​Le jardinier-maraîcher: Manuel d’agriculture biologique sur petite surface, Jean-Martin Fortier

The market gardener : A  successful grower’s handbook for small-scale organic farming, Jean-Marc Fortier
 
This very practical handbook is based on the experience of Jean-Martin Fortier and Maude-Hélène Desroches in establishing a successful small scale organic farm serving customers mostly through a CSA basket program, in the Eastern Townships of Québec. Their approach is centered on organic methods, intense planting,  and efficiency of work, enabling them to minimize how much they invest in equipment and people power. Given these goals, a lot (but not all) of their conclusions are very applicable to a homesteading garden, where minimizing work and investment are typically very important. Where the applicability breaks down is where they make decisions based on building their customer base, and also, because minimal attention is paid to planning a garden with the goal of preserving food over winter, as their business revolves around selling fresh produce.

I really enjoyed the way the book is organized – it is a true handbook, with chapters on every phase of setting up and operating a large garden. The first few chapters would be useful for someone who is still dreaming about homesteading. They cover how to chose the ideal property and how to set up your site. If you already have a property, you will probably only skim them. The rest of the chapters are dedicated to one topic each, including fertilizing, indoor seedlings, direct sowing, weeding, pests, prolonging the growing season, harvesting and planning your production.

Personally, I also enjoyed how throughout the book, the author shares the philosophy behind their approach. The themes of sustainability, anti-consumerism and seeking a balanced life resonated strongly with me. These themes don’t take over the book, but they do incite reflection and give an intention to the work.

There are many reference charts and appendices covering things such as rotation charts, crop spacing, planting calendars, solutions to common problems, etc.

There is also considerable attention given to the business side of things, which I found interesting but not very applicable to my situation, where my goal is feeding myself and my family, as opposed to growing a business.
​
After my first reading of the book, I have a few take-aways that I am immediately putting into practice:

1. Crop rotation: in the past, I have had a general sense and goal of avoiding planting the same thing in the same place two years in a row, but this book gave a much clearer and systematic understanding of crop rotation. I now have a stronger understanding of the need to rotate between vegetable families, instead of between specific vegetables. For example, I should wait 3-4 years before planting a nightshade where another nightshade has been grown (the nightshade family includes tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants, tobacco, and ground cherries). There is a very useful summary of a few other key rules to respect when planning crop rotation. Over the weekend, I reworked my garden overhead plan to fully incorporate crop rotation by family. For me, this means dividing up garden into 4 sections of 3 rows each and rotating rows within these sections. It was a bit of a logic puzzle to plan out, as there are many other constraints in my garden (row size, some rows being irrigated and others not, spacing available around the row etc).
2. Pairing up spring or fall crops with summer crops: for example, to double the use of a row, you can plant an early crop of spinach and once it is harvested and the warmer weather arrives, plant turnip in its place. Some other pairs I intend to use are: fall garlic and greens, green beans and fall garlic, sugar peas and lettuce, spinach and carrots.
3. Dense planting (less space between plants): I had already stumbled on my own into the principle of dense planting. From the start, I have always wanted to plant as many things as possible within the space that I have available, so I often disregarded the row spacing suggested on seed packets. Most of the time I didn’t notice any ill effects. For example, I often planted two onion bulbs one next to the other and harvested one early as a green onion and left the other to grow. The other advantage of dense planting is that it leaves less space for weeds. In this book, dense planting is strongly encouraged. The rule of thumb that is given is that plants should touch each other when they are three-quarters of their full size. This will give good coverage of the soil, minimizing weeds, mulching and keeping the ground cool and moist. Specific spacing for specific crops is outlined. This makes me more confident in continuing down the path of dense planting. This year, my onions will be going down in groups of four!
4. Better early planting calendar: I have never made good use of the time before the last frost. Typically I didn’t plant anything before end of May or beginning of June. Some of that is a habit that I formed before I transitioned to no-till gardening – at the time, I always had to wait for the garden to be dry before I tilled it. However, as I’ve landed on the proper configuration for my garden, with permanent beds and walking paths, and, as I’ve transitioned to a no-till approach, the spring brings a lot of possibility. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good idea of what to plant when. Luckily a planting calendar in the book answered all my questions.
5. Transitioning more crops from direct sowing to seedlings: My past rule of thumb has been that if something can be direct sown, I direct sow it. This helped me minimize the number of shelves, lighting, and other seed starting equipment I needed and transplanting time. However, with time, I have been able to acquire more seed starting space (which I use for Kratky in the winter). The book drove home that an early start means that you’ll not only get your crop earlier, but you’ll also and then have space for a crop of something else afterwards; this idea is appealing and gives me motivation for starting more seedlings this year.

