Use Your Garden Sage: Try this Tuscan White Beans with Garlic and Sage Recipe

A delicious, easy recipe with beans, sage, olive oil and garlic. Garlic lovers - rejoice!

In the late autumn garden today, we can still harvest fresh kale and carrots, beets and a few herbs. The sage has survived the freezing night temperatures of late October in Edmonton. I have already frozen bunches of sage for use in the winter. We love sage in a family favourite side dish we call “Tuscany White Beans with Sage“. This is a quick and easy recipe that goes especially well with pork or chicken. Use fresh sage, or sage you have frozen from your garden. Our dinner guests often ask for this recipe.

Tuscany Beans Recipe

5-7 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or pressed through garlic press
¼ cup of olive oil
A large handful (3 or more tablespoons) of fresh sage, coarsely chopped
1 can of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of white navy beans, drained and rinsed
¼ to ½ cup of water
1-2 teaspoons of dried oregano
Salt and pepper

In a big pot that is large enough to hold the 2 cans of beans, saute the garlic and sage in the olive oil over LOW heat for just a minute or two. Add the beans to the pot with the water to make a little sauce. Add the oregano. Heat over very low and simmer for 10 minutes until the dish is hot. Add salt and pepper and serve.

Sage is easy to grow from seed (start indoors) or bedding plants, so be sure to plant some in your garden next spring. Sometimes, I pot up a sage plant to bring indoors for the winter. Due to low light levels in winter, it just barely hangs in there in a south window, but in springtime - out it goes into the garden again.

Sage - what a great herb.

Make Self Watering Planters. Easy Wicking Containers for the Greenhouse

Water. That's what plants in the greenhouse need. In northern climes, you need your crops growing all the time. Daylight hours are long but the growing season is short.  I top off the water supply to plants in my little greenhouse by adding home made self watering systems to my  potted tomato and pepper plants. They get a constant source of water, so they can keep growing at will.

This is easier than you think! The wicking system saves water, keeps the plants growing and happy, and saves time.

The basic idea is that you have a separate reservoir of water where  'wicks'  draw water into the soil where the potted plant is growing.  The blue pails in the picture above show an easy self-watering system . These old pails are about the same size,  and the light blue pail stacks perfectly into the dark one, with a 4 inch gap at the bottom and top between the 2 pails. In this case, the 'reservoir' of water is in the bottom pail.  I drilled 12 drainage holes in the bottom of the top pail (light blue) and dropped  4 cotton 'wicks' (from an inexpensive mop refill) down from 4 of these holes, to touch the bottom of the dark blue pail, when they are stacked. You can use other thick ropes for 'wicks',  just make sure they draw water up.

I drilled a bigger hole in the bottom pail about an inch under the base of where the top pail would sit, leaving a 3 inch 'reservoir' for water in the bottom pail. This hole is for drainage of the water reservoir- so there is always a gap of air between the water reservoir and the bottom of the upper pail.  Knot the wicks at the inside base of the top pail and draw them an inch or two up into the dirt in the top pail, so the wicked water is dispersed in the soil. Fill the top pail with light soil (not potting soil but potting mix- this seems to be important for absorption) and plant your pepper, tomato or plants of choice.  Water from above directly on the soil, and/or below-  into the hole in the side of the bottom pail. Make sure there is always water in the reservoir and once in a while, flush it out by filling through the bottom drainage hole to overflow. Tomatoes and peppers seem to love a constant source of water. In northern climates, you need your plants growing all the time, when the days are long. I get a huge crop of peppers, tomatoes and basil in my northern climate greenhouse. The reservoir doesn't have to be under the planted pot - it can be beside it, or even inside it. Experiment! I also choose plastic containers rated as safe for food to plant in.

Pollinate Tomatoes in the Greenhouse

Toothbrush Tomato Pollinator.




Re-use and Pollinate at the Same Time!



If you are growing tomatoes in your greenhouse, you know that you will increase yield by ensuring that each tomato flower is pollinated. You want every flower to set fruit because you don't want to waste space. The hobby greenhouse gardener needs to do the pollinating by hand. I use an old electric toothbrush to pollinate my tomatoes in the greenhouse. I take off the brush part and use the 'stem' of the old toothbrush. You could also leave the brush on and use the back of the brush. Just gently, very gently, touch the vibrating 'stem' of the toothbrush to the stem of the tomato flower, a bit above the actual flower and just for a second or two. Watch the pollen stream out. By observing the flowers carefully, you will see when the best time to pollinate is. Wait until the petals of the flower are slightly curled back. I pollinate around 11 am to about 3 pm, but really anytime that it works for you will do. This is kind of relaxing and a good excuse to get away alone for a bit.  "Oh, I have to go pollinate the tomatoes!"