dehydrated foods have a Potential Shelf Life of – 1 year for fruits, 6 months for vegetables, 1-2 months for meat (6 months if vacuum sealed. I say potential because there are so many factors to consider when dehydrating at home. Like for instance: Did you use a dehydrator? an oven? or did you air dry? How long between picking time and the dehydrator? Did you remove all the moisture? Are you certain? What temperature did you dry it at? How are you storing it? Best practise is to store in coolish room temperatures (no less than 40 F / 5 C and no higher than 70 F / 20 C), out of direct light. Nutritional value can be up to 80% with a key factor being prompt processing (from field to dehydrator).
Freeze dried food has an extraordinary shelf life of up to 25 years if done properly. Freeze drying is a gentler process preserving and protecting the food value. Nutritional value could be over 90%.
I strongly emphasize HOME GROWN when selecting what food to preserve for a few very good reasons.
* When I say ‘home grown’, of course I mean locally grown by either me or someone I know, or perhaps a farmer’s market vendor – so that we can know HOW it was grown and WHEN it was picked. Produce begins to deteriorate in-the-hour it is harvested. Most produce: all stone fruit like peaches, plums, apricots, mangoes, and all seed fruits like apples and pears, we buy from the grocery store are picked before it is fully ripe, and at least a week before we buy it. This is done to assist in the transportation of the produce to distant locations, but it inhibits full nutritional content right outta the gate. Some of the phytonutrients in those plants will never fully develop if they are harvested too early.
Since nutritional value begins to deteriorate immediately, keeping produce for a week or more before we eat it, ensures significant loss of nutrients. So for example, when we buy a case of “fresh” peaches from the grocery store to bottle or freeze or even freeze dry (don’t dehydrate them), and we wait a few more days after we get them home to ripen, we are guaranteed to loose much in the way of nutrition. In many cases – more than HALF before you even cut into your first ripe peach.
DEHYDRATORS:
There are many different types of Food Dehydrators. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but to make it worthwhile – pay attention to a few details.
Purchased or homemade? New or used? When we started dehydrating in the late 1970’s there really weren’t a whole lotta options available for purchase. It was pretty much ‘homemade’ or nothing.
Oven My first experience dehydrating was in our kitchen oven. I set it to as low a temperature as I could, and used a serving utensil to keep it slightly ajar, allowing the air to circulate. I made fruit leather, using a recipe from an old book I borrowed from the library. This was a good introduction, but awkward and impossible to know exactly what temperature I was dealing with. It took a long time and was easy to lose track of time and over do it.
Homemade Conversion My next experience was to borrow a home made dehydrator from our good friends Daryl and Carol Currie from church. They had converted a small fridge, adding multiple shelves. It was heated with an in-car heater and fan. and worked very well. We loved it.
When I was in my first year of marriage, I came across this adage that spoke to me and shaped my thinking. The saying which gained popularity during the depression and wartime years, encourages resourcefulness. To me it is the motto of a self reliant lifestyle.
Screen to sun dry We experimented with an open screen system to dry in the sun. Dan built me a bottom screen and a top screen to protect the fruit from insects. Epic fail. First of all, the screens didn’t prevent the flies from landing close enough to the fruit to contaminate it, and second of all, the weather was not always helpful. We do not have the hot dry summers up here to make that idea practical. Back to borrowing Currie’s fridge dehydrator again.
Homemade from scratch Dan built me a very big dehydrator out of plywood – the size of a small freezer. I was dehydrating for a family of growing kids, and to be able to do a fairly large amount of fruit at a time was important, so I needed something that would suit our purposes. Dan and our friend Kevin Lamont worked together and made one for us and one for Lamonts. Following the example of our friends the Curries, Dan and Kevin used in-car heaters as a heat source. They worked Great and we used ours for years! I could dry about 40 pounds of apples at a time, and as I recall – it would take approximately 24 hours (rotating shelves during that time).
At length, when my need for quantity reduced, we passed it on to someone else and looked for a counter top one to replace it.
I was given an older “Nesco GARDEN MASTER” by a friend who was moving away and downsizing. I loved it, and used it for years, but eventually it started to wear out. It sounded like it was having motor problems, and I couldn’t risk having it quit mid season, so we purchased a new model. Interestingly, the newer one was exactly the same – I guess when it already checks all the boxes, there’s not much to improve on. A nice perk was that all the older racks still fit so we gained quite a big capacity.
* Our son adopted our older one and refurbished it to run smoothly again, so now we both have one. The added bonus of that is that we can each borrow extra trays if we are dehydrating a bigger batch.
Purchased There are many types of dehydrators for sale these days: big and small, reasonably priced for the most part – so do a little research and read the reviews.
It is easy to find used (I call them ‘experienced’) dehydrators for good prices – from people who just didn’t end up using them as much as they thought they would. You can pick one up for a real good price on the secondhand market.
Unless you’re a single person and expect to use your dehydrator mostly for fun – avoid a real small size. Some dehydrators are so small they’re almost a waste of time in my opinion.
The shape of your dehydrator (round, square or rectangle) is completely a matter of personal choice, but there are a few features I recommend looking for: * being easy to clean is critical * a fairly large capacity, and the ability to do a little or a lot at a time * a thermostat to allow temperature control – a very important feature in my opinion * being able to add more shelves (racks) to increase your capacity from time to time * being able to purchase replacement pieces if needed * easy to clean plastic removable screens for fruit pieces, and easy clean plastic sheets suitable for fruit leather. tip: If your dehydrator doesn’t have screens or sheets, parchment paper is a good alternative.
Can you use your air fryer to dehydrate? Apparently you can, but your capacity is very small. You’ll be drying one sliced apple at a time, so what’s the point? And you’re still looking at several hours. When I dehydrate, I’m not doing it for fun – I’m looking for practicality and a quality product. Be cautious about keeping your heat down. I’ve had people tell me they dehydrate at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s cooking, not dehydrating – and heat sensitive vitamins will be destroyed.
In the end – my recommendation is to buy a good dehydrator. Whether it is new or experienced doesn’t matter, but investing in one will give you a lot of continual flexibility to be able to take advantage of freshly harvested produce that comes your way.
DEHYDRATING: Why and How
Dehydrated foods can be a nutritious option, but the extent of the nutrient retention varies. While some nutrients are well-preserved, others like water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin C and some B vitamins, will be lost during the drying process. The extent of loss will depend on a few factors – see below.
If you’re going to be serious about dehydrating, get yourself a dehydrator. It doesn’t have to be expensive, in fact I recommend buying an ‘experienced’ one from market place or a thrift store. You can get some pretty nice dehydrators for decent prices when you buy them second hand. I highly recommend getting one that has temperature control and that fits on your counter.
Nutrient Retention in Dehydrated Foods:
Vitamins: Vitamins C and some of the B complex (B1 & B9) are heat-sensitive and can be degraded with heat. To preserve these nutrients, use as little heat as you reasonably can. If you have a food dehydrator with a thermometer on it (my high recommendation), you can deliberately keep your temperature lower: 115 F to 125 F (46-52 C).
Temperature: For delicate citrus fruits and strawberries, keep the temperature range on the lower end / 115F – 125 F. For more hardy fruits like apples, some recommend doing the first hour at about 140 F to remove initial surface moisture, then reducing it to the lower range for the remainder of the drying time.
Minerals: Minerals are generally well-preserved during dehydration.
Fiber: Dietary fiber content remains largely unaffected by the drying process.
Calories: The calorie content of dehydrated food is going to stay the same, but on a weight-for-weight basis may seem higher because the water is removed.
Macronutrients: Macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are largely retained during dehydration.
Factors Affecting Nutrient Loss:
Drying Method: Dehydrating in a dehydrator at a low-temperature, retains more nutrients than air drying or oven drying. Temperature: Lower drying temperatures help preserve nutrients. Storage: Proper storage (like cool temperature and in the dark) helps maintain the quality and nutritional value of dehydrated foods.
Benefits of Dehydrated Foods:
Longer Shelf Life: Dehydration extends the shelf life of foods, reducing spoilage and waste.
Concentrated Nutrition: Dehydrated foods are more nutrient-dense by weight, making them a good option for backpacking or situations where weight is a concern.
Variety: Dehydration allows for year-round access to a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.
Mixing batches? Sometimes you may have two or more types of food that need the dehydrator at the same time. Can you mix them? ie: a few shelves of kale and a few shelves of fruit leather? Be careful. Consider the flavour and aroma of the foods your thinking of putting together.
Apples for instance have a pretty delicate flavour profile, tarragon is pretty strong. Keep those things in mind as you make the decision to combine in the dehydrator – albeit on different shelves. I have mixed in the past but usually with similar things: apples and fruit leather, cherries and fruit leather, cherries and apples, tomatoes and basil or oregano, kale and most herbs. Garlic or onion with anything else? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Don’t even do those in the house. And make sure you wash your shelves afterward. With garlic you might even want to use parchment paper which you can discard afterward.
What types of herbs, fruits and vegetables grown in the prairie provinces of Alberta are best candidates for dehydrating?
HERBS
All garden culinary herbs except dill weed (the green ferny parts), chives and cilantro are suitable for drying. With these herbs, the flavour is lost and the texture is not very good. I opt to freeze them as the flavour, colour and texture remain beautiful. I use them FROZEN, scraping out of a container with a fork and returning the container to the freezer immediately.
Basil – Oregano – Rosemary – Sage – Savory – Tarragon – Thyme (and any other leafy herb): wash, shake off water and drain well. Bigger leaves like basil I’ll remover from stem, smaller leaves like thyme and rosemary I’ll leave on the stem. Arrange in single layer on dehydrator rack. Once they’re dry, its a lot easier to strip off the stems. Do NOT leave any herbs unattended, as some will dry surprisingly quick. Oregano, tarragon and thyme for instance could be dry in a couple of hours, while basil may take double that time or even more. You know they’re dry enough when they’re crispy. Some leaves like basil will change colour – get a lot darker. Other leaves like oregano will stay the same colour. Be prepared for variety, they’re all gonna do what they do, and its all okay in the end.
Garlic: is different entirely, as it is not leafy, but succulent. Slice and arrange on rack in single layer, being prepared to redistribute by hand from time to time during the drying process. Best to find a protected outdoor area to set up your dehydrator as the smell will be very strong. When dry, store in slices, or grind into powder / granules.
FRUITS
* Experiment with length of time, always selecting a low temperature if you have a thermometer on your dehydrator. * Most of these ones listed you can expect to take over night at least – probably a good 12-18 hours. You’ll know they’re ready when they’re CRISP. Not a minute sooner. * Not all pieces will dry at the same rate. Rotate your racks throughout the process, and remove pieces that are dry sooner than the others. Place them in their storage jar, and continue to add others as they dry. If you stop too soon and pack them away while there’s still some moisture in them, they’ll mould and you’ll lose them all.
Should you peel your fruit? Depends on the fruit – and your preference, but I generally choose to peel apples. I find that the skin dries a little tough and the kids were eating around it.
Apples: my kids were raised on dried apples, dehydrated in a large dehydrator that Dan built. I could fit 40+ pounds of apples into it at one time. – Peel them, core them and slice into rounds 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick. If you prefer wedged slices to rounds, go ahead, you be you. – Add to a water-lemon juice solution to prevent them from browning. – When you’re ready, spread evenly in a single layer on your dehydrator racks and stack them. Cover with the lid and turn it on. Suggestion: set your dehydrator to 145°F (63°C) for about an hour to dry surface moisture, then reduce it to 135°F (57°C) for the remaining drying time. This two-step process helps prevent “case hardening,” where the outside dries too quickly and traps moisture inside. Expect 6 to 12 hours for the apples to dry completely. Don’t be surprised if it takes longer as there are other factors like humidity in the air that will affect the timing.
Testing: its a good practice to test every few hours, occasionally turning slices over as you see the need. Rotate racks.
Checking for dryness: Apples are dry when they are dry to touch, no moisture when pressed between your fingers. They can be crisp or pliable but ‘leathery’. Your choice.
Cooling and Storage: Always allow to cool completely before storing; a few minutes will suffice. Don’t let it sit for too long though, as it will absorb moisture from the air and lose it’s crispness. Store in an airtight container, preferably in a cool, dark place. I prefer glass jars.
Shelf life: You can be comfortable with storage of several months up to a year. After that, the quality will start to deteriorate.
Blueberries: I rarely have enough blueberries to dehydrate, but if you live in the north and you’ve got a favourite wild blueberry patch, then go for it! Poke a hole in each berry to break the skin – other wise they’ll take forever. Personally I wouldn’t leave these overnight. I’d want to keep a closer eye on them to prevent over drying. Use the steps for apples as a general guideline.
cherry raisins – I save the pits too to use in other projects.
Sour cherries: One of my favourite ways to preserve cherries is to dehydrate them, and then use them like raisins. Pit them, cut in half and place on the dehydrator rack open side up in a single layer.
Pitting cherries is a messy job, so its the perfect one to take outside. Having the dehydrator plugged in outside as well, keeps the whole mess outside where its easier to clean up.
fruit leather
Pears: Personally, I do not enjoy the texture of dried pears, so I don’t do them.
Plums: I slice into quarters – Prunes! Beautiful. Refer to the instructions for apples as general guidelines. No need to soak in lemon water, and if the plums are especially big and plump, cut them into smaller pieces.
I only use plums that are easy to pit. If I cannot remove the pit by simply slicing the fruit, then its not suitable to dry. Best to eat those plums fresh, or use for plum jam or plum sauce.
Rhubarb: only in fruit leather, as by itself the texture leaves much to be desired. See footnote for more information on fruit leathers. 2 Rhubarb freezes well – I love to use it frozen in smoothies, and I even can it sometimes cold packed in pint jars to use later as a sauce or in oatmeal. 3
Strawberries: slice and dry. No need to treat with lemon water, they’re beautiful. Like the blueberries, I wouldn’t leave these unattended over night. I’d want to keep an eye on them to prevent over drying. Strawberries will also make beautiful fruit leather alone or added to rhubarb. 4
All of these fruits are perfect for eating right out of the jar, or rehydrating. Use in porridge, or to bake with: muffins, cakes, crumbles etc. Stewed prunes over top of oatmeal. Refreshed dried cherries in muffins. Stewed apples and blueberries. Rehydrated apples and cherries in a nice ‘crisp’ or cobbler. Strawberry sauce to go over top ice cream.
Remember a dried plum is now a prune. It will never be a plum again – even if you rehydrate it. It is a PRUNE, just like a dried grape will always be a RAISIN. Rehydrating will never make them what they once were.
VEGETABLES
– carrots – corn – green beans – peas – onions – peppers – kale – spinach – tomatoes – zucchini – I store all these vegetables in labelled glass jars in a dark pantry cupboard. Most of them will only be useful in soups later.
* Most of these ones listed you can expect to take over night at least – probably a good 12 hours. But as with fruits, experiment with length of time, always selecting a low temperature if you have a thermometer on your dehydrator. * Not all pieces will dry at the same rate. Rotate your racks throughout the process, and remove pieces that are dry sooner than the others. Place them in their storage jar, and continue to add others as they dry.
