Crushed Tomatoes ~ Goodbye Tomato Plants

Saturday was pretty productive.  I boiled and ice bathed the last 11# of tomatoes I picked on Friday.  Yes, there were more, even after I let the hens at 'em.  Grand total of tomatoes has moved up to 511#!

I got 8 1/2 pints of crushed tomatoes canned.  Not bad for the last bit of tomatoes.  Ripe ones anyway. 

While the canner boiled, I started washing down the kitchen cupboards.  The fall cleaning has started.

Bug Catcher ~ Tidbits

We have had an ample amount of tomatoes in the house lately, and the gnats are horrible.  One daughter found this idea on the internet and it works.  Simply put fruit in the jar and add a piece of paper.  They can get in, but not back out.  I added a drop of dawn soap down the center to kill them.  Today the jar has twice as many in it.  Best thing that has worked so far.  We even caught a fly in it.

Hope and Hard Work ~ Appreciation

The other day, our Army daughter stopped in for a porch visit.  She told me, "Mom the only thing I want for Christmas is a jar of pickles."

It's the thing a hard working, gardening, self-sufficient mother wants to hear from her kids - an appreciation for home grown food.  

The problem with health issues today, in my opinion, stands on the fact convenience kills (when it comes to food).  I can only hope that my kids will understand the importance of eating real food.  Even if they have to buy it vs. grow it.

I should have done this with the tomato soup (much chopping involved), but I'll entertain some folks with the art of making tomato salsa.  Mind you this is only one thing to can with tomatoes.  Imagine all the work into our 500# this year.  This shows you how crazy us homesteader/self-sufficient nuts are, ha ha!

First:  You have to prepare the garden, till it, weed it, plant it, weed it some more, then wait for the bounty.  Then harvest those beauties and wash them first with a vegetable scrubber and cold water.  Then fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil.....oh and for me it involves planting, weeding and harvesting of the hot peppers, garlic onions, pre-making the tomato paste from our tomatoes, and growing the cilantro.

Moving on:

What to do with all those tomatoes?

I faced another 8# of ripe tomatoes yesterday, and will be today.  In fact, I told Hubby dinner will be very late.  I'm on a mission to put up all of my ripe tomatoes.  Ha!  

I took time, after the tomatoes were all boiled and ice bathed, and draining, to eat breakfast on the porch.  It was nice to get some Vitamin D.  Then it was back to the sink and stove.  By the way, that was leftover sweet potato/black bean frittata (Mmmm!)

500.8 pounds of tomatoes this year!

I made one last visit to the tomatoes.  I promised myself to not even think about getting more harvested, and just pull the darn plants.  I put the last of the grape tomatoes into the dehydrator, and pulled some green tomatoes.  Even the green tomatoes are starting to look bad, so I'm ready to get them pulled.  I pulled one plant and stake today.  It's a measly start on 100-some plants, ha ha!  The grand total of our tomato harvest, as of yesterday, was 500.8#!

I told the kids I'll not do that again.  They all laughed at me.

Weekend Fun ~ Fall Foilage ~ Flowers

I took this photo as a light rain was ending.  You can see some of the trees are already turning to beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows.  Hubby and I saw the most beautiful fall colors last night.  We took off on a ride along a river, and the colors were fantastic.   I was on the back of the Harley, hence no photos (very curvy road).

Our weekend started out with a funeral visitation about 40 minutes from home.  Hubby was needing some much needed road therapy and insisted we ride the Harley.  I was hesitant, due to the fact would could not wear nice "dress" clothing, but we went.  It was at night, so he spontaneously booked a room in a historical hotel.  I did not have my camera, so the photos are a bit unfocused (taken with my phone).

Tomato Sauce Leather ~ Tidbits

I just realized, if I run out of pantry and freezer space, I can always utilize my dehydrator.

I can make tomato sauce leather.   You simply spread out he tomato sauce on parchment paper and dehydrate.  This  would come in handy for backpacking trips or camping meals (uses less space to pack food).  You just combine it with equal parts of hot water, and you have tomato sauce again.  Then you can add spices to create pizza sauce, or make other meals using dehydrated ingredients.

The thing with tomatoes, is that you always have something to make with them.