Christmas Cactus Are in Bloom

Orange Christmas Cactus

Pink Christmas Cactus

A Little Surprise Popped Up

After cleaning up last week, and putting my pots aside for next year's growing season I noticed a plant that had popped up since then. To my surprise it was a new tomato plant which must have come up from seeds from the remaining tiny tomatoes that fell off the old plants as I pulled them out of their pots. I had 2 kinds of tomatoes, regular large Burpee Reds and the small Yellow Pears about the size of large cherry tomatoes.  I hope its one of the Yellow Pear Tomato plants.  I can't believe how big it is already!  I must save this and nurture it through the winter. Maybe we will have fresh garden tomatoes for Christmas!

Volunteer Tomato Plant

 While I was outside I took a couple more pictures.

 4 Pots on Front Porch of Potted Mums & Summer Plants

And here is my "FIND of the Day"

While I was out doing some last minute errands this morning, I ran across a 90% off Sale at Dollar General Store....10 inch plastic pots suitable for house plants or patio gardening reduced from $3.00 to 90 cents!! They had 4 I bought them all!

Cheap 10 inch Pots

 

Saturday Chores

Well today was the official day to clean up the patio garden. 

Out with the old, and cleaning up for the new!

It took me a while, but I cleaned most of it up. Dumping the old soil from most of the pots and saving it in a black garbage bag with some compost should provide a good mix with the new soil next year.  Some pots I left with the soil in and will decide if I will reuse it next season.

Patio Garden Summer 2012

Fall 2012 Clean-up

Patio Garden Summer 2012

Fall 2012 Clean-up

Pots lined up near house, ready for the 2013 Planting Season to begin

Ready to go for Planting 2012

When I was outside cleaning up the patio, I noticed the color and size of my Mums was especially lucious this year...the above picture (at the far end of the pots) doesn't do them justice so I took a close up below....

Purple Mums 2012

The plant boxes on the front porch still look nice from Summer, as well as the small mums that I recently planted behind them.

Front Door Summer pots & Fall pots behind

My New Toys

On Thursday my new toys arrived from Amazon. I was so excited to see UPS pull up at work, knowing that all the items I ordered would be on the truck.  I had him put everything in my trunk...but then I had to wait until I got home to peruse all the merchandise.  

1.  Nesco American Harvest FD-61WHC Snackmaster Express Food Dehydrator All-In-One Kit with Jerky Gun

Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator

Small booklet that came with Dehydrator is very helpful

Something that I forgot to mention earlier was the 2 reasons I selected this Dehydrator to start out with.
A.   The reviews on Amazon were consistently the best I had seen after searching many dehydrators.
B.   The Nesco says it is MADE IN AMERICA (but the fan/heater mechanism is made in China)

Confirmation that I slected the right brand:
When reading the booklet when I first opened the box, I had questions. I saw in the booklet that Nesco has a Customer Service 800#, so I placed a call. The woman in customer service was extremely nice and helpful PLUS I could understand every word she said!  Even when I called back with more questions, speaking with a different Customer Service person, she was equally nice and helpful. I would highly recommend buying American!!!

2.  The Dehydrator Bible by Jennifer McKenzie, Jay Nutt, & Don Mercer

 

3. Back to Basics Apple & Potato Peeler

Before I got home a very nice friend had called me at work and asked if I liked sweet potatoes. Of course I said yes, and he said he would be over before I left work to bring me some.  To my surprise, he had a case of potatoes for me. I couldn't believe that on the very day my items came from Amazon, that I now had an abundance of vegetables to put up and use my new toys. 

Remaining Sweet Potatoes to be Dehydrated tomorrow

As soon as I got home, I opened all the items, and began reading the instructions and getting my game plan for how I was going to tackle those sweet potatoes the next day. So Friday morning I got to work on them. Unfortunately due to the irregularity of sweet potatoes, the  potato peeler wasn't much help, so I had to peel and slice them by hand. I got about 1/3 of them done, and in the dehydrator for the next 12+ hours. We also had a couple whole sweet potatoes for dinner that night and they were yummy!

