Preserving Produce

Harvest Monday – August 22

~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment
Cherry and grape tomatoes getting a bath.

Thanks to Daphne’s Dandelions, the host of Harvest Monday!

Tomatoes were our harvest winners again!  We picked over 40 pounds of tomatoes from our weary tomato plants this week.  On Saturday, my husband and I got a lot of work done at the garden plot while our son stayed at his grandma’s house.   I turned over the soil and planted fall crops. My patient husband picked the cherry and grape tomatoes.   He had the most arduous job of picking and holding the small fruit while crawling and twisting through a jungle of 6 feet high tomato plants and dirt peppered with smashed, split and slimy dropped tomatoes.  We learned two lessons….use black plastic and do not plant tomatoes only 18 inches apart!   The tomato plants with black plastic on the ground around them had less split tomatoes than the plants that did not have it.  The black plastic prevented the plants from getting too much water from recent heavy storms.

Harvest Totals:
Beefsteak and Plum Tomatoes 36.5 pounds
Cherry and Grape Tomatoes 7.75 pounds
Cherry Bomb Peppers .25 pound
Hot Banana Peppers .75 pound
Bell Pepper 2 pounds
Yellow Squash 1 pound
Figs 3 pounds
Cucumber 1 pound
Eggplant 1 pound
Leeks 2 pounds
Shallots .5 pounds

Harvest Preservation:
8 quarts of Tomatoes
3 pints of  Pickled Peppers
2 pints of Fig Jam
2 quart bags of frozen oven-dried cherry and grape tomatoes

Catching Figs

~ McArtor ~ 2 Comments

Figs

Our fig tree’s branches grew over 18 inches this summer! Their smooth charcoal-colored branches extend further than they did prior to our late winter pruning.  The tree’s leaves reach over a foot beyond our 10 foot high deck.  Figs grow only on new growth so there are figs dangling high out of reach.  They remind me of my son in a game of chase saying, “You can’t catch me!” Yesterday, I carried a step stool outside to pick the high ripe figs.   But, I did not need the stool because the fig tree’s branches are supple and could be gently lowered. Those faraway figs, got ’em!

I picked 2 pounds of the Brown Turkey figs. Last night, I used all the figs and two packages of low-sugar fruit pectin to make 4 half pint jars of fig jam. The mildly sweet jam tasted great on warm toast this morning. We will have more figs soon. Last summer we had figs into October. In Our Fig Tree, I describe more adventurous ways to enjoy fresh figs.

Harvest Monday – August 15th

~ McArtor ~ 2 Comments

The tomatoes were the star of our garden this week. Despite several rain storms, we picked 97 pounds of tomatoes this week! On Saturday, our plum tomato plants dripped loads of bright red fruit so I continued to pick as the sky darkened and dumped a heavy rain.  My six year old son watched from the car in amazement as his soggy mommy stomped barefoot through puddles and wet spongy grass carrying bags of tomatoes.  After the harvest, my son and I splashed our bare feet in the little waterfalls flowing around the trees and down the hills in the parking lot of our community garden. Harvesting in a summer rain can be fun.

My son's contribution to the tomato harvest

Here are our harvest totals for this week:

Plum and Beefsteak Tomatoes combined
70 pounds

Cherry Tomatoes
27 pounds

Eggplant  5.25 pounds

Peppers  5.0 pounds

Cucumbers  6 pounds

Sweet potato leaves  3 bags

21 Quarts of Tomatoes

Preserved the following produce this week:

21 Quarts of tomatoes
3 Quarts of pickled cucumbers
froze bags of bell and cubanelle peppers, oven-dried cherry tomatoes, and cooked sweet potato leaves

To see amazing harvests from gardens around the world, stop by Daphne’s Dandelions, the host of Harvest Monday.