Candied pumpkin

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I still have 14 pumpkins from last year’s crop and I am told it is very difficult (impossible?) to store them over summer.  Shit!  I was under the impression that they could last out the year.

Oh, well, …  I haven’t given up hope.  Everything I have read says keep them in a cool dry place.  As you all know, there is no such place during an Australian summer.  The only other advice I have read to prolong their life is to wipe them with disinfectant.  This protects them from  bacteria.  I washed my pumpkins in diluted Pine-O-Cleen, made sure they were perfectly dry, then put them in the cool room.  Here’s hoping.

Postscript:  I have just read this post where a pumpkin soaked in a weak bleach solution was still perfect after nine months.  There is hope. Continue reading

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Home-made tomato extract or … from this … to this …

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As you all know (I have told you plenty of times so you must), I do rather well growing tomatoes, that is, if quantity is the measure of success. Continue reading

Mixed Herbs

IMG_2018 copyThis post is more a reminder than anything else.  Summer is coming to an end (thank goodness!!) and it is time to preserve those herbs you have been growing all season.  If you are like me, you would have barely made a dent in them.  A litte snip here and a little snip there doesn’t use much.

But drying them is another story.  A big bunch will dry down to a small jar which should last you until next summer’s fresh ones are flourishing. Continue reading