My Electric Meat Slicer sure came in handy with those Potatoes

I have several resources for my recipes and instructions for my processes now. The Dehydrator came with a little booklet, I have what I copied online and now with The Dehydrator Bible I have plenty to decide from.  I documented all the preparations and started a journal. 

I also pulled out a lean cut of a small sirloin steak that I had in the freezer and decided to cut it into strips and marinate it to try out making Beef Jerky. There is an abundance of Jerky seasoning recipes online and in the books that I now have.  I set that in the refrigerator over night and decided that once the Sweet Potatoes were ready I could put the Jerky in the Dehydrator and give that a whirl for 8 hours.

The Potatoes came out fine, I bagged them in zip-lock style freezer bags and threw them in the freezer since I don't have a vacuum sealer yet. That is next on my list.  Amazon or perhaps Wal-Mart?  I will let you know...

Food Dehydration

I found some interesting websites that of course led me to other sites.  I am so excited!  I have been wanting to learn more about food preservation, and how to extend the life of my garden.  I have so much to learn.

I came across a website called Dehydrate2Store which has videos as well as printed "how to" information on dehydration, and recipes. It is for the beginner as well as the seasoned food dehydrator. It made it all look so simple. It is a free website with a newsletter which you can sign up to receive via email.  I printed off a lot of material which they have on their website as well as pdf docs to download and save. This is a great little site...I recommend it for the beginner.

The next step was to research food dehydration further, including books, equipment, packaging, and utensils for usage and safe handling. 

Here is what I found:  

The Dehydrator Bible:

The comprehensive handbook for dehydrating foods at home. Dehydrating is one of the most effective ways to preserve food for maximum nutrition at very low cost. Sales of dehydrators are soaring as many cooks reject the suspect ingredients in commercially prepared foods. Dehydrating with the recipes in this book is one way to control all ingredients and please the whole family.Recipes for dried ingredients include herbs and seasonings, fruits, fruit leathers, vegetables and beef jerky. These nutritious ingredients are included in 400 delicious recipes. 

Food Dehydrator by Nesco  

• All-in-one kit has a top mounted fanEasily dries fruit, vegetables and jerky quickly and evenly
• Comes with 5 trays and jerky gun
• Includes fruit roll sheet; recipe guide
• Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging 

Fall Planning

It's time to prepare for a fall garden in my small greenhouse.  I let things go by the first of August because it became too hot and difficult to maintain. Everything was harvested and the watering became very costly.  I lost my Brussel sprouts for some reason they never reached maturity and began to blossom...sighs

Now I am ready to plan my Winter Greenhouse.

These are the Vegetables that I will be planting:
 

Spinach is a favorite for salads and savory baked meals alike. Spinach won't survive the harsh winters of the Northeast, but will tough it out through the seasons in the rest of the U.S.

Carrots survive larger containers by keeping warm deep in the soil. Carrots are great raw or roasted or even grated into sweet treats like carrot cake and muffins.

Harvesting & Failures

I am learning so much this year. What works in containers in South Carolina and what doesn't work as well.  We are having an unusually HOT summer earlier than normal. 

Lesson 1

The Sweet Corn in the pots did not fare well. It started out growing well, then once it got about 1/3 the grown size it started to turn brown and became deformed. 

Stunted & Deformed Cord

 The corn in the raised bed aside the porch in a shadier place is growing well. Next year all corn will be over there and not in a container.

 Lesson 2

The Pole beans need more room to climb than what I strung up around the containers. I have purchased a flexible trellis for next year to use near the back side of the house. This will be used for the Pole beans as well as Cucumbers.

Lesson 3

The Tomatoes need to be in a shadier place. Morning sun with mixed afternoon sun is enough in South Carolina.

Lesson 4

Stagger the seeding of the Zucchini and Summer Squash so it doesn't all come at once.

Lesson 5

Lettuce & Spinach seems to be a Spring crop. Start earlier & stagger.

Lesson 6
The Brussel Sprouts need deeper containers.

Lesson 7
Move garden to other side of the patio where it will receive less afternoon sun.

I plan to start my plants in the greenhouse in February, and plant as early as March 1st depending on the weather and frost dates. I can keep them on the screened porch before I plant outside.

As of think of more lessons that I have learned I will post them.

Huge, Beautiful & Tasty Red Peppers