Growing tomatoes can be a very rewarding and frustrating experience, especially for a northern garden with a growing season of around 100 days.  But with a moderate consumption rate of tomato products throughout the year, they are one fruit I…

I recall a couple years ago in the early fall going out to the municipal compost pile with my Dad to drop some dried leaves, grass and spruce cones off.  While there I started looking around, as one does when…

Potatoes are one of the easiest, cost effective, beneficial, productive and nutritious vegetables to grow.  But storing the harvest can prove problematic at times and so alternative methods like pressure canning and freezing have to be used to preserve the…

For years I  only planted tomatoes I could get in the local stores or  nurseries.   But I got tired of the same varieties and when I found something I  liked, they were not always available year to year.  So I…

Tomatoes are a member of botanical family Solanaceae which make up a group of plants better known as nightshades.  Surprising to me, there are over 10,000  recorded tomato varieties with more being developed all the time as home gardeners breed…