Carrots: chop into small pieces and dehydrate to use in soups over the winter. Use in small amounts as they’ll be pretty strong flavoured, and expect them to take at least 20 minutes to rehydrate in brothy soup. I like to make carrot juice in the fall when I have lots of carrots, and when I do I often use the leftover pulp in carrot muffins or carrot cake. Sometimes however, I have an excess of carrot pulp that I cannot use right away. In that case, I’ll dehydrate it and store in a jar to use for carrot muffins over the winter.
carrot juice and whole wheat carrot muffins – the perfect late summer breakfast
Corn: shuck cooked corn as if you were going to freeze it. Break the pieces up quite small and dehydrate. Rehydrate in soups.
Green peas and beans, sweet peppers: blanch as if you were going to freeze them. Dehydrate on racks and rehydrate in soups.
Hot peppers: If they’re small I dehydrate them whole, and use them whole later without rehydrating them. I will throw them into the food processor whole, like for spinach dip, or to add to a sauce or soup. *tip: Peppers have a protective skin that should be punctured or split before dehydrating. You can still leave the peppers whole, but splitting the outer layer with a sharp knife before putting in the dehydrator will drastically reduce the time it takes. Sometimes if the peppers are small, I string them with thread and hang them in my kitchen to dry. It seems that simple puncturing of the needle helps.
Kale: Remove the tough stem, wash and chop coarsely. Lay on racks – no need to worry about single layers, I stack it quite deep. It dehydrates surprisingly (don’t ask how many hours – I never pay attention to that enough to write it down) quickly. I never blanch (or steam) it first.
Onions: chop into small pieces, or slice into 2-3 inch pieces and rinse in cold water. Rinsing removes some of the strong pungent sulfur flavour that is released when the onion is cut – I highly recommend it. Arrange on rack in single layer, being prepared to redistribute by hand from time to time during the drying process. Best to find a protected outdoor area to set up your dehydrator as the smell will be very strong.
Spinach and other leafy greens that are more delicate than kale: I suggest lightly steaming first (then plunging into COLD water to stop the cooking process). Drain well then coarsely chop and lay loosely on the dehydrator rack. Personally, I prefer freezing delicate leafy greens.
Tomatoes: choose meaty tomatoes like Roma. Tomatoes that are too juicy will take forever and stick like crazy to the rack. I slice them and lay in single layer on rack. As they dry and get leathery in texture, I’ll turn them over by hand and put them back on the rack to finish. Make sure you rotate your racks from time to time to help with even dehydrating. To use: add to soups or sauces as is, or powder them in a blender to use in the same way one would use tomato paste. 5
Zucchini: choose zucchini before it gets huge – the perfect eating size. I never peel the the small ones (just as if you were serving them for dinner), slice in nice thick pieces, then quarter them. Sometimes if I have a bigger zucchini, I’ll grate it and dry that way to refresh later and use for zucchini cake. These ones I DO peel because the peel is tough.
Other vegetables like: beets, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumbers – personally I don’t recommend dehydrating them, mostly because its a texture issue. Having said that, there are always exceptions: I have dehydrated beet slices for the purpose of powdering them (like tomato powder) for adding to smoothies. Beets are a nutrient-dense, low-calorie vegetable packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They are particularly rich in folate, manganese and potassium, also rich in fiber and iron and dietary nitrates which are beneficial for heart health. This makes them worth going the extra mile to find a way to benefit from them. Just because a fruit or vegetable is not suitable to use in the ‘traditional’ way, doesn’t mean its not useable in a non traditional way.
It is always worth experimenting with how you can benefit from the good that your garden is gifting you. The very nature of experimenting means it might not work – but it might! Be creative, and open minded to try things you haven’t tried before. Be THAT person. Discover new things simply because you gave them a try.
* I recently saw a post for dehydrated dill pickles. The individual who posted, had too many on hand and their family didn’t care for the brand, so they got ‘creative’ and discovered something wonderful. THAT is what we’re talking about. Not only did they have a good experience, but by sharing they helped others have a good experience too.
a few rules to live by:
Being self reliant is about not wasting goodness.
“Store what you EAT. And then eat what you store.” It doesn’t do any good to dehydrate foods that you are never going to eat. But on the other hand, it IS good to experiment in small quantities at first, and then give it every chance. Not all fruits and vegetables are suited for all forms of preserving, 6 so its good to be flexible.
I hope you’ll give some of these foods a try in the dehydrator, and I’d love to hear your experiences. You likely have some great ideas that I’ve not implemented yet. Or some ways of using the dehydrated foods you’ve dried. I’d love to hear those too.
In preparing to write this article – and at the same time, preparing to teach a workshop in our community garden – on Homemade Borscht, I asked a lotta friends to tell me about their Borsch. Every lover of borsch has “their” variation. There are so many different variations that its hard to know what someone else is talking about when they use the word, and how they can all be called the same name! Some people insist on a brothy soup, some people prefer a thicker version. Some use meat broth, some feel that an authentic borsch must be meatless. Some use a cream at the end to cut the acid. Some do not.
Food is part of culture and identity – whether it be in a family, a community, a region, a religious group, or an entire country. Food can be shared and can unite people in the sharing. While there may be regional differences, people from all over eastern Europe are familiar with “Borsch” or “Borscht”. Ukrainian, Polish, German, Romanian, Croatian, Georgian, Russian and others all have their ‘authentic’ versions, but the general consensus is that the dish originated in Ukraine.
People move, and food travels with them. Food moves more easily as long as it moves horizontally (east-west) where climates remain similar. Food is an important part of tradition and memories, and being able to keep favourite dishes a part of one’s life is valuable in adjusting to the many changes that come with a new life in a new country. One cannot over estimate the importance of the food people have been raised with, and families can be quite rigid about not messing with ‘gramma’s recipe’.
In the last part of the 19th century a general exodus from Eastern Europe into western Europe, Australia and North American began in earnest for those seeking a better life. Dan’s family came from Germany, some spending a generation in Poland before coming to Canada. My ancestors came from Denmark, Sweden, England, Wales, Scotland and France. It is always difficult to move to another part of the world, but the travails of immigrants in those days were intense, including breaking land and homesteading. There was much hardship. Both Dan and I feel a deep debt of gratitude for their sacrifices – which made it possible for us to be born here, in this land of plenty and relative safety. And yes, there are still a residue of favourite family dishes among them which have lasted long enough to be part of our family’s heritage.
Let’s get the spelling out of the way first. Borsch or Borscht? The ‘T’ comes from the Yiddish transliteration into English since it seems that the dish was introduced to the west by Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe. So both spellings are equally correct, and no wonder there are so many recipe versions of it. Jewish refugees to the US. Ukrainian refugees to western Canada. Polish, German and Russian refugees throughout the western world. They had one thing in common – the food they all grew in their home countries: root crops, cabbage and dill. These vegetables grew equally well in North American soil and climate (especially in the northern parts) so it was natural that the dish would be reproduced here. Every part of it was something the average farm in the northern hemisphere could produce at home. The ingredients were cheap, plentiful and dependable. The soup was hearty, nutritious and satisfying. How could it lose?
Does Borsch had to be red? In a word – ‘no’. I’ve seen ‘green borsch’, but that’s blasphemous so I’m not gonna talk about that other than to say it is generally a spinach soup – so where it gets off referring to itself as ‘borsch’ is a mystery. Borst IS red. In my mind, beets make borsch RED. If you don’t like beets, don’t make borsch. If you make borsch without beets, you made soup. Might be a good soup, but find a new name, because “borsch” is red. There. Glad we got that settled.
So what is IN borsch? Keep in mind that traditionally borsch is a peasant soup. A good ol’ downhome, country folk hearty beet soup. So that means it had the foods that were easy to come by. Potatoes. Onions and garlic. Carrots. Cabbage. Maybe celery for some. Maybe kale for some. In later years, as it traveled west – peppers and tomatoes; a hundred years ago, tomatoes were not so plentiful in north eastern Europe among farm folk. BEETS. Vinegar. Dill. Sometimes meat, sometimes not – depending on availability. Sometimes sour cream.
So how do you find out which type of borsch you prefer? Well, there are no shortcuts. You have to try a few to narrow it down. Personally, I like a borsch with lots in it. I’m okay with a more brothy base, but I rarely make it that way, because Dan prefers a thicker soup. So I make my brothy soup, then when its nearly ready, I take about 1/4 of it and puree it in the blender. Adding the pureed portion back to the pot makes it thicker and more substantial, and my family prefers it that way. You do you. Make it a few different ways – but keep the basics in place.
What are the basics? BEETS. Added near the end to keep the colour beautiful. Onions and garlic. Other root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Don’t hesitate to add parsnips if you have them. Cabbage. Of course. Some sort of acid – lemon juice of vinegar. In the spirit of authenticity I do not use lemon juice because I am pretty sure no Ukrainian Baba had lemons in her kitchen. The acid is said to keep the red vibrant, and who am I to question wisdom of the ages? Maybe it does, but I like the flavour enhancement anyway. Its not the same without it. Broth. The kind is completely up to you. Beef broth, chicken broth, vegetable broth, water. Whatever you have on hand. I generally use chicken broth or chicken bouillon – simply because it’s light and flavourful. Tomatoes or tomato paste. A relatively ‘new’ (but welcome) addition as Ukrainians wouldn’t have had access to tomatoes on the prairies a hundred years ago. Dill. Other than the onions and garlic, dill is the primary seasoning. Don’t add it too soon though because its a delicate flavour and you might lose some of it’s beauty.
How to make it
1. precook your beets There are many ways to precook your beets, but the easiest is to clean them then place in a covered roasting pan or wrap them in tin foil, and roast in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. Test for tenderness every 15 minutes after 45 minutes. The timing is going to completely depend on how big your beets are – could be an hour, could be more. When you can insert a fork easily, they’re done. Remove from heat and when slightly cooled, peel.
2. Chop your onions and garlic and sauté in oil of your choice over medium heat till translucent. Stir frequently to prevent scorching, while dicing fresh potatoes. *hint: yes, you can add your onions and garlic to the broth mix at the same time as everything else. I prefer to saute mine first as I think it adds to the flavour and I like a more caramelized texture, also it glazes the pot – adding a roasted taste.
IF, you’re going to add meat, either precook it or add it to your onions at this point to brown.
3. Add potatoes to pot and sauté with the onions for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper at this point. Add broth or water, stir well and bring to a boil while you’re chopping cabbage and carrots.
4. Add chopped or sliced cabbage – it seems people have strong opinions on which is best. You do you. (Personally I prefer chunks to slices in a soup.) Stir and add carrots. Bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and gently simmer till all is tender. At this point, add additional Iate-summer vegetables as desired: parsnips or kale perhaps.
5. Add vinegar. Start with 1/2 cup, then add more later if you want. Easier to put more in than it is to remove so start with less and adjust as desired. You can use plain white vinegar. I like to use a flavoured vinegar, perhaps a basil or chive blossom vinegar.
6. Continue to add broth as needed to keep the soup gently simmering. Add tomatoes if desired. Adding tomatoes, tomato paste or tomato powder adds that familiar light acidy taste of tomatoes while improving the texture and colour. I never buy tomato paste – preferring tomato powder so that I have more control on how much I want to use with no waste. In this case however, I generally have a lot of fresh tomatoes in the late summer early fall – so I’ll choose my ripest tomatoes. Continue to cook until tomatoes are fully incorporated and lost their shapes.
7. When your vegetables are tender, add your peeled and chopped cooked beets. Stir well to incorporate colour and let sit for a few minutes. You could be done at this point, ready to add your dill and serve up a nice brothy soup. Or you could take one more step to thicken your soup as I do.
8. Ladle out two cups of soup into a blender, and puree. Pour back into your pot and stir well. If desired, ladle out two more cups and do the same thing, stirring back into the soup. This step is completely subjective. You’re looking for a texture, colour and consistency that you prefer. Remove from heat.
9. Add fresh, chopped dill weed (the green part) and stir well to incorporate. Lots of dill. What does that mean? How do I know? How much do you like dill? Maybe a cup? Maybe more or less. I add at least a cup, but easier to add more later than remove, so start slowly and taste along the way. . Adjust salt and pepper as desired and remove from heat. At this point you can add some sour cream to the pot, or save that for individuals to add to their own bowls.
10. I always save the sour cream to be added to individual bowls at the table with additional fresh dill, because I like sour cream and Dan prefers without.
So much of what your borsch is going to look like will depend on individual tastes. There’s no point in making it a specific way if your family prefers something different. For instance, I know people who add caraway seed to their soup at the simmering stage. Caraway is the one spice that I do not like, so that’s never been a consideration of mine. But its worth trying different things from time to time – you never know how it might add to your over all dish.
Serve with fresh bread or buns. Some nice fresh sourdough served alongside is amazing. Or some nice dark rye bread.
I’ll provide a sample recipe with suggested amounts below for beginners to have some ideas of where to start.
Borsch is a meal in itself, especially served with bread. But serving it alongside a plate of perogies, cabbage rolls and kubasa would be the perfect winter meal.
recipe for 6-8 servings 1- 2 medium onion diced 2-3 cloves garlic minced 1 large potato diced 3-4 cups chopped fresh cabbage 6 cups broth or water ¾ tsp salt and ¾ tsp pepper 4 carrots peeled and chopped into nice big pieces *nice big handful of fresh kale chopped – if you’ve got it on hand 1/2 cup – 1 cup chopped fresh dill (reserve some to use at the table) fresh sour cream for directions, refer to numbered instructions above
Pour remaining soup into jars to refrigerate or to give away. That’s a wonderful thing about soup, its a great gift for someone who could use a meal tonight, or its easy for them to pull out of the fridge tomorrow.
Simply put, amending our soil means improving it in texture and fertility. Soil amendment should be looked at as a long term solution with ongoing continual effort and ongoing continual results. If we’re looking for a quick fix, we’ve chosen the wrong hobby. Even if our soil was great five years ago, its not reasonable to expect it to remain that way without continuing to replenish it. Plants use nutrients; water and winter leach out nutrients – it’s simple math. Making our gardens the BEST that they can be begins with healthy soil, and that means we do what we can to continually replenish what is continually being used or lost.
How do I know if my garden soil is good?
The primary way to understand your soil is to check its texture and structure. Good soil has a healthy balance of organic matter, sand, silt, and clay. It should also be moist but not soggy. To determine the texture of your soil, take a handful of damp garden soil and squeeze it into a ball. If it breaks apart easily our soil is on the sandy side. If it clings together, our soil is more clay. Why does this matter? Proper soil texture is essential to allowing roots to take up moisture and air. Most soils contain a mixture of clay, organic matter and sand. Whatever your soil is currently, the objective it to ‘amend’ it so that it is more humus-y. Humus is the result of a long process of decomposition, the combined efforts of earthworms, bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms and time. It is loose, crumbly and spongy and usually dark brown or black in colour. Good soil could have as much as 25% compost and will hold together loosely if we squeeze it into a ball. Ideal soil for growing vegetables could be as high as 50% compost in the soil. This helps hold the moisture in a way that plants can readily access it. Ultimately, it is our goal.
