Sorry I have not blogged lately but our internet has been all fouled up. Today a Hughes Net technician came out and upgraded our system and we’re finally back online!

Meanwhile, we’ve been fighting freezing weather. A few days back, a widespread frost was called for and we madly began harvesting everything that would be damaged. That included more than 900 pounds of tomatoes. We had already picked and separated out all the different varieties of tomatoes we raised this year — more than 75 of them — plus our old standbys. Boy were we tired! Then yesterday it was forecast to drop to the mid twenties at night so we again madly picked everything that would be damaged by freezing. That meant four trailer loads of squash and pumpkins and several five-gallon buckets full of onions.

Do I look tired after helping pick 900 pounds of tomatoes?
David carried the crates of tomatoes first onto our front porch, then onto our heated enclosed back porch as it dropped to 25 degrees last night after they were brought in.

I’ve got a pan of cooked down tomato puree in the oven waiting to be canned up as enchilada sauce and several varieties of ripe tomatoes waiting to be seeded. So I’ll have even more sauce to cook down today.

Meanwhile, Will and David have been busy on our bandsaw mill, cutting support beams and floor joists for the new cabin. It’s so much fun to watch those boards come out of the sawmill. And just think of all the money David and Ashley are saving, not having to buy that lumber. Now David’s off traveling to Two Harbors on a job with his log home company, Voyageur Log Homes. He’ll be gone for three days. We’re just happy he was around here when we were madly harvesting.

David and Will were busy turning logs into lumber for the new cabin.

Will got busy and cut up and split most of the slabwood cut from the lumber. But our woodshed is full. The south third of our goat barn is full. So where to put that wood under cover? Last night I thought of the two pig sheds sitting out in the cow pasture. No longer housing pigs, they were used by the donkeys as a place to escape the flies during the summer. But now they just sit there. So Will put the pallet forks on our Oliver tractor and brought them up next to the storage barn. Now we have a lot of space in which to stack firewood. (I think we have three years’ worth…) But one can never have too much firewood under cover and dry. — Jackie

24 COMMENTS

  1. What a harvest Jackie, I wonder how many of those huge tomatoes will ripen and I would love to be a fly on the wall while you preserve them. It is spring here and I’m just beginning to plant my summer crops, I doubt I will harvest anything like yours but as long as they get me through the year with some to spare I’m happy. You are an inspiration, thankyou for your posts.
    Sue from Australia.

  2. Will you be canning all those tomatoes, what all do you make with them? 900 lbs is a lot, a whole lot

    • Zerilda,

      Yep, I’ll be canning nearly all those tomatoes. Here’s a list of some of the things I make from them: 4 flavors of spaghetti sauce, enchilada, pizza and taco sauce, ground tomatoes, three different salsas, five different barbecue sauces, ketchup, tomato marmalade, green tomato relish, green tomato mincemeat, stewed tomatoes, tomato soup and seasoned tomato puree.

      • Oh my goodness, what a lot of wonderful food. Don ‘t wear yourself out. I am finding the older I get the more I have to pace myself. We love the Amish gold slicer, we got seeds from you, they did so well. Have a few more to can up.

  3. My goodness- where did you get all those lovely bulb creates? What a handy tool those creates are on the homestead! We experienced 20 degree weather here last week and it snowed yesterday! Snow! I’m not ready for winter! So glad you’re back online.

    • I was given them by a friend who runs a local nursery in exchange for pumpkins, squash and tomatoes. We love them as they stack and yet allow air movement between crates. Eeek! Snow. It was forecast for us but we escaped it. Temporarily

  4. Glad you are on the mend and we’re able to get your tomatoes in. I harvested 62 pounds of green tomatoes before our frost hit. I was able to meet and visit with you at the Denver Self-reliant expo on Saturday morning. Thank you for all the information and the hug. You are a wealth of information. Glad your internet is up!

  5. Jackie, my goodness that’s a lot of harvest. How do you even process and store 900 pounds of tomatoes? That just boggles my mind. What in the world do you do with all those pumpkins and squash? I’m thinking you will be able to eat well this Winter.

    I’m glad to see that your Internet is back online.

    Have a great day of harvesting and preserving. It’s close to freezing here in Nebraska as well.

    Nebraska Dave

    • Well, Dave, I just keep plugging away at it. Crate by crate! Luckily they don’t all ripen at once or I’d be sunk. Of course we eat and can up a lot of squash and pumpkins but the rejects we feed to our livestock. The goats and cows simply LOVE pumpkins and squash and they’re good for them too. It also cuts down on the feed bill.

  6. Gosh I had 200lbs of plums once and processing those took me days. My hubby put the boxes on the garden table and the table collapsed. Now we use the tree as a community tree, I pick what I can use then the neighbors pick and use the rest. Don’t work to hard.

  7. That IS a LOT of tomatoes! Here in lower Michigan, we still have a few things left to harvest – brussel sprouts, carrots and cabbage. The orchard apples have all been processed. Great to see the progress on David and Ashley’s cabin! Hope you’re able to get some rest. Thanks for the updates. We sure miss hearing about you!

  8. I just ran across you, and you seem to be a lady with boundless energy and a great attitude. I wish you the best in getting all your canning and preserving completed. You are living the life I’ve always wanted to and I admire you already. Blessings on your journey. Jo

  9. Wow! That’s a lot of tomatoes, but what a blessing! We were in a pocket of drought this year and my garden was a failure. Luckily I have plenty canned from previous years. I hope you can get some rest between the canners full. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us all!

    • I’m sorry to hear your garden was a bust this year. But “stuff” happens, doesn’t it? This is why I always can up all I can each year; you never know what’s in store for us next year…or the year after. I’m enjoying canning now that all my running around to so many shows is finished for the year and I can get back to homesteading.

  10. Wow. Freeze already? Used to live in Colorado. Now in Texas. Busy getting cold Hardy stuff started for the winter garden (possible up north). Got to mid 50’s here last night. Tonight mid 40’s. First freeze…… Mid November.

  11. Goodness, I can’t even comprehend 900 lbs of tomatoes. That had to be exhausting. I’ve been roasting and freezing eggplant. It’s been a banner year for them. But it’s been in the 80’s with very high humidity, and the a/c has been back on since Sunday. I look forward to cooler temps.

  12. Jackie you do look tired, that is a huge amount of tomatoes. Will you be canning all of them into various things? You have your work cut out for you.

    Good luck, I just picked all my green tomatoes and have them all over the kitchen. Will start canning and drying in a few days.

    Get some rest…Glad you got your internet fixed, missed you

    • Look at that hot mama in her long sleeved shirt. Here in Florida the heat is still up so far on the thermometer that I have totally given up on any outside chores. And then came the hurricanes! I think keeping a canner on the stove 100% of the time is essential, too. It is necessary to homesteading. I believe I read an article you wrote once that said just that. Any leftovers can’t get past my stove. Into the jar it goes. It is beyond my imagination to can 900 pounds of tomatoes! I tried canning some once that I bought from a local farmer. They sure looked like more than they made up to (in volume). I think I will continue buying store canned tomatoes and after the use by date then can them up in my Ball jars to last an eternity. I am so glad you are back up and going. Missed you.

    • While they usually ripen enough for seed, we harvest vine-ripened fruits to save seed from. The rest of the tomatoes in the crates are all mixed together for processing. We want to be absolutely sure the seed we sell through Seed Treasures has excellent germination!

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