Summer Vegetables, Filling My Freezer, and a Compost Experiment

Earlier this year, I had mentioned my garden was running solely on recycled water. As expected, that ended in the middle of June when the rains stopped. It didn't rain for a solid two weeks or so. However, yesterday, we had a decent storm which lasted all of about 10 minutes. For these 10 minutes, I went outside and stood next to the gutter downspout and saved as much water as I could with the containers I had. It ended up being about 10 gallons worth of water. Now before you think I'm crazy for doing this, a number of factors had to align in order for me to be able to.

- I wasn't working when the storm came and my kids were happily playing together. 

- We have a downspout that's easily accessible from a covered location that drains a lot of the water from our roof. So this isn't me standing next to a trickle of water slowly catching it.

- I was enjoying my audiobook via earbuds the whole time. 

I'm all for efficiency so what's wrong with listening to a book while recycling water to reuse in my garden? Nothing! This may have been more enjoyable for me than some of you enjoy your day jobs on a really bad day. 

I get a certain amount of joy looking at the water I saved

Reusing/repurposing or getting creative with items really excites me. There's something very satisfying to me about being able to bring back to life something destined for the trash. I was able to experience this again at the grocery store this week. I just happened to go on a day when tons of vegetables were marked down for quick sale. I picked up over 6 pounds of tomatoes at roughly 50 cents per pound. It's rare to find fresh tomatoes below a dollar per pound now, even on sale. 

The grocery store had also marked down their mini sweet peppers. I was able to get 4 pounds for 63 cents per pound. Yes, there were tiny spots which were rotten and needed to be cut away. But overall, the quality of produce I was able to get heavily marked down was not bad at all. 

Left: the sliced peppers I had leftover and would not use immediately being prepped for saving. Right: the compost tops of peppers.

Most people see these and maybe buy a few because they know they must be used quickly or run the risk of rotting almost immediately. I don't get scared of this though because I prep them for freezing to be used at a later time. I've had to do some searching online to see how others do it, but overall, it's pretty easy. For the tomatoes, I read about freezing them from Woks of Life. Other bloggers have posted about freezing tomatoes as well, but it wasn't until I saw Woks of Life post it when it occurred to me that I could potentially freeze tomatoes. Many of their recipes are the traditional Asian stir-fry recipes so if they benefitted from freezing tomatoes to reuse later, I probably could too. It's not just for soups and stews!

For the mini peppers, I sliced them up to the size I'd use them in recipes and then spread them out on a tray for freezing. After 6+ hours, I moved the bell peppers to individual freezer zipper bags. Each bag was the amount I'd use for a recipe so it will be really easy for me to pull out later to use. I do always write the date on my bags so I know how old things are in my freezer. When I see dates that are older than 4-6 months, that's usually when I start to think about ways to use it in the near future. But with proper freezing techniques and my vacuum sealer, I've used one-year-old meats from my freezer before and not gotten sick. Not recommending everyone take the risk, but removing air is a crucial part of food preservation!

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With the increasing temperatures this summer, I've not gone outside as much anymore. Also, the mosquitos are insane this summer. I can't stand outside without constant movement with exposed skin for longer than about 2 minutes without guaranteeing myself at least one bite. That being said, it must be a rough summer out there for other critters as well. 

A few summers ago I was really struggling with critters eating my bell peppers. We went through and put wire beneath our fence to close up gaps and keep them from getting into our yard. I hadn't had a problem with any of my vegetables being eaten until this summer.

I've had a good harvest of tomatoes this year already and none of them had been harmed by insects or critters, but one morning, I walked out and saw this destruction. These were still green tomatoes about the size of a large grape, and they were already munched on. Clearly someone was very hungry and desperate to reach whatever he could. Both of these tomatoes were completely gnawed away in the two days following this discovery. My other tomatoes are growing much higher on their stems so they've avoided the wrath of a mammal's feasting. 

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I discovered this summer my compost bin is dying on the inside. The metal rod in the middle of the bin is severely rusted and about to break apart due to all the corrosion. It's definitely on its last leg and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to use it before it's not effective anymore. In the mean time, I've been trying an open compost method to experiment.

