Winter came early this year and stayed! So far we have about a foot of snow on the ground and it shows no sign of melting. Temps are headed into the single numbers this week and we are shocked at how cold it got so quickly! But we keep on keeping on. I’m still canning like mad. I’ve done more enchilada and tomato sauce as well as another case of salsa. (You can find these recipes in my Growing and Canning Your Own Food book.) Last night, David’s girlfriend, Ashley, made a big batch of salsa using mostly yellow and golden tomatoes. We really love the appearance and taste of it, too. I canned up six and a half pints and I’m sure we’ll be doing more. We love our salsa!

Here’s some of Ashley’s yellow tomato salsa, ready to can up.

I’ve been using a lot of G. Chalmers large paste tomatoes in our canning this year. It’s turned out to be a very nice tomato even with its pleated, pear-shape.

Aren’t the G. Chalmers paste tomatoes cute? And they’re meaty too.

This year, we grew a nice crop of New Mexico Big Jim chili peppers for the first time since I left New Mexico. They’re big, beautiful and meaty, having a medium-hot flavor that really sparks up a big batch of chili, which we all love, especially with some cornmeal from our home ground corn. (Can’t get those flavors in the store!)

Have you ever grown New Mexico Big Jim chili peppers? They’re pretty tasty if you like spicy food.

We’re seeing a lot of deer, right up in the yard this year. I think it’s because they know we’re in for a hard winter. They’re stocking up on dry bean vines, immature beans, tomatoes, spent cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower leaves, and cornstalks. Last night (it’s deer hunting season now) we had seven in the yard while deer hunters all around us hunkered down in freezing rain on their deer stands. David went to hunt down at his brother Bill’s and saw only does and fawns and one young, small buck. Oh well, there’s another week of season.

I’ve been sorting out our tomatoes and Will built another shelf on which to organize the varieties. There are so many it took two days to get everything under control! We’re already starting to plan our next year’s gardens and thinking of how to improve them. Will got half of the north garden covered in rotted manure and then the snow came. Hopefully, he can get the other half done too as soon as he gets the tractor’s rear tire fixed. The tire blew out and he had to order a new tube; already had a good used replacement tire but the tractor’s wheel was rusted out badly so he had to get a wheel too. Eeek! But that’s how it goes on the homestead, isn’t it? — Jackie

11 COMMENTS

  1. The deer have been warning us of the upcoming winter by eating EVERYTHING, even stuff they don’t usually touch~ peonies, sedum, marigolds, mums….
    If they eat the daffodil bulbs, I think we might be in for some real trouble this winter. :)

    • Everyone around here is seeing many more deer around their yards. We usually let them in the garden to clean up but have never seen so many! I think the beavers have partner weather forecasters here…..

  2. It has been a wierd fall here in the copper basin Alaska. One of our neighbors had a killing frost on August 15! We didnt but burned quiet a bit of propane warding off frost in the hoop houses in September. Had some snow a couple weeks ago then it warmed up and rained. Now we have about an inch down and -5 last night. Last year was much colder in October. As you keep accumulating canned goods are you going to be able to use enough up ( especialy tomatos) to do it all over next year?

    • No, we won’t use up all the tomato products I’ve canned this year. But each year I discover…or invent new foods using tomatoes and can them! As canned foods last for decades, we’re prepared for emergency situations, even “minor” ones such as David moving home. (He eats more than we do!) This summer we were wondering IF we would be canning any tomatoes as our growing year was so bad. Yeah, we’re dipping below zero tomorrow night; not something I’m looking forward to so early but what the heck, huh? We also burned up a bunch of propane in our hoop houses but when it finally appeared that winter was here to stay, we picked what we could and let the rest go.

  3. Wow, a foot of snow already for you! We’ve had some flakes here in Michigan and expect snow toward the end of the week. Been in the 40s but it’s going to get colder soon for us too. Ashley’s salsa looks great! Hope the deer hunt is successful for all. Love that paste tomato; hope they’ll be available for sale. Thank you for the update Jackie!

    • It’s funny; David hunted down at brother Bill’s and nobody got a deer. Meanwhile, we had seven in our yard. No big bucks but still….. Yep, we’ll have plenty of new tomatoes to join the others as soon as I get the website updated.

  4. Wow – snow already! We’ve had an odd snowflake here in the Finger Lakes region of NY, but no more. We’ve even been light on the frosts this fall. But it is getting cold and damp, and I have a feeling that damp will soon be snow.

    Funny, I was just looking through your canning book and thinking I might do up a batch of enchilada sauce, but it may have to wait to next year since this year late blight took most of my tomatoes. Still plenty on the shelf from last couple of years – make hay while the sun shines!

    At least the heat from your canning is welcome in the cabin! I try to do most of my pressure canning when it’s cold to make the most out of running the stove.

  5. That yellow salsa looked fantastic. What recipe did she use? I would like to try that next year. Even though that tomato looked funny I bet it tasted really good.

    I am glad that you have snow. Here is WI it is only 30s in the daytime and 20s at night so the ground is hardening and I hope the frost doesn’t go too far down.

    Can’t wait to see you new catalog for seeds!!! Cindy

  6. i live in upstate ny. no snow yet. this morning it felt like summer. i had on a sleeveless shirt, this afternoon I grabbed a warm jacket. hope you have a good winter season

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