 
Those are my immediately actionable items. The book also gave me some longer-term ideas. I would like to look into simple-ish ways to extend the growing season, such as floating covers, row tunnels, and maybe a small greenhouse. I am also curious to do some more scientific soil tests and to look into a more test-based approach to fertilizing my soil.
 
There were also some aspects to the book which were not really applicable to my situation, and I feel that they may not appeal to most homesteaders. The approach explained in the book is not a no-till approach – some light hand-operated machinery is used. It makes sense from a business perspective but on the kitchen garden scale, I prefer the simplicity, and lower investment, of a no till method. Some of the equipment, although much more affordable than typical farming machinery, is still a bit pricy if you aren’t planning to recoup your investment through sales. Similarly, the farm relies on manmade mulches, and some options are interesting, such as a cornstarch based biodegradable membrane that is incorporated in the soil in the fall. However, in my case I will stick to natural mulches such as leaves and grass cuttings, which I can get for free and which contribute to improving the quality of my clay-based soil.
 
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a large garden, especially if they are based in zones 3-5. I would rank it as my second favorite book, after “Le Jardin Vivrier” by Marie Thévard – the reason I prefer the latter is because the scenario described in the latter is more similar to my own – a self-sufficiency goal, rather than a small business goal. Together, these two books make a powerful duo for people in a homesteading situation.

There is something to be said for finding free snacks wherever you go. In addition to growing my own food, I also enjoy foraging. The following quote from "Landmade - Eating the wild things" also speaks to me: "In a society that encourages - even insists on - constant consumption and consumerism, foraging your own food for free can be an act of rebellion". 

I think that most of us have had experiences with foraging, be it as simple as eating a few wild raspberries or strawberries in the summertime. I remember my grandmother showing me where to pick raspberries behind my grandparents' cottage when I was a child. I brought a tiny bucket back and had them over vanilla ice cream with a bit of maple syrup. So sweet! I also remember visiting our current property with the previous owner, just before moving in. He gave us a tour or the forest, the marsh, the fields and pointed out the raspberry bushes and the sugar maple in the forest, and I felt so lucky to become the custodian of this land. 

I have found it challenging to learn foraging from books or website, however, spending a couple hours with a local forager keen to share their knowledge was an incredible learning experience. In our case, we leveled up our knowledge with a foraging walk with the kind people of Landmade, at a location about half an hour from our property. I would not hesitate to recommend their walks and workshops. After our walk with Jess, our guide, we started to notice wild foods everywhere we went - on the side of the highway, in parks, and on our property. Our eyes were opened!

Here is a little gallery of some of the foods we forage on our property. These image are just meant to encourage you to get to know the land around you, and to pique your interest - please make sure you are certain of your identification before eating anything you forage.

I'll always remember the first time my nephew pulled on a carrot stem, and saw a carrot come up from the earth. Amazement! He couldn't believe that he had just pulled a carrot from the ground. Ever since he could toddle around, I have loved showing him all the places where food grows, whether it's berries, edible flowers or something in the garden. He's always loved "helping" in the garden. He spent most of last summer asking me to show him "a plant he's never seen before". Luckily there are lots of options on a hobby farm with a forest, a marsh, and lots of wildflowers.

​To build on this interest, last summer I gave him a seed catalog to look through. Before I knew it, he was taking it to bed every night and looking at the images. He even took it camping. Once it got tattered, I asked members of the local horticultural society for old seed catalogs, and they came through in a big way. Pretty soon my nephew had new catalogs to look through, and we had lots of spares to do activities with. On a cold snowy day, we cut out pictures from catalogs and made collages. We talked about how much we were looking forward to the garden, and how he would have his own little section in the garden this year. He asked what all the different plants were and which ones we could have in our garden.

