The Last Of Our Tomatoes

| Red Dust

Rain is coming and  bringing  the cold weather with it here in the foothills of the Oregon Cascades near Eugene. I can feel it in my bones.  We, that is my husband and I, picked all our tomatoes, red, green, and in-between! After we picked our tomatoes we pulled half the bushes leaving the other half for the flea beetles. If I pulled everything the flea beetles would move into my green leafy veggies like collards and kale. I pull the rest of my tomato plants after the first frost. Next year I am growing a small garden at the other end of our property just for the flea beetles. They love radishes. If they have radishes to eat they leave everything else in my garden alone!

My husband doesn’t get involved in the canning process but he is a big help with the garden. He is doing pretty good being a city boy and all. He has learned a lot about gardening and caring for chickens these last four years. I bet next year I’ll get him in the kitchen as my prep-boy. He is so cute, I will have a hard time staying on task!  We have also grown closer working on our little garden projects together. Working as a quality engineer my husband has also helped refined some of my gardening and food preserving processes. I am very grateful for his help and his keen interests in all things healthy and organic. We both have become so healthy together, working out in our gardens and eating organic foods we look and feel like different people. We are so happy and man do we sleep good! Out like a light as soon as our heads hit our pillows.

As the tomatoes ripen I will be making tomato sauce and having ripe tomatoes to eat through the end of November. I check the green tomatoes every day for mold and fungus. Pulling the ones that are ripe for processing. If I keep the green tomatoes in a cool room they ripen very slowly. I wash them in vinegar to prohibit bacterial and fungus growth. I also will be drying the cherry tomatoes as they ripen. Dry Cherry Tomatoes make excellent toppings for pizza and ground to a powder a wonderful tasty addition to soups and stews. You can see my garlic braids hanging over the green tomatoes. We had a bumper crop of garlic, both braiding and hard neck varieties.

Green tomatoes in the process of ripening
Last of our tomatillos cooking for Salsa
Tomatoes ready to peel for salsa
Drain out liquid from a quart of stewed tomatoes for past
First Sink…Soaking tomatoes in water and vinegar.
Second sink…After soaking, the tomatoes are placed on a towel to dry.
Third Sink…
Cherry Tomatoes will be washed in water and vinegar as well.
Leaves from our backyard provide cover for winter crops and much needed mulch for spring garden.
Some of my tomatoes grew over 10 feet tall using the fence as support.
Volunteer marigolds. I’m saving the seeds of these beauties!
Pulled and composted this bunch of tomato plants..
Pulled this bunch of tomatoes
This is a lot of tomatoes to process!
The last of our tomatillos need to be husked.for salsa.
I was so worried I couldn’t grow tomatillo plants up here in the foothills of the Oregon Cascades. I think I worry too much!

8 thoughts on “The Last Of Our Tomatoes”

    1. That’s the last of them. Just imagine all the tomatoes before this. I’ve canned 30 quarts so far…. OMG…I hate to say this, I craved tomatoes all winter last year, I am sick of tomatoes…hahaha (not really)

          1. Yummy…with tillamook cheese and crackers. One of my only canned foods I eat, tomato soup. I stick a ton of stuff in mine. We are almost on our soup kick here pretty soon…soups all winter. I may not be a gourmet cook…I can sure makes some amazing soups.

            1. you know it’s an old American Indian custom to have soup pot going 24/7. You take a bowl and add enough ingredients back so the soup keeps going forever!

              1. I am ready to make some chicken pot pie too!! My father-in-law can eat half of what I make in a sitting. They would be some happy folks with your food mom.

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