So this has been an interesting week with its twists and turn. Thankfully the grasshoppers are no more. I got sick just looking outside my windows but not any longer. I even walked outside once today without shoes on. Life is so much better now that the hoppers are mostly gone. However they are still in my garden. In fact they've eaten most of the ripe tomatoes on 3 plants. Good thing there are 22.
About every 4 days I end up with a harvest like this:
On Thursday I decided I had better get to work on some more pico de gallo before they went bad. I quarter them and then scoop the seeds out. In the other three bowls are tomatoes that I ran through my Roma Strainer.
I ended up with 5 quarts of tomato sauce after it boiled down for a while.
And 32 cups pico de gallo.
See - 32 cups right here. Now it's in the freezer. Wish I could find more of those Ball canning jars locally. I love them for freezing salsa.
Two of the quarts of tomato sauce before going into the water bath canner.
Genovese Basil - next year I am going to plant it around every tomato plant.
And jalapenos - just enough for all my pico and even some incase I get to put away more this week.
Today's tomato harvest. Weird heirloom tomatoes - half green, half red. Oh and today I ripped most of the leaves off the top part of the heirloom plants to get some more airflow and sunlight on them. It's apparently going to frost soon. We get about 3 to 4 months frost free and then it's over.
Here is my big harvest. I pulled these this morning - all 108 of them. Considering that a medium size onion sells for $1 each during the winter here I am pretty happy with this. Thankfully we only have 1 car in a 3 car garage although car #2 will be here soon. And Daphne, thank you for sharing how to braid them. As you can see I will be very busy soon.
This is my largest heirloom so far. It's a Red Beefsteak.
And this is me being cheesy. My husband took the photos for me and I was being silly and did this just as he took a photo to make sure the camera settings were the way he liked them. BUT I always say the gardener is missing in most garden photos so I included it even though I was covered with dirt and looking like I just woke up and I was being cheesy. Nice. Forgive me. I think I even stuck my tongue out and rolled my eyes a second after this. Aren't you so glad he caught this photo instead?
This is a Big Daddy onion. What's cool about all of these onions is that I started them from seed. All 108 onions cost me 99 cents total. Of course I have no idea what it costs me to power the pump for the well to water everything in the high desert but we'll ignore that part ok.
And today with the help of both of my children and my wonderful husband I have 26 more cups of pico made. So that's 32 on Thursday and 26 today. Nice - freezer is STOCKED!
And Bell Peppers - I washed them and saved 2 for chicken fajitas this week. The rest I put in the dehydrator that I received when I graduated from high school. Nice graduation present huh? It sat forever. But I use it more often now. I've had it for a long time. A very long time. I am way older than I look. I got a kids menu when I was 6 month pregnant with my oldest - I was 26.
And here is that ancient dehydrator with the bell peppers I picked today.
It does the job so I'm good with it.
Hope you had a great Labor Day!
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