Let’s talk about Clay first:
Clay is a fine grained mineral made when rocks break down. It acts as a binding agent giving the soil elasticity and allowing the soil particles to stick together. Clay soils can be difficult to till, and will not drain quickly after a heavy rain, often hardening when dry.
I remember a certain area near a creek close to my childhood home. We kids called it the ‘clay pit’, and I have no idea who discovered it, but new kids were constantly introduced to it. In the spring we would walk down with pails and (if I was to be totally honest) our mothers’ serving spoons, to dig some clay. We had to go after a rain when the clay was perfect, other wise it would be like cement and good luck getting any out with a serving spoon. It was heavy so we couldn’t bring a lot home in our little pails, but no matter – we didn’t need a heckuva lot. We would get more water and knead it in like we were making bread. When it was the texture of plasticine, we formed small bowls out of it and left them to dry in the sun. I don’t recall how long they took to dry, probably a day or two if it was nice and sunny. Then we’d give them to our mothers (who were always so ‘appreciative‘) as gifts. They used them as ashtrays – which in the world in which I grew up, was a valuable household ornament. When I was much older and observed old indigenous pottery in museums, made in areas further south of where I lived, I remembered that clay pit and our rudimentary attempts at using the clay – and I felt one with the world.
I cannot say anything really ‘bad’ about clay lol, because it holds such fond childhood memories for me. But on the other hand, I didn’t have to grow a garden in it. And I sure wouldn’t want to. Dense clay soil compacts easily, restricting the movement of water, nutrients and air throughout, making it inhospitable for your plants. Roots hit a hard clay floor or wall when they try to grow, and the clay retains too much moisture drowning or rotting roots. Sandy soil is the exact opposite.
to amend clay soil –
add organic matter – like compost, dried grass clippings, shredded leaves, aged horse manure, and compost. That’s pretty much it. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well you’d be surprised at how many problems can be solved by compost. My advice – after some very positive personal experience – is this three layer lasagna recipe.
1. Distribute a nice deep layer of straw (3 to 4 inches is a good start) over the surface of your garden area in the early spring. 2, On top of that, distribute another 3-4 inches of well aged horse manure. Why horse manure? Because it is a beautiful natural fertilizer rich in nitrogen and perfect for earthworms. (tip: horse manure is a good thing to add to your soil frequently, so make friends with a horse owner and plan to add a top layer every year or two). Your leafy green garden vegetables will be very happy. 3. On top of that – like the shredded cheese on your lasagna, broadcast the clippings of the first mowing of your spring lawn – with all the leftover fall leaves and snow mold and all the other things you thought were ugly when the snow finally melted. All organic grass clippings are wonderful, but the first mowing is full of microscopic critters that make the world go ’round. Their job is to break down organic material and they’re very good at it.
I am reminded that many years ago when our kids were young – for a different reason entirely, we layered a few bales of ‘hay’ all over the top of our backyard garden (yes, I mean hay as opposed to straw). Hay is grass, less coarse than straw (which is the dried stocks of grain) so it breaks down easier than straw. I hear all the time that one should avoid hay in a garden because of the amount of ‘seeds’ in it that are obviously going to grow, but I found that not to be a problem at all. The types of seeds you can expect to find in hay are the type of hay it is – perhaps Timothy Hay, perhaps Alfalfa. Those seeds are going to grow so LOOSELY in the hay itself that they’re easy to pull out as you’re walking by. Nothing to worry about. Don’t avoid hay for that reason.
Over the course of that summer the hay created a marvelous mulch for us, while it began the process of breaking down under the surface. Benefits: – It kept the weeds down, and those that did grow were rooted in the hay so super easy to pull out. – It helped keep the moisture from evaporating. – It was excellent mulch for our potatoes. They literally grew IN the hay, shielded from the sun. – In many ways that was one of the best gardens we’ve every had, and I was anxious to repeat it. – By the next growing season the hay was almost completely assimilated into the garden, and I needed more. But we couldn’t find more that year – we live in the city, so don’t have easy access to things like this. We found straw instead however, and while we understood the difference, didn’t fully envision the significance of that difference. While it looked good initially, it didn’t readily break down like the hay had, and after another growing season and winter, when Dan rototilled the garden the following spring, it got all tangled up in the tines of the rototiller – very frustrating for him. I agreed to not use straw anymore. In retrospect however, understanding it so much more now, I could have done things a little differently. We gave up too easily. All these years later, it is interesting to me that we’re returning to a method we had unwitting success with decades ago, but we’re understanding more about why it worked and that is helping. Such is the nature of gardening: one lesson at a time.
Sand:
Unlike clay, sandy soil allows water to drain more easily, but that requires a lot more water to sustain plant growth, and the constant draining washes nutrients away. My 9 year old Zack, once asked “Why doesn’t the ocean drain out?” He had noted that the sand on the beach didn’t hold water. I thought that was a brilliant question but of course I didn’t have a brilliant answer. The good news is that it is a relatively easy remedy in the garden; but again, don’t confuse ‘easy’ for ‘quick’. Looking for a one time fix is far too simplistic.
Amending sandy soil –
is necessary to help create a happy, healthy home for our garden vegetables. Adding organic material to the soil will not only add important nutrients, but will also help maintain them. It will also help with moisture retention. Compost is the best amendment. How ironic that for these two extremes of inhospitable soil, the solution is the same: COMPOST and other organic matter.
The best quality compost is made of many different types of material: garden greens, shredded leaves, dried grass, as well as kitchen waste of all kinds, and everything else that goes into a homemade compost. If you don’t have a good supply of homemade compost at your disposal, start by using city compost, or commercially purchased compost. Then immediately start your own compost so you can supply yourself every year after this. If you live in a place that isn’t conducive to compost, consider donating your kitchen scrapes to your local community garden. At the very least, donate it to your city’s green bin program if you have one.
Peat moss aids in moisture retention, helps increase the acidic soil level, and we can still buy huge bags of it quite affordably. I use it in my many pots and window boxes – pots of flowers, pots with peppers or tomatoes – all traditionally places that I have a hard time keeping moist. I use a wheelbarrow as a big mixing bowl. Equal parts potting soil, peat moss and compost – pretty much following my mother-in-law’s recipe. Then I add a LOT of water. It will absorb more than you think it will, and I constantly work the water in with my hands till the mixture is very moist but not dripping wet. Then I put it into my pots and plant my plants or seeds in it. It is a lot easier to keep peat moss moist than it is to get it wet in the first place – it’s first reaction is to repel the water, before it finally gives up and absorbs it. If you let it dry out, you’ll be starting again with that process.
Aged horse manure is an excellent compostable material to either mix into our compost or layer over top of our garden surface. Again, avoid the temptation to work it in. Have a little faith and give it time to amaze you.
Ultimately – this simple rule applies: the best way to improve soil texture is by adding organic material, such as compost. Decaying organic matter loosens clay-dense soil helping air and water move more freely so that roots can penetrate easily. It also helps sandy soil by holding water and nutrients that would otherwise drain away. In each soil extreme, it encourages beneficial microbial activity and provides nutritional benefits.
All soil requires amending from time to time – if only just to KEEP it good. And of course there are all sorts of other issues like ‘heavy feeders’, and crop rotation which continually benefit the soil. Gardens are living breathing entities and part of the cycle of life. Though we cannot see most of that life – it is there nonetheless, and living in harmony with it makes life a lot gentler.
Testing your soil for specific nutrient issues
You can test your own soil using a basic soil test kit from your local hardware or garden store. Inexpensive, easy and relatively accurate, soil tests provide good insight about what’s going on under your feet, including the levels of pH, calcium, lime, gypsum and potassium. I have only tested my soil once, the year after we took our spruce trees out. And after a year of fussing about this nutrient or that nutrient, the only thing that made a sustainable difference was something as simple as that garden lasagna recipe – which added compostable material in a very big way.
5 easy tips for healthy soil in your garden
continually add organic matter – every year, and throughout the year by incorporating compost and compostables – which increases air, water and nutrients
try to get out of the habit of using a rototiller, especially in smaller gardens where they aren’t necessary. Breaking up all that soil isn’t helping it.
protect your topsoil from sunburn with mulch
don’t use chemicals unless there’s absolutely no alternative
rotate crops so that they are naturally both using up and replacing nutrients
Crop rotation:
The concept of crop rotation is simple: avoid planting the same crops in the same area every year. Different types of plants require different nutrients from the soil, and in return – provide different nutrients. By not planting the same vegetables in the same spot year after year, new plants will benefit from what the former plants leave behind, and we will discourage pests and diseases from building up in the soil. Ideally, we should rotate a vegetable family so that it grows in an area only once every three or four years.
Beans – include all sorts of beans, peas and other legumes. They are easy to grow and don’t require anything specific in the soil – just lots of sun. They’ll replace the nitrogen that high feeders use up.
Greens – include anything green and leafy: lettuces, spinach, swiss chard etc. They are easy to grow and not too demanding, but will benefit from nitrogen and phosphorus. Beans and peas are known for fixing nitrogen in the soil, so follow them with greens.
Roots – are obviously potatoes, carrots, beets, and other vegetables that grow IN the ground. Phosphorus promotes strong root growth. Bone meal is a good source of it, but don’t over use. 1 Tablespoon mixed into about 2 square feet of soil is a good amount. It’s not fast acting so the sooner you can apply it the better.
Fruits – includes any type of garden produce that produces ‘fruit’ like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers etc. They are heavy eaters so give them lots of attention. Brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage etc are also high feeders so I’m including them in with fruits. They want phosphorus – and good sources are chicken and horse manure and fish fertilizer (fish emulsion). For several years I have planted a raw broken whole egg with my tomato plants because I had heard that the protein in the egg was beneficial, and I knew that calcium was – which the shelf provides. I had not taken the time to conduct any experiments but I’ve always had good eggs. Last year (2023 I didn’t take the time to use any raw eggs. I noticed at the end of the year that my tomato harvest was disappointing but I didn’t make a connection right away – and who’s to know if there even was one? . . . A good friend of mine conducted an experiment last season with three sets of three tomato plants each. In one set she planted each tomato in a deep hole with a fish head at the bottom (sprinkle a little compost). Same types of tomatoes, everything else the same, but different things ‘planted’ with the tomatoes. She noted that the set of three with the fish heads had considerably more fruit than the others. That is what made me think about my last season’s disappointing harvest.
This year I will be using eggs again – and in half of my tomatoes, I’ll also be including fish remains. I’ll keep track and watch for any changes. Stay tuned.
Gardening is about learning NEW things Every. Single. Year! So keep your eyes open, listen to others and pay attention.
Personally I avoid growing most vegetables from the brassica family: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, radishes, mustard greens, and collards. Not to say I don’t like them, I DO. But I despise the ugly voracious caterpillars that come from the cabbage moths – which always seem to find my plants no matter how well I think I’ve hidden them. I have tried every potential solution I’ve heard or read about but in the end, each success is limited and unsustainable. I finally gave up years ago and I’m at peace with that. However, I have three exceptions to my ‘no-brassica’ rule: kale, radish greens and mustard greens (which I have recently discovered). These I plant dispersed throughout my garden – especially kale, which are planted here a few, there a few in the vegetable garden, herb garden, flower gardens, front yard, back yard, . . . . wherever I can find a spot for one or two plants. I do this because I’ve noticed that the cabbage moth will take the easy path of going down a row laying their eggs. If my kale are not in a row, I have a chance of saving more of them. I am ruthless though – if a plant shows evidence of being eaten, I quickly pull it out and get rid of it – saving its neighbours from a similar fate. I tell them “Sacrificing for the greater good is noble“. I don’t know if that helps them or not lol.
Radishes I plant sprinkled among my lettuce and carrots. I don’t really care for radish roots, but I do like their green tops so its worth it to me. Mustard greens – I have only recently discovered mustard greens and I really like them. I haven’t developed a routine for them yet however, still working on that.
For years Dan and I have maintained what I (playfully) refer to as the “grass war”. Its a complicated conflict. He loves his grass and I sorta like it too. I love my garden and he sorta likes it too. I would like more garden and less grass. He would like more grass and less garden. The war has never been won; we remain in a tenuous semi-permanent truce, each awaiting the other to weaken or concede on small issues. Maintaining a healthy balance of both, our yard successfully accommodates every demographic in our family: the little kids who need a play area and a yard to run around in, the bigger kids and Grampa who need a trampoline with water and a treehouse, the young adults and Grampa who need space to set up some yard games and roast hot dogs, Gramma who needs a place to grow food for them all, and the Gramma Great who needs a place to sit and watch the whole goings on.
So far mutual respect is the keeping the peace. However, the ‘conflict’ is further complicated by our opposing views on a few major points – like compost. They’re not irreconcilable differences, just differences of basic idealisms. We both believe in composting – me radically, and him conservatively. It is my insistence on keeping grass clipping IN the yard, being lightly distributed as mulch throughout the gardens and adding the rest to our ongoing compost. His position is that we have too much of it, and some of it has to go. Consequently, he’s motivated to mow the lawn when I’m not around to get the bags of a freshly mowed grass out into the alley for pick up, before I notice and go rescue them – hauling them back in and dumping them out in the compost area.
For years, the quiet but simmering conflict would come to the surface in the spring with the first mowing. My instincts told me that the first mowing was a gold mine of grass clippings, and his instincts told him it was dangerous – full of snow mold and other bad things that had to be eliminated. This remained a stale mate issue since time immemorial UNTIL a mutual friend unwittingly weighed in. Our friend Scott took a stance firmly on my side – stating emphatically that snow mold was a garden’s friend, and that the first mowing was full of hidden treasure. I should state here that Scott and his wife Alana are excellent gardeners with more formal education on the subject than either Dan or myself. It was Scott who prescribed our garden lasagna recipe above, and we both respected his opinion. The success of that ‘experiment’ has become the stuff of legend in our garden. But that’s perhaps a story for another time. Suffice it to say, that since that supreme success, we have agreed on the issue of the first mowing. Score one point for Cindy (not that I’m keeping track of course lol).
Back to the lasagna recipe – I understand that it is tempting to want to “work in” all that additional material you just put on your garden. I admit I was sorely tempted the first time we did this too. My opinion was influenced by many years of tradition – as no doubt, is your’s. But DON’T DO IT! In fact, you will actually do damage to the very thing you’re trying to nurture. The natural state of a soil’s structure is alive and loaded with organic material – bacteria, nutrients, worms and other creatures, and microorganisms all working together in the great cycle of life. As we rototill or dig that wonderful material in, attempting to distribute it, we are actually disrupting and destroying instead of repairing. All those channels that worms and other critters create when they chew through the soil, help to bring oxygen and water into the ground below, making it easier for our plants to develop healthy root systems and find the nutrients they need. With our shovel, fork or (heaven forbid) our rototiller, we will break all that up – destroying colonies and disrupting harmony. Let nature do what she does best, and leave well enough alone.
Let the rain do its job of washing the nutrients from the top layer down into the layers below. If we’re having a dry spring, maybe we can help it out a little by watering from time to time. Yes, I know the wind will blow some of the straw around. Calm down. Just mow it up when you mow your grass and sprinkle it over the top again. In a matter of only a few weeks it will all settle in and make itself at home. We can trust the natural process beneath the surface; leave this part up to God and all his little critters.
