40 Pounds of Tomatoes

A day off of work and a list of things to do.  Chatting with Melanie on fb and "oh my gosh, 40 lbs, (her CSA share), of tomatoes sitting inside her door."  I could just drive to Duluth, hang out with Melanie and Wally, and can tomatoes.  And while I'm there I could make the granola that was on my list of things to do.  Why not!

 The two seasons in Minnesota are winter and construction.  Highway 61, the only highway in and out of Cook County, will be under construction, in one place or another, for the rest of my life. 

  Good thing I have the day off.

 They're finally coming so our turn can't be long off.

I think all kids love to help especially when it involves real stuff like making food.  Oscar, who would celebrate his 6th birthday shortly, couldn't wait to get involved with getting this granola mixed up.  You can see he takes this job with the serious consideration required.

Seven year old Rowan is not about to be left out of the mixing process.  I'm just guessing that granola is one of the favorite snacks around here.

 So Melanie is blanching, chilling the tomatoes.  I'm peeling and she's quartering before they get dropped in the pot.  Then it's into the jars, capped and into the pressure cooker.

Watch that guage, adjust that temp, watch that guage, adjust that temp, watch that guage...

OK, have a beer and watch that guage, watch that guage, adjust that temp and yes it's after 4:00.

The granola is coming along as are the kidney beans which made it into the pressure cooker, followed by the meat and spices for the chile dinner.

We had all four burners going as well as the oven.  What a fun day in the kitchen with my daughter and grandkids!

After dinner we headed over to the soccer field for Rowan's game.  She did an awesome job in the goal for the first half of the game.  As she got onto the offensive line it was time for me to head up the shore.   Oscar's birthday is just 4 days away, so I'll be back.  Rowan said, "Just four days, Grandma, just four days!"

Wally never tires of throwing, catching, running and kicking a ball.  And I mean any kind of ball!  

Oscar and his buddies had their own unique game of freeze tag going.  Happy boys!  

Four hours on the road for a memory making fall afternoon with family.  So much to be grateful for!

Did you notice there was not one picture of tomatoes in this post?

SALSA

On Monday, the 12th of September, the day following our day on the lake wild ricing, we harvested all our salsa ingredients.  What's missing from the picture are the tomatillos and I'm so sorry because they are so unique looking.  They remind me of Chinese paper lanterns.  I thought we we just harvesting but we looked at our schedules for the rest of the week and, well, tonight is the night to make salsa!

After a bit of blanching, chopping, food processing and more chopping we had red and green salsa!  Now what do we do with all this salsa?  What we froze was based on the number of available containers to freeze it in and the rest I tucked away in the fridge and canned Wednesday morning before going to work.  That is one really nice thing about working late on Wednesday, I've got the morning to start some project which means even with all that time to get ready for work, I'm always running late because I'm in the middle of something!

Here is the "cold frame."  Dave planted tomatoes, peppers, onions and lettuce.

Other than quite a bit of early lettuce and onion greens, this is what we got. One, rather large and red tomato.

We're not quite sure what to do next year.  With all the effort involved, that is one very "dear" tomato!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011.  Our first real frost.

I thought the pattern on the chicken coop was pretty.  Just minutes later, as the sun came over the treetops, this was gone. 

Below you can see the sun in the treetops and what we dressed in the garden to protect it from the dropping temps.  The next night, the 15th, it all froze.  We harvested all that was left, Dave dug the potatoes, I pulled up the bean vines. There were a few red and orange tomatoes and lots of green tomatoes that survived under their shelter which will ripen in the house.  There is a long winter ahead and still much to do before the snow comes but that can on the post is a reminder of planting seedlings in the spring.  It's only 8 months away!