Monday, September 19, 2005

The can-a-thon continues

I picked about fifty pounds of tomatoes Saturday morning, and canned seven quarts of cut up tomatoes on Sunday. The remainder I will probably make into juice some time this week. Such anticipation, beginning with the first seeds planted in March, and it all comes down to a short burst of abundance this time of year. I'm still getting lots of Stupice, with some Moskvich, Aztec, Wisconsin 55, Legend, Mother Russia, Martino's Roma, and Amish Paste. And that's just the canners. I'm getting huge, two-fist size Brandywines and Roses to slice for every meal, and I picked two gallons of Black Cherry tomatoes. The Yellow Pears mostly get eaten in the garden, but I bring a bag of them along to snack on at work. This was a source of great amusement the other day as my coworker, who disdains most fruits and vegetables, looked at the golden yellow tomatoes and asked "What the heck ARE those?"

I also broke my vow. Not THAT one, but the one I made last week to not pick any more crabapples. My family made me do it! I opened up a jar of jelly on Saturday to have on toast with breakfast, and they all thought it was the most amazing jelly they had ever tasted. The Hermit was especially impressed, and insisted that I make as much more as possible, since thirteen half pints just isn't enough! So now I have another box of crabapples to cut up, juice, and cook into jelly. I think I'll do some of the cutting at night, in the house, instead of my usual falling asleep with a book open on my chest at 9 pm.

Edited to add: How could I forget about the salsa? While the tomatoes were in the canner I started cutting up Amish Paste, Roma, and other tomatoes for salsa. Five pints.

4 comments:

R.Powers said...

I love your garden posts. The diversity of varieties just amazes me. I have never heard of most of them. Down here in fungus land, only a few varieties of tomato really stand a chance against the humidity and disease.

dharma bum said...

Did you see this story about heirloom tomatoes in the Star Tribune?

http://www.startribune.com/stories/418/5623188.html

Thought of you when I read it.

Deb said...

Thanks for the link, dharma bum! Wow, I'm being "trendy"...that's a first. :)

Lené Gary said...

Are any of your preserves for sale? :) I would love to taste some. I haven't seen anyone making crab apple jam at the local farm stands, and I've never tried it before.

One woman I know at the farmer's market makes the best organic blueberry preserves with honey that I've ever tasted. The berries spread whole.

Anyway, if you have an extra you can spare to a curious Vermonter, email me at aleaningbirch@yahoo.com. :)