The Bounty

Its that late summer problem; how to handle the deluge of produce that seems to come in all at the same time. A few weeks back I was able to do some pickling. Now it is time to figure a way to process all of the tomatoes that are coming in. The Romas will be either dried or converted to juice and canned. The others are eaten out-right or given away, there are just too many. The peppers are just starting to come in and these will be eaten fresh or pickled.

Romas are also good for tomato pies. First they are sliced and de-seeded along with some wedges of yellow Valencias. The wedges are lightly salted to pull out some of the moisture. Meanwhile the pie crusts are backed and the basil chopped.


The pies are assembled together with ample cheese and minced garlic.



Baked, and then............what's not to like?

Near Full Production

A lot has been going on over the last few weeks. This past Saturday, the beet row was pulled and turned into 12 quarts of sweet beet pickle. I didn't pickle any last year and I have been out since the holidays (I always have pickled beets for Christmas dinner).


The Lima bean patch is in full bloom and it looks like a bumper crop assuming each bloom produces a pod.


The heirloom tomatoes as well as the grape and single hybrid (planted for emergency back-up) are really starting to crank out. The Romas are poised to start coming in any day now and that means in the next couple of weeks having to take a day and concentrate on making tomato juice.


I also was able to clear out the floricanes from the raspberry bed so the primocanes should have plenty of room to come in and make side shoots for next years crop. It was a bit like bailing barbed-wire, but it is nice to see the top of the mulch again.


And the peppers are doing nicely too.