Focus Fair - This Weekend!

Would you like to pick up some heirloom seeds for seasonal presents? How about choosing from a whole bunch of local artists with unique gift ideas? Join us for Focus Fair this Saturday & Sunday at the Spill Cafe! 

For more information & links to the artists websites, check out our facebook event or follow #focusfair on Twitter 

If you can't make it out this weekend, you can also pick up urbantomato seeds at Avante Garden, GreenUP store or send me an email 

Adventures in Canning

wasabi pickled beans! wasabi, ginger, garlic, beans, soy sauce & rice vinegar

tomato salsa 

pickled beans 

pickling beans 

pickles! 

peach salsa!  

making peach salsa 

pickled beets & carrots of many varieties. gorgeous 

 wines preserved in jameson's & honey: who knew such perfect concoctions existed.

 plums in red wine. another delicious idea 

 pears in jameson's and red wine. mmmmmm 

before (above) and after the hot water bath 

plums in red wine. they look like lovely lips 

paste tomatoes for ketchup making

seed saving and ketchup making 

 boiling down some pretty delicious from my garden & then put through a mill to make this amazing ketchup.

made my own ketchup. so so good

 lovely sunset to accompany the canning fun

peach jalapeno salsa & bourbon peaches. looking forward to the taste of summer; in a winter

cleaning basil for pesto. the smell is heavenly 

salsa and pesto 

canning apple cider. so exciting. i had no idea you could even do this

two types of pickled carrots. i love these coloured carrots, happy to have them in my pantry this winter 

Saving Tomato Seeds

select fresh ripe heirloom tomatoes 

gather like varieties (they will need to be grown in isolation for true purity). they need to fully ripe and can even be over ripe. cut in half & squeeze the seeds and "goo" into a jar. 

lablel! you can set aside the unused tomatoes for salsa, sauce or whatever you like :) 

fermented seeds; fill jars with water. viable seeds sink, mould & gross floats :) 

after jars are filled with water, and mould poured off the top for the third time, the water starts to get much clearer

fermented seeds filled with the water for the second time.

rinse off seeds 

let dry on a screen in a cool dark place