I worried this over nearly all night, finally deciding I needed to do some tomatoes as our salsa was getting down there and we like it on nearly everything. We use it instead of catsup and Will likes to have some on his eggs in the morning. I went out to the Wolf Garden this morning, armed with a crate. I didn’t know where to start as there are just so many tomatoes out there. But I picked down the row, scarcely making a tiny dent. I know I’ll be giving away lots of tomatoes!
I got the tomatoes home and sat out on the porch, cutting them up to go in my big turkey roasting pan along with some Giant Marconi sweet peppers from the hoop house. I popped them into the oven and started in cutting up some onions from last year that are just now starting to sprout. I want to use them up in a good way. I’ll add that and garlic to my salsa, with a bit of brown sugar, and can it up in half pints. I’ve found if I use pints, some always goes bad before we use it all up. Hey, there are no chemicals in our salsa! I’ve also got to run down to the Sand Garden and pick some jalapeños to go in it too. I almost forgot!
Yesterday evening, I went to check the plums. I kind of wish I hadn’t as there are literally tons down there calling to me. I guess I’ll be picking some tomorrow for sure. We’ve always had plums, but this year is a bonanza! I’ll make jelly, jam, and plum sauce, which I use as a dipping sauce for chicken and pork, as well as glazing ham, baked chicken, and pork roasts with it. Pretty darned good!
Will’s daughter, Jenna, came from Illinois for another very welcome visit. We had a great time, visiting and doing some fun things. Yesterday, Will took her to experience the Discovery Center, in nearby (kind of) Chisholm. It has all sorts of history on the mining industry that started on the Iron Range, better than a century ago. I couldn’t go because it involves lots of walking, which my knees certainly would rebel against. They had a good time while I did at-home stuff, like canning up the last of the picked apples. (Lots more on the trees!)
Our weather is cooling off, and it is very pleasant to be outside working. As I was coming back to the house with my tomatoes this morning, I saw a mama turkey with eight half-grown babies, right in the hay yard. I ran home and grabbed a can full of corn, driving quickly back to toss it out, hoping they would find it and stick around. We sure love seeing them! Some folks say the Hummingbirds have migrated from the north. However, we still have quite a few hitting our feeders, along with some migrating Monarch butterflies. Fall is definitely here, despite what the calendar says. — Jackie
Those plums look great! Are they ‘wild’ ones or a variety you planted? I’ve never made salsa in the oven, would you mind giving guidelines for doing that? Thanks! We were forcasted rains and cooler weather after several weeks of hot & dry, so I dug some of our sweet potatoes that the leaves were yellowing on. What a blessing…almost 20 pounds from 3 plants!! God is good! Wishing all a safe and productive harvest season.
Some of our plums are tame varieties where a few others are an old variety, planted over 100 years ago on a local homestead. We don’t know what they are so we call them “Old Homestead”.
To oven roast my salsa ingredients, I first cut up the tomatoes into large chunks. Then I put them in a turkey roasting pan with chunked green sweet peppers, jalapenos, onion and a little garlic. I roast them with the top off the roasting pan, for about 2 hours at 350 degrees, or until the tomatoes are roasted but not starting to burn on the edges. With my fingers, I lift the vegetables out of the roaster, draining them a bit, back into the roaster, then put them in my blender for a whiz. I dump these into a large mixing bowl and repeat until I have nearly all the vegetables out of the roasting pan. Then I mix in a little brown sugar, to taste, then pack into half pint jars as we don’t go through a pint before some gets to molding in the fridge. I pack to within 1/2″ of the top and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.
Yes, God is good! We weren’t thinking we’d be getting a decent harvest at all, due to the horrible start of the year, and a hot, dry period, as well. And look what it turned out! I’m nearly overwhelmed.
Thank you Jackie! That sounds like it will give so much more flavor! We’ve also had pints go bad before we finished them, 1/2 pints from now on here too.
We like the savory flavor roasting gives tomato recipes so much.
Harvest season, never a slow minute it seems. Canned up some salsa yesterday (used white sugar) next batch I’m going for the brown sugar! Try roasting as am sure flavor much tastier. Turkeys and their poults! have four hens with a total of 21! Poults Sure a sight seeing them in the wild around here. Thank goodness your hands are holding up better than your knees
Doing up a batch of ketchup today. Your recipe is amazing! Thank you!
I roasted mine too. I do like the flavor better. I have the salsa boiling right now. Yum. And I just saw the mama turkey and poults again where I spread out some whole corn to, hopefully, lure them into hanging around.
Wonder why your local pantry does not accept produce? Volunteers at our food pantry come out with open arms and big smiles. Sad indeed. We still have hummers in central MO. They are tanking up at the feeder. I expect them to be gone in a few weeks. Although with weather patterns shifting, they might stay longer.
Happy Harvest!
I think they don’t accept produce as they think it’s a liability issue, but they do accept store-bought, processed food. Go figure!
The pantry where my dad lives accepts produce. And has its own no-cost farmer’s market on Mondays (not sure when it ends this year). I’ve been leaving our excess cukes and told dad if too many tomatoes for him and family, donate those too. The food waste in the US is truly appalling.
Yes it is! I often remake leftovers a couple of times to get all the use out of something that I can. Too many folks just dump what they didn’t eat in the garbage. I guess they’ve never been hungry. I never saw Mom do that, but then she was a Depression child and that taught her a lot.
Do you use clear gel for your apples? Apples are so cheap here I may buy and do some. My scabby apples I pare and make applesauce. We pressure canned more green beans yesterday. Soon will I’ll need to clean the chicken coop -a project I don’t enjoy. Fall is coming.
I only use Clear Gel when I make apple pie filling. So far, I’ve only made pie slices. I may get time to do some pie filling after the plums.
I still have lots of applesauce. I use my sweet crabapples for that, juicing with the Mehu Liisa, then running through the Victorio Tomato Strainer. I get about 2 pints of juice and the rest, applesauce. Win-Win.
Yep, fall is on the way. We have some red leaves in the woods right now.
Wildlife and insects seem to be adjusting better to climate change than humans. What plums you don’t get to insects and wildlife will. Occasionally we have produce that turns before we can use it. It becomes compost (we have not livestock or poultry).
Is there a food pantry near you that could make use of excess produce OR have the ability to quickly put out the word re: plums/corn per se?
I’ve dropped some of ours off at local pantry. I do kinda shake my head at those who leave zucchini that are more than boat sized.
I’m sorry but our local food shelves don’t accept produce. I give my excess to friends and neighbors, instead. Anyone who needs it is always welcome to come pick. Hey, I leave my zucchini to boat sized so I can save seeds. Lol
I hope the boat sized ones left at the pantry are used for seed saving or artfully used by shredding/scooping out seeds and frying. I dislike it when people use a charitable organization to dump items.
Good call on dealing with the tomatoes first. I may need to see if I have an outlet for my excess San Marzano paste tomatoes.