3 September - Labor Day Weekend

Tomatoes are ripening, I've picked 20-30 pounds already. I have 5 pints of diced tomatoes in the freezer. Another 8 pounds went to this batch of salsa (store-bought flavoring packet from Ball, tomatoes, cider vinegar). We had a taco-enchilada dinner tonight with the leftover salsa, it's pretty runny, but would make a wicked bloody-mary mixer.

This turned out pretty thin, I used the food mill to process half the tomatoes, and it made them into mush, the others were diced by hand. I think next time I'll have to use a food processor or chop them all by hand.


The mint has recovered from it's shearing and then some. I'm considering a new home for my mint plants, but have to wait until some other work is done. I'm thinking of taking each of my mints, and creating a mint-only garden, with the plants sunk into tubs into the ground, mulched around, and all within a raised bed, to create a little mint island in my back yard. Maybe that will keep them under control? Doubt it.




Pumpkins are ripening. I've found four now, all of pretty decent size. I have a recipe for pumpkin bread that I think I'll make into muffins, and another for pumpkin soup, which sounds interesting, but I'm not so sure about. When they're ready & ripe, I'll post the reviews of the recipes.

I also need to save one of the pumpkins for our jack-o-lantern this year!



These are the second crop of "Aunt Jean's Pole Bean", which make a great dried bean for chili in the winter. I'm letting this whole crop go dry, and I should get a few cups of beans after they're shelled. The other beans I have are still going strong, so I'm picking a handful daily to keep them from going to seed. In a couple weeks, I'll let those dry as well to provide my seeds for next year's crop.


Elderberries are quite ripe. When they ripen, the umbrella-shaped clusters hang down. I haven't picked any yet, I might pass on the jam this year, seeing as I have a freezer full of strawberry-blueberry jam from July.








The apples are nearly ripe. I found one this week that looks like a deer munched on it, but only half eaten - must not have liked it!

We don't spray our trees, so there's some leaf-miner sort of damage going on.





The fall crop of Oregon Sugar Pod peas is about 4" tall. We've had some goofy weather with rain for weeks, then dry for weeks, so I'm not sure if they'll produce peas before the frost, but we have about 4 weeks until the first hard frost, and a couple more if I get out the row covers.


I hope you're enjoying the harvest as I am.

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