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I have to say, I am humbled this morning as I have discovered this blog has topped half a million page views since I started it in December of 2009.  I had NO idea how fun this would be and how many people I would be able to help out with simple recipes and ideas.  THANK YOU - all of you - my "Gentle Readers."

Dehydrating to save space...

Since we are now in a considerably smaller house, and my food storage space is much reduced, I've been doing a lot more dehydrating this year.  I've canned a few things, But now all of that space is filled.  Here is the shelf where I have the things I've dehydrated.

It is so convenient to make soup in a pressure saucepan, and I really enjoy having these items to use.  It only takes 10 minutes, at pressure, for the soup to be ready and as good as if I had simmered it all day.

I think these are the things I have done: green beans, sweet corn, diced potatoes, kale powder, tomatoes, tomato powder, small yellow tomatoes, summer squash, celery, cucumbers, green tomato slices, oyster mushrooms and okra.

A view from my kitchen...

There is a lot going on in the kitchen these days...

     On the kitchen island this morning, I can see...

          A bucket of brined dills, a bucket of 14 - day sweet pickles, jars of dehydrated vegetables,

               jars of garlic seeds, canned tomatoes, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, sweet corn...

                    Right in the middle is a jar with a little bit of sauerkraut.  A friend gave me a small cabbage from her garden, so I made kraut for her and will take it to her this afternoon.  :)

I love this time of year.

Re-post - Preserving Fresh Basil!

I would like to remind you that if you still have fresh basil, you can very easily save it to use all winter long!  Here is a post I did a few years ago about that:

How to Preserve fresh Genovese Basil

I have never tried companion planting before. I grew my own Genovese basil transplants this year and so had quite a few and decided to plant them next to tomato plants, as I had heard that is a good combination. It must be. I've never had such glorious basil before! The basil is on the left next to the tomato plant.



I went out this afternoon and cut a basketful of the fresh basil.



Then I removed the leaves from the stems, washed them well and gave them a few spins in the salad spinner.



Next I chopped them in the food processor and put them into a quart jar.



Finally, I covered them with raw apple cider vinegar and put a lid on the jar.



If my house was cooler, I'd just let it sit in a cupboard, but the house gets pretty hot this time of year, so I will store it in the refrigerator. When I want basil for cooking (pesto, spaghetti sauce, pizza, soup, roast, chicken.. etc.) I can just retrieve what I need and it will be like having fresh basil all year!