If we intend to plant this area right away, we may be obliged to work some of this material in with a shovel or fork. We must do what we must do, but be cautious. In the past, I’ve marked my rows and gently moved the straw mixture away from the row line – to plant my seeds or seedlings, gently pushing it back around the seedlings when they come up. For potatoes, I keep the straw in place. Potatoes are tough; they’re gonna grow through it all, but I’m not as confident about more delicate seedlings, so I baby them a little.
Yes, our garden will be several inches higher than it used to be, but over the season the straw will break down, the aged manure will be distributed into it and and the top layer will become indistinguishable. It will remain a fantastic mulch. By the next year we won’t see any evidence of it – testimony to all that subterranean community effort that went on undisturbed and unseen from the surface.
~
In the process of amending our soil, we may be tempted from time to time by the lure of a ‘quick fix’. This can sometimes look like synthetic fertilizers, which can be relatively cheap and promise to act quickly. (To be fair, I am not opposed to fertilizers but take care in their selection). Fertilizers don’t amend the soil, they feed the plants. A synthetic fertilizer might help us within a couple of weeks, but its usually a single use result, needing reapplication. Organic fertilizers on the other hand, release their nutrients over a period of time. We won’t get the instant fix, but we will get a longer, sustained feeding. Several years ago we had a problem area in our garden, caused by three 40 year old spruce trees that we had removed the previous year. Whatever we were doing to help the shrubs and other plants we planted in their place wasn’t working; it became clear we had a soil problem. We went to a few local nurseries to ask for advice and suggestions for soil amendment, but the best we received were recommendations of fertilizers to help specific plants in our problem area. This was not helpful, as the foundational issue remained ‘poor SOIL’; the plants were just falling victim to it. That is when Scott and I discussed our problem, and he prescribed our lasagna recipe above – which in a single season, transformed our dead zone into a rain forest.
disclaimer: While I believe there is a place for natural fertilizers AFTER the soil has been improved, and I use them from time to time, I don’t pretend to be an expert on the subject. This is primarily a discussion on soil amendment.
Tips for ongoing success
Adding compost or another organic material like horse manure, chicken scratchings, grass clippings, or straw or . . . . any other number of sources, is the easiest way to continually nourish your soil. An annual application of spring compost and an occasional top dressing of aged horse manure should in most cases, eliminate the need for any other form of amendment.
While fertilizers temporarily add nutrients directly to the area, amendments improve the nature and characteristics of the soil while additionally adding nutrients.
Don’t expect a quick fix. Soils cannot be changed in a single gardening season; it will take years of continually adding organic material to prevent your garden from returning to its former heavy clay state. The action of compost and garden plant matter breaking down and working its way into the soil is a process not an event.
When clearing out your garden in the fall, consider allowing leaves and other plant material to decay naturally becoming part of the ongoing ecosystem. In the spring, you can rake out what you need to, mow it up and add it back in as mulch once you’ve planted your rows.
I’d love to hear your tips for a healthier garden. Feel free to comment below.
Face it – by the end of August, we cannot deny the inevitable any longer. Growth has slowed down, fruit and vegetables are ripening, plants are drying out and going to seed. They’re all doing what nature intends for us all to do at certain times – get ready for bed.
In the spring, we’re all excited about our gardens, but tucking our gardens in for the winter is an important step that is often missed entirely. When the weather gets colder and things stop growing, we lose interest in being in the garden, but missing this final seasonal detail is a mistake. It’s tempting to be a bit lazy, and I get it. Its dark earlier, weather isn’t great, dead and dying perennials are kinda hard to get excited about. But don’t fall for it. Your garden NEEDS you. Putting your garden to bed is an important step in it’s health next spring. Come on, give yourself one more final push, then you can both rest in the winter – guilt free.
There have been years I’ve tried extending the season by planting things like spinach at the end of August hoping for a late crop. There have been years I’ve tried to extend the season by heating the greenhouse into the fall. But the simple truth is, we don’t have the sun for it in Alberta. In September, we have the same amount of sun as we do in March. No matter how many nights you heat the greenhouse in September, you cannot fake the sun during the day, and plants need sun. You’d have more success extending the season by planting earlier in the season than you would extending the season in the fall. Winter has its purpose, it isn’t the great enemy of gardeners that we sometimes make it out to be. My opinion? Give it up. Let fall be fall. And get on with your life. BUT. Put your garden to bed first! So you can both rest comfortably.
late summer bouquet
What to get rid of and what not to get rid of? That is the question.
By September, there are always a bunch of dead and dying plants, some that seem to be coming into their own, and of course lots of weeds going to seed. Some gardeners follow the philosophy of clearing everything out and leaving a nice tidy garden bed. I don’t have anything quite so tidy as a “garden bed” in my yard. I have lots of planted space but its not all together. I have perennial flower beds on all four sides of the house, sunny flower beds, shady flower beds, some flower beds under trees, some tucked into shady corners. I have repurposed horse troughs, a currant patch, rhubarb patch, raspberry patch, grapes, fruit trees dispersed throughout, a dedicated herb garden and three raised beds for edibles, with edibles planted here and there among flowers and herbs. There are still tomatoes trying to ripen and root vegetables that are doing just fine where they are for now. Every garden has its own needs. But there are some rules of thumb that I apply to all.
1. Clean up
There is plenty of debate in this area ranging all the way from getting rid of everything to leaving it all for spring clean up, and everywhere in between. I’ve listened to much of it, applied the counsel that made sense to me, and in the end, I’ve come up with my own pattern that I’m happy with. Truth is however, that sometimes life gets in the way, and you simply don’t ‘get to it’ in time. Don’t beat yourself up when that happens; there will be other years to do it better. But for now, here’s the ‘general’ plan. Keep in mind that life is about compromise and there are exceptions to every rule.
First of all get rid of the dead stuff. That’s a natural. For the most part: if its dead pull it out. Throw it into the compost. exceptions: If some of the weeds have roots or seeds or perhaps a plant has a disease – you don’t want to risk taking that into next year by putting them into your backyard compost, so either get rid of them in *the garbage or *Burn them! Otherwise, into the compost they go. (for more information on backyard composting click here) If it’s a perennial that has died back, cut it off at the ground.
Annuals are easy. Just pull them out and throw them into the compost. Most of the time, I throw big piles of compostables on the lawn. We mow them up and throw them into the compost, or into some of the beds that could use them. When I say ‘we’, I mean of course ‘Dan’. Getting rid of dead plants and other debris removes winter shelter for pests, preventing future problems next spring. There are some diseases that can overwinter. You don’t want that lingering over into a fresh new start in the spring time; if there is disease – get it outta there. Getting rid of weeds at the end of the season gets rid of their seeds and roots, reducing their annoyance next spring. Yes I know they’re no longer visibly causing a problem, but they’re going to seed or developing strong root systems (sneaky little jerks), so get rid of them.
RULE: *Healthy plants – even weeds – compost them. In my books there are good weeds and bad weeds. Good weeds to me, are weeds that we eat and that I don’t mind propagating next year, like chickweed and lambs quarters. (see Making Friends with your Weeds) Bad weeds are stupid weeds like Trailing Bellflower (devil-weed), or rooty weeds like dandelions, horse radish, and thistle – those I do not compost. Or other weeds that make a lotta seeds. Yes I know that compost may take care of most of these problems . . . but I usually don’t risk it. There are very few plants I feel the need to eradicate, so I’m not gonna waste time feeling guilty about them. They should feel guilty for disappointing me so much. *Unhealthy plants – get rid of them. No exceptions. And not into your compost.
Remove tender summer-flowering bulbs such as dahlias and store them in your cold room or garage for planting next season. I personally have never brought my dahlias in for the winter, I just buy more in the spring, but this year I am in love with the dahlias I grew, so I’m gonna give it a try. Besides, I figure since I fuss for my geraniums, it can’t be much different. (see below for the geraniums)
But what about the plants that are not dead? I cannot bear to kill things that want to live so much that they thrive in the inhospitable dryness, reduced light and chilly nights of early fall. Those are the things I don’t get rid of. I still water them when needed and in return, they do what they do best – gladden my heart. They will die on their own when the cold of late October makes it impossible for them to do otherwise. I leave them where they are because they will trap snow which will protect all around them, and help with needed moisture when the snow melts in the spring.
There are also good bugs that need shelter in the winter, like lady bugs and their friends. So don’t clear everything out, find some balance.
RULE: get rid of the uglies – keep the beautiful; get rid of the sick and dead – keep the healthy and strong
2. Fall Planting
Fall planting is a way of taking advantage of the earliest that spring has to offer. SPINACH: Planting spinach in the fall before the snow flies, should give you an early yield. Select a spot that is protected, but that will get good sun in April and May. Lightly sow a patch of spinach. Throughout the winter, ensure it has a good covering of snow. When the warmth of April days melts the snow in some nice sunny spots, your spinach seed will sprout. They are not afraid of cold. They’ll just patiently wait till conditions are better and then start growing again.
DILL, POPPIES, CALENDULA and other herb and flower seeds can be sown at the time of harvest to pop up in the earliest days of May. Simply broadcast them in your desire spots and let nature do what she does best. The seeds need a winter, and protective snow.
Some plants that inadvertently get left in the garden, may resurrect in the spring. My rule of thumb is to let most things that want to grow – grow. You may have a sage plant that comes back, lemon balm, parsley, even kale. You may have volunteer lettuce plants start to grow because something went to seed last fall.
GARLIC: Plant your garlic before the ground freezes to harvest at the end of next summer.
Spring Bulbs. Yes I know fall is the time to plant daffodils and more tulips etc for spring blooms. I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing to offer here. I aspire to plant more bulbs in the fall, but its just one thing that I rarely find time for.
3. Bring them in
Some plants might be healthy enough to bring indoors. I always bring in some geraniums (see below), and often bring in a rosemary plant. I’ve tried lots of other herbs, but I simply don’t have the sun for them. If you have a beautiful sunny window, I strongly encourage giving them a try indoor. Prune down to about 1/2 its original size, trimming off everything brown. Shake the old soil off to get rid of any unwelcome hitch hikers, and maybe even rinse the roots off. Then replant in fresh soil, water well and set in your sunniest window.
GERANIUMS. I love geraniums, and they love me back. Red ones. Only red ones. I’ve tried other colours, but I kept coming back to red, and now I don’t bother with any other colour when I know that it’s red I really want. Their bright vibrant flowers cheer me all spring and summer long. At the end of it, I cannot bear to kill them, or let them them die while they’re still trying so hard to make the world a better place. So I bring them inside. In actual fact, though we think of them as annuals, geraniums are actually ‘tender’ perennials, and will tolerate temperatures down to about 7°C while still actively growing. That is truly heroic. Another reason I love them. I’ll bring two or three into the house and let them live in a sunny window all winter long. Their favourite temperature is between 12°- 18°C, which is ideal for in-house if you’ve got enough light. However, I find that in the winter even though I have a south facing bay window, winter sun is just not very impressive and they stop flowering shortly after they get moved inside. And by about January they start to get quite ‘leggy’. I just trim them as needed to try to keep them content. Its the least I could do for all the joy they bring me outside for five months.
geraniums at season’s end, still being beautiful
But I cannot invite all my geraniums into the living room, so I do something else. I put my three wooden window boxes in the garage. Ours is a heated garage though its usually pretty chilly out there. We only turn the furnace on when Dan’s working on a project, but apparently it fine for geraniums. Before a killer frost (so sometime mid to late September), I will hard prune the plants by about one third to one half, removing any dead, damaged or unhealthy parts. I check for stupid aphids (I hate aphids) or other problem critters or disease. I water deeply, then I put them up on a shelf in the garage, kinda out of the way but not so much out of the way that I forget they’re there.
I give them a drink of water a few times – maybe every 4-6 weeks. If they’re too outta sight, I’ll forget to water them, and even though they’re mostly dormant, they still need a little moisture now and again. By about March they start responding to the little bit of light they get from a frosted window and miraculously they start to green up. I am always amazed that they do this, and I regard it as one of nature’s miracles. It’s still cold outside, with snow and ice, but they start being true to their calling in life. March has about the same amount of sun as September. I take this new growth as a sign to give them more to drink. By mid April, I can start letting them sit outside on nice days, giving them more water. This gradually gets them used to outdoor light and regular watering. I don’t put them outside permanently till after May 1, and even after that I put a cloth over top if I expect freezing night time temperatures. I can’t risk losing them that late in the game.
I trim them back as needed, give them some healthy mulch and all purpose fertilizer, and we go right back to being old friends. They’re grateful to be back in their rightful place, and I’m grateful to have them. They resume bringing me joy, and I resume my supportive role as their care-giver.
Some garden herbs: I’ve tried pretty much all herbs in the house for winter and I just don’t have enough light, even with my south facing bay window. Yes, I know I can use grow lights, but most of my plants are in the living room, and I don’t want grow lights in there all winter long. There are some though, that seem to do better than others.
*ROSEMARY: I often bring a rosemary plant indoors. In fact for several years I’ve kept one in a pot that I moved in and out, but eventually I lost it by letting it dry out. It’s surprising how much water herbs require in the dry climate of a house in winter. If you have a particularly happy healthy rosemary plant, go ahead and dig it up. Trim it down by about half, remove the soil and gently rinse off the plant and roots. Be sure the pot is clean, and you’re using fresh soil, then transplant into its new home and bring it inside. Keep it in the sunniest spot and water when the soil surface feels dry to the touch.
*BAY LAUREL: I have a bay laurel plant I bring in and out and in and out, for about 8 years now. I am very invested in keeping this plant safe. I had a couple near misses this last year with it, but we weathered the storm together. I keep it in the same pot, so I’m not digging it up, but this year I was particularly careful about cleaning it. I trimmed all the ‘iffy’ branches or leaves (anything that wasn’t pristine), removed it from its pot, removed all the soil, gently rinsed the roots of all old soil and washed the pot. Then I transplanted it back into its original but cleaned up pot, and brought it back inside. It’s very happy.
*CUBAN OREGANO: Unlike regular oregano cuban oregano won’t survive our winter, so its best suited in a pot where it can come inside for the winter. Give it a sunny spot and it’s an easy-to-grow house plant that will be your friend for years with just a little care and attention. A member of the mint family, and often referred to as Mexican mint, it has characteristic thick, fuzzy leaves with a strong pleasing odor. Water when the soil surface feels dry to the touch.
4. gleaning – the final harvest
It’s true that in Sept and October, late fruits and vegetables are ready to harvest. Root crops like carrots, beets and potatoes; fruits like apples, plums and grapes. Some apples and plums may be ready in August, others in September or October. Generally, the grapes we grow in the Edmonton area are ready in September after the weather cools a little.
*BUT – There are hidden harvests that often get missed. Just open your eyes.
