Rachel's Growing Garden

Rachel's Growing Garden The purpose of this page is to document gardening endeavors from season to season...to share ideas.

Feeling accomplished!Got the tomato sauce made and 12 spaghetti squash cooked, shredded, portioned and in the freezer. F...
09/06/2026

Feeling accomplished!

Got the tomato sauce made and 12 spaghetti squash cooked, shredded, portioned and in the freezer.

For the tomato sauce, I finally got to use 2 of my new toys. First was the Johnny Apple Sauce Food Strainer which made quick work of juicing the thawed tomatoes and removing the skins and seeds at the same time. Next I used the roaster pan to reduce the sauce down 50%.

I ended up with 14 pints of sauce which turned out so tasty…I used a couple packages of Mrs Wages Pasta Sauce tomato seasoning mix.

Feeling ambitious today I am 🤦🏻‍♀️…processing frozen tomatoes and spaghetti squash. The seeds inside the spaghetti squas...
09/05/2026

Feeling ambitious today I am 🤦🏻‍♀️…processing frozen tomatoes and spaghetti squash.

The seeds inside the spaghetti squash are sprouting! Time to cook and go into the deep freezer.

09/04/2026

Check out my new hardening-off cart for transplants! It’s fully screened in, even the bottom…and it’s mobile!

Now’s the time of year I start wanting to pull up the sweet potatoes, even though folks say to wait until the vines die ...
09/03/2026

Now’s the time of year I start wanting to pull up the sweet potatoes, even though folks say to wait until the vines die back, and this pic illustrates why.

This sweet potato was pushed up out of the ground and bugs attacked the exposed part of the tuber…and it also has bug damage at the bottom. It was grown in a half barrel container…with a bottom. So even in containers bugs will seek out the potatoes.

The bug damage has me wanting to pull them even though the vines are still healthy for the most part.

I’ve harvested in July-August and also way later in November…so there isn’t a regular pattern for me to rely on.

It has been 127 days since I planted the slips.

Thinking I might harvest one of my XL containers to see how things look under the surface…but still debating.

Volunteer Thai basil growing with the beans…which is quite perplexing being that I’ve not grown basil in the 3 years we’...
09/02/2026

Volunteer Thai basil growing with the beans…which is quite perplexing being that I’ve not grown basil in the 3 years we’ve been here.

The seed must have been in an old grow bag that I did dumped out when prepping the soil.

Now I feel obligated to use it in a dish. Hhmmm. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Drink of the summer…Watermelon blended with sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and a pinch of salt. Blend, strain if y...
08/30/2026

Drink of the summer…Watermelon blended with sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and a pinch of salt.

Blend, strain if you like, I enjoyed it both ways. Serve chilled. It’s really refreshing and delicious. I used just a few splashes of bottled lime juice.

Don’t have a specific recipe, I measured with my heart and tastebuds. 😆

The castle dome broccoli has graduated to 3.5” pots and is gently getting exposure to the elements under a shade tree.
08/29/2026

The castle dome broccoli has graduated to 3.5” pots and is gently getting exposure to the elements under a shade tree.

Sweet Chili Sauce…and lots of it!In the ever present quest to answer the question “What should we have for dinner?”, I f...
08/28/2026

Sweet Chili Sauce…and lots of it!

In the ever present quest to answer the question “What should we have for dinner?”, I found a recipe for Bang Bang Chicken that sounded amazing.

The only issue was that I was just about out of sweet chili sauce…but I did have all of the ingredients to make it myself…so I did!

Here is the recipe I used…but multiplied by 8! I ended up with 20 canned half pint jars and a pint jar to use for dinner and leftovers.

1 cup of chopped red jalapeños/serranos (left seeds in a few of the peppers)
1/3 cup of water
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch with enough water to make a slurry

Add water and peppers into a food processor, pulse until finely chopped. Put mixture into pot.

Add all remaining ingredients to the pot, except corn starch slurry.

Bring to a boil, add the slurry and then turn down heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

I water bath canned half pints for 15 minutes.

It’s very good…even got an unsolicited compliment from my husband. I’ll call that success.

08/25/2026

It’s a little embarrassing how many videos I’ve made of this Peruvian Purple pepper plant…it just keeps getting prettier by the day.

The ornamental peppers are completely edible, although I just tried one and didn’t care for it.

It’s ok though because their beauty is all I care about. I think I’ll grow lots more of these next year.

Last year I purchased onion starts from Hoss: Sofire, Vidora and 1015Y Texas SuperSweet. This year I’m growing those sam...
08/24/2026

Last year I purchased onion starts from Hoss: Sofire, Vidora and 1015Y Texas SuperSweet.

This year I’m growing those same varieties from seed because I really want to try the seed snail method and I think onions are the perfect guinea pig candidate. Plus, with seeds I’ll be able to grow a lot more onions for the same cost.

Growing enough onions for a full year and to stop buying them is a real goal of mine.

Have you tried the seed snail method of starting your seeds? How did it go?

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