I had an extra large pot which wasn't being used this year for planting. It had some leftover soil in it but was only about halfway full. It's placed in full sun outside, and with the hot temperatures during the summer, I figured it might be a great location to do some quick composting. For the last week or so, I've been throwing food scraps directly into the pot. I give it a stir once a day in the morning when I go out and do my daily garden check and continue adding scraps as they come with my cooking. You can see below, the photo from the left is from the day I threw in my pepper tops. The photo on the right is from this morning's check and stir. When it gets extra dry, I do water the soil to keep things hydrated.  With yesterday's storm, I probably won't need to add water for at least a couple of days. 

I've never been a fan of open composting due to critters and pests. That's why this was an experiment. My pot is 24 inches tall and it is only half full. I make sure most of the scraps are covered in soil. I haven't physically seen any critters get to my compost pot yet. I will continue this experiment through the rest of the summer and then reassess what to do once the weather cools down and this method will not work as quickly. 

I realize not everyone enjoys these tasks of homemaking and outdoor care like I do. But if you're at all interested or intrigued, I hope you'll give it a try at least once! Once upon a time....that was me. 

Plastic Bags

For the first time since I can remember, we're running low on plastic bags in our house. We've always had quite a collection from grocery runs and I've had to go from tying them into a knot to folding them neatly like little football triangles so we can fit them all in our pantry. (Who else out there knows what I'm talking about?)

First, let me explain why we don't use reusable shopping bags at the grocery store. I've never made a priority to bring my own bags because we actually use the plastic bags stores give you to bag groceries for other uses. All of our trash bags in the bathrooms and kitchen are lined with grocery store plastic bags. We do not purchase specific plastic bags for the trash* cans. Why buy something and use it once when you can get something and give it at least two uses in its lifetime? Even if grocery stores started charging a nickel or a dime for each bag, I might still pay occasionally for the bags because I know I get other uses out of them. 

*We buy one pack of the tall trash bags for our 13 gallon trash can and it lasts us at least four years because we only use that trash can for large objects or when we throw parties or large gatherings. In fact, we purchase plastic trash bags so infrequently that when Walmart changed their packaging from 50 bags to 45 bags, I actually noticed. Consumers beware: inflation doesn't solely come in higher prices. They get sneaky and keep the price the same and drop the quantity. Trash bag quantities are not the only item I've noticed had this happen.

I asked my husband one day why plastic shopping bags at the grocery stores were seen as such a "problem" when the plastic trash bags you can purchase and use at the grocery store are not. We came to the conclusion that the majority of people do not reuse plastic grocery bags. Our guess is they end up being littered or thrown away after arriving home without any second thought. 

I actually prefer the smaller 4 gallon wastebaskets for trash and t-shirt bags from grocery stores or takeout fit perfectly in them. We fill it up about once every 2 days, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, depending on what I'm cooking. If we used a large 13 gallon trash can in our kitchen, I think it would smell sooner than it would fill. This makes a huge difference any time I'm cooking fresh meat or shrimp. You want to bag the packaging up and take it out ASAP.

I try to use any (clean) plastic bag which enters into our home at least twice if possible. In some cases, you really can't, although my toddler really likes to play with the bubble wrap plastic packaging from some packages for a few days, so I count that as a second life. Some companies even ship their products in plastic bags with a second sticky seal on it in case you need to use it as a return package or use it for something else altogether. I have definitely found second uses for these types of plastic bags.

An example of a reused bag with a second sticky seal which I used.
Anyone want to take a guess what's in this bag?
Hint: It's not a package to be sent out and it's not something I'm keeping.

Bags that can't find second uses in our home (any bag that has ventilation holes in it, any bag that's torn or ripped, or any bag that is an usual shape and can't be reused, etc) will end up in a recycling pile to be taken back to a store to be recycled.

I'm all for using resources wisely and reusing/recycling instead of trashing. If you don't believe me, ask me what we do with the cold water from our bathroom while we wait for the shower to heat up. We also reuse our old laundry detergent containers as well as cooking wine bottles just to name a few. If there's a way to reuse something, I've probably done it or have thought about it. 

So, for now, we're running low on our plastic bags. It might mean we need to go on another grocery store run (that isn't Costco), or, it might mean we need to pull out the big trash can for a while.