Gardens don’t cease to bless your lives just because its autumn.
dill seed ready to harvest
If you grew DILL this year, you probably have some that has gone to seed. Go get it. Pull the plant out of the ground, cut the head off and put it in a bowl. Shake or brush the seeds off the plant into the bowl. Broadcast a handful where you want dill next year, and gather the rest to save for more deliberate planting in the spring. Yes, there are many ways to use it in the kitchen if you have enough. I’ll admit it, I rarely allow my dill to go to seed, except for a few delegated plants off to the side. I do this because aphids usually accompany dill when it goes to seed, and I hate aphids. But this year, I had a ton of dill – way way way over planted. I picked all the green ferny dill weed that I could use, gave plenty away, and still had too many dill plants all going to seed at the same time. I watched for aphids but didn’t see anything excessive. I let them ripen, ever watchful, but I never saw a problem, so I proceeded. Lucky me, I got lots of dill seed to grow next year, and lots to bring into the house. Store your seed in a paper envelop, labelled and dated.
POPPIES. If you’re not growing poppies you’re missing out on one of nature’s loveliest offerings. Beautiful before they flower. Gorgeous iconic papery flowers. And just as beautiful in the late summer after they’ve gone to seed. You’ll know the seed is ripe when you can hear it rattle inside the seed pod. At that point, pull the plant out of the ground and turn upside down into a bowl. Shake the seeds out. Broadcast the seed from two or three heads at most (that’s a LOT of poppies) where you want them to grow next year, and save the rest for poppy seed bread, muffins, cake, cookies and salad dressing. BEANS and peas that didn’t get picked in time, are ripening and drying. When they’re fully developed, pick them and store them for seed next year, in a marked and dated paper envelop or lunch bag. CHIVES and GARLIC CHIVES have gone to seed, producing thousands of little black seeds. You can let them fall and have a million little chive plants growing everywhere next year, or you can harvest the seed to sprinkle on bread or over top other dishes. *hint: they’re entirely edible, but don’t expect too much in the way of flavour. GARLIC. Mid September is the time to harvest garlic, and to plant more. KALE is planted in various places throughout my yard. In the vegetable garden, in the rhubarb patch, the asparagus patch, and interspersed among perineal flowers and herbs. A few here and a few there. One or two act as a trap crop for annoying pests – thank you for your sacrifice. They’ll get eaten by chickens (who bytheway enjoy annoying pests). Don’t worry, I’ve got others. Kale is hardy, and even in September, it’s on stage doing a full encore. Beautiful. How can you not love kale? I pick it every few days to add to dinner, and if I pick more than we need, I dehydrate it. Super simple. Just strip leaves off the stems, wash and chop to put in the dehydrator. When dry, store in a jar to use all winter long. This spring I had an unexpected surprise. A kale plant over wintered and started producing harvestable kale by mid May. I let it do its own thing and as time when on, it began to flower and go to seed. So by September I have a lot of beautiful ripe kale seed in pods. A gift. NASTURTIUMS have been giving all season long. But as much as I used their greens and flowers, some flowers always get left behind to go to seed. This is good, as I am all about collecting seed right now. SWEET PEAS are annual climbing flowers, that are so bright and cheerful, and hardy that they can be friends with everyone. I’ve always thought they should be spring or at least early summer flowers, but they do best, as summer progresses into August. They’ll go to seed if you let the last few flowers ripen. Easy to collect. I highly recommend starting them in-doors well ahead of growing season. This year (2022) is the first year I’ve let mine go to seed so that I can plant inside next April. The pods look very similar to pea pods (who’d suspected right? lol), and as they ripen the seeds are so perfect that it would have been a shame not to collect them. Having said that, if you wait to long, they’ll open and drop their seeds, but I have yet to have had one survive the winter and volunteer in the spring. SUNFLOWERS are ripening. Cut the smaller flowers for kitchen bouquets, but let the bigger ones ripen. If the seeds are still immature (white), but a nice size, bring them in, they’re delicious in salads and stir fries as a vegetable. If they’re big heads, share some with the birds over the winter. I leave them face up in several different places throughout the yard where wild birds like to hang out when its cold. Our favourite place is just outside our kitchen window where we can enjoy watching them all winter long. Its a win-win.
Lots of herbs are still doing beautifully, but its time to cut them down for the last time and bring them in for winter use. Sage, rosemary, tarragon, stevia, mint of course, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, parsley, lemon verbena, . . . My lavender gave me some late sprigs to add to what has already been harvested. Thank you Lavender.
Look around you – there is more bounty than you may have expected.
5. Mulch and other ‘protection‘
Everybody likes a comfy blanket. In gardens we call it ‘mulch’.
homemade patchwork quilt
My mom, throwing an additional blanket over top of me in bed on a cold winter’s night, is a comforting childhood memory. It provided a little weight, and that weight provided warmth.
Our gardens would appreciate an additional insulating blanket against the harshness of winter too. Some plants might be a little sensitive to the bitter cold of some winters that we have no control over and cannot always predict, but sometimes its simply a matter of protecting the bare soil and friendly critters in it. What kind of blanket? Nice clean fallen leaves that are so plentiful in the fall, is a perfect mulch. Between one to three inches is recommended. In the absence of leaves, the final mowing of dried grass would be good, or chopped/mowed up straw. Don’t use wood chips in the garden; they detract from the soil long before they can possibly add to it.
In addition to protecting the soil and plants in it, mulch slowly adds nutrients and humus. Humus is the Latin world for ‘earth’ or ‘ground. It refers to that dark organic matter in soil which comes from the decomposition of plants and animal matter. That a good thing because it improves soil structure, aeration, and water holding capabilities. Aeration reduces the compaction of soil, allowing roots to take up nutrients and spread out healthily.
Leaves or straw won’t magically disappear over the winter, miraculously becoming humus. Some of it will still be quite identifiable as leaves and straw in the spring, but some (the bottom layer) has begun to decompose. I simply rake off the identifiables and mow them up with the first mowings of spring to be used to as a top layer in an area I want to amend, as mulch between rows, or the beginning of this year’s compost. A good winter’s mulch is a beautiful start in prepping your soil for spring. Just sayin’ . . . . .
winter protection from foraging animals
Most urban yards don’t suffer too much from animals like deer foraging over the winter, but rabbits can be a problem. They ate the bark from my daughter’s lilac tree a few winters ago, and killed it. If you live in an area where rabbits might be an issue for you, wrap the bottom three or four feet loosely with chicken wire. Why so high? When the snow is deep and the rabbit is sitting on top of the snow, that is where they’ll be nibbling.
tips to remember 1. Disease is not something you want to add to your compost. Get rid of those plants. Either burn them or garbage them. 2. Roots like trailing bell flower, horse radish and dandelion, and seeds like thistle are not things you want in your compost. Get rid of them. Either burn them or garbage them. 3. Its helpful to mow up your bigger pieces before putting them into your compost. This speeds up the process of breaking down, a good thing.
6. Watering trees in late autumn keeps them healthy and strong
clockwise from upper left: Red Elderberry, Spruce, Honeycrisp Apple, Evans Sour Cherry
While your trees are dropping their leaves, or just after, they would appreciate a good long drink. Give both evergreen and deciduous trees a long, slow, deep watering. This is important, but the timing is particular. Too early might signal the tree toward new growth and may slow the onset of dormancy. Dormancy is not a light switch, it is a progressive stage allowing trees to prepare for colder weather and eventual freeze up. Too late (after the ground freezes) prevents the water from seeping into the soil and reaching the feeder roots. How will you know when the time is right? Look to your trees. Deciduous (leafy) trees will tell you the time is right when their leaves have fallen. This will also be your hint to water their neighbours, the evergreen trees. Because evergreens don’t go into full dormancy, they will actively use water throughout the year, except for when its really cold, so its even more important that they get a good watering in the fall.
Don’t water mature trees right up near the trunk, as the roots that need water will be further out – closer to where the canopy of the tree extends. The exception to this rule is newly planted trees who’s roots might still be close to the initial root ball.
Put your hose on the ground and water slowly so that the water doesn’t puddle on the surface. You’re looking to moisten the top foot of soil around the perimeter of the ‘drip line’ (distance from the trunk to as far as the outside branches reach). “Moisten” does not mean “soggy”. Testing the moisture level is easy – insert a wooden stick or a metal rod into the soil. Where the soil is moist, the stake should slide in easily. When it meets with resistance, that signifies to you that the soil is dry. You’re looking for about a foot of moistened soil. Anything deeper is of no value and is wasted.
Watering earlier in the day gives the roots time to absorb the moisture before the temperature drops at night.
Bonus tip 1. Protect your garden tools and equipment
Hold on! You’re not done yet. I know its tempting to just go inside when the cold hits and shut the door, but pay attention to your tools. They deserve it. Whether you have a garden shed or space in the garage, or box in the basement – use it. Don’t leave your clippers or spade outside to rust.
Tools: Clean them and put them in a box. Seed trays and pots: Wash them and store them where they’ll be easy to retrieve in the late winter or early spring when you’ll need them. Maintenance: Now is the time to fix those annoying little things that have needed patching all summer long.
Bonus tip 2. Garden journal
Hopefully you’ve been keeping a garden journal all along, but if you haven’t right now would be a good time to start one. Record the dates you harvested this or that, and the general yield. Record the temperatures in these close out days for reference next year. Record the seeds you harvested. Make sure you store them in paper envelopes, labelled and dated. Record your successes and failures and your ideas for fixing them next year – while they’re still fresh in your mind. I promise you will not remember them otherwise. Record what varieties did well, and what did not, what you’ll be sure to repeat and what you will not. Maybe you are an avid journaler, maybe you’re more of a casual note taker, but whatever you are – DO SOMETHING. I promise you’ll be happy you did when you go to reference it next spring.
stand back and enjoy the immense satisfaction of a “job well done” . . .
In my case its a challenge to even know where to begin when its time to wrap things up for the season. I rarely have two or three days that I can devote to the work of putting my garden to bed, and my ‘gardens’ are all over the yard, full of perennials. I catch a few hours here and there to go out and work, but the job is pretty overwhelming when you’re doing it in pieces. I find the only way I can proceed with any feeling of accomplishment is if I start in one corner and proceed in a single direction. ‘Finishing a piece’ with no intention of coming back to it till spring, helps me systematically make it through the whole yard.
Standing back to admire what you’ve done once in awhile is satisfying. Standing back when you’re ALL done, is immensely satisfying, but the truth is, there are seasons, that I never completely make it through the whole yard. Yes, I wish I had, but life simply gets busy and sometimes the snow comes before I am ready for it. Nothing to do in that case, but get on with my life, and try to do better next year.
*hint: don’t wait till its COLD and the job is horrible. On September 1, you KNOW cold days are coming. Start the job of putting your garden to bed while the weather is still pleasant – removing (or pruning back) those plants that have already given you everything they have to give, and deserve their rest.
Good Night Garden. Enjoy your rest. I’ll enjoy mine.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about getting your garden ready for bed and tucking it in for the winter, as well as your comments on some of the things discussed here.
– plant every fall for mid summer harvest. Garlic is a staple in the kitchen of course but there many other benefits that earn it an honoured place in every herb garden. The bulbs grown in your backyard garden may be smaller, but stronger, hotter and in every way more potent than the ones you buy in the grocery store. Use them in homemade salad dressings, pasta sauces, soups and in every other dish you might normally add onions to. Garlic and onions are best friends in any dish.
But medicinally, the key phytochemical in garlic is allicin which has antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiseptic and antioxidant properties. It can also be anti-social. LOL I know, it seems too good to be true, but after a lifetime of using it, I am convinced it really is the super food it boasts about being with all of these properties. The thing to remember is that allicin is most potent when the garlic is consumed raw, and while some people swallow the clove whole, there is evidence to indicate that the allicin is best released when the fresh clove is chewed or crushed. But who wants to chew a clove of garlic right? (see below) Mincing the garlic and putting it into a salad dressing is a great way to eat it. The longer you wait the stronger it gets so you might want to eat it right away before it over powers the dressing.
Heart health: garlic reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke because it improves blood circulation and lowers harmful cholesterol. Studies have shown that garlic helps reduce blood pressure allowing blood to flow more freely,
Arthritis: Studies have shown that because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, garlic reduces the pain and inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
Boost to Immunity: Garlic’s biggest benefit in my opinion is its ability to enhance natural immunity through its antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral and antifungal properties. It is a surprisingly good source of Vitamins C and B, as well as the minerals selenium and manganese – all of which strengthen the body’s defense mechanism in fighting infections.
Garlic is an excellent treatment – reducing the severity and shortening the duration of common colds, flues and other viruses, as well as chronic respiratory conditions. Again it is the compound allicin that is responsible for this antiviral action.
Fungal infections: Garlic’s powerful antifungal properties make is an effective agent against fungal infections such as ringworm and athlete’s foot, and yeast infections such as thrush.
The answer of course is to include raw garlic in your diet. But we all know that garlic has a powerful taste and cannot always be eaten fresh, no matter how much I desire these health benefits. Especially when it should be eaten raw and ‘chewed’ or crushed to best release the allicin.
When my kids were young and more trusting, I could entice them to chew a clove of garlic when they were suffering with a cold. I would crush it and put it on a small piece of bread with peanut butter and honey, and sit beside them with a glass of apple juice to help wash it down. But when they got bigger, it was not so easy to talk them into this course of action. I couldn’t blame them. We use it as much as we can in our diets, but it is not that easy. In the case of garlic, I recommend using garlic oil (made from crushed cloves in olive oil), oil of garlic (essential oil), and high quality garlic supplements that you can buy in the health food store. Normally, I’m all about using what I grow in the garden exclusively, but sometimes garlic needs a helping hand, simply because it is so anti-social.
growing
Growing your own garlic is well worth the effort. A good time to plant in the Edmonton area is late September or early October. For mid season harvesting, you want them to have time to establish the beginning of a root system before winter, but not enough to sprout. I’ve also planted garlic in the early spring for harvest at the end of the season.
After your first year you can plant next year’s garlic with this year’s bulbs, but to start with, buy from a local garden centre instead of planting the garlic you buy in grocery stores. Select the largest bulbs with the plumpest cloves you can find. Make sure they are firm and clean looking, without any signs of mould or fungus. Break the garlic bulb into cloves. Do not peel them. Each clove will grow into a bulb by the next year but it needs that protective papery covering.
Choose a sunny part of your garden with well-drained soil. Mark the area so you remember where the cloves are next spring. Don’t crowd them. Plant the cloves about 6 inches apart and about 2 inches deep, sprinkling a little bone-meal into each hole as you go. Because you’re going to leave them for the winter, spread about 3 inches of nice clean, organic mulch over the area, chopped up leaves, wood shavings, straw, – to help insulate.
First thing in the spring, gently move the mulch over. You’ll soon see the tender green sprouts. Let nature take care of them, watering when necessary. Remember they don’t like a soggy spot, they need the soil to be well drained. Mid growing season the plant will develop curly tendrils of greenery that come up from the stalk. This is the plant wanting to flower and go to seed. Snip it.
harvesting
When the stalks start to die back, about the beginning of August, you know its almost time to harvest. Give it a week or so, then gently remove one plant to test. Its tempting to pull, but dig so you don’t risk breaking the stalk off. Garlic is ready when it looks like you think it should. Too early and the protective papery wrapping will be thin or non existent. In that case give it another week. When ready, gently dig them all with a fork and lay in a box out of the sun and rain for a couple of weeks to dry out. I like to braid them into a hanging, but you can also cut the stalks off at this point and store for winter.
