I love these onions. They are a yellow storage variety from Down to Earth. Next year I will plant more as it is only October and I have used most of them. They grew great scattered all around the garden.

Collecting fennel seed. I found that if you take the seed heads and rub them roughly against the palm of your hand that the seeds will fall out. I like to do this over a very large bowl so that the seeds fall into the bowl. You can also do this over newspaper. I harvested lettuce seed in  similar manner. To separate the seed from the left over debrie I used a very large bowl and first picked out all of the large non-seed pieces. Then I swirled the bowl which when done correctly settled the heavier seeds to the bottom and the pushed the debrie to the top where I could pick off with my fingers. Finally, I spread the seeds in a thin sheet at one end of the bowl and blew the remainder very light debrie to the other side and  then lifted it out. One thing to remember is that you will have plenty of lettuce seed. If you lose a few seeds in the process it is OK. 

Harvest time! I'm not so happy with the types of tomatoes that I grew this year. These are an heirloom variety that although are very large and beautiful were not good for eating fresh. They are a little mealy and don't have the nice acid and striking flavor that I look for in a tomato. We did however make salsa with these and it turned out very tasty. In the future I may grow one plant of these varieties. Another note about tomatoes this year; the two plants that were grown in bed #1 against the house, both withered and died half way through the season. I suspect that these were cooler weather varieties and didn't like the heat but I do worry that there is some tomato disease in those beds. I'm going to not plant tomatoes in this bed for a few years. Maybe use it for peppers.