Community Garden Fall Harvest

This morning, while hubby was repairing our fence, I headed over the the community garden to do some harvesting.  The weather is a cool 63 degrees and sunny with a light breeze -- perfect for working in the garden and a reminder that Fall has arrived.  The leaves on our two sugar maples have begun to change color and the last of my Fall blooming perennials, the Toad Lily, has finally flowered.

Leaves changing color on our sugar maple tree

Over at the community garden I picked cherry and regular tomatoes, beans, carrots, yellow and red  onions, eggplant, and peppers.

The first batch of onions that I harvested a couple weeks ago were dried in a single layer on a homemade soil sifting screen for about two weeks, the stems were then removed, and the onions are being stored in used mesh bags that I save when buying oranges at the grocery store.   

Harvest the onions when the green tops flop over in the field. Of course, they can be used right after picking, but if you have more than you can use at one time, they can be stored for later use.  I dry them in our shed to keep them out of the rain.

Onions on drying screen

Onions after drying with stems removed

Ready for storage in mesh bag

After a couple weeks they're ready to store in mesh bags in a cool place and will last a few months, depending on the variety. Onions can also be chopped and frozen and don't need to be blanched first like most other veggies that are frozen.  

The Toad Lily is the last of my garden perennials to bloom.  The flower looks like a mini orchid.

Toad Lily