My Favorite Harvest & Storage Products

For about a minute, I get excited about autumn. I’m tired of watering the garden, I’m out of canning energy, and I just want to be inside my house, under a pile of blankets, surrounded by cats, binge watching some BBC period drama on Netflix while knitting. The novelty wears off pretty quickly, but that is another story.

But before I can settle in for the winter, I need to focus my energy on harvesting the last of the bounty and storing it for winter. Last week I felt like I was finished with preserving but then I got a burst of energy and decided to do some canning. I pickled a pile of peppers and preserved a pot of pear & cranberry jam with cinnamon and black pepper. I’m feeling exhausted again but maybe I’ll have another burst later this week and I can deal with the last of the fresh herbs as well as oven roast a metric tonne of tomatoes for freezing. And with that, I’ve put together a little round-up of my favorite products or things that I would love to have – to make the transition just a little easier.

 

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1. Opinel Garden Knife $17.00 – Mountain Equipment Co-op – I have this knife and I love it. Very sharp! And compact for easy keeping in your pocket or garden apron.

2. Orchard Rack $89.95 – Veseys – I don’t have this but I would love to have it for winter squash storage. I’ve already instructed my husband that when he perfects his carpentry skills, he will be building me something similar.

3. Garden Hod $75.00USD – Beekman 1802 – I also don’t have this, I just use a plastic ice cream bucket, but isn’t this so much prettier?

4. Cardboard Boxes – I use shallow cardboard boxes for storing my unripe tomatoes in the basement (keep any lids open or off). Various ripening methods work for other people, but this seems to work the best for me.

5. Herb Drying Rack $28.50 – Williams Sonoma – This has been on my covet list for like 4 years. I need to just buy it.

6. Le Parfait Jars $9.95-$18.95 – Crate & Barrel – I am obsessed with pretty storage jars so I already have a bunch of these in my pantry. They are perfect for storing your dried herbs.

7. Seed Envelopes $10.23 – Kaufmann Merchantile – You could just use regular kraft envelopes but why would you when these exist? I’m a sucker for beautiful typography.

If you live in Canada, have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Do you have any big projects for the extended weekend?

Note: All of my product posts are my personal recommendations – I am not paid for these posts or associated with the products in any way besides personally loving or coveting them!

 

Covet – My Imaginary Urban Farm

I’ve got chickens on the brain. Our neighbors, the city of Edmonton, just this week approved a backyard chicken pilot project. If you know me at all, you know that I am a huge supporter of urban farming, including backyard chickens. So this morning when I read that two city councilors from Calgary were hoping to bring a pilot project back to the table in the near future, I squealed in excitement. I may already have Chicken Land plans and a list of hen names stored in my brain – but maybe not because that would be something a crazy person does, right? Anyway, it got me thinking about urban farming, so I put together a little covet (wish-list) of things I would love to have if I had some extra money to blow and I didn’t have to worry about adult things like paying bills.

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1. Overalls – American Eagle Outfitters $76.24CND but on sale right now for 50% off.

2. Raised Bed – Williams Sonoma $475CND

3. Barred Plymouth Rock Chicken – My Pet Chicken $2.45USD

4. Galvanized Steel Trough/Raised Bed – UFA $129.99-179.99CND

Looking back, nothing on this list is outrageously priced except maybe the Williams Sonoma planter (I actually have plans to build something similar with a cold frame attachment for my deck). I already own a galvanized steel livestock tank that I use as a raised bed and I love it, so I highly recommend it to anyone. And I seriously just ordered those overalls because every urban farming girl needs a pair of hip overalls but I’d held off on buying them because I thought they were too expensive (apparently I’m really cheap). Anyway, happy dreaming! Next time we’ll get back to reality with a post about my first ripe hot peppers!

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I`m a window shopper, especially on the internet. I will scour my favorite shopping sites and put items in my basket and then not buy any of them. So I thought it might be fun to put together some covet posts where we can all pretend we live in an imaginary world where we have an unlimited disposable income. Most of the items are way too expensive for me to even dream about, but sometimes I get ideas from these expensive items and try to come up with creative ways to affordably reproduce them. Don`t worry, I will be featuring some of my favorite affordable gardening items later – this is just fantasy gardening (that sounds like it should be dirty, but I didn`t mean it that way).

11. Watering Wand – Rejuvenation $170 USD

2. Jardiniere Bench – Terrain $228.50 USD (on sale!)

3. Copper Insects – Anthropologie $40 each USD

4. Small Hanging Pot – tw workshop $60 USD