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Now that I have a greenhouse, October no longer means the close of my garden and forage season. I plan to harvest tomatoes and other ingredients for my foodie cooking experiments all winter long! I’d read that an easy way to start tomato seedlings is to place a seed-filled slice in garden starter mix, so I thought I’d give that a try.


As an experiment, I bought one tomato from my local Wegmans grocery store, and one from a vendor at my local farmers market. I chose the organic Beefsteak variety. One of the reasons I like Wegmans is that they support sustainable sourcing, buying regionally and locally as much as possible. Still, you can’t get much more farm-to-fork than a vendor at the farmers market, right?


I planted a thick, seed-packed slice of each tomato into my growing mix on September 8. Want to guess which tomato slice produced more seedlings by mid-October?


Greenhouse farm-to-fork tomatoes

I know I was surprised…

Greenhouse farm-to-fork tomatoes from Wegmans

Yup, the grocery store tomato. The farmers market tomato only produced one viable seedling—which really surprised me. It makes me kind of wonder about that particular vendor and his produce…


I also have the Black Brandywine heirloom variety in the greenhouse that’s quite tall but not yet producing, but a hearty slice of Beefsteak tomato in the middle of January sounded too good to resist. I’ll keep you posted on progress!


In other news, I had a wonderful book signing at Twigs in Purcellville last week! Thank you, Amy Turner, for the opportunity to sit on the front porch of your lovely shop on a gorgeous Saturday and talk to people about gardening, foraging, and The Forager Chefs Club! If you don’t have your copy yet, The Forager Chefs Club is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org, as well as at brick-and-mortar locations in Virginia like Twigs, Fields of Athenry Farm Shop & Sidesaddle Bistro in Middleburg, and Birchtree Bookstore in Leesburg.


Thank you for all your encouragement and well wishes!

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greenhouse
Inside My Greenhouse

It's mid-October and the 90-degree days here in rural northern Virginia are (hopefully) behind us. Which means I can again enjoy time in my greenhouse!


We built the greenhouse with summer ventilation in mind. A number of the reclaimed windows are hinged, we have doors on either end, and a double fan-and-vent system that pushes the hot air through and out of the structure. Still, the greenhouse is typically 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. Which means from June through September the temperature in the greenhouse was typically over 100 F. (I think the highest I saw was 112 F.) Even my Christmas cactus wasn't happy. In June we moved all the plants and citrus trees to our back deck for the summer. It felt odd to have a greenhouse without any plants in it.


Every year I dry herbs from my garden to incorporate into the chicken feed over the winter. Before the greenhouse, I did this in my home office using a mesh drying cylinder my son and daughter-and-law gifted me. It was nice having the smell of drying herbs as I worked there. In June I hung the cylinder in the greenhouse, loaded it with thyme, oregano, basil, sage, and rosemary cut from my garden, and left on a scheduled business trip. When I returned, I was dismayed to find nothing but gray, desiccated leaves and stems. Lesson learned: drying in the greenhouse during the summer takes no more than three days.


But now it's mid-October, the mornings are chilly, and in the evenings Tim and I sit around the firepit with libations in hand. 


And I once again have plants in the greenhouse. I look forward to harvesting peas, cukes, tomatoes, and lettuce throughout the winter. I can't wait to share with you in my next blog the results of my experiment in growing tomato seedlings from a grocery store tomato versus one from the farmers market.


Oh, and in other news, The Forager Chefs Club was released by Koehler Books on October 8! If you like foraging, farm-to-fork, forest-to-fork cooking–whether doing it or eating it–please order your copy! The Forager Chefs Club is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, Bookshop.org, or select indie Virginia retailers like Birch Tree Bookstore in Leesburg, Twigs Gift Shop in Purcellville, or Sidesaddle Bistro in Middleburg.

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Starting at a young age, all of us seek validation. Praise from a parent, a gold star on a

school paper, making it onto the high school team, getting into your first-choice college, a promotion at work, or a group of friends getting together to celebrate your entry into this world—validation comes in many forms.

Publishers Weekly Book Reviews

For me, it came this past week when I learned The Forager Chefs Club is a Publisher’s Weekly “editor’s pick”! The review will be included in their October 28 issue and you bet your skillet I’ll be on the lookout for it to hit my mailbox. That little lightning bolt next to the review means the premier magazine for the publishing industry feels that “…it is a book of outstanding quality.”


My Book Launch Day is just two weeks away—October 8! If you’re looking for a novel for a cozy fall read or are starting your holiday shopping early, I hope you’ll pre-order The Forager Chefs Club, available now on Amazon!


Publishers Weekly Review of The Forager Chefs Club

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Garden, Cook, Write, Repeat

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