* GARLIC CHIVES – wonderful flat chives with more than a hint of garlic in the flavour. Like chives, its root base is a clump of ‘bulbs’. You can cut a handfull just like regular chives to use in the kitchen, and just like chives its root base is a clump of ‘bulbs’. This is super convenient when you want a stronger garlic taste for your dish. Pull up a few stocks from the base to gently separate some bulbs from the rest of the plant. Presto! Garlic bulbs. I have no idea if any of the medicinal properties of garlic are replicated, but the taste sure is. It is the perfect answer for midseason garlic while I’m waiting for my other garlic to ripen.
GINGER
fresh ginger root
Ginger – nearly everyone can identify its flavour in baking, which is where it is most often used in North American and European kitchens. But the last few years have opened up a whole lotta versatility as we adopt it as a savoury seasoning, not just for desserts. This is very good news. Ginger can be used fresh, dried, powdered, candied, juiced or even as an oil. Fresh Ginger root is readily available in the produce department of most grocery stores and is so easy to use. It deserves a place in your kitchen. You jut need to discover why, and then make friends with it.
Ginger ale, Gingerbread, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Pumpkin Pies, pretty much any pumpkin dessert . . . Those are the ways we’re most familiar with, but open your mind, and make room for ginger. You’re about to fall in love.
Did you know it also has great health benefits? Ginger is often used to calm an upset stomach, indigestion, motion sickness and other forms of nausea including morning sickness! It stimulates digestive enzymes which is helpful in enhancing digestion, and relieving heartburn and indigestion. It’s an absolute must-have in the kitchen for those times that nothing else is working.
Make yourself a soothing cup of fresh ginger tea by simply steeping a few slices in boiling water. How many slices? Well, that depends on how strong you like it. Start with one or two, and go from there. Chill it as a refreshing cold drink on a warm summer day. Drink it hot in your favourite mug on those cold winter days.
Grate it up to add to a salad dressing, a homemade teriyaki sauce, a curry recipe, or your favourite stir fried vegetables.
Yes, you can buy a bottle of ginger powder from the grocery store, but when you find out how easy it is to dry and powder your own, you’ll never go back to store bought powder again.
growing:
Not so easy to grow ginger in Alberta, but in the spring of 2020, I planted three pots of ginger root just for fun. I chose ginger roots with visible nodules and cut the root to ensure each piece had a few on it. I planted shallowly in a soil, just enough to cover, and kept them in sunny locations on my patio. I nurtured them along, and brought them into the house for the winter. The next spring I brought it back outside, but half way through the season, I kinda got tired of the plant which was interesting enough looking (a couple of tall spears), but not very spectacular. I decided to dig them up, but when I did, I saw that the root was significantly bigger than when I first planted it, so I put it back into the soil and took care of it. Eventually, I dug it up and used it. I was pretty happy to do so, but as fun as the experiment was, we are still dependent on store purchased ginger root in this country.
using:
Ginger honey: I recently discovered something lovely. Ginger honey. It seemed like such a natural combination – good tasting, as well as a good way of benefitting from the wonderfulness of ginger. I made my very first batch this week and am anxious to taste it in the coming weeks as the ginger has a chance to infuse throughout the honey.
ginger honey
I began with one pint of honey and one tablespoon of home ground ginger powder. It seemed like a lot of ginger, but when I mixed it all in, the taste was surprisingly mild. I think to get the maximum benefit, I’ll probably add more ginger later (stay tuned for update if I do), but I’m gonna give it two weeks before I decide to do that. The reason I chose ginger powder as opposed to fresh ginger root, is shelf life. It stands to reason to me that fresh ginger being moist, it might eventually go bad, and I should probably refrigerate it. I might surprise myself to find out that the honey actually preserves the ginger . . . but then for how long? I just decided to be safe and go with powder for now.
I have creamy honey. I also have fairly solid honey. And I have liquid honey which is very old, given to me from my dad who has long since passed away. I chose to use the liquid because its easier to mix up. If you used a more solid form, I think you’d want to slowly heat it over boiling water to get it to the point that you could actually stir the ginger into it. Personally, I wouldn’t melt it in the microwave. Yes, its quicker and easier, but I think I’d choose a more gentle way of melting it – to keep ‘goodness’ the prime focus. I also chose to use a wide mouth jar, just to make stirring it up easier.
directions: Pour honey into a clean dry glass pint jar – half full. Add 2 teaspoons ginger powder and stir with the blade of a table knife or a chop stick. When fully infused, pour a little more honey into the jar and add another teaspoon of ginger. Stir again to fully emulsify. Top up with honey and stir once more to blend completely. Put the lid on, label with date and set aside for two weeks. Enjoy in every way you would use honey: on toast in the morning, in a cup of herbal tea, whatever.
Ginger Tea: 1. Pour hot water over a small slice of fresh ginger in a cup and let it steep 5 minutes. Add a little lemon juice just before drinking if you like. 2. In the absence of fresh ginger, add a small amount of powdered ginger to hot water with lemon juice.
Ginger water: Add a few slices fresh ginger to a jug of water and leave to steep in the fridge. Sip throughout the day.
Ginger Lemonade: Prepare your favourite lemonade recipe (using fresh lemons of course), and add grated fresh ginger. Let steep at least ten minutes before serving.
. . . . . more to come on ginger
. . . . .
Tell me about your experiences with these herbs. I’d love to learn from you too.
Rhubarb gets it’s own post because there’s just so much to say about it.
Rhubarb as a plant has been used for centuries as a medicinal herb for digestive complaints such as constipation, diarrhea, heartburn and stomach pain. Even for cold sores. Whether it was ever effective for any of those concerns, I don’t even have an opinion. My only interest in rhubarb is as a food.
Though perfectly suited to our climate, it is not a native of North America. Originally from central Asia, it was introduced to Europe in the 1600’s, and within a hundred years, made it here where its been at home ever since. Botanically it is a VEGETABLE, but its so often use as a dessert that we commonly think of it as a FRUIT. But we need to get over that type-casting, and let it be what it wants to be. I’ve always thought of it as the vegetable-who-wants-to-be-a-fruit, but in actual fact, it is probably the most versatile food in your garden, lending itself as easily to savory dishes as to sweet dishes. And contrary to what I believed most of my life, it doesn’t need a whole lotta sugar to make it palatable.
The leaves are poisonous so lets get that out of the way right off the bat. They contain a lot of oxalic acid which in the amount present is toxic to both humans and animals. Oxalic acid is in a lot of things we eat including the rhubarb stalks, many fruits, and leafy green vegetables, nuts and whole grains. We need some of it so its good, but not to the degree that rhubarb leaves contain.
You won’t die from eating some rhubarb leaves, so don’t fret about that. And neither will your kids, so don’t avoid growing rhubarb because of some perceived danger. It would take a LOT of rhubarb leaves to kill someone and they’d have to be pretty dedicated to eating them. Poison doesn’t always mean ‘kill you’. In this case the oxalic acid will upset your stomach, make you sick, and probably cause vomiting and diarrhea if you ate enough. I doubt you’d eat too much to begin with, especially if it made you sick. I don’t know why someone would, but you’d have to eat a LOT of rhubarb leaves to be poisoned, and the symptoms are stomach, vomiting and diarrhea, (with your body trying to get rid of it).
Sadly, I had a chicken named Lacey who had a thing for rhubarb leaves. No matter how much I tried to make it INconvenient for her, it was impossible to keep her out of them since she was free range in the yard. Seemed like she was addicted. I rarely caught her in the act, but she could polish off a leaf in record time. For a long time, she seemed healthy enough but since the most common symptoms of oxalic acid poisoning are stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, and difficulty breathing – its kind of hard to pin those down in a chicken. The other hens didn’t seem interested in the leaves at all, but Lacey couldn’t stay out of them. Poor Lacey; she slowed down over a few days until one morning she just didn’t wake up. I don’t pretend to know for sure what killed her. She was older than the other hens, and she could have been nearing her end anyway. Or it could have been the stupid rhubarb leaves. The other ones didn’t seem to care, and no previous hen ever seemed to care. You’d think that an animal would have an inner instinct not to eat things like rhubarb leaves, but I guess Lacey missed that memo.
I use the leaves to compost, and sometimes chop them up with the lawn mower first to use as mulch. The oxalic acid breaks down fairly quickly during the decomposition process. Some I know make a ‘tea’ from the chopped leaves to use as a natural pesticide in the garden, but I have never tried it. It seems like too much work to me.
The stalk is the edible part, and many people find it delicious. I can’t say I’ve always found the taste of rhubarb to be my favourite, and I never craved it, but I certainly would have missed it if I didn’t have it. Rhubarb always tasted like ‘spring’ to me. However, in the last few years, as I’ve learned to take better advantage of this wonderful garden offering, I can say that I have come to very much like the taste. I love the freshness it adds to a morning smoothie. Like a true friend it’s stayed with me all these years, selflessly giving to me, always under appreciated, and under used, until I saw it for its true value to me. And now you could say that our friendship has developed into a true love affair.
Rhubarb is always there for you – a true friend
Many of my friends and cousins as children, used to eat rhubarb raw in the summer, dipping the stalk in sugar or even salt. I could never do that – I’ve actually never even tried it, waaay too sour for me to even wrap my mind around it. Although I consider myself an excellent “tryer”, I just can’t bring myself to take a bite of raw rhubarb, and I cannot even think about eating straight sugar. Combining rhubarb with sugar and cooking it however, changes the natural tartness into something quite delightful. Whether in a jam, jelly, syrup, cake, pie or punch, rhubarb’s bitterness fades when combined with a sweetener, and it becomes uniquely refreshing.
I decided many years ago, that since rhubarb grows so readily in cool climates (my part of the world), I should learn to take best possible advantage of it and make it very familiar to my family. Loving the taste of something that we can grow and use freely, seems like a happier place to be than loving something exotic that might be difficult to get one day. For instance, while I love pineapple, it can be quite expensive in my world and it is impossible to get field-ripened-pineapple (which we know is the most nutritious) when you live in Edmonton. Rhubarb however, is in my garden and always at it’s plant-ripened-best when I pick it. I am all about IN SEASON, field-to-fork eating, and though my grow months in Edmonton Alberta are limited, I want to take full advantage of everything they have to offer. Though rhubarb is at its best in May, June and July, you can also pick from a well established plant as early as April and right through to the end of the growing season. How accommodating is that right? Rhubarb really WANTS to be your friend! Just don’t pick too much in the earliest part of spring, or the end of summer. Give it a chance to re-establish its strength.
why rhubarb?
Because rhubarb is good for you, that’s why. It lowers cholesterol, aids digestion and gut health, is rich in natural fiber and Vitamin K which improves bone density. It is an antioxidant powerhouse, containing as much or more as an EQUAL AMOUNT OF KALE. Since antioxidants support collagen production, that means healthier, younger looking skin, as well as protection from harmful free radicals that can lead to chronic disease. The antioxidant ‘anthocyanins’ (which gives rhubarb stalks their deep red colour), have been found to reduce inflammation, and improves heart health by reducing the narrowing and hardening of blood vessels. And rhubarb WANTS to be your friend. It’s easy to grow, is hardy in Alberta, is forgiving when you move it, separate it, or forget to water it for awhile, and doesn’t hold a grudge when you ignore it. And it’s versatile as heck, lending itself superbly from desserts to drinks, from salsas and chutneys to beautiful refreshing summer smoothies (all year long if you freeze some), from breakfast muffins and scones to deep fried fritters – and everything in between.
* I’ve had rhubarb doubters (and even those who considered themselves haters of rhubarb) tell me they converted to rhubarb after partaking of it at my table. It wasn’t something magic about my table, and it wasn’t that I am some amazing cook (heaven knows I’m not). It was simply because they had never really given rhubarb a second chance after tasting something they didn’t like. One man who attended a Food Drive meeting at my house in the late spring told me “I used to make fun of rhubarb, and believed no one really liked it. They just pretended.” If he reads this, I have no doubt he’ll recognize himself. He came for information about the upcoming Food Drive, and left – a convert to rhubarb LOL. You can never go wrong trusting rhubarb.
growing
Rhubarb is a perennial plant that will be at its best for close to ten years. Though it will grow and produce, much longer than that, its helpful if you dig it up and separate it once in a while. When selecting a plant, always go with a type of rhubarb with the reddest stalks. They’re sweeter and richer in anthocyanins and other valuable antioxidants. Rhubarb needs a dormant season – winter, and grows best in cool weather, so it’s one of the first garden fruits in the springtime. It wants sun, the more the better, so give it a nice sunny spot. It prefers slightly acidic soil, well drained and rich. Good to prepare your spot with well rotted compost.
If planting in your vegetable garden, plant along the edge so they can remain undisturbed each spring. They’d do well against the house or garage, or in the back of a flower garden. Allow about a square yard of space to grow outward. In the Edmonton area, you’ll be picking rhubarb by May, and certainly May, June and July are when it’s at its best. It will however, do well enough throughout the summer, unless it is an especially hot one, but even then – just make sure it has plenty of water. It really wants you to be happy and will seldom let you down.
If you don’t have a yard to grow your own rhubarb plants …. then ask around, often times people have more on hand than they can use. Next best place is a Farmer’s Market. Next best place is a grocery store. It is so plentiful however, that I cannot even imagine having to resort to buying it from a store. Just find more friends.
harvesting
Pulling vs cutting. Don’t cut the rhubarb stalks out. This leaves residue that will decay and invite disease. Pulling triggers the plant to replace what was taken. When harvesting rhubarb, select stalks that are firm and upright, and pull up gently from the base of the stem, twisting just a little. The stalk should pop out cleanly, but if it breaks off, pull out the remaining piece out. Don’t leave it there. See above about inviting disease. Remove all dead, or limp stalks and leaves to throw into the compost. Cut the nice big red stalks from the leaves, and throw the leaves into the compost. Trim any blemishes from the stalks and rinse to clean. From here you can chop into one inch pieces to freeze (in freezer bags) or to use right away. They can be kept a few days in the fridge if needed.
Officially rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but it is most often used as a fruit. Don’t be too quick to typecast it though, just because it’s most commonly used alone or in combination with other fruits to make desserts, doesn’t mean it can’t pull off a respectable part of the main event as a savory dish. Add it to a salsa, use it to make chutney or even as a marinade for meat.