I gave him scissors and a glue stick, and he did a collage of the plants he wants to have in the garden. For him that mostly meant "plants he's never seen before". Luckily I had ordered seeds for several of these based on past conversations. It was good practice for using scissors and observation skills, too.

​Once he was happy with his “garden” (and a little tired of cutting), we switched gears. I had drawn a rainbow and he looked for plants of all the different colors of the rainbow. I cut out his favorite ones and we pasted them on the rainbow. 

Of course, I had to make my own garden collage, too. I'm sure we'll find lots of other ways to use the seed catalogs.

Canning food safely is a science. A closed jar can be an ideal environment for pathogens to reproduce, which can not only cause illness or death, but can also lead to spoiled food (and losing all my hard work). So, I always want to make sure that the recipes I follow have been tested using a scientifically sound approach. Unfortunately, a lot of the traditional approaches to canning aren't scientifically sound. Although a lot of people prefer to follow these hand-me-down approaches on the basis of "my grandmother never killed anyone with her canning", that isn't quite good enough for me. I remember my grandma scraping mold off of the top of her strawberry jelly jars... I am grateful that she inspired me to try canning, but that doesn't mean I need to exactly follow her recipes.

When I started canning, it was very difficult for me to decide which canning recipes to follow, and to sort out legitimate advice from misinformation. However, after several years of experience I have compiled a list of sites and sources that I trust. 

Sources I trust:

1. For basic recipes (canning a single vegetable for example), my first stop is usually the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They have an extensive list of recipes but they are pretty basic.
2. Pick your own was my favorite website when I first learned to can, and I still use it a lot. A lot of its recipes are the same as the NCHFP, however, the instructions are more detailed and clearer for beginners. All the options are explained, the steps are outlined carefully, and lots of pictures are provided. I would highly recommend it if you don't know where to start. Don't let the outdated graphics and layout deter you!
3. Healthy canning is another scientifically-minded resource that I trust completely. They draw from the NCHFP and other sources. The also provide good guidelines and explanations around more advanced topics such as steam canning, Ph, and substitutions. 
4. Recent Ball (aka Bernardin) books and online compilations are also very respected. The recipes are a bit more varied than the three preceding sources, but, still pretty conservative. Many canners see them as "the bible of canning". Detractors point to the fact that some recipes have changed over the years or been removed due to new information, but to me that is a sign of a scientific mindset. Along those lines, though, be careful about using older versions. 
5. In Francophone canning circles, Vincent le Canneux is the master canner. I like his website because it presents more creative and modern recipes, and he is quite specific about how he tested his recipes using microbiology (for example inoculating recipes with heat resistant bacteria prior to canning and testing for its presence after canning). English canning circles don't really accept this source, but after having consulted it extensively, and read through his responses to questions about his process, personally I am comfortable with most of his approaches. I do look them over with a critical eye as occasionally some things are a little too much outside the norm for me to accept them without more confirmation (especially when it comes to using oil and occasionally as it relates to density). But overall I think it is a very worthwhile source to consider.
6. I usually also trust recipes that are posted by University extension offices.
7. The canning group "Canning and preserving with love" on Facebook is a great resource to ask questions on and to get recipes from. They have very strong contributors.
8. Ricardo is a website that I sometimes consider as well. However, I don't accept it uncritically. I do compare their recipes to other sources before using them. Canning isn't their specialty, but, they do have interesting more modern recipes that are interesting to evaluate critically.

Sources I don't personally trust:

