Growing and Preserving Food for the benefit of Self, Community, and the Planet

Growing some of your own food and preserving some of the harvest is a great way to help provide a year round supply of wholesome food for your family and others around you. When you grow and preserve your own food, you can be assured of the quality and the care taken to produce it. The money savings from growing your own food is another benefit - the mason jars used for the food preservation are sanitized and re-used for the next year - this also cuts back on the waste created on our planet from discarded food packaging. Helping out a neighbor in need by showing them how to preserve their own food, gifting them some of your extra preserves, or by making preserve trades with them is a great way to build community. There will be many updates for this project as I document and walk through the harvest and preservation process of my cabin terrace garden. The goal of this project is inspire people to grow and preserve their own food, and to provide the step-by-step instructions for the preservation. Small steps towards a healthier planet.

Cabin Terrace Garden Harvests on the Way

It was slow start this growing season for the new cabin terrace garden, but with consistent watering and a topping of compost - the garden is growing well and filling in nicely. In the picture below you can see Hungarian hot wax peppers that I will let turn red until more 'banana peppers' are ready for harvest.

Plans for Preserving the Harvest

In the picture below you can see the small garden that is growing a variety of cherry tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, cayenne hot peppers, and Hungarian hot wax peppers. I suspect there are a few more weeks until I'll be harvesting much from the garden. Some of the harvest will be preserved in mason jars, some will be sun-dried before preservation. The goal is to preserve a year's supply of my family's favorite food from our garden.

Progress Update Posts

I will post updates as the garden harvest project progresses - including the sun powered food dehydrator build, the harvests, cucumber and hot pepper ring pickling and preserving, tomato sauce and salsa making and preserving, cayenne hot pepper preserving, and cherry tomato dehydrating - and preserving.

Estimated Harvest Preserving Costs:

Sun Powered Food Dehydrator Build

Before harvest I will be building a sun powered food dehydrator to help preserve many of the cherry tomato varieties.

$20 - Used 2'x3' window (already have one)
$15 - Wood for building the dehydrator box (already have)
$5 - Drying racks

Tools for Mason Jar Food Preserving

$80 - Multi-Use Stock Pot for Jar Sanitizing and Preserving (already have)
$15 - Mason Jar Preserving Kit with large funnel and jar tongs
$6 - Mason Jar Stock Pot Basket
$6 - Canning Ladel

Supplies for Mason Jar Food Preserving

$20 - 2 Dozen 500 ml Mason Jars
$13 - 9 x 750 ml Mason Jars
$10 - 3 Litres of White Vinegar
$10 - 1 Litre of Olive Oil

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$200 - Estimated Start up Cost for this first harvest*

*Only white vinegar, olive oil, optional additional jars, and possibly a few jar lid replacements would need to be purchased for preserving future harvests. If this food preserving setup was used for 10 years, if no jars break, and with estimating $20 in jar lid replacements, that would work out to $22 per year for the cost of preserving the garden harvest.

The Garden Harvest

Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers

Also know as 'banana peppers', Hungarian hot wax peppers are my favorite. When there are enough green, orange, and red banana peppers for a batch of mixed hot pepper rings - then I will harvest. From what I already see growing in the garden, I should be able to preserve enough for the year.

Cayenne Hot Pepper

After they mature and turn red, some of the Cayenne hot peppers below will be dried, most will be preserved as hot sauce.

Cucumbers and Pickling Cucumbers

I steer the ever expanding cucumber vines away from the hot pepper plants - many cucumbers are on the way. Most of the cucumbers will be picked when they are small and sliced to be preserved as sweet pickles.

Cherry Tomato Varieties

This garden is growing five varieties of indiscriminate growth cherry tomato vines that are strung up to a trellis with the branches pruned so they can be grown closer together for a more plentiful harvest. Some of the cherry tomatoes will be sun-dried, some will be preserved as salsa, the majority will be preserved as tomato sauce - my son's favorite.

Candyland Hybrid

Sakura Hybrid

Sugar Rush Hybrid

Sweetie Classic

Jasper Hybrid

Looking forward to the garden harvests. Until then I will prepare for preserving them.

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