Never harvest a plant completely, leave about 1/3 – the smaller less mature stalks to regenerate new growth. Pick the bigger stalks. At the end of the season, sometime in late August (in central Alberta) or early September, do your last picking, and then remove any plant debris. If you cover the base with a nice thick layer of compost before winter, your plant will be advantaged in the spring. It is not necessary to cover the plant in mulch or hay, but make sure it has a good covering of snow for the winter.
using
when dicing small amounts of rhubarb, you cannot beat an ulu knife and board
Don’t get stuck in the trap of always thinking rhubarb must paired with sugar, and don’t get stuck into thinking it always has to be eaten with a spoon. For years, I had the mistaken idea that because it was ‘sour’, rhubarb NEEDED sugar so I didn’t use it as much as I would have otherwise. It’s nutrition was compelling, but the sugar seemed to neutralize it’s goodness. Until one day, I was brave enough to use it without sugar, in a summer smoothie with other fruits. My eyes were opened! It was delicious, refreshing, and NOT sour, the companion fruits compensated beautifully. Fully converted, I chopped a stalk of rhubarb into every smoothie for the rest of the summer, and froze some to use for that purpose later in the year. Now I anxiously look forward to the fresh, crisp red stalks to get big enough for that picking. I have three rhubarb plants in my fruit garden, and two planted outside my fence for alley gleaners. Yes, I still use rhubarb as a dessert, but I am not bound by that rule.
rhubarb lemonade
Drinking your Rhubarb
*Rhubarb Lemonade Can anything be more refreshing than rhubarb and lemon in a chilled glass? Or more simple? for 8 servings: prep time 10 minutes, cook time 10 minutes. Ingredients: 2 c. chopped rhubarb; the redder, the sweeter 1 c. white Sugar 1 tbsp. Thrive Life Classic Lemonade powder or juice of two lemons 8 c. Water Directions: In large saucepan, stir together rhubarb and sugar into 2 cups water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low for about 10 minutes, or till rhubarb is tender, stirring from time to time to prevent scorching. You want the rhubarb to be soft. Remove from heat and strain thru sieve to get a reasonably clear juice. Save the pulp for lots of other uses or to just eat. 🙂 Stir in the unsweetened lemonade powder or lemon juice. Let syrup cool. You can store this ‘syrup’ in the fridge for a few days. When ready to serve, pour cold syrup into a pitcher with 6 cups COLD water. Stir completely to blend. Serve over ice.
Rhubarb Slush I grew up on Rhubarb Slush. It was at every party, or gathering. Every mom had a pail or two in the freezer that they pulled out for special occasions. For all my early ‘mom’ years, I did too. If it was a big gathering, it was served in a punch bowl, if you only had a few guests, then you would scoop into a glass and top up with gingerale.
Basic Slush Recipe with suggested variations: 8 cups coarsely chopped rhubarb equal amount of water 2 cups sugar in a fairly large pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer rhubarb till tender. This will only take 5-10 minutes so don’t go too far while its cooking. You can puree in the blender at this point, or pour it through a sieve to remove the pulp. I mash the rhubarb with a potato masher and leave the pulp in it. I like the texture, it adds to the ‘slushiness’ of it in my opinion. Add 1/2 cup lemon juice. Stir well and freeze in an ice-cream pail. For lg jug or punch bowl, dump in the entire pail of frozen slush and top off with 2-4 litres of gingerale, or 7 Up or your fave pop. For individual glasses, thaw enough to scoop slush into glasses. Top up with pop.
variations: Add any one of the following, or a combination of your choice. You’re the boss of YOUR Rhubarb Slush. Create your own signature recipe. Add strawberries to the simmering rhubarb for the last 5 minutes. Cooking the strawberries too long will damage the colour. Add a pkg of strawberry jello to the hot cooked rhubarb, stir to dissolve well. This will add a lot of strawberry flavour, colour and slushiness. Add a can of orange juice concentrate after the liquid has cooled down a bit. Add a litre of pineapple juice after the liquid has cooled down a bit.
*Rhubarb Pie, Crisp or Cobbler There are many recipes to be found, but essentially the basics are to thicken with flour or cornstarch and sweeten with sugar. In a crust for a pie, in a dutch oven with a crumble topping for crisp, or a batter topping for cobbler.
Great combinations are: Rhubarb/Strawberry, Rhubarb/Raspberry, Rhubarb/ Saskatoon
*Rhubarb Coffee Cake or Muffins Such an easy variation to make to your favourite recipes. Just use your favourite recipe and add chopped rhubarb instead of whatever else it calls for. I like to add a little lemon powder to the dry ingredients, it just seems to perk everything up.
Soft Rhubarb Cookies Nice, soft cookies with just the perfect combination of tart and sweet. Makes 4+ dozen.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dice fresh rhubarb (about pea size), enough to make heaping 2 cups, and set aside.
In large bowl, cream 1 cup butter or margarine with 2 cup brown sugar together. Beat in 2 large eggs and 1 tsp vanilla. In separate bowl, sift 3+1/2 cups flour 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp each of salt, baking soda and baking powder together. Add to to sugar mixture 1 cup at a time, stirring to mix thoroughly between each addition. If it gets a little too dry add a couple tablespoons of milk. Add rhubarb pieces and fold in. Spoon onto prepared baking pan (I use parchment paper) and bake 12-14 minutes or until cooked through. Test by tapping gently with your finger. Cool for 2 minutes then remove cookies onto baking rack. Enjoy!
optional: We’re oatmeal fans in our house. Substitute 1 cup flour for rolled oats. optional: I like to add even more rhubarb. Another cup.
*Simple Rhubarb Sauce 3 cups chopped rhubarb 1/2 cup sugar Stir together and let sit (macerate) for an hour or more to draw out some natural juice. Bring to a slow simmer in a medium saucepan, 10-15 minutes or until rhubarb starts to soften and break down. Add more sugar if desired in small amounts taste testing as you go, and add a small amount of water if it gets dry. Serve stewed rhubarb over pancakes or waffles, ice-cream or in a bowl with cream. * Special treat, add a cup to homemade ice-cream during the mixing process. * Add fresh strawberries right at the end of the cooking process so as not to lose their brilliant red colour. * You will need a lot less sugar than you’re accustomed to expecting, so be cautious as you’re adding it, and taste as you go to prevent adding too much. * I love the added tart taste of lemon – I add a whole lemon worth of juice, 1/4 cup. Enjoy.
*Easy Pickled Rhubarb Okay, I’ll admit, I didn’t think I’d like this, but I determined to give it a try. After all, I like fresh rhubarb salsa . . . . Cut the stalks into 2-inch pieces. Then, julienne the pieces into matchsticks and toss them with red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt and sugar. Set it on the countertop or in the fridge for at least two hours, and you’re good to go! Add the pickled rhubarb to fresh salads, slaws, use as a pickle for sandwiches, or just eat it fresh. Just TRY it.
*hint: last time I made it I only had half the amount I needed of red vinegar so I topped it up with Raspberry Vinegar I made last summer. Oh.My.Goodness! It was amazing. I’m gonna do that from now on. So full of flavour. if you’d like to know more about flavouring vinegars and recipes, click on this link Vinegars from the Garden
rhubarb ketchup
*Rhubarb Ketchup 8 cups diced rhubarb 1 lg onion diced – enough to be about 3 cups 1 quart of home bottled tomatoes, or a 28 oz can diced tomatoes – undrained 1/2 cup white sugar + 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 T pickling salt *optional: 1/4 cup Tomato powder (or tomato paste) *optional: 1 teaspoon cinnamon *optional: 1 cup white vinegar
directions: In a large saucepan, sprinkle the sugar over top the rhubarb and let it macerate for about half an hour. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring to prevent scorching. Turn heat down, but keep it at a slow boil till thickened. Cooked rhubarb doesn’t have a beautiful colour, and I thought anything less than red, would be too difficult for my family to accept since I was passing this off as ‘ketchup’. I added 1/4 cup of tomato powder to intensify the tomato taste, and add to the colour. It was perfect! I’ll use it every time. If you want to know more about Tomato Powder click here.
Expect the process of reducing to take at least an hour, but probably not quite 2 hours. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. I set the stove timer for every 20 minutes so I don’t forget. When you’re happy with a nice thick consistency, turn the heat off and allow to cool to room temperature. Store in small jars in the fridge. This amount makes about 3 pints depending on the consistency you like.
The first time I made it I didn’t add the cinnamon or vinegar, but fully expected to do so at some point. It tasted amazing without either of them, and I didn’t want to spoil a good thing, so I didn’t. I will at some point try them both, just out of curiosity. In the meantime I love this recipe the way it is. Adds a lotta class to things you might typically use ketchup for: hamburgers, meatloaf etc.
* If I was going to can it, I’d be adding the vinegar just to be on the acid safe side. I would can it in pint jars and process it for 10 minutes just like for jam.
Fresh Rhubarb Salsa – use both recipes so that you get a feel for how easy and ‘varied’ it can be. Don’t ‘not’ make salsa because you don’t have some of these ingredients on hand. Be flexible, and use what you have.
Rhubarb in the early spring is almost alone in the garden. That’s when freeze dried veggies in the pantry come to the rescue.
Fresh SPRING Rhubarb Salsa this is what you make in the earliest part of spring, when the most courageous plant in your garden is your ever faithful friend – Rhubarb, and maybe your chives too. This is what you make before anything else in the garden is ready. Its my spring tribute to RHUBARB.
1 cup packed of finely chopped (by hand, NOT a food processor) rhubarb 2 T your favourite vinegar (I use a rhubarb vinegar I made the season before) 2 T olive oil (or your fave kitchen oil) 1 T freeze dried chopped onion – or 2 T finely chopped fresh chives 2 T freeze dried diced cucumbers 1 t sugar optional – juice of a small lime, or 1 teaspoon lime powder Put everything together, toss to dissolve sugar and mix everything well. Serve immediately, or make ahead a couple of hours. Remember YOU’RE the boss, recipes are only guidelines to get you going. I use these amounts only to give you an idea of measurement estimates. Its not very likely I’d ever make a single cup of this salsa. This is a great start, but if you like it a little sweeter, make it sweeter. If you like garlic, add a little garlic. I love the freeze dried cucumber in this version. If you’d like to learn more about freeze dried cucumbers, click here.
*Fresh Rhubarb SUMMER Salsa I call this ‘summer salsa’ because of the many other ingredients that are plentiful in a summer garden, but not so plentiful in the spring as early as rhubarb is ready. This combination is terrific, delicious all by itself. Who said rhubarb has to be sweet? When you use it as a vegetable, you’re a little more willing to use less sugar. Only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar with over 8 cups vegetables.
fresh rhubarb summer salsa
4 cups+ diced rhubarb 1 small red onion chopped finely (same size as rhubarb pieces) 1 lg green pepper chopped (*try to keep dice sizes uniform) 1 lg red pepper chopped * 1 lg yellow pepper chopped * 3 fresh meaty tomatoes (like roma) finely diced 1 T brown sugar 1/3 cup lime juice or 1 T Thrive Life powdered lime crystals 2 t coarse salt I added a few stocks garlic chives including the bulb – chopped slightly smaller than the other vegetables * optional: if you like a little heat, add 1 seeded and finely chopped jalapeno pepper; if you love the taste of cilantro, add 1/2 – 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro. I didn’t have either of these on hand the first time I made it. It’s all about making what you have – work for you. I added about 1/4 cup of chive vinegar – home flavoured. It was a nice touch. * optional: I added a beautiful fresh nectarine – because I had one. It was perfect! * optional: I added two very small garden onions sliced and diced thinly
Directions: Chop the rhubarb quite finely, and measure packed. Stir all vegetables together in large bowl. Sprinkle sugar, lime powder and salt over top and stir to completely distribute. Use immediately, or let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. The first time I made this, I used it as a topping for a barbequed hamburger. Some used it as a relish. I put on about 1/2 cup – it was fabulous. It’s excellent as a side dish to serve with plain taco chips, or with anything else.
*Fresh Rhubarb Chutney I love the sweet spicy smell that fills the house with this gorgeous spiced rhubarb chutney. So delicious, you can eat it straight. Personally I wouldn’t can it, simply because I’d prefer not to cook it that long, but you can always freeze the fresh rhubarb so that you can make this a few times in the off season. So quick and easy, and the bonus is that your house will smell GREAT! Lovely served over pork roast, beef or chicken– or wherever you use chutney.
rhubarb chutney
ingredients: 5-6 cups coarsely chopped rhubarb 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 2 cloves garlic minced 1 t ginger powder or inch fresh ginger grated 2 t cumin 1 t cinnamon 1/2 t cloves 1 small onion diced (or use freeze dried onion slices) 1/2 cup raisins directions: Combine all in a saucepan. Bring to simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves and very aromatic. Cook only over medium low until rhubarb is tender and mixture has thickened slightly, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. (maybe 15-20 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool completely. Serve fresh, or make ahead and refrigerate a few days, like a fresh cranberry sauce.
preserving
Freezing, canning or making jam are the three best ways to preserve rhubarb. I’ve tried dehydrating it – bleh. But adding it to fruit leather is terrific. The nice tart taste is the perfect match for fruit leather – on its own or mixed with any number of other fruits: apples, raspberries, plums . . . . just a reminder: always pull the rhubarb off the plant rather than cutting it. See above if you forget why.
FREEZING Wash and pat to dry freshly picked rhubarb. Cut into 1 inch pieces. Most of the time I just throw the chopped rhubarb into a labelled (name and date) bag to freeze. If I’m planning to use most of it in smoothies – where I want it to come out loosely, then I spread the chopped rhubarb in a cookie sheet, then I freeze in the chest freezer. The next day, scoop the frozen rhubarb into a labelled plastic bag and seal. Frozen fruit is best eaten within the first year of freezing. I know plenty of people who keep their’s in the freezer for much longer than that, and while its safe to do that, the food value diminishes considerably. Not worth it to me. Just USE it.
CANNING Canning is still the most convenient way of preserving high acid fruit. It is easy to do at home with limited equipment: just good quality, CLEAN jars with proper canning lids and rings, and a pot deep enough for at least two inches of water to cover.
Prepare rhubarb by trimming off the leaves and cleaning the stems. Then chop into 1/2-1 inch pieces. Dump into a large sauce pan. Add a little sugar and stir to cook raw chopped rhubarb in a light dusting of sugar. A good guide is approximately 1/2 cup of sugar to each quart of chopped rhubarb. Let the rhubarb sit for a few hours to draw out the juice.
You can cold pack it or hot pack. Rhubarb is a high acid food so it can safely be canned in a hot water bath canner. Or if desired you can can under pressure.
Cold pack: spoon the fruit into a freshly cleaned pint or quart jar. Top up with juice to about 1/2 inch from the top, leaving this as a ‘headspace’. Add clean lids and rings and gently lower the can into hot water bath in large deep pot – ensuring you have 2 inches or more of water on top of jar. Bring the water to a boil and set timer for 15 minutes, keeping the water at a continued soft rolling boil the whole time. Gently remove the jars and place on insulated surface about an inch apart. Allow to cool without disturbing. Can lids should ‘pop’ when they seal, ensuring a good vacuum seal. You can also pressure can under 10 pounds pressure for 8 minutes. I always prefer hot water bath canning for high acid fruits.
Hot pack: Same preparation, but once rhubarb has sat long enough to draw juice out, slowly heat the pot up to a slow boil. Immediately fill HOT jars with HOT sauce and lower into HOT water. Return the water bath to a full rolling boil and set time for 15 minutes as for above. When the timer goes off, gently remove the jars and proceed as instructed above.