1. The "Canning Diva" is a popular series of canning books and has a good online following. Personally it is not a source I trust. A lot of the recipes go against other sources I trust more. The author has had some lab tests done (for example for dry canned potatoes), and although I appreciate the effort to use a scientific approach, the logic behind what to test and what conclusions can be drawn from the tests doesn't make sense to me. For example, a test showing no botulism in dry canned potatoes doesn't prove that the canning process killed botulism - maybe there just wasn't botulism to start with in the=is particular sample (inoculating the sample before processing would be a stronger test). 
2. Miss Conserves is a popular series of books in French. I bought and returned these books, because I saw too many recipes in them that did not line up with current science (for example things canned in a lot of oil, or that are very dense, such as hummus). The author seems reticent to engage in dialogue about her testing approach, which makes me a little nervous. So, personally, I don't trust the recipes in those books.
3. Older books in general, general books with a small section on canning, grandma's recipes - I usually avoid these as many are based on traditional approaches that may not have been able to be tested scientifically at the time. They were useful approaches when they were the best we had, but there is no need anymore to risk our health or risk wasting our hard work. 
4. Le Parfait is a popular site based in France, that I don't personally trust. A lot of the recipes don't hold up to best practices from a scientific standpoint. I also suspect that in general, European sources tend to be a bit biased due to the lower prevalence of pressure canners in Europe (they are more liberal with what is considered safe to can without a pressure canner).
5. "Canning rebel" groups on Facebook. I follow them because they do have interesting ideas and information, and I appreciate the exploratory mindset, however, I don't personally take any advice or recipes shared there at face value. Their motto is "your kitchen your rules", and in my kitchen, I have a high threshold for safety testing. These groups have a lot of "spoiled food" posts which are anecdotal evidence against trusting fully the techniques shared within them. 

Overall, I wish that there were more modern and creative safe canning websites, especially when it comes to vegetarian "meals in a jar", but since I prioritize safety and effective food preservation, I tend to abide by the lists above. I would love to hear about other sources I could consider in the future.

Let me walk you through what a one year cycle of tracking and planning looks like.

Early August - annual inventory and estimate of annual usage
At this time of year we are eating mostly fresh from the garden so my inventory won't fluctuate too much going into the fall. Just before canning season starts, I do a full inventory of the cellar, shelves and freezer, and I record of what I still have in stock from the previous year. It is a chance to correct for any instances where we forgot to update the inventory as we used products. I make a permanent record of this number in an excel sheet (see below). I compare this with the number I noted a year ago on this date, , and I calculate our yearly consumption:

Annual consumption = (how many I had in early August last year) + (last year's production) - (how many are left)

I sometimes adjust that number up or down based on whether I felt like we would have enjoyed more if we had more, or had to make an effort to incorporate that much in our meal planning. I then calculate how many of that product I want to preserve.

Production goal = (Annual consumption) - (how many are left) + a bit of buffer

Lately I have been thinking more about crop failures or how some summers, one crop will do very poorly. For example, last year all my cucumber plants were eaten by groundhogs before I fenced in the garden; this year, abundant rain led to poor tomato production; a few years ago an ill-timed frost killed all our apple blossoms. For this reason, for the most important products, I try to have two years' worth of stock, instead of one year's. ​

Early August - preserving plan
At this point I'm just about to enter preserving season. I have a pretty good idea of how each crop is doing, and I know what my production goals for each product I want to preserve. Realistically, I won't be able to reach all those goals, so it's time to make priorities.

At this point, I make a list organized by fruit/vegetable, listed from earliest to mature to latest to mature. For each item, I decide on my priorities and goals. For example, for tomatoes my first priority is to make sure we have a year's supply of canned whole tomatoes; my second priority is marinara sauce; any extra tomatoes after that can become tomato juice, bruschetta, bbq sauce etc. Each item has my production goal next to it. That list gets posted on my fridge and it becomes my to-do list. ​

 April-May  starting seedlings
Each year, in my garden notebook, I record how many seedlings of each type I start each year, and how many I transplant successfully in the garden. This way I know what percentage of extra seedlings I should start. This all needs to be balanced against the total amount of seedlings I can nurture given shelf space and lighting. ​For any tracking that happens in my seedling work area or in the garden, it works best for me to record things in my notebook, as opposed to on the computer.

May-June planting outdoors
In the process of transplanting to the garden, some changes will happen for sure. Some seedlings might have been less or more numerous than my plan, and I might get tempted by something extra at the nursery or pick up some unexpected seeds at a seed swap. I keep records of everything to help me plan next year.  

If any seedlings failed, at this point I decide whether it is worth getting replacement plants at the nursery.

