Taking the wilted sprigs out of the bag, I cut the ends off with a sharp knife. Don’t use scissors for this. They will crush the stems. Then I stuck the whole thing in a jar of purified water.

It looked pretty sad and I was wondering if I should write it off as a loss and discard it. I decided to give it a chance, though. I was glad I did because here’s what it looked like a few hours later:

Now, I’m not saying that the nutritional value was as much as when it was freshly picked but it made it salvageable. This will also work with salad greens and tougher greens like collards and kale. If the water is hot (not so hot you can’t put your hand in it) it works even more quickly.

While fresh produce should be used as soon as possible for maximum value, it isn’t always possible. Keep this in mind for your next emergency resuscitation.

First, I washed them well with Veggie Wash.

Then I sliced them onto the dehydrator trays.

Next I seasoned them. I used Himalayan sea salt and Italian seasoning on some as well a pizza seasoning on the rest. I used a light hand for this because I remembered that flavors intensify when they are dehydrated.

Try as I might, the seasoning wasn’t completely even but that was okay. I wasn’t in it to win a contest.

The dehydrator was set at 115 degrees or thereabout (I can’t see the dial because it’s sitting where the microwave used to live and it’s in sort of a “cave”).

I monitored the progress and, after 24 hours, they were still too moist to take out. I waited and extra 12 (your time may vary according to the humidity) and they were perfect.

Peeling them off the ParaFlexx sheets, I stored them in a quart size freezer bag. Of course, I had to have some samples, too.

The end product is chewy, not crisp. There’s still a bit of moisture left no matter what (unless you dry them at a high temperature) so I would advise storing them in the freezer.

Now for something I will do differently next time. I left the peeling on. It’s rather tough when it’s dry. I’d scald the tomatoes in boiling water for 10 or so seconds (I’ve heard keeping them in there for anywhere from 30 seconds to a full minute but that makes for a mushy tomato) and slip the peeling off. Then slice and prepare as above.

Happy harvesting!

It won’t be long until the first cherry tomatoes will be ready to pick from my Topsy Turvy plant.

Everything is really taking off. It’s that mushroom dirt all over again. I sampled the romaine and it was bitter so I pulled it up and planted arugula where it had been.

When I spied some shiny green leaves among the onions, I thought my neighbor might have planted a sweet potato there but then I remembered! I had a jicama that had almost dried up so I took it and buried it right down to the bottom of the box. It has come up! I wonder if I will have jicamas to harvest…I’d looked online about growing them but all I found was jicama seed and nothing about growing them from the tuber itself. This says it’s actually a legume. Guess that’s so much for not planting sprawling vines this year.

My neighbor got the original boxes filled so I had a burst of energy Monday evening and planted them. It’s cilantro and dill. I know that’s more cilantro than I’ll need—probably. The way I’ve been eating it, maybe not.

So, how does your garden grow?

I found a teeny tiny cherry tomato today!

The onion patch also contains romaine, arugula, a tater plant my neighbor planted, parsley and cilantro. I think that’s all. I’ve been having arugula and cilantro in my salads and it makes them so good!

Here’s a closeup of the romaine plants that have some good-sized heads on them. I haven’t made a salad with it yet. It may be bitter because of the hot weather we’ve been having. I’ll be able to get it out earlier next year to ensure that it’s sweet. I told my neighbor he could use the outside leaves if he wanted but he hasn’t taken me up on it. I really wanted to see if they would grow this big and they did!

This is the neighbor’s tater plant. It’s impossible to hill it where it is but you’ll have to agree it’s beautiful.

I’m being more conservative with my tomato plants this year. Last year was a disaster. I want TOMATOES this year. I have six plants and four different varieties. Cucumbers are at the far end. Basil is in the middle and dill is along the side.

Anyone want a tree? This one came up in one of my first square foot boxes. My neighbor worked on increasing the depth by another 6″ today. The box was lacking the lower end when I took its picture.

This one is ready for the dirt (when I get the weeds out) and plants. I have arugula, more dill, cilantro and tomato plants that I started to put in these boxes.

There were a couple of volunteer romaine plants that I transplanted to the larger upper box.

That does it for the 8,000 words! Until next time, I’m signing off.

After I got the laundry on the line, I started in on planting more onions. I kind of overdid it when I bought the sets. There are ‘way more than I really need but I’ll share with my neighbors. (I pulled four this evening, shared two and ate mine—whew! HOT!!) (I think I should have planted them as soon as the ground thawed.) The weather we’ve had makes for hot onions and bitter lettuce. I haven’t tried the romaine yet so I can’t really say for sure it’s bitter.

Where I pulled a couple of the onions, I transplanted two of my arugula plants. That’s where the dirt is wet.

