Veg Patch

To read the story of my Veg/Flower Patch in chronological order use the links in the Blog Archive

Saturday 21 September 2013

Hanging on by its fingertips!

Summer that is. Every time I think I should turn on the heating and get settled in for Autumn the sun reappears. Once again this weekend after a couple of miserable wet day, the sun has got his hat on and it looks like our TR club run in Freda tomorrow will be blessed with a nice dry day. 

And that brings me to my flowers. I thought by now I would be buying them at the supermarket or elsewhere, but each time I need a new vase full I manage to find enough to fill it. There are still loads looking beautiful.







And my Helianthus Giganteus are only just flowering




Elsewhere in the garden, the tomatoes just keep coming, 


so it was time to try some in my new dehydrator. I wasnt quite sure how to prepare them and was thinking about looking it up online. Wandering past my bookcase, I stopped to pick up one of the dogs toys and looked at the books. I noticed a book on the shelf, I had no memory of buying, so it must have been a gift, but sorry cant remember who from, anyway , who knew,I have a book about preserving veg !!


And luckily there was a section on preserving and drying tomatoes, so out came the dehydrator again


A quick wash and dry and then cut in half and a bit of salt sprinkled on each piece and that was it. It did say though it may take up to 24 hours to dry them. 


As it was going to be running, I decided to try drying some of my herbs to see how they came out. So I picked Sage, Rosemary and Thyme




The smell was amazing. The herbs took a few hours. As this was only an experiment, I only dried small amounts and didnt have any jars to store them in. But once dry, the concentrated smell of each herb was wonderful. I am going to have to buy some jars and do loads. 




A great many hours later, the tomatoes were also begining to look ready. I had decided to try and store them like the sundried tomatoes you buy in the shops, so I sterilised a kilner jar and added some of my dried thyme.


Then as the tomatoes were dry enough, 


they were added to the jar


And then covered with a nice olive oil



I have tried one and they are very tasty. 

Outside, I have continued to tidy up the patch . The sweet pea tower was the next to be  cleared. 



And then whilst rummaging around in the flowers patch I noticed this. Its is one of the Bells of Ireland. I think it looks beautiful even though it is now dead.



The Nigella seed pods are also very exotic looking, like they have come off the set of a Sci Fi Movie


This afternoons job is to try and tidy up the greenhouse a bit, it has got very messy lately



Finally  in the veg patch, after a couple of nervous nights for me, when the wind was howling, I am pleased to report that the Courgette/Veg Spaghetti/Pumpkin towers are still standing and the three huge pumpkins look pretty much ready. I may cut them this week .



Gibson, makes his last attempt of the summer to win a class in a dog show today. Its very local today, just around the corner. He says if he doesn't win this time, he is going to retire from the whole summer dog show scene.. 


Well thats all today, so I shall finish with two last beauties a rainbow over the house the other day


And Freda getting herself ready for our run tomorrow


Have a great week

14 comments:

  1. Awesome Post Lorraine and thanks for sharing

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  2. Gibson is a winner anyway isn't he? Those bells of Ire;land would look good sprayed.

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    1. Hi Sue, Gibson says thanks.. No rosettes. it was total chaos and we decided not to stay. dogs running amok everywhere. He has therefore retired...

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  3. Helianthus Giganteus are beautiful! Let Gibson know we all think he is the most handsome of them all....judges obviously have poor taste :)

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  4. Your garden looks amazing! I have a total black thumb and kill almost everything. I can't believe how lush and abundant your tomato plants are :) I did plant potatoes this year and haven't (yet) messed them up. It definitely feels like fall in the Midwest and I'm getting excited to see the leaves start to change colors!

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  5. thanks for showing us your garden today, I love the dried tomato and herb oil demo and from your harvest...thanks again for linking up today with Travel Photo Mondays

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  6. I could almost smell the herbs as you started to dry them. Those Bells of Ireland are so pretty!
    Everything here looks bold and beautiful. Love Freda too~
    http://insidejourneys.com

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  7. I didn't realise you could dry tomatoes. What a great idea when you have a glut of them. The photos made it look so easy.

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    1. The flavour becomes very concentrated and if you dont have a dehydrator you could do it slowly in a very low oven..

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  8. Lovely photos!

    I just love how the internet allows us to visit gardens all around the globe. I never tire of that!

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  9. I'm not sure where you're located, but I was surprised by how much you still have in bloom! What a pretty little bouquet you made. Wish I could smell the dried herbs over the internet (we need smell-o-vision:)) This is my first visit here, but I'll be sure to visit again, I became a follower.

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  10. looks like a useful book.

    the Bells of Ireland look like they'd work in a nice winter dried arrangement.

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