Getting The Most Out Of What I've Got

We had a small but successful garden this year. Because of a back yard re-model, we moved the location of our yearly garden to the side of our house. There, we only had room enough to grow:
2 tomato (1- Cherry, and 1- Round Red) plants
3 pepper (1- Yellow Bell, 2- Fajita Bell) plants
1 row of spinach (the quail got 'em ALL, Grrr!)
1 row of Swiss Chard (too much, although these can be chopped and frozen, next year 1 plant)
and a patch of herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro, and chive).

My tomato plants did SO well this year, that a few weeks ago they had more than outgrown their tomato cages. And there were still tons of large and beautiful tomatoes, green and ready to ripen. But the weather was going to turn cold and freeze by the next day. So in order to try and get as much as I could out of those plants, I harvested entire branches. I then tied two or three branches together and hung them inside my house in windows that get plenty of light.







I wasn't sure how it was gong to turn out. But I'm so glad I did it.

I also cut large pieces of Rosemary and Thyme from their plants and packed them into ziplock bags with wet paper towel and holes punched in the top of the bags. These herbs have kept beautifully in my fridge for weeks and should make it through Thanksgiving at least!



I harvested all the good tomatoes from their branches today and am excited to have a large amount for my family plus seven bags put together of tomatoes and herbs to share with families in our neighborhood.



To think, if I hadn't brought them inside, they would have frozen, gone bad, and I'd be BUYING tomatoes already. Instead, we continued to be able to eat out of our garden for the past few weeks. Even if the garden had to come inside for us to do it!