I’d stored the soaker hoses inside over the winter. I hauled them out and found that one had broken in two. My neighbor got some tape and put it back together. He said it would leak at that spot but it leaks all over so that’s okay.

Last fall, I got some coir bricks and kept them for the spring. After I put the soaker hose in the box, I started soaking the coir. It took me working on it throughout the day to get it all soaked and spread on the empty (I thought) box. My neighbor has put some potatoes in the end of it, too.

Here’s the potato plant that was barely showing up last week.

My neighbor of the female gender got the pump out and made sure it was working. When we hit a dry spell, it will be all ready.

Her husband came over and put up the hooks for the Topsy Turvy (a big beefy one) and smaller ones for the hummingbird feeders and wind chimes. And here is the first picture of the deck, all decked out! The next project is getting some furniture for it.

If you want to get a better look, click on the picture, then All Sizes and choose a larger one.

The big black thing in front is my composter. I’m going to spread what little compost that will be ready on the garden that still has to be tilled.

Not much has been done but it’s a start. There’s lots more to do. My Square Foot Garden 2010.

Besides doing lots of other things, I hauled nine buckets full of mushroom dirt (complete with huge fat earthworms) to put into the upper box where the tomatoes were last year. I had been thinking I would need to treat the soil for blight but I was listening to the radio the other day and an expert said the cold weather would kill it. We certainly had enough cold weather so I took a chance and filled half the box and planted nine romaine plants (some of them had two in a section so there’s really probably a dozen), onions and arugula. The last is seed but it’s prolific and I’m sure it will sprout.

I had intended to plant my birthday present seed starting kit, too, but I’ve run out of time. That will have to come later. Not much later, though, or it will be too late.

Things were going pretty well until I tangled with Smokey, my neighbor cat. He will come over and meow and meow for food and stalk me. I told him to go tell his master he was hungry but he persisted. I had on my Curves sandals which have very thick soles. I’d pushed him out of the way several times but he’d get right back in front of me. I was carrying the bucket and a container for water and lost sight of him just long enough to step on some part of his anatomy—probably his foot. He screeched and wheeled around, getting my right big toe and the one next to it. I’m not sure whether he bit me or scratched me or both.

Working at the hospital, I’ve seen the results of cat scratches and bites. Not wanting to take a chance, I came in and washed my toe with peroxide. I didn’t realize then that the second toe was involved, too. The peroxide seemed to be flat so I got out something better—tea tree oil. I’ve cleaned them several times with that. I wish they had bled a lot but they haven’t. I don’t blame Smokey. He was doing what comes naturally to a cat. He has been leery about getting too close to me, though.

Well, I’ve had a busy day and I think I’ll reward myself with a bath.

Last Sunday, I picked the melons that appeared to be ripe and lined them up for a Picture for Posterity.

I let them sit outside overnight until the next afternoon so the dirt on them would get dry. As I was bringing them in, the stem on the smallest one broke just as I was coming up the steps and it burst. I brought it in and washed it off as well as I could and split it open. It was solid inside and a nice red. I didn’t think to take its picture so you’ll have to trust me. I chunked it up and put it in a three cup container in the fridge. Next day, I finished cutting up my next to the last watermelon I’d bought and put the homegrown one in with it. It was the first of my own melon I took to work to eat for lunch. A milestone!

Tonight, I washed three melons and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. I hope it won’t take all three but who knows? They may be spongy like the big one but I hope not. They are what are sold as “personal” melons—at least, size wise. We’ll see in the morning.

Seems the cucumbers have outlasted the pickle worms for the most part. I’m able to get a few here and there. I almost bought some pickling cucumbers yesterday at Wally World but I decided I’ll eat the ones from the garden as long as they are producing. The vines look sad but I had a cucumber in my salad today that was the crispest one I’ve ever eaten. This picture is of what I harvested Sunday and they are long gone.

They aren’t pretty but, boy! are they good!!

I had planned to plant kale last Sunday but I had a hard time feeling any way but do-less. If I don’t get it out soon, I might as well not plant it at all until spring. That wouldn’t be a good deal, either, because it’s so much better when there’s been a good frost to make it sweeter. This Sunday, I’ll try to get myself in gear.

All in all, the garden has been a success as far as cucumbers and peppers are concerned. The jury is still out on the bulk of the watermelons and we all know the tomato crop was a disaster. I plan to plant some lettuces and arugula now that the days are getting cooler. I’d say I have a long way to go to break even on the cost of the boxes. However, to me, gardening is having the satisfaction of eating the fruits of my labor and, as They say, that’s priceless.