Conclusion
This brings us to a full one year cycle. It took me a long time to refine my tracking system and I hope this information and the samples I provided will be useful for some of you. "How many tomato plants should I plant?" is such a common question online, but I've learned that the only person who can truly answer it is you, after careful tracking over the course of a year!

If you are like me at this time of year you might be googling things like "Christmas gifts for bakers" and "Best gifts for woodworkers", in search of inspiration. Well, let me save you some further googling in terms of the gardeners and homesteaders on your list! Here are some gift ideas they might appreciate.

1. Hori hori knife - it doesn't seem to be super well known but it is so useful - for weeding, harvesting, planting, measuring and more. 
2. Trowel - it has been supplanted by the hori hori knife in my tool kit, but, no gardener would ever say no to an extra trowel. They do tend to get misplaced from time to time
3. A hand crank apple peeler and slicer with suction base (also useful for potato peeling)
4. A palm held peeler - the best all purpose peeler I ever had. It's great for longer jobs and I think would be wonderful for anyone with arthritis or just plain tired hands.
5. Knee pads
6. A fermentation starter kit
7. Canning jars - they have so many uses and we are always running out
8. A nice notebook to keep notes from year to year
9. A produce knife to help with harvesting
10. A harvest bag, it stays pleasantly open when you are picking produce, and doesn't absorb dirt
11. A thermacell to keep the mosquitoes away (the only mosquito deterrent I'd vouch for)
12. A book for example: Le jardin vivrier, Building soil, or the most recent ball book of canning. 
13. A cheese making kit
14. Some gift card options - the local nursery, lee valley, a hardware store, or a Canadian seed distributor
15. A mandolin/dicer/chopper/etc tool (these really work). 
16. A bead organizer to save seeds in
17. A steam canner, for examples the victorio brand
18. A maple syrup starter kit (buckets, lids and spiles...)
19. A big watering can
20. Gardening gloves (they don't last forever!)
21. Kitchen towels with a nice gardening theme
22. Measuring spoons and cups (I feel like you can always use extras!)
23. A mushroom growing kit
24. Seeds for growing sprouts
25. A japanese weeding tool
26. The gift of time! volunteering to come and do a day of planting, weeding, harvesting or canning. Honestly the best gift ever :)

If you are looking for a big ticket item, some ideas to consider would be a pressure canner, dehydrator,  a worm farm, or a steam juicer (but make sure they have the space for these), or shelves and grow lights.

I'm happy to help you find these things or answer questions if you are trying to surprise your favorite gardener 

Last weekend was the first weekend for which I didn’t have a long list of gardening, harvesting, or preserving chores to pick from… feels strange! I did try to do a bit of weeding and spreading of compost but everything is frozen solid, so whatever wasn’t done, won’t be done. It’s a good time to kick back and do a retrospective.

At this time of year lots of people ask me “Was it a good gardening year?”, but it’s always a nuanced answer when it comes to polyculture. Most often, it’s a mix of winners or losers. A lot of that is dictated by weather, which this year was exceptionally rainy (so… much… rain…), a slow start due to skies hazy with wildfire smoke, and a very late first frost.

Here’s a bit of a recap.

Biggest winners of 2023:

• My garden “infrastructure” is falling into place
  • I had an easier start to the year – I didn’t do any rototilling or replace any fabric mulch, two work-intensive spring tasks that I usually dread. As I’ve been switching over to no-till gardening and natural mulch, it’s really made a difference to my spring.
  • The fence I put up last year continued to keep critters out
  • No watering worries – my irrigation and rain barrel system worked really well. It was easy to start it back up in the spring, no maintenance or further installation needed.
• New techniques
  • Fermenting – I added fermentation to my preservation arsenal and I’m getting comfortable with it.
  • Finally doing a fall garlic planting. I’ve been meaning to do that for years and finally got my act together.
  • I’m getting my act together in terms of seed saving
  • Trying the Kratky method for indoor aeroponics
• Best new tools
  • Broadfork for gently aerating soil without tilling it
  • Hori hori knife, I used it for so many things… just love it
  • My new steam juicer is a workhorse
• In terms of winning crops, the following did really well this year:
  • Peppers were the biggest winners! (but, see peppergate on the loser list…)
  • Strawberries – the strawberry patch is thriving and I don’t regret planting everbearing varieties. We ate a few strawberries every time we crossed the yard, during the whole summer.
  • Apples – we had a bumper crop! Lots for canning, juicing, cider, and fresh eating.
  • Squash – so many delicata and butternut squash. I gave away lots and I feel like we’ve been having squash for 50% of our meals since early October. I still have a dozen butternut squash left.
• Best rookie crops (new additions):
  • Loved Turkish eggplant (as long as it’s picked early, otherwise it gets bitter)
  • Spaghetti squash will be something I try to grow every year
  • Stinging nettle foraging (great soup!)
  • Fresh green beans, so delicious. I had a bad experience early on in my gardening with green beans and it took me way too long to give it a second try.
  • My first real crop of edamame which has been the most wonderful snack
• I also met several other local gardeners by attending a local seed swap and becoming a member of the Vankleek Hill horticultural society.

