Laughing Dog Arts

Monday, October 25, 2010

Harvest time

                                                                   Tomato Love
I hope you have your speakers turned on because I have a special song queued up to play in honor of home grown tomatoes.  We like to grow lots of tomatoes here, as in about 100 plants.  Chain saw man starts his plants in late winter, early spring, indoors under lights.  We have had ripe tomatoes as early as July.  Not this year.  With the cold sunless summer, our tomatoes didn't start to ripen until late September.  September!!  Luckily, our October had a lot of warm sunny days, even the nights were not cold.  We haven't had a killing frost yet.

We had plenty of tomatoes, they just wanted to stay green.  So in October, we began picking them and bringing them indoors to ripen.  We like the heirloom tomatoes.  These are  Brandywine and  Kellogs Breakfast are the orangy yellow ones.
We're talking a lot of tomatoes! The house is full of them.  Shelves and boxes everywhere!  But they are slowly ripening up.  We dry most of them, rather than canning.  Also there have been gallons of salsa made.  Chain saw man likes to give it away, he goes out and makes deliveries.  People say it is the best salsa they have ever had the pleasure of eating.
When we aren't dealing with tomatoes we have been dealing with the abundance of Chanterelle mushrooms that are growing wild out in the woods.  The weather has been very kind to mushroom growth this season.  I would advise no one to go out and pick these unless they have 100 percent confidence that they know what they are picking. 

We have confidence in our selection.  They need to be cooked before they are edible.  We like to cook up big batches in the cast iron skillet on the wood stove.  Once they are cooked to perfection and cooled we put them in zip lock bags into the freezer for winter consumption.  Delicious when added to stews.  Tastes like chicken.  

Just kidding.

Aside from harvesting the mushrooms and tomatoes, we have also been putting up other garden produce, such as green beans and picking the squash.  I like to make up big pots of dried beans, squash, mushrooms, corn and tomatoes.  That is a staple of our winter diet.  

That is why I haven't had time to blog lately.  Things are slowing down now.  I have more good things to come in future posts, thanks for hanging in there.

Be well.
 
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22 comments:

the Comedy Centre~ said...

it is so late here in Ireland and looking at those pics of food ahhh
going to get something to eat after this comment haha
Jan I see you are obviously somebody who likes dogs and one in particular (going by your profile pic)
I have a new funny dog blog and welcome you to visit / follow / comment whatever!
http://thefunnydogpictures.blogspot.com/
thanks,
Robbie~

Janet Ghio said...

Your tomatos are beautiful and I love the tomato love photo!

audrey said...

WOW!! That's a lot of tomatoes!
I'm so happy for you that you are finally seeing the fruits of your labor and will be able to eat tomatoes. I LOVE tomatoes. How funny that you have them everywhere!! hahaha
The top photo is wonderful ~ Tomato Love is the perfect title!!
Those mushrooms look reaaallly good, Jan. I would never pick a mushroom to eat ~ I don't know one from another. You have hidden talents, my friend. (:
Great photos!! Homemade SALSA! Mmmmm, good!!
♥ audrey
Hahahaha Funny song!!!

Tam Hess said...

You make me hungry! Beautiful pictures and great song. Thinking of you!! xoxo

sjmcdowell said...

Wow love those tomatoes!!!! You certainly have been one busy lady!! I love mushrooms soooo much!!
I have never picked the wild ones and often wish I knew how to tell the bad ones from the good ones!!
I grew tomatoes years ago and had a slew of green ones left on the vine just before the frost was due so I picked them all put them in brown paper bags in the dark pantry and when they started to ripen a bit a cooked them and made tomatoe sauce and then froze it all. We had great tomatoe sauce all winter!!! YUMMY!!!
Your salsa sounds very good too!!!

Hugs and Happy Tomatoe Day to You!!

Susan

yoborobo said...

Wow! That is A LOT of 'maters. One year my DH got all energetic and planted twenty-plus tomato plants, and we had them coming out our ears. I do so love them, but we had to give a lot to our neighbors (who were happy to get them!), because I am not a canner/freezerer. I would dry some, though - that's a good idea! xox

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

I would love to have a load of those green tomatoes to fry up and eat as fast as I can! Oh my!!! What a harvest!
Jan, you truly are self sufficient; lucky you!
Yummy, yummy things for the winter pantry!

XXOO~~♥
Anne

Anja said...

Respect, what you all do for your winterfood, not only going into a supermarket and buying the goods. This I knew from my grandma she lifed on all what the garden gave her, the egg she took to change it into other needed goods at the little shop in the village. The mushrooms look a little bit like oyster mushrooms, this mushroom I know is a good substitute for meat because of its richness of proteins.
May you do well with all this works before winter comes.
:-)
Anja

Sandra Evertson said...

Holy smokes... that looks SO Delicious!

Sandra Evertson

Crazy Mama said...

i wish i could grow tomatoes...they're sooo expensive at the grocery store! alas, i do not have a green thumb. living in a desert probably doesn't help. love the heart shaped one!

Perlenkatze said...

Those fruits are looking so delicious and what's simmering in your pan, makes me huuuuuuuuungry.

I remeber harvesting vegetables and fruits, when I still lived up Noth. Now just doing it from my balcony. :) Enjoy the time of harvesting and Thanksgiving.Which I realy miss alot. Which maybe next year , I might celebrate with my daughter and her family.
Love and Hugs
Gabie

Maggi said...

There is nothing better than knowing exactly where your food has come from. Wonderful harvest.

Heloise said...

Amazing tomatoes. I so want to eat some of your harvest.

Martha Bright said...

Really cute photo at the top! We had good tomatoes this year too, though everything but the Romas cracked. I already finished up everything I put by!! Squash were not good this year for most folks around here.

I love what you did with the bully pendant! I looked at it before but got interrupted and didn't comment.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your sweet comments. Fab tomatoes and the mushrooms, they are spectacular. I like your beaded hearts very much and with a dog in the mix, since we have four, what's not to love. xox Corrine

Silke Powers said...

Thank you so much for your very kind comment on my blog!! Your tomatoes look amazing! And your latest beaded work is just gorgeous! I'll be browsing around some more... Hugs, Silke

Linda Vincent said...

I am in awe of all that you do, Jan! You're making me feel very lazy (which is true at the moment:-)
Realy like your collages and the bag - so clever!

Deborah said...

Holy Moly that's a lot of tomato love! Lucky you. Quite interesting about drying them. Chain saw man!!! Love that! **kisses** Deb

Unknown said...

Om nom nom nom, veggies!

DVArtist said...

Wow how lucky are you? Tomatoes and mushrooms. Yum Yum.
I don't know why you can't see my blog. No one else has told me this. I am sure you tried refreshing the page.
So Sorry
Nicole/Beadwright

beadbabe49 said...

I was going to give up on tomatoes but your post gives me hope!

sonja said...

love your love apples, i mean tomatoes. and you art in the cafe look great.
as soon as i can figure out how to fence out 30+ free range chickens, i'll try tomatoes,again.lucky for all of us with a pale shade green thumb, we have a tomato lady on our side of island that grows those wonderful heirloom varieties and i have tasted her fried greens tomatoes and fresh pizzas at local events under tents. my feet are tapping and i am drooling!