Decidedly not tomato red
Labor Day, pshaw! I put away 22 quarts (quarts!) of tomatoes yesterday.
Gawd, I don’t even want to even SEE another tomato for a while. And I won’t: we’re leaving tomorrow for Tom’s show in Boston. (Come see us if you can: it’s at the Bernard Toale/Carroll and Sons space, with the public opening on Friday.) I usually have a hard time leaving the farm, usually fearing for the animals, but…everyone is in good hands so it should be fine.
And yes, I will appreciate the vacation from food preservation. I’ll be back soon enough and those pesky tomatoes will be leaping off their vines, I am sure. Let’s not talk about the grapes, as I noticed the Niagaras are ready…oh gosh get me out of here!!
Glad you came to visit!
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fast grow the weeds 
Lovely lacinato kale, El. I only got four quarts of tomato sauce canned and a little over four quarts of borscht frozen over the weekend. I’ve still got lots more tomatoes to deal with. But my husband *smoked* some cherry tomatoes and some of our poblano/ancho peppers, with our own apple wood chips. We put the cherry tomatoes and a bit of the smoked peppers in our pasta last night. It was to die for!
Enjoy your time away. You’ve certainly earned it.
I have a tomato ballet cartoon playing in my head now.
Thanks for the unstoppable leaping tomato images.
Have a nice time in Boston; I hope the show is a hit.
Smoked cherry tomatoes sound fantastic.
Your kitchen must smell awesome.
I’m envious. We live in central Wisconsin and our tomatoes are just starting to ripen. I’ve been picking some Brandywines the last week (them’s big!) and today I just picked our first Moskviches. Cherry tom’s have been ripening the last couple weeks, but slowly so. We have several other tomato plants that are just beginning to give (I picked a “pineapple” today). But with this cool summer we’ve been having, we are way behind you. I wonder if it’s because we planted all indeterminate plants rather than the smaller bushy determinate types??
Even our corn is very slow to ripen. We planted Golden Bantam (heritage variety) and it’s 8-9 feet tall, but the ears are not yet ripe. We’ve been typically getting night-time temperatures in the 50s and 60s.
Kate, that sounds just loverly!! I think I need to grow anchos next year, now that I know how well peppers in general grow in the greenhouse. Roasting over apple wood sounds like quite the ticket. Oh, I deserved the break, you’re right, but today I am making up for the loss: bread, chickens to freezer, and at least one batch of tomatoes. Egads.
Pamela! Exactly. Crazy smiling tomatoes with can-can steps. Ohgawd why did I agree to go again? As I am buried, sigh.
Kelly, truth be told, my kitchen is…sticky.
Hiya Dennis! Yeah things have been spotty, haven’t they? We have had a fairly normal summer, maybe a scotch drier than normal, which means we’ve had lots of sun…thus, happy tomatoes. And yeah, there’s nothing you can do about those night-time temperatures, sadly. Except of course lettuces, spinach and the kale crops love the cool…can’t be all bad. I wouldn’t want to just be a tomato grower (although admittedly that’s what I feel like right now…).
Awww, I want more kale now! Last year mine was so large it grew to more than 6 feet and was still tender and delicious. I took the precaution of freezing a bunch of it but now only have about one ziplock bag of the tuscan kale left. I love that stuff.
Tomatoes? Ha. On Saturday night my husband was fire roasting my tomatoes and even the ones I had done on a different barbeque that didn’t get as hot and then he re-roasted my jalapenos and serrano peppers and they all smell like chipotle now. He did the roasting on the weber grill after smoking the salmon he caught in Oregan and I still have a kitchen full of cukes and tomatoes. Canning isn’t the problem, I am sad to have to can up my Cherokee and Brandywine tomatoes as they taste so perfect in fresh state, but they are really productive and while the Better Boy tomatoes are great for the canning I would love to keep each variety separate.
On your tomatoes, did you color coordinate or separate?
Well, after looking at your picture it is a sure thing that I will be starting more Tuscan kale this week. and get more Aerogardens ready for hot chilie pepper seeds and herbs for the winter gloom.