Biggest losers of 2023:

• “Loser” crops:
  • Grapes – One vine got a kind of rot and all the grapes shriveled, probably due to too much rain. That halved our harvest
  • Cherries – the flowers came early and died due to frost
  • Cucamelon – I’ve tried this a few times and it always dies when I transplant it.
  • Tomatoes and ground cherries – too much rain, they weren’t as productive as usual. It’s a good thing I had a bumper crop the previous year and still had a lot in storage.
  • Carrots – I planted them in a patch of soil that has too much clay, and they were short and stubby. I will relocate them next year
  • Amaranth – a new thing I tried this year, and it is just way too much work to harvest. One and done.
  • Strawberry spinach – I’ve tried a few times and I just can’t get it to grow.
  • Onions and potatoes at the back field – as we say in French “Loin des yeux loin du coeur”, the onions and potatoes that I planted at the field just didn’t get enough attention and had too many competing weeds, which made my harvest smaller. This made me decide to expand the kitchen garden and have everything in one place.
• Peppergate – there was a big pepper seed mix-up in the seed producer/distributor world and I wasn’t immune to it! I had tons of peppers but they were not the variety I planted. I had way too many hot banana peppers. Anyone who invites me to a party this year is guaranteed that I will show up accompanied by a tray of hot pepper poppers.
• Apple tree pruning – I have never pruned my trees and I feel like I’m on the verge of losing control. I need to read up on it for next spring (but I’ve been thinking that for a few years… so…)

So all in all there were lots of lessons learned, and I’m already excited about next year.
​
To finish on a high note, I’ll mention that a highlight of the year has been writing this blog. It’s helping me reflect on my approach to gardening and it is a nice creative outlet. Thanks for reading (if anyone is reading!)

After many years of canning, I started to venture out into fermentation as well. One of the new recipes I tried this year is sauerkraut. In this blog post I'll walk through the process I use. It's based on the NCHFP instructions.

The first step is growing cabbage. Cabbage heads are huge so I usually just buy a few seedlings since I don't need too many. After picking the cabbage head, I take off the root and a few layers of outside leaves outdoors and compost them. 

Once in the kitchen, I put the cabbage in the sink and wash and remove any outside leaves that are dirty. I set aside a few flat leaves for later, then I quarter the cabbage and start slicing it into the thinnest pieces that my patience allows.

As I chop the cabbage, I dump it in a big pot and add canning salt. You need 3/4 cup of salt per 25 pounds of cabbage. I alternate layers of cabbage and sprinkled of salt. 

Then comes the fun (stress relieving) part. To tenderize the cabbage and help it release its juices, you have to massage it with your hands, and then pound it with a pestle of some kind. It is truly amazing how much the consistency of the cabbage changes, how much more compacted it becomes, and how much juice comes out of it. 

After a period of rest, I pack the cabbage in its juice in mason jars. Again, I use the pestle to make sure there aren't any air gaps. I cut circles out of the flat cabbage leaves I saved and put them on top of the cabbage and juice (you can see one in the middle jar in the picture below).

