If you're lucky enough to have a vegetable garden, or have access to a community garden, late fall is a time when you're picking what's left of your crop and preparing for next season.

But the last few fruits or green tomatoes don't have to be chucked into the compost. Apples can be made into applesauce or apple butter, other fruits can be made into jams. Root vegetables can be canned.

If you don't have enough produce yourself, there are several local farmers markets that are open into November and even December where you can nab some of your summer favorites to preserve a little sunshine for the drab months.

A recent visit to the house of Noah Antes and his wife, Dana May, found them busy drying herbs and orange slices in the oven. An array of the last of their harvest was spread on a kitchen counter. Antes had just planted two varieties of garlic in a bed in the front yard, 201 cloves total.

With a longtime interest in homesteading, Antes recounts his adventures in gardening, cooking and pipe smoking on his YouTube channel, At Noah's House, and on Instagram.

The couple, who have lived in their North Versailles home for more than two decades and raised two children there, have taken those years to experiment with what works in their garden. They've discovered, for instance, that their house is in a microclimate that is a few degrees warmer than their neighbors'.

Now neatly organized in raised beds, their garden was still green but at the end of its harvest season in late October.

Antes seems to like to create projects for himself. For next year, it will be to construct a small greenhouse in the yard for seedlings. This past year, he had a variety of beds he dedicated to certain plants, like a planter full of pollinator flowers, a bed with four types of basil, one with tomatoes and peppers, and the aforementioned garlic bed.

Though he used to have a spreadsheet, he gave up on that method and now has a sort of plant diary where he keeps track of the dates and locations of the vegetable he raises.

"I have that book because I'll plant something and then two weeks later, I don't know where it is," he said.

He keeps his seeds organized in a binder of clear zippered bags.

Antes said that an enthusiasm for self-reliance is not the only reason for his pursuits.

He notes that the benefits of growing and processing your own food includes avoiding unhealthy manufactured food, better taste and the economies of doing it yourself.

Though people's interest in self-sufficiency grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, he feels it has since tapered off.

He doesn't see himself going completely off the grid; starting his own farm strikes him as unrealistic. But he does steadily pursue his projects, and share his results online.

Antes also recommends a host of other YouTubers, including Self Sufficient Me, Epic Gardening, Homesteading DownUnder, Charles Dowding, The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni and Homesteading With the Zimmermans. And he swears by a worn copy of "Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving" (Jarden Home Brands, $26.22).

Though he's particularly enthusiastic about Self-Sufficient Me, he cautions that things that work in Australia might not work in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Water canning tomatoes or tomato sauce, which requires mainly just a large pot and a rack, is a preservation method he feels is within reach of most people. Michigan State University Extension has a quick video explanation of the method.

Water-bath canning is only for produce that is high in acid, like fruits, jams, pickled and fermented foods and tomatoes. It's important to sanitize your materials and use a trusted recipe.

Foods not suitable for water-bath canning must be preserved using pressure canning, which requires a specialized pot.

He also touts a method of fermenting cherry tomatoes he found on the Self Sufficient Me channel, describing the result as "flavor bombs." Antes has pureed the results to use as a sauce on sourdough pizza.

Green Roma tomatoes and Leutschauer paprika peppers that are the last of his harvest — and that did not have time to ripen — will be placed in a paper bag with bananas, which give off a plant hormone that speeds the ripening process.

Though he sometimes makes a green-tomato salsa or fried green tomatoes from the unripe fruit, he hopes ripening the Romas will allow him to make tomato sauce.

As for the ripened paprika peppers, he intends to dry them in a food dehydrator, and then, using a coffee grinder, turn them into paprika powder for cooking.

His wife added that dried oranges are an easy home project. Just slice an orange up into rounds, lay them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and dry them in a 210-degree oven, flipping them occasionally, until they're crisp. She suggests adding them to flavor hot tea.

She stores the lemons in jars because if left out, they may rehydrate.

"I think people should do this stuff," Antes said. "It's fun to do and I don't think a lot of younger people have any clue about their food."

Fermented cherry tomatoes

Fermenting requires several pieces of equipment, all available online: a Mason jar, an air lock lid and a fermentation glass weight designed to fit in a Mason jar.

Handful of basil leaves

Several cloves garlic

1 tablespoon fine sea salt per quart

Distilled or spring water

Cherry tomatoes, washed and stems removed, enough to fill a jar

Place basil leaves and garlic at the bottom of the jar.

Add 1 tablespoon of salt per quart jar.

Fill the jar about halfway with distilled water.

Stir to dissolve salt.

Pack the tomatoes in, leaving a small gap at the top.

Put a weight on top to keep the tomatoes submerged and to prevent mold from developing.

Screw the lid on and place some water in the air lock. Store in the cellar or a pantry where the temperature remains between 50 and 77 degrees.

They will be ready — soft and infused with garlic and basil flavors — in 2-4 weeks. You can taste-test them at two weeks to see if they need more time.

Store in the refrigerator.

Serves 2-8, depending on usage.

— Self Sufficient Me

©2025 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.