This may or may not be sweet enough for you. If desired, add a little more sugar when serving.
Use your canned rhubarb sauce all winter long as you would apple sauce.
I’d love to hear your rhubarb recipes. Please tell me in the comments below how you use your rhubarb.
Simple things that can make a difference when its all about what YOU can do at home. An onion chest poultice is an old folk remedy that is often still used, because it is surprisingly effective. Among other good things, onion contain sulfur compounds that help fight mucus and promote the expulsion of mucus from your airways. Onion and its even stronger cousin garlic, are powerful natural antibiotics as well as being antiviral and antimicrobial. This makes them valuable for viral and bacterial infections. So yes make a poultice which will soothe from the outside, and that you’ll be able to inhale, but don’t forget to EAT them as well. Let them work from the inside too.
I love how Wendi talks about using fresh onions, but in the absence of them she shows us how to use dehydrated onions. This is so important and like her, I rarely have fresh onions in my house anymore unless they’re in my garden for the few months I can grow them, and maybe a few months after harvesting. I do keep dehydrated onions, but for the most part – I choose to use THRIVE LIFE freeze dried onions for most of the year. They come diced or sliced, and are always ready to use in all my favourite dishes. As with all Thrive Life fruits and vegetables, they’re flash frozen within only a few hours of harvest, sealing in all their natural nutritional goodness. This is very important to me. All the benefits of ‘fresh’, but easier and much more convenient to use, and with a shelf life of 25 years. That’s very important to me, because I’m all about long term food storage. Even after opening, we have at least a year to use them, depending on humidity in your area.
Wendi Bergin, the Joyful Prepper
These two pungent herbs (onions and garlic) are probably best known for their immune enhancing properties, but that’s another topic for another day. Many folk remedies suggest sleeping with onions wrapped onto the bottom of your feet! Don’t laugh. And don’t be too quick to discount things that seem too simple or even silly at first glance. In fact, garlic and onions contain anti-inflammatory chemicals that have been shown to relieve some forms of arthritic pain. Onions are a rich source of flavonoids, one of which – the antioxidant ‘quercetin’, has been shown to inhibit inflammation-causing leukotrienes, prostaglandins and histamines in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Yeah, I had to look them up too – lol.
Q: What are leukotrienes? A: chemicals your body produces, especially when you come into contact with something you’re allergic to. As a form of protection, they can cause coughing. build up of extra mucus and fluid in your chest and throat, as well as inflammation or swelling in your airway.
Q: what are prostaglandins? A: fatty acids made at sites of tissue damage or infection caused by injury or illness. They control processes such as inflammation, blood flow, the formation of blood clots and the induction of labour.
Q: what are histamines? A: chemicals your body makes to help expel allergens from your body through symptoms such as a runny nose or sneezing.
While we shouldn’t want to get rid of these natural protective functions completely, they can cause a lot of discomfort. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was something natural and ‘normal’ you could eat, that could assist in alleviating the worst of those symptoms though?
Let Food Be Your Medicine
Onions are members of the allium family, which includes hundreds of species, and they are one of the most widely used vegetables/herbs in the world, with some types growing in every climate except the arctic. Ones we’re more familiar with are the ‘onion’ of course, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, green onions and chives. And even among these, there are many, many different types, each with its own special personality and qualities. In North America, the most popular onion to purchase is the yellow onion, for its long lasting quality. Named for its outside colour, not inside, it is cured (dried outside after harvest). If kept in a dry dark, semi cool place, it will last for months.
there are so many different types of onions, that could almost be a food group unto themselves.
They are a good source of nutrients and are known to offer a plethora of health benefits – many more than what we’ve reviewed here. Onions are a tremendously rich food source of flavonoids, in particular, the antioxidant quercetin (see above), which is known to prohibit the activity or creation of cancer-causing elements. A quercetin-rich diet is a recognized good defense against developing cancer.
Make onions more a part of your life.
– If you’re one of those people who don’t like the texture of onions, use freeze dried – they’re better than any alternative we can buy at the grocery store anyway.
– If you’re one of those people who don’t like the taste of onions, get over it and find a way eat them anyway. They’re really good for you. They’ve proven themselves enough times to be taken seriously, figure out a way to incorporate them into your daily diet. Hide them, disguise them if you must, but definitely EAT onions. Thrive Life’s freeze dried onions will help immensely with that.
– If you’re one of those people who have kids who think they don’t like onions, be the parent and find a way to use them anyway. If you need to hide them, then hide them! But use them! Thrive Life’s freeze dried chopped onions will become your new best friend.
Okay, its not possible for any food to have only good things said about it. I think we all know the one downside, and it has something to do with ‘the smell’. Not just the smell of onions, but the smell of ‘us’ after we eat them. Onions contain organic sulfur compounds, which are the reason onions have such a sharp, strong taste and smell. Yes, those sulfur compounds help reduce the level of cholesterol in our bodies, breaking down blood clots and lowering our risk of heart disease and stroke. BUT, those same sulfur compounds cause the only negative effects from eating onions – irritation to eyes when cutting, and body odor.
When our bodies break them down, those sulfur compounds react to sweat on our skin, creating what is generally considered to be an unpleasant odor. In our society, that’s a considerable downside. And in some individuals with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), they may increase gas and bloating. Small price to pay in my opinion, but I have found that freeze dried onions do not seem to create the same problems. As far as the tearing up aspect, try rinsing a peeled onion under water or chill it for 30 minutes before cutting. Or of course, you can skip the whole chopping step, and go straight for the freeze dried option.
As far as the onion poultice – this is new to me. I’m happy to know about it and appreciate Wendi’s thorough instructions. I have everything I need on hand and will take her advice to set aside some more clean, white cotton for that purpose.
Have you ever tried an onion poultice? Or any other type of poultice? I’d love to hear your opinion and your experience.
I have a simple rule that I apply to everything I ‘did’. Whether its my garden, an event that I was involved in, or a class that I taught – doesn’t matter, it pretty much always applies. At the end of whatever it is, I ask myself these THREE Questions (and answer them of course). 1. What went well? What was I pleased with? 2. What could have been better?What could I have improved on? 3. What did I learn? In my opinion, the most important.
All three questions are very important, and must be asked in order. It is very easy to get down on yourself when something didn’t go right. None of us seem to be short on negative self talk, if the season (or event) was disappointing. Its easy to get discouraged and give up if we focus on the bad, on the things that didn’t work out. So DON’T!
What went well? There is always something that was good. Think about it, and WRITE DOWN the answers. A fruit or vegetable that grew well – a new skill that came in handy – a new hack that paid off – etc. Write down everything that was good about this year’s garden.
For my 2021 garden: What went well?
* Kale. I grew great kale. The year before was the first time I planted kale and I only planted 6 plants, but it encouraged me to plant again, this time I planted double that amount, and some variation. I planted them in three or four different spots, I picked from the plants all summer long, and well into October when I finally harvested the last of it. I used fresh kale in salads, omelettes and scrambled eggs, soups, casseroles, chopped in sandwiches, and smoothies. I tried kale chips in the oven for the first time, and was wowed. Repeated that several times, using less oil each time lol. I dehydrated the excess and ended up with two FULL 2 quart jars of dehydrated kale, crushed into them.
* Tomatoes. I had a reeeeeally good harvest of tomatoes this year. Lots of tomatoes! Mostly the Romanian Giants. For the first time, I grew tomatoes all season long IN my new green house. Eight or ten tomatoes there, four around an arbour in the first garden bed, four around an arbour in the large horse trough, and some in their usual spot on the west side of the house. And some cherry tomato in planters on the patio. Made for a LOT. I admit it – tomatoes are my thing. The backbone of my garden, the one thing I look forward to the most. Everything else exists around them. The most successful places (in order), was the green house, garden arbour and large horse trough arbour – all in the sunniest locations. We ate fresh tomatoes pretty much all of August, September and October. We’ll have fresh tomatoes into November. I canned the excess that ripened faster than we could eat, a couple dozen quarts. I made fresh bruschetta and salsa, canning about 15 pints of salsa. I oven roasted lots of tomatoes. We had so many different types of tomato based soups.
* Compost. We reorganized our compost area since building the greenhouse, adding another large old garbage can turned upside down. Also had a mound of dried lawn trimmings in our compost area, ready to add to compost piles as needed, and use to mulch gardens. We also added to the city compost from time to time – with undesirable compost: either branches and things that take too long to break down, thistle, scraps that included oil or meat, ….. that sort of thing. It was valuable to be able to recycle these organics even though we didn’t want them ourselves.
* Greenhouse. Dan built me a new greenhouse this spring. Not very big, 8×12 – the perfect size for our needs. I dug the soil down deep on both sides, and added gravel, compost and aged horse manure to the soil. When the shelves were no longer needed, I removed them and planted tomatoes, peppers and nasturtiums in the soil.
* Soil amendment in the former spruce area. We took out two massive spruce trees a year and a half before and the following summer it was almost a dead zone. Nothing we planted did well, so we gathered our resources and came up with an amendment plan, thanks to the suggestion of our friend Scott Campbell. Aged horse manure, barley straw and early spring mowing. Became positively LUSH compared to last year.
New Discoveries
Horse trough raised beds Hori hori knife (my new favourite tool) Mexican Tarragon, Papalo, and Epezote
What could have been better?
Grapes. Plums. Carrots. Potatoes. Strawberries. Basil. Beans. Butternut Squash. My planting was too condensed, and I ended up shading some things I’d rather not have. I thought I planted bush beans, when they were in fact pole beans, and consequently they weren’t placed in the best spot. That was unfortunate. I experimented with two different ways to grow potatoes. Both were interesting and I’m glad I did it, but not that great of a yield.
What did I learn?
We’ve been growing tomatoes on the west side of the house which we knew was short on sun, but the best we had at the time. This year, the new greenhouse resolved that issue. 2021 is our last year for westside tomatoes. Next year, that partial sun/partial shade area will be best suitable for greens: lettuce and arugula, chard, kale, nasturtiums and celery.
We topped up all of our beds with aged horse manure and completely redid the entire strawberry bed, including new plants, following the recommendations of some trusted friends. I allowed too many other things to grow in it as the summer progressed: dill, poppies and sunflowers. Next year, I’m gonna limit that. We’ll deep water the strawberries right away (end of October), and cover them in leaves to tuck them in for a long winter’s sleep, and hope for better strawberries next year.
Plans for improvement next year?
Gonna rent a small inground garden plot in our community garden, to plant carrots, potatoes and maybe beets. Those root crops I just don’t seem to have sufficient room or sun for in my small garden, and if there’s one thing the community garden has a lot of, it is SUN!
Seeds for Next Year’s Garden
I ALWAYS buy seeds one year in advance. For the most part, what I plant in 2022 will be the seeds I purchased in late winter 2021, and so forth. It’s part of my personal philosophy of preparedness. There will always be an exception, something I decide to try NOW, but generally speaking, I plan at least one year ahead for gardening. I don’t ever want to have a spring when for some unforeseen reason, I am unable to get seeds. Preparedness is not just food storage.
Some of those seeds will be seeds I saved myself, especially tomato seeds from my own Romanian Giants, Nasturtiums, Poppies and Dill. Garden preparedness includes ensuring I have sufficient potting soil for next spring, as well as planting containers.
I get my seeds from assorted sources: a local seed store on the west side, one of several Canadian seed companies I order online, the odd package that catches my eye at a greenhouse or garden centre, and of course those that I propagate myself or that friends have shared. But for next year I have decided to try another Canadian seed company a friend recommended. I am looking for a company that deserves my loyalty.
Keep your plans for next year ACHIEVABLE.
Seed catalogues are full of all sorts of potential, and it’s good to try something new every year. Some thing you haven’t tried before, a new vegetable, a new type, a new way of doing things, . . . And there’s nothing wrong with trying something totally ‘out there’ from time to time, like watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, honeyberries …. You never know what’s gonna WORK, and you very well may be surprised. Some things may simply have been fun to try, but not really worth investing too much energy down the road, not to mention the garden space that may have been better used for other vegetables. And other things may be tremendous successes. However, keep the bulk of your garden plans for the “most likely to succeed” crops. Go for the tried and true types. Ask other gardeners for their recommendations.
We’re fully expecting our Honey Crisp Apple, which we transplanted into our former spruce area two springs ago, to amaze us in 2022. It got set back when we transplanted it, and had a rough season in exceptionally poor soil, but we’ve apologized, and have done our best to make up for that rough start. I also have high hopes for our Royal Plum, which produced this year, but sparsely.
I highly recommend keeping a garden journal of sorts. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re gonna be a great journaler if you’ve never done well with journals before, but don’t be a defeatest either. Commit to it. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, just a simple notebook will suffice – but have a book that is gonna stick around. Not just a collection of note papers.
Keeping a garden journal WILL improve your gardening experience, I promise. Why? Because you will hone your skills based on what you learned from previous seasons. It will provide you with historical information that will help you better predict future results. It will help you keep an inventory of your seeds and perennials, as well as record your harvests. It can effectively evolve into a personalized garden TEXT BOOK, and every year you add to it, it becomes more and more valuable.
What to include in your garden journal? 15 suggestions
Date your entries and write down your answers to the three questions above. Every year. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. This will be your core.
A pencil sketch of your garden layout with the year clearly marked. This is more important than you might think. You will want to ensure you rotate most crop areas, avoiding using the same spot year after year for the same vegetable.
A list of the plants that worked out best, and the ones that did NOT.
Dated sources for specific plants: greenhouses, nurseries or garden centres, seed companies, friends or neighbours.
Planting times, ready times, harvest times. Maybe even a few recipes you discovered.
Be more specific about times: dates you started seeds indoor, dates you transplanted them, and dates you planted seeds directly into the garden. Germination times. All these are things you THINK you’re gonna remember. Yeah right, you won’t. The information will come in handy for future years.
Soil tests, soil amendments and subsequent assessments of that soil.
Any problems with pests, diseases or other issues
Approximate dates of harvests and the type of yield you got. I don’t have the patience to weigh, measure or count, but I know some do that. I think that’s great. Just not for me.
Weather. I know right? But seriously, every year is unique, and not every season is good for every crop. So record your assessment on the weather trends by recording details, and make note of what crops are doing better than others. For instance, I have noticed that in our part of the city, we seem to be have less violence in the weather. The worst seems to go around us. I have also noted that other areas seem to get a frost quicker than we do, perhaps owing to our number of nearby trees creating a minor microclimate. You’ll be more likely to make note of weather patterns if you’re writing them down.
New changes and experiments. How else are you gonna track what works?
Suggestions, recommendations, and even recipes shared by other gardeners. I know, again with the recipes.
Expenses: how much spent in greenhouses and garden centres, seed catalogues, garden paraphernalia, new builds, maintenance of raised beds etc, cold frames, lattices etc
Hacks, suggestions, inspiration and ideas. Using your garden journal as the place to make quick notes about what they are, or where to find them, is the best way to keep them all in one spot for easy reference later
Personal reflections, inspiration and musings . . . . . after all, it IS a journal. It is part of you. It is a record of yourself.
What plans do you have for your garden next season?