On top of the cabbage leaf, I add a glass weight that ensures everything is submerged (key to prevent anything from spoiling), a vented silicone cap, and a jar ring. After that, I tuck away the jars in a box in an out of the way spot. It's best to keep them in the dark. I leave them mostly unattended. They expel lactic acid (which makes the Ph drop) and CO2. It's important not to open the jars, so that the CO2 produced by fermentation gradually replaces all the air. During this time, bacteria that thrive in the salty brine environment take over. ​

The amount of time needed for fermentation varies depending on temperature. My house is fairly cool so I let it ferment for about 5 weeks. It is interesting to see the CO2 bubbles and the color change. 

Once the fermentation is done, I remove the glass weights, do a bit of repacking (making sure all jars are topped up to 1/2 inch from the top, putting some in smaller jars so I can have smaller portions when needed, etc). I put on canning lids and pop them in the steam canner. I follow the NCHFP instructions for processing them in the canner. It's also possible to just put them in the fridge at this point but fridge space is always tight for me so if I can make it shelf stable, I do.

And it's done! Shelf stable sauerkraut ready to be put away. We'll use it as a side dish, in sandwiches, veggies dogs etc. 

Tomatoes are the super star of many gardens, including mine. They are one of those vegetables that are SO much better grown in a home garden, compared to store bought. Eating garden tomatoes kind of ruined store bought tomatoes for me. So, I try to grow enough tomatoes to eat year round and to cover off most of our tomato product needs. 

Generally in my garden, you will find about 4 cherry tomato plants and about 30ish regular tomato plants. I buy the cherry tomato plants as seedlings so that I can have 4 different varieties. I have a separate article on my top uses for cherry tomatoes - it's easy to get overwhelmed by them as peak times!

In terms of regular tomato plants, I used to plant a few different kinds but lately I only plant one kind of paste tomato. I find that they are great to use for everyday tomatoes too so I don't bother planting a "slicing tomato" anymore. The advantage of paste tomatoes is that they are very fleshy - they don't have a lot of water/seed chambers, which means that you don't "lose" as much when you can them, and you don't have to reduce tomato sauce too much on the stove before canning it. My tomato of choice is the Roma. I usually order new Roma seeds every year from Vesey's. Unfortunately, tomatoes cross-pollinate, so I haven't been able to save seeds from year to year (I would get hybrid roma/cherry tomato plants if I did, as is often demonstrated by the "volunteer" seedlings that pop up everywhere around the garden). This year I tried San Marzano instead, but I think I'll go back to Roma. San Marzanos need a bit more time to grow, and I found I had a lower yield and smaller fruits than when I grow Roma. It may just have been an off year for tomatoes, but since I was always happy with Roma, I'll go back to them.

A neat tip that I learned is that you can pick up tomatoes as soon as they "blush", that is, lose their shininess and start to have a hint of pink. There is no advantage to letting them ripen all the way on the plant - they won't be tastier. That's a common myth. You can ripen them indoors and they don't need any light to ripen. The advantage of doing that is that they are less likely to be attacked by a pest. I have noticed that ever since I started doing this, I have much less pest proliferation within my garden. Once a week I pick up all the tomatoes that have started to turn, regardless of what stage they are at. I can them in batches as they ripen in the house. 

Every year I prioritize what I make with my tomatoes. From highest priority to lowest priority, here is what I make with my tomatoes:

1. Canned whole tomatoes.  We use these mostly for cooking (for example chili or stew), but also in place of fresh tomatoes for example in sandwiches and canapés. I can these in quarts and we always have one in the fridge. 
2. Marinara style sauce. We use this as pasta sauce, for pizza, and for chili.
3. Bruschetta. Great for appetizers and snacks (serve on baguette or crackers). I also love bringing a half pint for an appetizer when camping, or giving it as a gift. 
4. Tomato juice (great as a snack or appetizer).

If I ever have more than needed for these four priorities, I would love to also make:

1. Tomato paste
2. BBQ sauce
3. Taco sauce

But usually I don't have enough.

When frost starts to threaten the garden, I pick up all the green tomatoes and can those. I love canning:

1. Green tomato salsa
2. Green tomato slices (for fried green tomatoes). I had to look around quite a bit to find a procedure for canning green tomato slices - it's not widespread. However, I tend to trust University extension offices so I personally am okay following this recipe. 

