I used my last tomato from the 2012 season today for lunch. (Last of the peppers were used the last of December.) And onions won’t be far behind since only a few small ones from the main crop of 1500 remain.
I do have about a dozen multiplier onions that I saved for eating rather than planting this fall. They are such good keeps and will last about a year and half if necessary! In onion season and when I have a good amount of stored ones — we use at least 2 to 4 onions per day.
As of tomorrow I’ll start rationing one per day. That should get me through another couple of weeks. Also I have about a dozen or so large spring onions in the garden.
January 10 – last fresh tomato, onions, and multiplier onions.
My Plan for 12 months of garden grown Onions
Several years ago I made up my mind that I was not going to buy onions from the store anymore. They have no taste and who knows how or what has been done to them. (Yes, I know — I’m spoiled rotten —- and I love it!)
For two years we have not bought onions from the store. The only down side is — I still run out about February and have to go about 6 weeks without any onions until the current year’s crop gets big enough to start eating.
I plan to solve that this year but having more multipliers. I planted a lot of these this past fall and tried to place them in “prime real estate”. (I’m always short on space for onions — so many times they end up in less than ideal soil.) By being in better soil they should produce bigger bulbs.
Hopefully, after I plant again this coming fall — I’ll still have at least 6 dozen good sized bulbs to get me through February and March of 2014. (Will have taken 3 years total to plan well enough to have onions from my garden ALL 12 months!)
My Plan for Not Buying Tomato Sauce/Paste
In 2011 I found out about the dangerous chemicals they use to coat cans that food comes in. Since we don’t use a lot of canned things — that wouldn’t have been a problem for us —- except for tomato paste. That was one of my staples. Nonetheless I resolved not to buy any canned products after that.
And yes, I resolved the tomato paste problem. I use to make what I called tomato essence on top of the stove. Click here and scroll to tomato essence to see how I did it.
Then I discovered roasted tomatoes and quite by accident I discovered how to make the easiest and most delicious tomato sauce I’d EVER tasted. The sauce is the perfect texture and consistency you need for spaghetti sauce. Not only that but it saves me hours and hours of work because it’s so easy. I freeze it in pint size freezer bags for use all through the winter. (I’ve written more on that. The links to the posts are at the end of the this post.)
Final Thoughts
My goals to have more in the garden this winter were reached and I plan to set higher goals for next winter.
I’ve already started winter sown planting and can hardly wait for things to germinate.
Raising your own food raises your standard of eating (and living). It’s a great way of life! I hope you’ll join me in experiencing it if you haven’t already.
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Related Posts;
Tomatoes Roasted for the easiest most delicious Tomato sauce
A Quick and Delicious Tomato Sauce
Addendum to a Quick and Delicious Tomato Sauce
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Organic gardening is easy, efficient, and effective —- and it’s a lot healthier!
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Really Theresa, with your levels of enthusiasm – I just can’t read TMG without getting more excited about the garden. I too am resolved not to buy canned goods for the same reason.
Thanks for the big boost your posts always give me – to get going. I want to bottle some of your zest!!!
Way to go Theresa!, your onions and tomato look lovely. We are still using shallots from the garden and I picked a couple of leeks in the cold house that I had transplanted from the garden. After I peeled the outer leaves there was a nice fresh leek underneath. This was my first year at trying to produce something in the Winter. As I am writing this, the snow is falling once again, but when there is a break my hubby will trek out to the cold house and see what is surviving. We still have cutting celery and parsley in the cold house. Not a lot, but enough for a fresh taste of Spring. I am so pleased with the food we “put up” last Fall. A bag from the freezer, a jar from the pantry all bring fond memories of the wonderful vegetables we produced from our garden. Thanks to you and your helpful tips, encouragement and techniques. Today we were in the grocery store and as I was browsing the canned goods aisle, I realized how many of the items we had grown and preserved ourselves. That really made me feel good. Happy winter sowing!!!
Really glad to hear of your resolve not to buy canned goods. I think we’ll be healthier because of it.
And Sandra — I’d like to bottle some of my zest too —– for down times. If I can get enough stored up — I’ll share. 🙂
Theresa
Alice you did a great job this past season and now into the winter. Just think of this coming season! It will be great I’ll bet.
And by the way — I ordered seed for the cutting celery. (Hope it’s the same kind you have.) I can hardly wait to try it.
Spring is almost upon us — although I may have a hard time convincing you of that with all the snow you have.
Enjoyed your report Alice!
Theresa
I don’t know how in the world that you had a tomato at this time of year! We are much farther south, and we have never had any tomatoes past October. I need to know all of your secrets:-) I will try not to pester you too much, though. I just have WAY too many questions!
If you still have questions after you search TMG — feel free to ask. I’m happy to answer whenever I can, Laura.
Tomatoes are easy. Basically you need a cool place. And although I have store them in boxes before as shown in one of the posts — open air is better. Here are 3 posts. This one shows the harvest that contained the tomato shown in this post.
Here are two more that will give you a lot more detail. One and two.
So glad you’re reading!
Theresa