I filled the sink with water and washed the dirt off the fruit (yes, tomatoes are a fruit). Then I sliced the larger ones in four lengthwise slices and the smaller ones in three and put them on dehydrator trays I’d wiped down with a microscopically thin layer of olive oil. That was to keep them from sticking when they were ready to come out of their warm home.

Some 24 hours later (more or less) I checked them and rotated the trays. Here’s what they looked like at that stage:

I don’t have a thermostat on my dehydrator so I can’t accurately set it for a constant temperature. It’s very basic but it works. I got it years ago from VitaMix. It’s no longer manufactured.

Back to the tomatoes. The next evening, I checked them again and they were ready to be packaged.

A little snack-size plastic bag held one tray full of dehydrated tomato slices. I had 13 trays filled so I had 13 snack bags when I finished.

Since the little bags aren’t made for keeping foods longterm, I put all of them into a freezer bag labeled with the contents and the year.

My dehydrator doesn’t dehydrate foods evenly so I put it in the freezer to await the future. The slices that had solid skin on one side were still a little soft and I don’t want mold in my ‘maters. BTW, as I unloaded the trays, I snacked on some of the slices and they were GOOD.

Making your own faux sun dried tomatoes is very easy. It does take time but anything worth doing does. And think how good they’ll be in a marinara sauce this winter!

There aren’t very many avenues of preservation open to the raw foodist. Freezing and dehydrating are two and neither would be considered optimal. However, you do what you have to do to put food on the table. A third is fermenting but that’s an altogether different ball of wax. I’ve chronicled my making of kim chee elsewhere on my blog but that’s as far as I’ve gone with fermenting. I got an email from merm not too long ago that he had made pickles in their crock but I haven’t ventured there yet.

A few years ago, one of the nursing staff and I were discussing basil and I said I wished I could do something with it besides drying it. Dried basil doesn’t have the same bright flavor that fresh does. She said, “Freeze it!” and she told me how to do it. It’s pretty basic. And it’s easy. Two of my favorite things.

Since basil is an ingredient rather than something you would make a meal on, it doesn’t have to take up that much room in the freezer.

First, I harvested a good hand full of basil from the garden.

I don’t wash it. You can if you want. It’s my preference not to. It isn’t dirty—at least mine isn’t. Maybe the rain has splashed mud onto yours. Anyway, I pinch any buds out of the top (they can be bitter) and fold the leaves up into a bunch. These are some scissors I inherited from my mother. I washed them well and use them in the kitchen now. I snip away at the leaves.

Here’s a goodly amount shredded and ready for the next step. The edges may get a little brown but we are going for flavor here, not looks.

I pack the ice tray as tightly as I can with the shredded basil.

It doesn’t matter if some of the sections are fuller than others. This isn’t rocket science. When I get them full, I pour in purified water to the top of the tray. I don’t stop at the top of the sections. I go as close as I can to the top of the tray, itself.

Then it goes into the freezer until it’s frozen solid.

Once frozen, it can be tricky to get out of the tray. I tried twisting the tray but it was stuck, for sure. When I was a child, my mother had ice trays with levers that would move the sections and pop the ice cubes out but I haven’t seen any of those for years. With this plastic one, I turn it over and run water (cold is fine) on the bottom. Then I twist it over a bowl and pop the cubes out.

At this point, they are really rather pretty. Kind of like green jewels. Break them apart and put them in a labeled freezer bag and (TADA!!) put them back in the freezer. I can keep adding to the bag until it’s full and then start another one.

To use, I put one cube in one recipe of Matt’s Dip. I like it very basil-y. Try varying the amount of basil in the sections if less is wanted. But why would you want less?

My goal is not to buy ANY basil and have enough to last me until next year’s crop is ready. I should be able to make it, no problem.

You can’t see the cucumbers but they’re there. I’ve gotten so I sneak over to the neighbor’s house and leave the extras on the counter and run. I took some to work and couldn’t give them away. They are lovely cukes and people are missing a lot by not taking them but, oh, well!

Here are the poor pitiful cherry tomato plants. They are producing and I’ve picked a few so far but haven’t eaten them yet.

Here’s a Black Diamond melon I hadn’t discovered until the other day and it’s the biggest one in the patch. You can see where I put my fingerprints on it. My hand is to give an idea of the size. Just so you know, I have huge hands—NOT!

This is a yellow flesh watermelon. I do hope it matures and ripens before frost! You can see where I’ve scattered some good, sweet cherry tomatoes in the hope they will come up volunteer next spring.

These are two of my newest Black Diamond melons. I doubt they’ll make it before frost but they surely are trying!

Please, please ripen soon! I want some peppers from my own garden!

So, there you have it for this week. We’ll see if there are any earthshaking changes next week.