Water bath or steam canning can only be used for high acidity foods such as pickles, jellies, salsa, and tomato based products (see my summary of modern canning methods). For anything else, such as meat, fish, seafood, and low-acid vegetables, a pressure canner is the only safety tested way to can. I am sure that the ability to can meat ups the value proposition for any meat eating household - but my husband is vegetarian and I am mostly vegetarian (I occasionally, but increasingly rarely eat fish and seafood), so I wasn't very sure that a pressure canner was worth it for us. After all, most low-acid foods, although they cannot be water bath canned, can be preserved in other ways, for example freezing, drying or cellaring.

That being said, it's now been about 3 years of using a pressure canner, and I am very glad I have it. I do think it is a little bit less essential for a vegetarian household but it is still very useful. Every year, my freezer is totally full, so it is quite helpful to have an alternative when it comes to storing vegetables. Otherwise I wouldn't have enough space. It also allows for a few shortcuts in terms of food prep since pressure canned vegetables are already diced and cooked in the jar. 

Here are the main ways in which our mostly vegetarian household uses pressure canning:

• Canning carrot cubes and potato cubes, for use in recipes all winter long. The main way in which I store these vegetables is in bins of sand, however that method only lasts until late spring, so canning allows me to keep these veggies longer. It's also a shortcut when throwing suppers together - it's helpful to have already peeled, cubed and cooked cubes ready to go. 
• A half/half mixture of carrot and potato cubes, which I use mostly to make samosa-inspired puffs in the toaster oven or pie irons. I just drain the cubes, add seasoning, and stuff it in pillsbury crescent dough. Super quick recipe when the potatoes and carrots are already prepared. I could also use the half/half mixture in other recipes of course.
• Canned pumpkin cubes, for use in recipes especially pumpkin bread. It's not safe to can pumpkin puree (it's too thick for heat penetration) but cubes can be canned. They are very mushy so they can be pureed easily out when you dump out the jar contents. We also use this in homemade cat food. In my experience, pumpkins don't keep that long so it's great to be able to can them. 
• Canned butternut squash, for use in cooking, especially butternut squash soup. Similar to pumpkin, this can be canned in cubes but not puréed. Butternut squash keeps a long time on the counter (at least 4 months), but if I get a bumper crop it's handy to be able to can it. It also saves prep time. 
• French onion soup. To be honest, knowing that I could can French onion soup tipped the balance when I decided to buy a pressure canner... I love French onion soup, but caramelizing the onions takes a significant amount of time. Knowing that I could caramelize a big batch (I usually do 4 pans at a time on my stove) and have delicious soup ready to be heated up has changed French onion soup from an "event" to a frequent treat in the winter time. I can it in quarts (2 portions) and pints (1 portion). I just dump it in a bowl, add a piece of bread and slice of cheese, and pop in the oven. 
  
• Diced sweet pepper - I had a huge pepper turnout this year and it's the first time a pressure can some. I am not sure if it will be worth it compared to frozen. Pepper is one of the only vegetables you don't need to blanch before freezing, so it's pretty convenient to freeze. I will report back!
• Celery "slurry" for cream of celery - another new recipe this year, we'll see how that goes.

In the future I might can corn (if I ever get more than we can eat fresh), sweet potato (it's hard to get slips here but they grow quite well), and kidney beans (for convenience - they store dry quite easily though). 

Some water bath recipes can also be done with the pressure canner and may take less time, but I haven't found that to be worth it. Once you count the pressurizing/depressurizing time it's not always worth it (especially now that I've replaced my water bath canner with a steam canner, which heats up much quicker). Usually, foods done in the pressure canner will be more mushy than those done in the steam canner, which can be a disadvantage (for example with whole tomatoes). 

There are also some people in Quebec who have described a method for using a pressure canner as a steam canner - if you follow that train of thought, I would say a pressure canner would be totally worth it since you would only need that one vessel in order to do all types of canning. But I have a small hesitation in terms of whether I feel like the method was sufficiently demonstrated to be equivalent. It is not accepted by US canning experts as far as I know.

So, all in all, I've found pressure canning pretty useful especially in the soup department, to free up some freezer space, and for food prep convenience (having veggies already diced and cooked). All this is probably not as life changing as for someone who consumes meat, but it's been worth it for us.