As the main canner and preserver in my family, I spend a few days in the autumn preserving as much of our harvest as I can. I usually end up with about 30 jars of pickled cucumbers, pickled beets, canned tomatoes, and pickled dill beans.
As we progress through November, it is easy to think that the harvest season is over. There are many plants, however, that are still ready to harvest and make a great addition to your fall larder. Acorns and wintergreen are mostly found in deciduous forests such as those found on the East Coast of North America; however, you can find different varieties of the same plants in many places. For instance, the greatest acorn producing oak tree on the east coast is the white oak, whereas the scrub oak is prevalent in the Rocky Mountain region.
The beginning of autumn is an incredible abundant time of harvest, and many plants are just coming into the height of their fruiting. This includes many plants that would normally be considered “weeds.” Many of these plants, however, are performing important ecosystem services in addition to being beneficial to humans. Get out your wild edibles guidebook and go hunting for these three plants you can find in early fall.
There’s nothing more heavenly than biting into a juicy peach, freshly plucked off the tree in your backyard. Here are some valuable tips on how to grow and care for your peach tree for a great harvest every year.
Imagine driving along the coast of California, admiring the gorgeous views and stunning beaches. You pull over, step out of the car, and smell the magical scent of fresh Pacific Ocean air. You breathe deep the ionically charged air, do a few stretches, and gather your seaweed harvesting tools and head down to the rocky beach. And your day begins for harvesting wild seaweed.
June is one of my favorite months. While April and May bring the promise of buds (and sometimes May gardening is plain delightful), June brings flowers: showy rhododendron, brilliant iris, scented lilac, and delicate poppies burst into bloom. Across the country temperatures begin to rise and days get longer, meaning early sunrise watering sessions or late-night tea out on the deck.
If you’re shameless about eating a pint of cherry tomatoes in the summer sun, you might consider including ground cherries in this year’s bounty. Though known by many a name—husk cherry, husk tomato, ground tomato, winter cherry, strawberry tomato, or cape gooseberry—the flavor of the ground cherry is like no other item you’ll sow in your garden.
Across the U.S., fall is here with the reddening of leaves, the number of pumpkin patches opening in October, and the crispness of the air, but fall is also ubiquitous in grocery stores and farmers markets.
September is often the time to reminisce on summer enjoyed and a fall to come; it’s that transitional month where kids are going back to school, schedules are picking back up, and the summer heat is finally beginning to dissipate. While you might not associate September with the best of what the garden has to offer, in many ways it’s actually the prime month for seasonal foods. Here are five surprising seasonal foods you should be trying now (and what, exactly, you should do with them). Happy eating!
