Dig!

We have very rocky, poor soil on our hilltop. I use raised beds for my vegetable gardens. I have used Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening mix of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost for a few years. It has lots of advantages, the greatest of which is the lack of weeds (I pulled 3 weeds from a bed one season). However, since it consists of most or all purchased materials, this method is not economically feasible on any scale.
I have read of the wonders of double dug beds, but assumed they were too labor intensive for this busy stay-at-home mom. Double dug beds, in a nutshell, involve digging two shovel depths into the ground.

I thought I'd try a combination of the two ideas. So I dug one shovel depth down and worked in some purchased organic soil. The overall depth of loosened soil was almost equivalent to a double dug bed. Here is the sorghum growing in this space.

Not 50' away, planted on the same day, receiving the same light, is the other sorghum. I dug about a half shovel depth and worked in the same purchased soil. 

I am completely sold on my hybrid method. Obviously the digging depth has an enormous effect on the plants. I plan to garden in well-dug fluffy soil from here on. 

Freezing Corn

This year, I planted corn expressly to freeze some of the bounty. I chose the variety Bodacious, which had excellent reviews. It proved to have excellent flavor.

I blanched the corn for about 5 minutes and then immediately submerged in ice water until cool.

I cut it from the cob the old fashioned way - with a knife. I love my Old Hickory knives from Lehman's. https://www.lehmans.com For me, about a dozen ears made one quart of corn for the freezer.

Someday I'll invest in lots of glass jars for food storage. I have small jars I use for dried foods and I have large jars for canning, but not much in between. So I resorted to plastic bags to store the corn. I like to use Ziploc freezer bags, which are BPA free.

As a side note, I imagine in a few years we'll find some other terrible chemical that's in plastic and is going to cause loads of health problems (like BPA). I try to minimize my use of plastic and am always sure to only put cool (never hot) foods in plastic containers. I am slowly transitioning everything to steel and glass.

I fold the bag over like so to keep the seal clean. I wipe the seal with a wet paper towel to remove any bits of corn that might have made contact. Then simply remove as much air as possible from the bag, seal it, date it, and put it in the freezer.

Drying Tomatoes

In my youth, I despised fresh tomatoes. They were a unique form of torture. Now I can tolerate them; occasionally I even enjoy them. But I love dried tomatoes. My preferred method of consumption is on top of freshly cooked pasta covered in olive oil with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. That dish is so wonderful, in fact, that I planted tomato plants expressly for the purpose of drying the fruits.

The ones I grew myself are below. I simply sliced them, sprinkled some sea salt on top and threw on some basil.

These I purchased. I blanched (about 30 seconds) them and removed the skins to facilitate quicker drying. I sliced these grape tomatoes in half.

I dried the tomatoes at 145 F for a couple hours and then 135 F for about five more hours. The time can vary greatly depending on the size of the tomato. They should be leathery, somewhat pliable, but ...well, dry.

Some in the top photo are actually a bit too done. Notice the handful of dark tomatoes. And some of these were not quite dry enough for storage. I left those a bit longer.

 I stored them in an airtight container and am looking forward to my favorite pasta dish on a cold winter day!